INDIANAPOLIS – More than 30 years after three women were murdered, and another brutally assaulted, the man responsible has been identified using investigative genealogy. This unique method generates new leads for unsolved homicides and helps identify victims.
The Indiana State Police said Tuesday that Harry Edward Greenwell was identified through genealogy as the person responsible for the four attacks. Greenwell, who died in 2013 at the age of 68, had an extensive criminal history.
Dubbed the “Days Inns” murders, he robbed and killed three women, and left a fourth for dead, in a series of hotel attacks in Kentucky and Indiana.
The cases Greenwell has been connected to include:
- February 21, 1987 – Vicki Heath was murdered at the Super 8 Motel in Elizabethtown, KY
- March 3, 1989 – Margaret “Peggy” Gill was murdered at the Days Inn in Merrillville, IN
- March 3, 1989 – Jeanne Gilbert was murdered at the Days Inn in Remington, IN
- January 2, 1990 – Jane Doe was sexually assaulted at the Days Inn in Columbus, IN
Following the murders, the Indiana State Police lab matched ballistic evidence linking the Gill and Gilbert murders. The ISP Lab further connected the Heath and Gilbert murders, and the sexual assault of the Columbus victim, through DNA analysis.
