Naman Shrestha
Helmed by Adam Kamien and Luke Rynderman, ‘The Speedway Murders’ is a documentary movie that revolves around the tragic murders of four Burger Chef employees — Jayne C. Friedt, Mark Flemmonds, Daniel R. Davis, and Ruth E. Shelton — in Speedway, Indiana, in 1978. The film takes the viewers through multiple theories as to what might have transpired on that fateful night. According to one of the theories, Donald Forrester was a primary suspect at one point in time. Since it also features interviews with several individuals closely linked to the case and investigation, the viewers get a detailed account of the before and after of the horrific murders.
Donald Forrester Was Incarcerated When He Admitted His Alleged Involvement in the Burger Chef Murders
Amidst the mystery surrounding the Burger Chef murders that took place on November 17, 1978, a registered and convicted sex offender named Donald “Don” Forrester called up the Marion County Sheriff’s Department from the Pendleton Correctional Facility in 1984 and told the authorities that he wanted to make a confession regarding the brutal killings of the four employees of the Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana. At the time, the 34-year-old fugitive was serving his 95-year sentence for stalking, abducting, and sexually assaulting a woman in Castleton. The investigators suspected that it was his plot to prevent getting transferred to the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, a violent state prison.
During the interview, Don not only confessed to shooting Daniel and Ruth to death with his .38 on the fateful night, but he also led the detectives to the alleged crime scene deep into the woods. He accurately described the position of the bodies and also talked about the broken handle of the knife found pierced into one of the victims, something which was not publicized widely. As for his reason for committing the murders, he claimed that since Jayne’s brother, James Friedt, owed a significant chunk of money, he and a few of his associates drove down to the restaurant to threaten Jayne. However, according to Don, things went south when Mark came in between to stand up for Jayne. Consequently, a fight allegedly broke out, and Mark ended up getting severely hurt and losing consciousness.
When things got ugly, Don told the detectives that he and his partners got into a state of panic and decided to abduct the rest of the young employees and murder them to get rid of the witnesses to their crime. From 1984 to 1986, Don kept providing the detectives with information about the murders. He told them that after committing the murders, he and his wife collected the .38 shell casings from the crime scene and flushed them down in his old place of residence. Upon searching through the septic tank of his old house, they did manage to find multiple .38 shell casings after digging through several years of raw sewage. What made the authorities believe in his version of events was the fact that Don’s wife also confirmed it.
Donald Forrester Recanted His Confessions After They Became Public
Just when the police were almost certain that the Burger Chef murders were finally solved after several years, someone from the police department leaked the information about Donald Forrester and his confession to the press in November 1986. As soon as the news made headlines, he recanted his confession immediately and claimed that he was coerced into making those statements. After that, he stopped being cooperative with law enforcement, which meant that they could no longer gather more evidence to link him and his associates to the murders.
Thus, Donald Forrester and his associates were not charged and convicted for the murders of Jayne C. Friedt, Mark Flemmonds, Daniel R. Davis, and Ruth E. Shelton. However, he continued serving his previous unrelated sentence in prison. At the age of 55, he passed away due to cancer in prison in 2006, leaving the investigators puzzled as to whether or not his story had any truth to it.
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