2008 Woodie Awards
IUPUI grad--now author--revisits to tell how she cracked big mystery
Katie Bradley
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: College News
Tucked in a corner of IUPUI's new Barnes and Noble Bookstore, stood a slight woman, her long curly blonde hair making her look nothing like "Murder She Wrote" character Jessica Fletcher; but, her story makes the two women seem synonymous.
As a journalism student at IUPUI in the late '80s and early '90s, Carol Sissom learned the skills of digging and asking questions; skills that would later aid her solving one of Indiana's biggest unsolved mysteries, "The LaSalle Street Murders."
More than thirty years ago, three business men were murdered on the east side of Indianapolis, each bound with their throats slit ear to ear. Twenty years later, the crime remained an unsolved mystery.
After writing a 20th anniversary story about the murders in 1991, Sissom, a freelance journalist at the time was first intrigued, then became obsessed with the murders.
"I felt that I could really solve these murders," Sissom said. "I grew up reading Nancy Drew. I thought I was Nancy Drew."
Sissom started writing a book about the murders that same year and recruited a co-author to help her. As she got more and more involved in the story, clues gave way to evidence and she was sure that she had solved the case.
"I developed a suspect, this little old man," Sissom said. "I really felt that I knew who do this murder, this big unsolved murder."
However, on the eve of her crime going on "Unsolved Mysteries," the television show, she had a break in the case and believed she had found the man who drove the getaway car, a man in prison for murder already.
Sissom said she immediately went to meet with him and presented her case, the chapters of the book, and the killer's identity.
"He told me I was wrong about the murderer," Sissom said. "The whole year of 1992 I was writing my book with the killer."
In an impressive twist, Carroll Horton, her co-writer, who she had spent months meeting with turned out to be the killer.
From this came years of her meeting with the alleged murderer, always wearing a wire and always trying to get enough proof to prove that he was The La Salle Street Murderer.
The ending was anticlimactic.
"He got arrested but because he was very very wealthy, and because he had the best lawyers money could buy," Sissom said. "He got off and I went into hiding because that was when I really felt my life was in danger."
After the death of Horton, Sissom was able to come out of hiding and write her book, "The LaSalle Street Murders," about the murders and the journey it took her on.
These days, Sissom has moved beyond mystery solving and has since published other books including, "Miracles Really Do Happen," a book that chronicles a collection of miracles that have happened to people Sissom knows.
"I want all of my books to bring hope to people," Sissom said.
As a journalism student at IUPUI in the late '80s and early '90s, Carol Sissom learned the skills of digging and asking questions; skills that would later aid her solving one of Indiana's biggest unsolved mysteries, "The LaSalle Street Murders."
More than thirty years ago, three business men were murdered on the east side of Indianapolis, each bound with their throats slit ear to ear. Twenty years later, the crime remained an unsolved mystery.
After writing a 20th anniversary story about the murders in 1991, Sissom, a freelance journalist at the time was first intrigued, then became obsessed with the murders.
"I felt that I could really solve these murders," Sissom said. "I grew up reading Nancy Drew. I thought I was Nancy Drew."
Sissom started writing a book about the murders that same year and recruited a co-author to help her. As she got more and more involved in the story, clues gave way to evidence and she was sure that she had solved the case.
"I developed a suspect, this little old man," Sissom said. "I really felt that I knew who do this murder, this big unsolved murder."
However, on the eve of her crime going on "Unsolved Mysteries," the television show, she had a break in the case and believed she had found the man who drove the getaway car, a man in prison for murder already.
Sissom said she immediately went to meet with him and presented her case, the chapters of the book, and the killer's identity.
"He told me I was wrong about the murderer," Sissom said. "The whole year of 1992 I was writing my book with the killer."
In an impressive twist, Carroll Horton, her co-writer, who she had spent months meeting with turned out to be the killer.
From this came years of her meeting with the alleged murderer, always wearing a wire and always trying to get enough proof to prove that he was The La Salle Street Murderer.
The ending was anticlimactic.
"He got arrested but because he was very very wealthy, and because he had the best lawyers money could buy," Sissom said. "He got off and I went into hiding because that was when I really felt my life was in danger."
After the death of Horton, Sissom was able to come out of hiding and write her book, "The LaSalle Street Murders," about the murders and the journey it took her on.
These days, Sissom has moved beyond mystery solving and has since published other books including, "Miracles Really Do Happen," a book that chronicles a collection of miracles that have happened to people Sissom knows.
"I want all of my books to bring hope to people," Sissom said.
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