Denise Pflum

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1:59Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

2:32Today I'm discussing the case of Denise Flum. In March 1986, Denise Flum really had it all. She was at the top of her senior class at Connersville High School in Indiana, a member of the National Honor Society who was just recognized for her academics. She'd been accepted into her college of choice, and it was her last spring break before graduating. When Denise suddenly goes missing, her father's cousin is assigned to the case. This really makes the Flums let out a sigh of relief. They know someone that loves Denise and cares for her is on the case. But over 30 years later, the case remains unsolved.

3:09And the same rumors about how the investigation was handled, and who may be responsible, are still swirling. This is the case of Denise Flum. On the morning of Friday, March 28th, 1986, 18-year-old Denise Flum is waking up from a night out with friends. It's spring break, and while Denise is number 6 in her graduating senior class at Connersville High School in Indiana, she still knows how to have some fun. As spring break was coming to an end, she spends the night prior at a bonfire on some farmland near Glenwood, about 15 minutes from her house. What started as a small gathering of friends turned into a massive party.

3:51Some reports say that there were hundreds of teenagers in attendance. During the party, Denise sets her purse down somewhere. She misses her 12.30 curfew, but calls home to ensure her parents that she's okay, she's just going to be a little late. She makes it home by 1.15am without her purse. Now, while some parents might be really upset by this, it seems that Judy and David Flum aren't too worried. Denise is technically 18, and a very responsible teenager. In addition to being in the top 10 of her graduating class, she was president of the 4-H club, treasurer of the science club, she played volleyball, basketball, and ran track, and she was a member of the National Honor Society.

4:35Denise was even in an article featuring the who's who of American high school students, and she was set to receive an award for her academics in the next few weeks. She's been accepted to her dream school, Miami University, with plans to major in microbiology and become a scientist. Denise is responsible. And I have to imagine that Judy and David are happy that she went out to have some fun. After all, it was her last spring break before leaving for college. But that morning, the issue still remained that Denise's purse was missing. For reasons that her parents still don't understand, she starts calling around asking friends to go back with her to the site of the party to look for her purse.

5:17For some reason, she doesn't want to go alone, which in hindsight, David and Judy say is pretty odd for Denise, because she was typically pretty fearless and independent. Either way, in the end, no one is available to go with Denise, so she heads out alone. Her mom Judy was actually on a break from her part-time job at a local bank at the time. She was off from 12 to 3 for the Good Friday holiday, trying to squeeze in some laundry before heading back to work. So she sees all this unfold. Denise begins walking to the family's 1981 Buick, but she stops to talk to a neighbor about her plans to go to college in the fall.

5:56After this, she presumably makes the about 15-minute drive back to the party site at 12.30pm, But not even an hour after Denise leaves, there's a knock at the Flums' door. It's Denise's cousin with Denise's purse in hand. Now, of course, this is 1986. Cell phones are not common, and no one in this story appears to have one. So I imagine Judy thinks Denise will be back any minute, frustrated that she can't find her purse, which has her ID and money in it, and then elated when she realizes that it was safely returned to her. But Denise still isn't back by the time Judy needs to go back to work around 3.

6:35And Judy says this is when she really starts to get a bad feeling about everything. Denise should have been home by now. But again, Denise is responsible. So Judy just tries to brush it off and go on with her day. When she gets home from work, Denise still isn't home. So Judy and David go out looking for her, thinking that maybe she got into a car accident or something. Maybe she just lost track of time. But Denise and the family Buick are nowhere to be found. And by 8.30, David reports her missing. And police are not worried. They say she's a teenager, probably out having some fun. She'll be back.

7:17That or, despite being 18, they say maybe she just ran away. So with exactly zero help from police, Judy and David make a plan. David'll go out and look for Denise while Judy stays home by the phone in case Denise comes home or calls. But Denise doesn't call or come home, and she's nowhere to be found. The next morning, David and Judy are at it again. They're both now out searching for Denise, talking to friends, family, neighbors, anybody they can think of. Connersville, Indiana is a very small town. That cliche town where residents talk about not having to lock their doors at night and sleep with their windows open.

7:59Again, cliche, but still very real. As we'll see, news travels fast here. If someone saw Denise, they were sure to hear about it, but no one seems to know anything. Or at least they're not telling them. Then, finally, a break. The family Buick is found, but Denise isn't in it.

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10:53The family's 1981 beige Buick was actually found less than an hour after Denise left home on Friday. Farmers about four miles past the party site saw the car right away. They figured it just belonged to some mushroom hunters and went about their day. But when they noticed that it was still there the next day, they called it into police as abandoned. It's locked, and Judy and David say that the driver's seat appeared to be in the normal position for Denise. There was no indication that anyone else drove it, and no sign of any type of struggle or foul play. Also, the keys were missing. It really looked like it was driven, parked, locked up, and just left there for some reason.

11:36But the area it was found in raised red flags for Denise's parents immediately. Like I said, it was a few miles past the site of the party east of Glenwood, and it was really in the middle of nowhere near this farmland. They just don't understand why it would be here. But finally, this sparks some action by the police as they start to take Denise's disappearance seriously. Soon, Ted McQuinley of the Fayette County Sheriff's Office leads the investigation, and Judy and David think that this is great news, because Ted happens to be David's cousin. But pretty quickly, it's apparent that Ted and the entire Sheriff's Department are in way over their heads here.

12:21In an interview for the documentary Small Town Secrets, Detective Stacey Reese of Vincennes County describes the search for Denise as unconventional and extremely disorganized. The community came out in droves to help search for Denise, and there were some officials involved like firefighters, but there was just no organization to it. People were going off in their own groups, mostly searching nearby farmland near the party. People were being lowered into wells, and local high school students were sent out to search for Denise in groups of three. Now, don't get me wrong, the passion was there, but the structure of it all just wasn't great.

13:04I feel like we see this all the time in older cases in small towns. They've just never dealt with, nor were they equipped to deal with a case like this. But Judy and David trust Ted to do what's best for Denise. He loved Denise and watched her grow up. And I mean, after all, what else can they do besides help search for Denise and hope the police are doing all they can? But nearly a week later, an unnamed police spokesman told the Indianapolis Star that they were basically back at square one in Denise's case. And unfortunately, what we can find in old newspapers is basically what we know about the first few weeks and really years of the search for Denise.

13:46Because in addition to having unconventional methods for searching for the missing, Ted McQuinley also has some unconventional practices for the overall investigation too. And I think I'm being a little nice when I say unconventional because Ted takes no notes about the investigation. We don't know who was interviewed or when, what evidence is collected from the car, almost nothing. According to McQuinley, he doesn't need to write it down because it's all in his head. He also doesn't pull any phone records, doesn't search Denise's bedroom, and doesn't speak to many people close to Denise that would end up coming forward later.

14:27He also seems to have a very heavy reliance on the advice of psychics. In fact, by early May, it's reported that McQuinley is working with up to five psychics, and they all have different ideas of what exactly happened to Denise. And while the most valuable time in this investigation, those first few hours and days are slowly slipping away as police chase theories from psychics, and McQuinley keeps detailed records in his head, one possible suspect slips away from police, and the entire state of Indiana with no follow-up, Denise's ex-boyfriend Sean McClung. Sean and Denise met on a bus near the beginning of high school, and dated for about three years.

15:12Just a few weeks before Denise went missing, she and Sean broke up. Now, there are conflicting reports about whether or not this was mutual or amicable, but of course, when Denise goes missing, people start wondering if Sean was involved. Here on Voices for Justice, we know that those closest to the victim are the most likely perpetrators in these situations, and obviously, so do the police. They talk to Sean, but never really follow up. And since we don't have McQuinley's mental notes to reference, we don't really know what all happened there. Just that Sean was spoken to once and then moved to Arizona.

15:50And besides just the probability that Sean may have been involved, people were also looking at his behavior. They were concerned that he didn't appear worried about Denise. In fact, early on, he said that he was sure Denise was fine and would be back. He didn't participate in any searches for her. And now, not long after she's reported missing, he ups and leaves his hometown and moves all the way across the country. But Sean wasn't the only person they were looking at. Investigators quickly turned their attention to another local man named Benny Johnson. Benny graduated a few years before Denise.

16:27And while Denise really only saw Benny through Sean, Benny really inserts himself into this investigation. One day, he's speaking with Denise's parents and tells them, quote, I didn't kill your daughter. End quote. Now, David and Judy are really kind of floored by this. We are very early into this investigation, and they aren't even ready to think about a worst-case scenario of Denise being killed. Right now, she's just missing. And Benny just keeps bringing attention to himself. A few weeks after Denise goes missing, he's drunk and being arrested. While the cops are dealing with him, he becomes completely belligerent, and basically starts making fun of the officers, saying that they were too stupid to find Denise.

17:14And it doesn't stop here. Pretty soon, Benny starts allegedly telling people around town that he killed Denise. There are many stories of Benny Johnson telling people around town that he killed Denise. He allegedly told over a dozen people. And in these stories, sometimes he's laughing and mocking Denise, saying he killed her at a cabin, and while Denise was lying on the ground, she kept saying, help me, help me. He said that Denise was fed to hogs, and sometimes he's even crying while talking about Denise, expressing remorse for his involvement. Now, of course, all these rumors get back to the sheriff's office, and they begin piecing these statements together.

18:00Benny's family did own a cabin, and sure enough, Benny's grandfather owned land about a mile away from where Denise's car was found. And there's more. Someone Benny Johnson used to date came forward to police about a party at the cabin within the first few days of Denise going missing. Apparently, this ex-girlfriend got to the cabin before the party to help clean up, and she found blood. Unfortunately, we just don't know all the details here. how much blood or exactly where. She just says that she was told it was blood from a girl losing her virginity the night before, but she says that the amount of blood that they cleaned up was just way too much to be from someone losing their virginity.

18:43She also says that the blood was fresh. And you guys, there is more on top of that. The day Denise went missing, a woman named Vivian is in her home on the outskirts of Connersville, and she hears three blood-curdling screams that she believes came from a woman. These screams were so awful she could barely tell her family about it, but once she heard about Denise going missing, she called in the tip and says no one followed up. But how does this relate to Benny Johnson? Well, Vivian says that she could tell the screams were coming from the southwest of her home, which is close to the Johnson family property, again just a mile from where the Buick was found.

19:29The Johnsons are actually a pretty affluent family in this area, so when Benny is approached by detectives to answer some questions about Denise, they have the resources to immediately hire Benny a lawyer. Which I will always say, is his right, is your right, if you are questioned by police, get a lawyer. But here's the part that I can't get over. Benny is never officially questioned. And not only that, apparently Benny's mom makes some type of deal with the sheriff's office. She says, listen, Benny will take a private polygraph test arranged by and paid for by us. Now, because we just don't really have any information about the early investigation, we don't know if the sheriff's office hands are just tied, if they believe this polygraph was sufficient, or why they just kind of do nothing.

20:20But that is basically what happens for the next few years. Benny Johnson is just kind of left alone, and life goes on. Denise was honored at that award ceremony she was supposed to attend in April, and her fellow students continue to search for her. They even create a video saying it's time for whoever knows what happened to come forward, but there's just nothing. Eventually, the community and, in large part, Denise's parents put together a$5 ,000 reward, which is pretty major money for 1986, but again, there's just nothing. Then, in 1988, the Flums get a phone call that will change the entire course of the investigation.

21:02August 10th, 1988 was a Wednesday, which meant Judy wasn't at work. It was her regularly scheduled day off from the bank, and she gets a phone call. Actually, a collect call to be precise. This call is coming from Norfolk, Virginia, and the caller says that they're Denise. According to reporting by Daniel McFeely for the Rushville Republican, the connection wasn't great. But Judy says that the caller sounded young, with an Indiana accent. She thinks that this really could be Denise. In two weeks, investigators trace the call to Norfolk. While Judy and David were cautiously optimistic about this call, once the location is confirmed, they pack up their stuff and drive almost a thousand miles to see this woman in person.

21:48Denise's younger sister Jenny was actually set to leave for college in just a few days, but this family drops everything in hopes of finally bringing Denise home. But, as you've probably guessed by now, it was a cruel hoax. And this woman's reasoning for making this call is all over the place, so stay with me. The woman who placed the call was 19. She originally said that she thought she saw Denise at a local mall, but then through interviews with her neighbors, who she'd apparently been bragging to about this call, they discover that she never saw Denise, or even someone who looked like Denise.

22:26Basically, she thought Denise's family had a lot of money, and that she might be able to get them to send her some if they thought that she was Denise. Judy and David drive back to Indiana heartbroken, no closer to finding their daughter. But good on them because they go straight to the media with this story in an attempt to keep Denise's name in the news, and advertise the now$10 ,000 reward in the case. And it works for a while. Denise's name is back in the news, and then as these things go, it dies back down. That is until 1991, when a search warrant is served on the Johnson family cabin. This episode is brought to you by eBay.

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24:20But first, I think it's absolutely worth noting that the sheriff's office asked for an outside prosecutor, because it seems that Benny's mother was a close personal friend with the Fayette County prosecutor. And we also know that they were specifically looking for clothing, jewelry, and blood-stained bedding. So what comes of this search? Well, we don't know, because that information appears to be missing from the court file. And really, nothing happens. They are back at square one again. I have to imagine that this is just devastating for the Flum family. To hear all these rumors, to have this weird interaction with Benny himself, just for it all to be a big nothing, had to be extremely difficult.

25:11And this is when there really is this major pause in the case for over a decade. In 2007, a detective for the Indiana State Police begins working the case. In 2011, there's a NamUs profile created. And in 2014, Denise's DNA is submitted to the Indiana State Lab and national databases. But there are no matches. It seems that Denise's case really only starts to get traction when yet another, but in my opinion, much better investigator who actually knew Denise, starts reviewing her case. Around 2018, Detective Stacey Reese begins looking at Denise's case. Now, I say looking instead of working because officially she's not on the case.

25:55She's just volunteering her time to see what she can do. Detective Reese's mom used to actually babysit Denise and her sister. And while she was only three when Denise went missing, she just feels compelled to help. She's grown up with this case and the rumors, and watch the Flums deal with basically no answers for over 30 years. But in my opinion, and really more importantly in the opinion of Judy and David Flum, Reese is the best investigator Denise's case has ever seen. In 2018, she establishes the Justice for Denise Flum Facebook page, and on Denise's 50th birthday, she puts out a call for anyone with information to come forward.

26:35And it works. People want to talk about the rumors, what they've heard, what they've seen. And quickly, Reese realizes that all these people coming forward have either never been approached by police, or they submitted a tip that had never been followed up on. Now, this apparently really ruffles some feathers with local authorities, and it really just kind of lights a fire underneath them to work Denise's case. Now, around this same time, the timeline is a little fuzzy here, the Small Town Secrets documentary crew begins taking a look at Denise's case, and they really kind of partner up with Detective Reese.