In December 1971 three teenage buddies were out late at night partying and ended up at the cabin they had built in the woods out of railroad ties. The cabin was heated with a wood stove and lighted with a kerosene lantern. One article I read, said it was 12° that night so in all likelihood they were heating the cabin.
When the boys didn’t show up the next morning, one of the boys’ sisters drove out to the campsite. She found the cabin completely burned to the ground.
The sheriff‘s department and the coroner found bones that they attributed to two of the three boys, along with two class rings. One of the rings was immediately identifiable, the other one had the melted some but a local jeweler ID’d it as the same type of one of the boys had. The officials pronounced two of the boys as deceased, but said there were not enough bones for a third person, and said there was no evidence that the third teen, Mike Sewell, died in the fire. He was listed as missing for the next 51 years.
Last June (2022) a Jackson County detective who I think wasn’t even born when this happened took another crack at it. He got permission to exhume the remains (burned bones basically) of the two boys who were buried, and had Dr. Krista Latham, a professor of biology and anthropology and a board-certified Forensic Anthropologist with the University of Indianapolis, go over them.
She concluded that the bones of three individuals were contained by the two caskets. Based on that the sheriffs department has concluded that Mike Sewell did indeed die in the fire. Some DNA was able to be extracted and sent to the ISP lab, but so far only DNA from one of the other boys has been identified.
I was11 12 years old and living in Brown County at the time, not so far away, but I don’t remember hearing about this. Probably because we had our own burned body case going on, that of Clarence Roberts.
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Someone posted pictures of many old news clippings about the original event on Imgur.
When the boys didn’t show up the next morning, one of the boys’ sisters drove out to the campsite. She found the cabin completely burned to the ground.
The sheriff‘s department and the coroner found bones that they attributed to two of the three boys, along with two class rings. One of the rings was immediately identifiable, the other one had the melted some but a local jeweler ID’d it as the same type of one of the boys had. The officials pronounced two of the boys as deceased, but said there were not enough bones for a third person, and said there was no evidence that the third teen, Mike Sewell, died in the fire. He was listed as missing for the next 51 years.
Last June (2022) a Jackson County detective who I think wasn’t even born when this happened took another crack at it. He got permission to exhume the remains (burned bones basically) of the two boys who were buried, and had Dr. Krista Latham, a professor of biology and anthropology and a board-certified Forensic Anthropologist with the University of Indianapolis, go over them.
She concluded that the bones of three individuals were contained by the two caskets. Based on that the sheriffs department has concluded that Mike Sewell did indeed die in the fire. Some DNA was able to be extracted and sent to the ISP lab, but so far only DNA from one of the other boys has been identified.
I was
51 years after Brownstown teen's disappearance, investigators solve cold case and give family answers
"I didn't really think I would ever know until I died what happened to my brother," said Linda Pack.
www.wthr.com
Cold case surrounding 1971 fatal cabin fire solved by southern Indiana sheriff's office
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office worked to solve the cold case involving three teens 52 years ago.
Someone posted pictures of many old news clippings about the original event on Imgur.
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