2 men arrested for the 1975 murder of a young woman who “fought for her life”

() — Two Indiana men have been arrested for the murder of a 17-year-old girl whose drowning death in 1975 remained a cold case until evidence linked the suspects to the victim in a decades-long investigation, police said.

Fred Bandy Jr., 67, of Goshen, and John Wayne Lehman, 67, of Auburn, were each charged with one count of murder in connection with the death of Laurel Jean Mitchell, Indiana State Police said. in a press release Tuesday.

Mitchell’s parents reported her missing on Aug. 6, 1975, when she failed to return home after leaving her job at the Epworth Forrest Church campsite around 10:00 p.m., police said. The teen’s body was found the next morning in a river in western Noble County, about 17 miles (27 kilometers) from her home, the ISP said.

His cause of death was listed as drowning, but the autopsy report “showed signs that he had fought for his life,” prompting police to launch a homicide investigation, according to police.

On Monday, more than 47 years after Mitchell’s death, Bandy Jr. and Lehman were taken into custody “without incident” at their homes by officers with the Indiana State Police and the Noble County Sheriff’s Department, police said.

Laurel Jean Mitchell’s parents reported her missing after she failed to return home from work at a church camp on August 6, 1975.

The two suspects are currently being held without bond at the Noble County Jail, according to the statement. Both men had an initial court hearing and will be assigned a public defender, James Abbs, the Noble County public defender in charge, told in a statement.

“It was a waste,” Mitchell’s sister, Sarah Knisley, told WPTA, affiliate. “I always wondered, you know, how it would have grown. She missed prom, she missed graduation, she missed getting married and having kids and all of that.”

The new developments in the investigation came in recent months after Indiana State Police laboratory workers tested evidence to make a correlation between the two suspects and the victim, the statement said.

“This case is the culmination of a decades-long investigation … and science finally gave us the answers we needed,” Indiana State Police Capt. Kevin Smith said in a statement. “The Indiana State Police Laboratory Division played a significant role in the charges that were filed. We simply could not have solved this case without them.”

Smith also said that the public presented “valuable information” in the course of the investigation, which was key to solving the case.

Police said DNA testing of Mitchell’s clothing eventually led officers to arrest the two men, according to WPTA affiliate.

Genetic genealogy, which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy to find biological connections between people, has “changed the game” for police investigations in recent years, Smith said during a news conference this week.

The first detectives assigned to the case spent thousands of hours trying to solve Mitchell’s murder, state police said, and the investigation continued for the next five decades as his family waited for answers.

“I hope this brings you at least a little bit of peace right now,” Smith said of Mitchell’s family. “I can’t imagine dealing with it for 47 years, wondering what happened.”