WHO AM I?
And you ask who am I you ask? No one really, just someone who cares.
I have been asked by many people the same questions, “Did you know Mike?”, “Did you know the Bayles’ family?” My answers to these questions are the same, a simple “NO”. But I wish I did. Then the question, “Why are you doing this for someone you don’t know?” The answer to that question is “I don’t know, just know I have to.”
In October 1970, I was just a 13 year old eighth grader at Indianapolis Public School #98 on the far east side of Indianapolis. This was 18 miles from Mike’s West Jackson Street home.
On that Sunday morning, I read the headlines about Mike. I cut out the article and placed it in a scrapbook which I kept of newspaper stories I found of interest.
Monday morning in my Homeroom I asked a fellow classmate to collect and bring me in the articles from the Indianapolis Star. My family received only the Indianapolis News at the time. I would pay ten cents for the small articles and 25 cents for the larger ones. Over the weeks I kept up with the nightly news stories, read the articles I had and placed them in my scrapbook.
In my pocket I carried the sketch, of the suspect that McDougall gave to the Police. A few of my neighborhood friends and I would ride our bikes looking for the suspect, the car, and Mike's clothes. The woods and field in our North Eastwood neighborhood were never so searched and watched so closely before.
But then the articles stopped, the nightly news stories ended, and as kids often do we/I move onto other adventures and different objects took my interest.
In time, my scrapbook was lost in one of many moves; the name of Jerry Michael Bayles was lost in my memory. However, the story was not.
Over the years, working in various children’s homes as a Child Care Worker, 26 years as an Emergency Medical Technician on Wishard and Bloomington Hospital Ambulance Services, St. Vincent's Hospital and years of cave rescues, I never forgot the tragic story of the paperboy who was abducted and murdered.
For years, off and on, I would do web searches; send email inquiries off to different internet websites, but never found the story again.
I have been asked by many people the same questions, “Did you know Mike?”, “Did you know the Bayles’ family?” My answers to these questions are the same, a simple “NO”. But I wish I did. Then the question, “Why are you doing this for someone you don’t know?” The answer to that question is “I don’t know, just know I have to.”
In October 1970, I was just a 13 year old eighth grader at Indianapolis Public School #98 on the far east side of Indianapolis. This was 18 miles from Mike’s West Jackson Street home.
On that Sunday morning, I read the headlines about Mike. I cut out the article and placed it in a scrapbook which I kept of newspaper stories I found of interest.
Monday morning in my Homeroom I asked a fellow classmate to collect and bring me in the articles from the Indianapolis Star. My family received only the Indianapolis News at the time. I would pay ten cents for the small articles and 25 cents for the larger ones. Over the weeks I kept up with the nightly news stories, read the articles I had and placed them in my scrapbook.
In my pocket I carried the sketch, of the suspect that McDougall gave to the Police. A few of my neighborhood friends and I would ride our bikes looking for the suspect, the car, and Mike's clothes. The woods and field in our North Eastwood neighborhood were never so searched and watched so closely before.
But then the articles stopped, the nightly news stories ended, and as kids often do we/I move onto other adventures and different objects took my interest.
In time, my scrapbook was lost in one of many moves; the name of Jerry Michael Bayles was lost in my memory. However, the story was not.
Over the years, working in various children’s homes as a Child Care Worker, 26 years as an Emergency Medical Technician on Wishard and Bloomington Hospital Ambulance Services, St. Vincent's Hospital and years of cave rescues, I never forgot the tragic story of the paperboy who was abducted and murdered.
For years, off and on, I would do web searches; send email inquiries off to different internet websites, but never found the story again.
In October 2013, I felt a bit nostalgic and was going through my old grade school yearbooks looking at the comments left and all the signatures of my old friends and classmates. There on one of the last pages was a name I did not recall and it was in my handwriting. Whose name was this?
I Googled the name and was brought to the Indiana State Police web page of their cold cases.
In bold print was the name Jerry Michael Bayles. The name of the paperboy I had forgotten. I copied the page and started a file folder. I did more searches and came up with many out of town and out of state newspaper articles, those too I copied and filed.
I took a guess at the grade school that Mike may have attended, Indianapolis Public School #50, which was near to his home. I did a search on Classmates.com and found that a Nikki had posted class pictures from 1970. I did a search for her on Facebook and found her, I wrote her a message asking her if she knew Mike, and I waited.
I continued my search of Bayles on Facebook and found Mike’s brothers James and Gordon, and their children. I sent messages to each and waited.
I did a search of the Polk’s Indianapolis City Directories and found Mike’s address. I wrote emails off to the Indianapolis Star, the Indiana State Police, and to my old friend the Director of Marion County Homeland Security. Who forwarded my email to the Commander of the Indiana State Police? I sent an email to a friend at the Law Enforcement Academy, and he to forward my emails off to his friends at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and to the Indiana State Police.
With what little information I had I started the Facebook page and this web page. Then Nikki replied to me, along with many of Mike’s old classmates and friends. She sent me pictures of Mike from her School #50 yearbook and commented on what she remembered of Mike.
The Indiana State Police replied to my email and a meeting was set up with Detective Scott Jarvis of the Pendleton Post.
In November, I went to find and visit Mike. I started at the back of Summit Lawn Cemetery in Westfield. I walked up the north side, then down the south side. The day was cloudy and grey. Then I saw the name "Bayles" on a stone. The sky cleared and the sun came out. I walked up to it and it was a marker for Mike's parents. I said “hello” and saw in the next row behind them was a small granite marker, it was Mike’s. I knelt down at it and cried. Why I don’t know. I spent an hour at his grave site, talking to him, and there I gave my word, swore on Mike’s grave that I would never give up looking for who put him there, that I would keep his name alive and never again would I forget his name. I placed a stone on the marker I brought from home, painted on it were Mike’s initials, “JMB”. On the fence line was a vine of Bittersweet; I cut a twig of it off and placed it under the stone.
That night as I was drifting off to sleep I swear I heard a child's voice saying "thank you", three times in a row.
Things started to look good. Travis Bayles, son of James and Mike’s would be nephew contacted me. The Ronda’s daughter, Mike’s would be niece contacted me. The picture of Mike’s short life was being filled in.
Because the Indiana State Police still had the case as active, there was very little information that Detective Jarvis could give me. However, I did have the location of were Mike was found.
I started weekly trips to the Indiana State Library to copy the Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis News articles from their micro film files.
Detective Jarvis and I kept in touch with the information that I found.
I talked with Mike’s older brother John on the phone. The conversation was meant for finding out what type of kid Mike was, and not to talk about what happened to him. I wanted background information on Mike. The call ended up being an hour long and John told me he knew who did it, that it wasn’t the “mental patient”, but a next-door neighbor. Raymond Eastes, John said, was going through a divorce at the time, and had threatened to kill his wife and kids. One of his kids was a friend of John’s. He said didn’t live at the house on West Jackson where the Bayles lived, but in a town that started with an “M”, near were Mike was found.
John also spoke that Eastes knew things about the abduction and murder of Mike before the Bayles family knew of it. John still swears he was the one who abducted Mike and murdered him.
I visited the sight were Mike was found back in 1970. It used to be a gravel road with a ditch, but now it is a paved road with a small dip on the side and open fields on the north and south side.
I sent off a letter to the farmer who found Mike. Along with the letter I put map with a mark where Detective Jarvis and I believed was the correct location. The map was returned along with a note saying that it was the correct location.
I posted a comment on the Facebook page, that the farmer had confirmed the location of where Mike was found. The farmer’s family asked that I remove his name from the Facebook page, and said that the family did not want anything to do with the page. I did what they asked.
Now eight months later, I've made contact with Detective William Carter of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He was unable to find any information on Mike’s case in the files for 1970 or in the old cold case files, nothing at all.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is currently not active in the case; all files and evidence were turned over to the Indiana State Police at the time of the arrest of Schmidt. (The initial suspect from Central State.)
Jerry Michael Bayles friends and classmates still remember him, his family still loves him, and they all have thanked me again and again for all I have done.
You ask what I want to gain for my effort and time. I want nothing but what has already been given to me by the Bayles’ family, “Thank you”. That is my reward.
On Sunday July 20th, 2014 at 1:21pm, (43 years, 9 months, 17 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes since the reported time of Mike’s abduction) I received a phone call from Jo (McDougall) DeRee. Before I had the chance to ask any questions regarding her father as the witness to Mike’s abduction she tells me her father Paul Thomas McDougall Sr. was the one who abducted and murdered Jerry Michael Bayles, the paperboy. I literally when to my knees and cried. For the next hour she tells me of stories of possible other murders her father may have commented over the years and the abuse she received from him. She told me of the threats of killing her if she ever spoke of the knife she saw or a word of him killing the Mike the “paperboy”.
After the call I emailed Detective Jarvis of the Indiana State Police, and with Jo’s statement the final investigation into the senseless murder of a 10 year old boy was coming to a close.
But as luck had it, it was not coming to a close. Statements, facts and timelines did not match, reports made could not be found.
The WHTR Channel 13 interview and two night reporting was not for my benefit, not to get my 15 minutes of fame, it was for Mike. To get people to notice the case and come forward with new leads and information, but nothing came of it.
Back to square one it seems.
Over the past few years I worked on the web page and search high and low for leads.
But its rabbit holes I found, deep endless, dead end rabbit holes.
Found a lead on Thomas E. Hacker, a former Indianapolis Teacher at IPS #54 on East Washington Street. A Boy Scout leader on the Indianapolis West side in 1969-1970. It was reported Hacker molested over 50 boys form the near east side. Moved to Chicago joined the Boys Scouts again and continued to molest young boys. Now serving 100 years.
One thing about Schmidt, Strange and Hacker seems that I feel they did not do it, yes they molested young boys, but there was never violence towards them i.e. killing any.
Schmidt’s arrest, trail and sentence was a way to pin someone fast, close and end the case. In the public’s eye that happen, but not on paper nor in real life and not for me!
Few thing bug me about this Mike’s case.
I don’t feel that it was plan to kidnapping, molest (?) kill Mike. No one knew that Mike was going to cover his brother’s route that morning that was not planned. If anything it was by chance that it happened. Otherwise it would have been Gordon and Mike delivering the papers that morning.
I went to John Marshall High on the east side of Indianapolis, Class of 1976. I work hard and tried to keep a good grade point average. I was the president of the Spelunking Club for 4 year, president of the Key Club, lab assistant in the Science department and assisted in the IMC (Library) I was one of those student that all the teachers know, I could walk the halls without a pass, I was a good person.
Now I find out a freshman, a year before I came to Marshall was molested and murdered. Robert “Robby” S. Jackson Jr. Never heard of the case till looking up information on Mike’s case. Robby lived only a few blocks from me and the murderer, Jeffery A. Bailey lived even closer to my parents’ home. This was 1971 then. The Indianapolis Police department thought there may be a connection between the two cases, but it seems nothing was found to connect them. Still a fellow “Patriot” molested and murdered around the same time and was left for dead on the far east side of Indianapolis, only miles from where Mike was found, seems to be another rabbit hole with a dead end.
I have been in contact with Det. Kenneth Mains of The American Investigative Society of Cold Cases. His consulting fee is $5000. A bit high for my wallet. The organization would consult on the case BUT the Indiana State Police would have to ask them, I cannot. But, Det. Mains will chat with me and has given me support.
Going hunting for more rabbits and hope one of these holes leads to the person I want to see for Mikes killing, Justice is to long waiting for him.
I have kept my word to Mike. He isn’t forgotten and I helped a friend I never met or really knew.
I Googled the name and was brought to the Indiana State Police web page of their cold cases.
In bold print was the name Jerry Michael Bayles. The name of the paperboy I had forgotten. I copied the page and started a file folder. I did more searches and came up with many out of town and out of state newspaper articles, those too I copied and filed.
I took a guess at the grade school that Mike may have attended, Indianapolis Public School #50, which was near to his home. I did a search on Classmates.com and found that a Nikki had posted class pictures from 1970. I did a search for her on Facebook and found her, I wrote her a message asking her if she knew Mike, and I waited.
I continued my search of Bayles on Facebook and found Mike’s brothers James and Gordon, and their children. I sent messages to each and waited.
I did a search of the Polk’s Indianapolis City Directories and found Mike’s address. I wrote emails off to the Indianapolis Star, the Indiana State Police, and to my old friend the Director of Marion County Homeland Security. Who forwarded my email to the Commander of the Indiana State Police? I sent an email to a friend at the Law Enforcement Academy, and he to forward my emails off to his friends at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and to the Indiana State Police.
With what little information I had I started the Facebook page and this web page. Then Nikki replied to me, along with many of Mike’s old classmates and friends. She sent me pictures of Mike from her School #50 yearbook and commented on what she remembered of Mike.
The Indiana State Police replied to my email and a meeting was set up with Detective Scott Jarvis of the Pendleton Post.
In November, I went to find and visit Mike. I started at the back of Summit Lawn Cemetery in Westfield. I walked up the north side, then down the south side. The day was cloudy and grey. Then I saw the name "Bayles" on a stone. The sky cleared and the sun came out. I walked up to it and it was a marker for Mike's parents. I said “hello” and saw in the next row behind them was a small granite marker, it was Mike’s. I knelt down at it and cried. Why I don’t know. I spent an hour at his grave site, talking to him, and there I gave my word, swore on Mike’s grave that I would never give up looking for who put him there, that I would keep his name alive and never again would I forget his name. I placed a stone on the marker I brought from home, painted on it were Mike’s initials, “JMB”. On the fence line was a vine of Bittersweet; I cut a twig of it off and placed it under the stone.
That night as I was drifting off to sleep I swear I heard a child's voice saying "thank you", three times in a row.
Things started to look good. Travis Bayles, son of James and Mike’s would be nephew contacted me. The Ronda’s daughter, Mike’s would be niece contacted me. The picture of Mike’s short life was being filled in.
Because the Indiana State Police still had the case as active, there was very little information that Detective Jarvis could give me. However, I did have the location of were Mike was found.
I started weekly trips to the Indiana State Library to copy the Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis News articles from their micro film files.
Detective Jarvis and I kept in touch with the information that I found.
I talked with Mike’s older brother John on the phone. The conversation was meant for finding out what type of kid Mike was, and not to talk about what happened to him. I wanted background information on Mike. The call ended up being an hour long and John told me he knew who did it, that it wasn’t the “mental patient”, but a next-door neighbor. Raymond Eastes, John said, was going through a divorce at the time, and had threatened to kill his wife and kids. One of his kids was a friend of John’s. He said didn’t live at the house on West Jackson where the Bayles lived, but in a town that started with an “M”, near were Mike was found.
John also spoke that Eastes knew things about the abduction and murder of Mike before the Bayles family knew of it. John still swears he was the one who abducted Mike and murdered him.
I visited the sight were Mike was found back in 1970. It used to be a gravel road with a ditch, but now it is a paved road with a small dip on the side and open fields on the north and south side.
I sent off a letter to the farmer who found Mike. Along with the letter I put map with a mark where Detective Jarvis and I believed was the correct location. The map was returned along with a note saying that it was the correct location.
I posted a comment on the Facebook page, that the farmer had confirmed the location of where Mike was found. The farmer’s family asked that I remove his name from the Facebook page, and said that the family did not want anything to do with the page. I did what they asked.
Now eight months later, I've made contact with Detective William Carter of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He was unable to find any information on Mike’s case in the files for 1970 or in the old cold case files, nothing at all.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is currently not active in the case; all files and evidence were turned over to the Indiana State Police at the time of the arrest of Schmidt. (The initial suspect from Central State.)
Jerry Michael Bayles friends and classmates still remember him, his family still loves him, and they all have thanked me again and again for all I have done.
You ask what I want to gain for my effort and time. I want nothing but what has already been given to me by the Bayles’ family, “Thank you”. That is my reward.
On Sunday July 20th, 2014 at 1:21pm, (43 years, 9 months, 17 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes since the reported time of Mike’s abduction) I received a phone call from Jo (McDougall) DeRee. Before I had the chance to ask any questions regarding her father as the witness to Mike’s abduction she tells me her father Paul Thomas McDougall Sr. was the one who abducted and murdered Jerry Michael Bayles, the paperboy. I literally when to my knees and cried. For the next hour she tells me of stories of possible other murders her father may have commented over the years and the abuse she received from him. She told me of the threats of killing her if she ever spoke of the knife she saw or a word of him killing the Mike the “paperboy”.
After the call I emailed Detective Jarvis of the Indiana State Police, and with Jo’s statement the final investigation into the senseless murder of a 10 year old boy was coming to a close.
But as luck had it, it was not coming to a close. Statements, facts and timelines did not match, reports made could not be found.
The WHTR Channel 13 interview and two night reporting was not for my benefit, not to get my 15 minutes of fame, it was for Mike. To get people to notice the case and come forward with new leads and information, but nothing came of it.
Back to square one it seems.
Over the past few years I worked on the web page and search high and low for leads.
But its rabbit holes I found, deep endless, dead end rabbit holes.
Found a lead on Thomas E. Hacker, a former Indianapolis Teacher at IPS #54 on East Washington Street. A Boy Scout leader on the Indianapolis West side in 1969-1970. It was reported Hacker molested over 50 boys form the near east side. Moved to Chicago joined the Boys Scouts again and continued to molest young boys. Now serving 100 years.
One thing about Schmidt, Strange and Hacker seems that I feel they did not do it, yes they molested young boys, but there was never violence towards them i.e. killing any.
Schmidt’s arrest, trail and sentence was a way to pin someone fast, close and end the case. In the public’s eye that happen, but not on paper nor in real life and not for me!
Few thing bug me about this Mike’s case.
- If the guy did hit Mike on the bike, and an accident did occur, why not just leave him and run?
- Why drive 40 miles to a lone road, when Danville, Avon, Brownsburg were still rural and closer to the west?
- If the kidnapper drown around I465 South, why not get off at a number of exits that would lead to more rural area.
- 2 and 3 – did the kidnapper know the area of Knightstown and rural Henry County?
- Why strip Mike and leave him naked, if he was not molested? (Indianapolis papers say he was not, out of town papers say he was.)
- Why would the “witness” wait till the next day to report what he saw? (If he even did)
- As a matter of fact nothing of the case makes sense.
I don’t feel that it was plan to kidnapping, molest (?) kill Mike. No one knew that Mike was going to cover his brother’s route that morning that was not planned. If anything it was by chance that it happened. Otherwise it would have been Gordon and Mike delivering the papers that morning.
I went to John Marshall High on the east side of Indianapolis, Class of 1976. I work hard and tried to keep a good grade point average. I was the president of the Spelunking Club for 4 year, president of the Key Club, lab assistant in the Science department and assisted in the IMC (Library) I was one of those student that all the teachers know, I could walk the halls without a pass, I was a good person.
Now I find out a freshman, a year before I came to Marshall was molested and murdered. Robert “Robby” S. Jackson Jr. Never heard of the case till looking up information on Mike’s case. Robby lived only a few blocks from me and the murderer, Jeffery A. Bailey lived even closer to my parents’ home. This was 1971 then. The Indianapolis Police department thought there may be a connection between the two cases, but it seems nothing was found to connect them. Still a fellow “Patriot” molested and murdered around the same time and was left for dead on the far east side of Indianapolis, only miles from where Mike was found, seems to be another rabbit hole with a dead end.
I have been in contact with Det. Kenneth Mains of The American Investigative Society of Cold Cases. His consulting fee is $5000. A bit high for my wallet. The organization would consult on the case BUT the Indiana State Police would have to ask them, I cannot. But, Det. Mains will chat with me and has given me support.
Going hunting for more rabbits and hope one of these holes leads to the person I want to see for Mikes killing, Justice is to long waiting for him.
I have kept my word to Mike. He isn’t forgotten and I helped a friend I never met or really knew.
- These times are based on the report Paul Thomas McDougall gave to police on October 4th, 1970 as to be the witness to the abduction of Mike.
- These times are based off the time when Mrs. Thomas P. Baker heard a scream and saw the tail lights on South Harris Street from her residence at 40 South Warman Avenue.