In September of 1985, two teenagers drove into Westside Park but, tragically, never left the park alive. The police have spent decades trying to hunt down their killer.If you know anything about the murders of Ethan Dixon and Kimberly Dowell, please contact the Muncie police department at 765-747-4867. You can also contact them anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 765-286-4050, or send an anonymous tip at this link.You can learn more about The Good segment and even submit a story of your own by visiting The Good page on our website!If you or a loved one is experiencing domestic abuse of any kind, you are not alone. You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788 for help. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/infamous-the-westside-park-murders/Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: What happened in the Westside Park Murders?
It's around midnight on September 28th, 1985, when Officer Terry Winters of the Muncie Police Department is on patrol in Westside Park, which literally, as its name suggests, is on the west side of the town, and it runs along the White River.
It's a Saturday night, just before midnight, and according to a book by Keith Royston and Douglas Walker, a source we'll rely on very heavily here for this episode, Terry also has his canine partner, Max, with him. Now, at some point, this real life Turner and Hooch hop in their squad car to leave.
And as they pull out, the headlights catch on some tire tracks that lead to a Volkswagen hatchback idling in a little gravel area of the park. Now, one of Terry's responsibilities is to scope out any cars left in the park past closing, which was about an hour earlier. So this is literally the gig. And Terry gets out to investigate.
There doesn't appear to be any movement coming from inside the car. But as he approaches and puts his flashlight through the open driver's side window, he gets the shock of his life. There are two teenagers, a boy and a girl, shot dead in the front seats.
In the book, The West Side Park Murders, Muncie's most notorious cold case, it says that both the front seats were reclined with like sleeping bags draped over them and the passenger side window was shattered. The guy who's in the driver's seat has been shot in the torso and the girl who's in the passenger's seat was shot in the head.
It's not long before the entire place is crawling with police and investigators take note of the fact that there are no signs of a struggle and no signs that point to this being motivated by a robbery. Nothing appears to have been taken from the car as far as they can tell. I mean, like there's even literally a portable stereo still in the back.
And they see an open pocket knife just sitting on the dashboard. But the murder weapon, the gun, that's nowhere to be found. They just find a small, empty gun holster under the young man's body.
Like he was sitting on it?
Well, some accounts say sitting on it. Others just say under the body. Some say it was found in the car more broadly. I think the important thing is that it seems unlikely missing. that it would belong to one of the kids, which could mean that the killer left this thing behind. And it seems they may have left behind something else, too. Prints on or in the car.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
And unless police are holding something back, the only thing that we know that they were looking for was the murder weapon, which they never found. No one like talks about anything ever being stolen or taken from them. Yeah. Yeah. So like it makes this whole confession a little more. And you can write whatever you want on the Internet. And eventually they did take this down from Reddit.
So like it's, you know, if we got to talk to Chief Sloan, this is what I would have loved to ask him if we ever get the chance. It's what I would love to ask him about if this ever got looked into. I mean, I think it's interesting, especially when you think about when the confession says like they hated the guy knowing that Ethan was being bullied online. I don't know.
It feels like there could be something there.
Yeah.
And what I keep coming back to is, like, Jimmy's DNA didn't match the holster.
Like, that's huge. Right. And again, like, was he there or knew something? Maybe. But, like, there's someone else that we should be still looking for. Yeah.
And I think at this point it's important to point out that no one, not Jimmy, who is due to be released from prison in 2030, by the way, and despite all the rumors, not Kimberly's stepfather Don or any of the other possible people police looked into, none of them have ever been charged in this case.
It remains unsolved, which means Ethan Dixon and Kimberly Dowell's families have never been given the closure they deserve. So if you know anything about the murders of Ethan Dixon and Kimberly Dowell on the night of September 28th, 1985 in Westside Park, located in Muncie, Indiana, please contact the Muncie Police Department at 765-747-4867.
You can also contact them anonymously through Crimestoppers at 765-286-4050. We'll also have a link to send a tip online in our show notes. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com.
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