Teen killed in 1975 ‘fought for her life,’ IN cops say. Man convicted 49 years later

One of the two men accused of killing a 17-year-old Indiana church camp worker has been found guilty of murder nearly a half century later, court records show.

“It was awesome (to hear),” Sarah Knisley, the sister of Laurel Jean Mitchell, told WPTA. “It was a sigh of relief, it’s over.”

Knisley was 12 when her sister was found dead in North Webster Lake in Kosciusko County on Aug. 7, 1975, according to the station.

A day earlier, Mitchell was reported missing when she didn’t return home from Epworth Forrest Church Camp, Indiana State Police said.

Investigators ruled her cause of death as drowning, and an autopsy report showed she “had fought for her life,” according to state police.

“My dad met me at the back door, and he was crying,” Knisley told WPTA. “He said, ‘She’s dead.’ Then it all fell apart.”

Mitchell’s death turned into a cold case until DNA evidence and witness testimony led to the arrests of Fred Bandy Jr. and John Wayne Lehman in 2023, when they were both 67, McClatchy News reported.

“Investigators believe Bandy and Lehman grabbed her, put her in Bandy’s 1971 Oldsmobile and took her to the Mallard Roost public access site on County Road 600 N in Noble County where they drowned her,” WANE reported.

Bandy was found guilty of first-degree murder on Oct. 8, court records show. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 22.

Lehman, meanwhile, pleaded guilty in August to an amended charge of conspiracy to commit murder, according to the Warsaw Times-Union. As part of the plea deal, he agreed to testify against Bandy, the publication reported.

Kosciusko County is in northern Indiana about 45 miles west of Fort Wayne.