This New True Crime Doc May Finally Solve a Nearly 50-Year-Old Murder Case
In 1978, four teenagers working the night shift at a Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Illinois were kidnapped and murdered. Their killer’s identity has eluded authorities for almost 50 years, but a new documentary might finally help solve the case.
The Speedway Murders takes a closer look at the unsolved 1978 murders of Jayne Friedt, Mark Flemmonds, Ruth Shelton, and Daniel Davis. Directors Luke Rynderman and Adam Kamien take a novel approach to the typical true-crime reenactments, presenting four different hypotheses for what happened to the teen employees of the fast-food restaurant that night.
Vertical released an official trailer for The Speedway Murders:
Here’s the official synopsis for The Speedway Murders:
In the gritty small-town landscape of 1978 Speedway, Indiana, The Speedway Murders unravels a mystery surrounding four teenagers toiling away on the graveyard shift at their local Burger Chef. When police respond to a midnight call there, they discover the restaurant eerily deserted – lights aglow, back door ajar, and the young workers vanished without a trace. The enigma deepens when, the following day, the bodies of the teenagers are discovered in the depths of the nearby woods. Employing reenactments to explore four divergent theories, the film leads the audience through the intricacies of that grisly night, challenging assumptions, casting doubt on the innocence of various characters and weaving an intricate web of intrigue.
According to IndieWire, the fourth section of the doc includes the first big lead in the case in four decades—a secondhand confession obtained by Rynderman and Kamien, who turned the evidence over to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Speedway Murders hits select theaters and will be available for digital rental on June 21.
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