Indiana man sentenced to life in prison for killing teenage girl who was 'fighting for her life' in 1975

An Indiana man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 killing of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in a river after failing to return home from her work at a church camp.

A Noble County judge sentenced Fred Bandy Jr., 69, on Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole Laurel Jean Mitchell's death in August 1975. The Goshen man was convicted of first-degree murder after a trial this month.

A message seeking comment from Bandy's attorney was left Wednesday.

He was indicted along with John Wayne Lehman69, of Auburn, Indiana, in Mitchell's murder last year. Lehman was sentenced this month to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.

Mitchell was found drowned in the Elkhart River on August 7, 1975, the morning after she failed to return home in North Webster, about 140 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

Although Mitchell's cause of death was drowning, police say the autopsy report suggests she “had fought for her life,” Therefore, the police launched a murder investigation.

Prosecutors charged Bandy and Lehman with Mitchell's murder in February 2023, nearly half a century later.

Lehman said in a deposition in August that Bandy raped and drowned Mitchell. Lehman denied involvement in the rape or murder and said his fear of Bandy kept him from stopping the crimes, The News-Sun of Kendallville reported.

According to an affidavit, investigators believed Bandy and Lehman “forcibly and intentionally drowned” Mitchell after taking her to the river in Bandy's car.

In recent years, testing on Mitchell's clothing produced a DNA profile, which was stored along with other evidence collected in 1975. According to the affidavit, Bandy voluntarily provided a DNA sample to state police in December 2022, and the tests revealed that he was 13 billion years old, making it more likely that he contributed to the DNA in Laurel J. Mitchell's clothing than any other unknown person.

The DNA testing came after three people who were teenagers at the time of Mitchell's murder linked Bandy and Lehman to the crime based on incriminating comments about her death, the affidavit said.

CBS affiliate WTTV reported that Bandy should be sentenced under 1975 standards and that the possible consequences were either life in prison with the possibility of parole or the death penalty, according to prosecutors. The state's 1975 death penalty was later declared unconstitutional, eliminating that option.