Terre Haute Clue– The I-70 Killer’s Mistake

Terre Haute, Indiana, is right off the I-70. Not only this, the I-70 Killer’s next victim’s establishment was only a few blocks north of the I-70 along the main road that cuts off from the highway.

Sylvia’s Ceramics was, as you might expect, in a lower rent part of town, close to the downtown. It was located in a small building with a couple of other businesses. It used to be a Barber’s shop, but the owner retired and his wife ran her ceramics out of his old shop. Across the street is a car dealership and mechanic’s garage/body shop.

On April 27,  1992, a man walked into Sylvia’s. It was just after 4 p.m.– not a busy time of day. He engages a bit with Mick McCown, the owner’s son. At some point, McCown went back to stocking shelves or this customer asked him if he could have a look at a plaster house on a lower shelf. He knelt down, reaching for the house. The customer was the I-70 Killer. He stood behind him, raised his deadly automatic .22. With one squeeze of the trigger, Mick slumped over. He had been dispatched with a single bullet to the back of the head. The plaster house fell to the floor and did not break.

The killer left the store and disappeared.

What greeted Terre Haute police was the same evidence at the other two I-70 Killer crime sites– the same .22 caliber had been used. The pattern clearly now fit the I-70 as the main route the killer used. But there was one more thing here. The killer’s victims were women with long brunette hair. Mick obviously didn’t fit the MO. Therefore it is easy to deduce that the demented killer’s level of stalking before-the-fact was quite limited.

For us today, the automotive pattern is intriguing. Payless Shoes was in a similar part of Indianapolis. The bridal shop in Wichita was in a strip mall with a mechanic’s auto body shop therein. And now here in Terre Haute the evidence suggests that the I-70 Killer knew the area because of the auto franchises associated with it.

If automotive is the association, what brought him to the area? Body or mechanic work?  Delivery? Had business brought him to these locations in times past and now he was coming back to do his “thing”? Or was he busy doing business right now and simply detoured long enough to scout out parts of town near the main highway?

Sylvia’s also backed residential area. There are homes behind it.  This is true of every location.  These stores were not in busy downtown areas. These were the older parts of town where the business street was the main street and the residential areas were right behind it.

This pattern is as intriguing as the automotive. Could he have been a contractor who traveled far to work on homes under refurbishment? Did he deliver something needed in home renovation?

The location of Sylvia’s Ceramics near to I-70 and the fact this is a woman’s name reveal much about the killer’s MO. He was looking for a lone woman victim. It just so happened that Mike was operating the store today. Why didn’t the killer just leave? Apparently he was set on killing.

We really cannot know what tipped the scales, but Forensics adds red rouge and corundum on the shell casing.  Thus there could be some industrial connection– metal working . . . or? Corundum is on emery boards and sandpaper. Was this guy sanding off his fingerprints? Was he dusting his bullets to make sure they didn’t jam?

Where did he come from? Was his first strike in Indianapolis closer to home or was it the extreme of his driving distance? Had he been in the Wichita area ever since his double murder there on April 11? Was he now driving back to Indiana or Indianapolis? Or, was he located somewhere in between and was now on the road again driving back and forth, direction either way?

Sadly, the next strike doesn’t tell us anything but that he drove back and forth. The next strike would be back west, in St. Charles, Missouri, on the outskirts of St. Louis. It looks like he was going back and forth, but there was another major MO change here.

We examine this case in our next post.

* * *
Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.