Phyllis Bailer and the vehicle that she had been driving from Indianapolis to Bluffton.

BLUFFTON, Ind. (WOWO): Indiana State Police and Allen County Police Departments are investigating a 43-year-old homicide case, and are actively asking for the public’s help.

On Friday, July 7th, 1972, then 27-year-old Phyllis Bailer left Indianapolis with her 3-year-old daughter and headed to a relative’s home in Bluffton. Bailer was driving a friend’s car when sometime that evening, the car overheated on I-69 just north of State Road 26 in Grant County, just northwest of Fairmount. Bailer and her daughter never arrived in Bluffton.

On Saturday, July 8, 1972 the vehicle was found abandoned with the hood up on northbound I-69 in Grant County. A short time later in Allen County, a passerby reported a woman lying in a ditch with a young child.

Officers found Bailer shot to death in the grass on West Road north of Shoaff Road in Allen County, just northeast of Huntertown. She had been murdered and her daughter was found beside her with no injuries.

Phyllis Bailer and her daughter’s whereabouts are still unknown from the evening of Friday, July 7, 1972 until approximately noon on Saturday, July 8, 1972.

If anyone has any information pertaining to the circumstances surrounding Bailer’s murder, they are asked contact Indiana State Police Detective Kevin Smith at 260-432-8661 or Allen County Police Lieutenant Geray Farrell at 260-449-7435.

Pictured are Phyllis Bailer and the vehicle that she had been driving from Indianapolis to Bluffton.