Years ago, with her conscience weighing on her, Ella Mae Dicks tried confessing to a church group, telling them about the grisly slaying in rural Indiana 27 years ago.
But it wasn’t until late last fall that she walked into a police station and admitted her involvement in the killing of Sherry Lee Gibson, 23, on March 1, 1975, in a farmhouse outside Monroe City, Ind. She also implicated her former husband, Wayne G. Gulley of Peoria, according to investigators.
The two were indicted Friday, almost two decades after another man, John Jeffers, died in prison after serving five years for the killing. Investigators now say they are convinced Jeffers had nothing to do with the killing, confirming what many in the community believed all along–that the troubled teen had pleaded guilty simply to get attention.
Dicks turned herself in to police Friday. Gulley surrendered Tuesday, saying he is innocent. He has not yet entered a formal plea.
“I’m just glad,” said Gibson’s mother, Annabelle. “We had a feeling [Jeffers] didn’t do it.”
The horrific crime has for decades confounded townspeople in nearby Vincennes, the Knox County, Ind., seat, both because of its brutal nature–Gibson was stabbed dozens of times–and because the killing seemed so random.
Investigators say Gibson and her boyfriend, Lindy G. Alton, had pulled to the side of a rural country road when two people approached them. The road, a sort of lovers’ lane, was dark, but Alton gave police a description of the suspects.
One, a man, pulled a gun and ordered Alton into the trunk of the car. Another, a woman, took Gibson from the passenger’s side and put her in another car.
The suspects drove Gibson to an abandoned farmhouse about 7 miles away, where she was raped and stabbed. The suspects then set fire to the home. Alton was later found by a passerby at the scene of the abduction.
Troubled teen confesses
Investigators in Vincennes, about 300 miles south of Chicago, spent the next two years pursuing dozens of leads, questioning friends and potential suspects. In 1977, Jeffers, a 17-year-old junior high school dropout, told guards at a juvenile detention facility that he had committed the crime.
Jeffers, already incarcerated for stealing a car, was a slight child who family members say was constantly in trouble. His mother sent him to an orphanage because she could no longer deal with him.
Jeffers told investigators he and a teenage boy he had met in the orphanage had killed Gibson and locked Alton in the car’s trunk.
Almost immediately, there were inconsistencies in his story. Knox County 1st Sgt. Larry Eck, who has been with the Sheriff’s Department for 34 years, said neither teen matched the description given by Alton, who said the man he saw was 25 to 30 years old and much larger.
Alton, who died three years ago, said the second suspect was a woman with long hair and wire-rim glasses.
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“[Jeffers] had no idea what he was talking about concerning the crime scene,” Eck said. But as time went on, his story improved, apparently feeding off news accounts and clues dropped by interrogators, Eck said. Soon, prosecutors believed the confession was enough to get a conviction.
The other teen, who was 18 and serving in the military in Germany when he was arrested, spent 9 months in prison before Jeffers recanted his confession during trial. The charges were dropped against the other teen.
But Jeffers still faced the murder charge. His court-appointed attorney told him that if convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison, Eck said. Jeffers pleaded guilty and received a 30-year sentence.
He died in prison in 1983.
“He had a need to feel important,” said his brother, Mark, a truck driver from Washington, Ind. “They had an unsolved murder case, and he knew if he said something, they were going to sit up and pay attention.”
Mark Jeffers said his family is relieved that someone else has come forward to confess to the slaying. Still, some in the family remain angry that police accepted his brother’s confession despite its apparent holes.
“When he said he did it, they quit trying to solve it,” Mark Jeffers said.
Dormant search revived
Investigators did not begin looking at Dicks and Gulley until Dicks confessed last year. When they did, the pieces appeared to fit.
The two grew up in Christopher, Ill., and were married briefly. In the 1970s they moved to Petersburg, Ind., where Gulley worked as an electronics technician at construction sites around nearby coal mines.
The two were divorced but living together in 1975, when the slaying occurred, Eck said. Gulley and Dicks parted ways several years later, investigators say. Gulley stayed in the area until sometime after 1980, when he moved to Pennsylvania. Later, he moved to Mt. Prospect, Oakbrook Terrace and, most recently, Peoria.
Dicks went back to her hometown of Christopher before remarrying and moving to Georgia. Police and her attorney said that while in Illinois, Dicks had once gone into a church and told parishioners her story.
Last fall, Dicks, 47, walked into the Athens Police Department in Georgia and made her confession again, this time to an investigator. Police there began calling detectives in southern Indiana, asking if they remembered such a case. Almost everyone did.
On Dec. 3, Eck interviewed Dicks in Athens.
“She had just lived with it for so many years,” Eck said. “She lived with it every day and she wanted to get it right.”
Eck said Dicks told investigators details that only the culprits could have known. She then implicated Gulley, 60, who has maintained he is innocent.
“It was a total shock,” said Gulley’s attorney, Jessie Cook. “I’m absolutely positive that there is no evidence that links my client.”
Cook said she will work to get the case dismissed.
“Basically, what the state is saying is, `We convicted somebody and let him languish in prison and die and we don’t think we got it right so we’re going to turn around and try someone else,'” Cook said. “It’s totally outrageous.”
`For a thrill’
Christopher Ramsey, who represents Dicks, said she has described the killing as “her co-defendant’s idea” and has told investigators that it was done “for a thrill.”
“As little sense as it makes, that’s the way I interpret it,” Ramsey said. “It was very, very random.”
Gibson’s father died in 1998. His wife said he was convinced that Jeffers was not responsible for his daughter’s death and that the real killer would be found.
“It’s never out of your mind,” said Annabelle Gibson. “I’m glad they found [Dicks], but it doesn’t bring my daughter back.”
Terry Mooney, mayor of Vincennes, said the slaying rocked the community for years, with rumors of satanic rituals and witchcraft.
“It really tightened people up around here,” he said. “It changed the attitude of the community because things like that just didn’t happen outside the big city.”
Now, some in Knox County are hoping the indictments can bring closure to a case that has dogged them for years.
“Time cures everything,” Mooney said. “But this was on everybody’s mind for a long, long time.”
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