Scott Swan/Eyewitness News
For 18 years, the murder of Michelle Dewey has been a mystery. Indianapolis resident Michelle Dewey was strangled in her home and her young son was left unharmed. But now, the case may point to a confessed serial killer.
As a young girl, Michelle Dewey captured her dreams in a children's book. She wanted to grow up and have a baby. Those were dreams Dewey would realize when she and her boyfriend had a son named Will. The little boy was the love of Michelle's life.
"She lived every day for her son," said Michelle's sister. Jennifer Coulter-Lissman sat at a table with Michelle's mother and aunt and looked at pictures of Michelle and her son. "He was the purpose of her life," Coulter-Lissman added.
Family members flipped through the children's book Michelle wrote as a young girl. They pointed to a page where Michelle wrote about the fear that "a creature would kill me." Sadly those fears would also come true.
On July 1, 1991 Michelle Dewey was sun bathing in the backyard of her Irvington home on South Downey Avenue.
"Michelle was sitting in the lawn chair and Willie was playing in the little wading pool," recalls Michelle's aunt Jane Bray.
That idyllic setting would soon become a crime scene. The young mother was found strangled. Her son was left unharmed inside the home. The discovery was made by a young babysitter who called police. Family members remember getting the horrible news and arriving at the scene.
"It was taped off by the police. The detectives walked up and told me that she was dead," recalls Bray. Police investigated Michelle's death but made no arrests. Initially, family members believed Michelle was murdered by someone she knew.
Michelle's son, Will Prescott, is now 20 years old. He has grown up wondering who killed his mother.
"I ask myself why," Prescott says. "Did this person have feelings for me to keep me alive?"
Eighteen years after the Dewey murder, a Wabash man believes someone he knows very well committed the murder. Gary Hall is convinced his twin brother is the killer.
"I believe Larry killed Michelle," says Gary Hall. "I believe he killed a lot of young women, I'm sorry to say."
Larry D. Hall is serving a life sentence for kidnapping resulting in death. The body of Illinois teen Jessica Roach was discovered in an Indiana cornfield. That crime took place four years after Michelle Dewey was killed.
Gary Hall says he visited his brother in prison in March, 2009 and convinced his brother to speak with detectives investigating the Dewey murder.
"Larry confessed that he was in the Irvington area of Indianapolis on July 1, 1991," says Gary Hall. Larry Hall, according to his brother, had driven to Irvington to check out a blue Dodge van listed in a Trader newspaper.
"He drove by Michelle Dewey. She was laying out," says Hall about his brother's reported confession.
Hall says his brother barged in the door of the home, strangled Michelle Dewey and left when the young boy began to scream and cry.
"Larry said it freaked him out," says Gary Hall. His twin brother reportedly took a record album from Dewey's residence. "He grabbed it as a souvenir," says Gary Hall.
Gary Hall said his twin-brother's confessions did not stop with the Michelle Dewey murder.
"He confessed that his first killing was in 1979," says Gary Hall.
Hall said his twin brother admitted killing a hitch-hiker and burying the body near the Mississinewa River.
"He confessed to 15 murders," he said.
Hall said the confessed murders took place in California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and Wyoming.
"I don't believe he's making any of this up. He's got too many specific details," says Gary Hall.
"He was attracted to young, long dark-haired women, 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-5 inches in height, with a slender, athletic build," says Gary Hall.
Gary Hall says he is coming forward with information about his twin brother's confession for one reason.
"We're searching for the truth," says Gary Hall.
Gary Hall says his brother also confessed to the Tricia Reitler case. She is the Indiana Wesleyan student who disappeared in 1993. Her parents believe their daughter is dead. Hall confessed at the time and was arrested but then recanted. Police told the Reitlers that Hall was a "wanna-be." That case remains unsolved. If his brother's recent confession is true, Gary Hall believes there are victims whose bodies have not yet been discovered and families still waiting to find their loved ones.
"We want closure for the families. We want the victims all brought home, every last one of them," says Gary Hall.
The reported police interest in Larry D. Hall has prompted questions from the family of Michelle Dewey.
"We were informed that it could have been a serial killer," says Michelle's mother Bonnie Smith.
"I'm hoping it's the guy they have already because he's been there for several years and that means he's had less chance of hurting someone else," says Michelle's aunt Jane Bray.
"People like him that hurt people just because they can't think of anything else they'd rather do, destroys families," says Bray.
Family members believe Michelle fought off her attacker and have been told by police that DNA collected at the crime scene 18 years ago is undergoing testing.
"She had long, pretty nails," says Michelle's sister Jennifer Coulter-Lissman. "I know the DNA they collected would have been under those pretty nails. Whatever DNA she had underneath her fingernails, Michelle's going to solve it."
If or when the Michelle Dewey murder is solved, one person who deeply wants to know is the person who never really knew her.
"I'm always thinking of my mom," says Michelle's son Will Prescott.
"He will never know how much she loved him. He will never be able to comprehend how she lived for him every single day," says Michelle's sister Jennifer Coulter-Lissman. "I think he above all people, he needs to know."
Indianapolis cold case detectives think an advertisement in the Trader Magazine might help them solve the crime.
A 1980 blue Dodge van was advertised for sale in the Trader in June 1991. It mentioned the van's blue interior, a 318 engine and an asking price of $1,500. Police want to know who sold the van or placed the ad.
Police are also looking for a copy of the Trader, June 20-29, 1991. If you have information, please call IMPD.
