Murder With Mannina
Murder With Mannina
The Baffling Disappearance of Denise Pflum
Chris attempts to untangle what had happened to 18-year-old Denise Pflum when she went missing in late March 1986 from rural Fayette County, Indiana, and the reasons why, after three decades, this case still hasn't been solved.
People just want to know what it's like to be me. How does it feel to see a dead body? Tell a family their loved one has been murdered, talk to a rape victim, catch a killer and get them to confess. Hold on tight, my friends. Get ready for the journey. And welcome to murder with Mannina. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of murder with Mannina. Colleen, are you I'm in California. Yes. So I'm following this whole summary thing. Oh my god. Like, that's just, that's crazy. They're now saying that they're they've died probably and oh my god, like I just, that's just all the money in the world. Like, it's so funny. All these people that have all this money. They're like, I'm gonna go to the moon and I'm gonna get on a submarine. And like for the Titanic, it's like, I'll just be middle class and just stay home. Like, you know, it's like, yeah, there's dangers with everything. Right? I read a book called psychology of fear a long time ago. And it statistically breaks down. What are our chances of dying in a car? Yeah. So then playing it, you know, a plane wreck of a terrorist attack this and that. And do you know we're in more risk of being killed by a meteor right? Oh, my God. Any of the above? Wow. Oh, my God. Okay, that makes me feel better. Yeah, we've had some near misses. Yeah, well, on that point, I know. Right. Thank you. I appreciate that. You're good. You're a good one to put things in perspective. So I'm going to bring you a case from Connersville, Indiana, and it's kind of an East Central Indiana towns called Connersville on it's only a population of about 13,500. But this is the case of Denise flum and she left her home to retrieve her purse that she left behind at a party. Okay, she was never seen again. But her car was found the next day. Okay. She was an 18 year old senior at Connersville high school. And she was studying Microbiology in college, super whip smart. She was going to study microbiology. She was going to attend Miami University in Ohio in the fall, and this was back in 1986. She was active in high school she ran track and she had intentions of securing a track scholarship in college, said she was incredibly bright, was the treasurer of the science club played volleyball, softball and basketball. So she was an athlete, which tells me that she was probably strong as well. She was looking forward to attending her senior prom the next month, but she had broken up with her boyfriend whose name was Shawn McClung, who she had been dating for three years. Her mother described her as very outgoing and she became extremely social after she broke up with the boyfriend. Okay. She went missing March 28 of 1986. Again, she was 18 her birth date is January 14 of 1968. She was like I said, 18 she's a white female. She was five foot six 135 pounds in her hair color was brown. So here we go with this case the night before she went missing. She attended a party on a rural farm with a few 100 Other students now Connersville, Indiana is very, very much rural farm and so back in the 80s I used to hear about I was still in the city, but you know, back in the 80s, they had these huge parties out in these barns out in these farms and stuff. She reportedly had left her purse behind so she attended this party with a couple 100 students, but she left her purse so the next day around 2012 30 She left to go and try to find her purse. She evidently called a bunch of friends to see if she could go with it with her to try to pick up the purse but none of her friends could go. Before she left she was seen talking with her neighbor it was just a brief conversation. And that is the last confirmed sighting of Denise. A friend though, at some point told her mother that she saw Denise at the Fashion bug clothing store. But when the friend described her clothing it was incorrect. When Denise didn't, so she left at 1230 to go find her purse when she didn't return home that evening. Her parents began to worry because that behavior was extremely unlike her. Her parents do report her missing with the local police department. They do find her car the next day in her car is locked but it's near a farm. The car was parked alongside tower row, which is a gravel Lane east of Glenwood near a bar. The farmer would later tell police that it hasn't left that spot since 1230 12:30pm to 1:15pm. The previous day, the farmer generally thought the car belonged to mushroom hunters, and there would be no reason in the world for her to be in that area. Okay, so here's the timeline a little bit February of 1986. She breaks up with her, her boyfriend, okay, and they've been together for three years. I can't find a lot of history on how the relationship was, but I can't, it does. There's nothing that tells me that there was anything abusive about that relationship. They were together for three years. Her behaviors did change a bit. After they broke up, like her mother kind of described it. She became really, really social and was going to a lot more parties. She'd only ever been in a relationship and then boom, she's single, and she's a young adult, of course, she's going to be more social. Absolutely. I know it's so crazy because I in high school, I didn't date her late all until my senior year. I had a boyfriend but I remember my best friend in high school. She dated this guy all through high school. And it was just like it was just always them to doing stuff together. And I always felt like she kind of missed out on like, just not having a boyfriend right because everything they did was together and they missed out on all that so I can absolutely relate. On the night before Good Friday. This is March 27. The night of the party, she attends the bonfire party held at a rural farm since its spring break, which started out as a small gathering quickly swells to a few 100 kids. She returns home after the party but accidentally leaves her purse behind. So we jumped to march 28. The next day, she leaves home to retrieve her purse that she left behind at the party. She asked him friends like I said to come with her but they couldn't go. Her mother later said it was strange that she didn't want to go alone and wondered why she was uncomfortable going to the party location by herself. So evidently with her asking a bunch of her friends to go there may have been some apprehension. You know, I'm going to try to retrieve her purse by herself that day, but you know it's 1230 in the afternoon. Denise gets into her parents cream color 1981 Buick Regal and heads out to the side of the party. However, a ton of the property where the party had been held later claims he never sold in these that day, and that she never returned to the farm. Okay, that same day 130 March 28. Denise's cousin returns the purse. Less than an hour after Denise left to retrieve her purse. A distant cousin returns the purse to Denise's house. Later on about a half an hour later. A friend tells detectives that she saw Denise at the Fashion bug store However, according to her mother, the clothing that she claims Denise was wearing that day does not match the clothing that she left her home wearing. Still that day from two o'clock to 830. She's then finally reported missing so they wait until 830 That night to report her missing when Denise didn't return home that evening. Her family reports her missing to the Sheriff's Department. Authorities try to call the family down citing teenage behavior and assuring them that she probably will be back soon. The teenage behavior I don't know if she sounded like a pretty good kid. Exactly. All of this sounds very normal, even what not wanting to go alone to get her purse. That just that doesn't. That could have not been anything ominous or any sort of instinct, maybe she just, you know, prefer not to go. That's typical at first teenager, especially because the authorities kind of brushed it off as teenage behavior and assure them that she'd probably be back the family begins searching for themselves and start calling her friends. With that they have no they find no results. The search doesn't start officially until the following day when her car is discovered. The lead detective assigned to the case is a cousin of Denise's father, David Fleming, and his methods of investigation or subs subsequently called into question. The investigation lacks documentation records and detailed notes and instead relies heavily upon his memory. That is just not that we're in but we're in the right we're in the right I don't want that's my stomach, right? I don't like that. Okay, so the very next They never remember her car was found but the very next day march 29. A farmer report seeing Denise's car alongside tower road a secluded gravel lane between his house and the field he was working. The farmer notices Denise's cream color 1981 Buick Regal had been parked from 1230
to 1:15pm. The previous day, it's found locked in it's roughly three miles away from where the party was held. The mind you these. This rural part of Indiana is literally like cornfields upon cornfields upon corn fields, like you can look out for days. Okay, so shortly after Denise disappears, her ex boyfriend leaves town and moves to Arizona. Okay, shortly after she disappears. Prior to leaving, he is briefly questioned about Denise's disappearance but is never really on the police's radar as a suspect. He does not participate in the new searches for Denise and does not seem to be overly affected by her disappearance. He is later discovered to have had a lengthy criminal record in Arizona for domestic violence. And he eventually moves back to Connersville in 2017. So, right there together in 1986, according to whom was he not overly concerned about her disappearance and didn't search? Yeah, well, her family says that in the 42 detectives, but what's kind of funny is that whole reference to the detective didn't document a lot of things. And then why he is not really on the radar is a possible suspect. I have a hard time with that. You know, and for him just to go to Arizona and then have all of these domestic issues throughout his life. So I don't know why. Yeah, but he had a lengthy criminal record from the time in 1986 when he moved to Arizona. And that's weird, right? He's 18, too. And he just picks up and moves to Arizona after her disappearance. And then he decides to come back in 2017 after he has this lengthy criminal history going on, including domestic violence in Arizona. Okay, so 1988 Now we're two years into it. An unnamed woman calls the Virginia Norfolk, Virginia claiming to be plums daughter, Judy and David flum traveled to Norfolk to see if this girl was actually their daughter, Denise, the girl had called on Mrs. plumps day off, which would be information only Denise would know, crazy is that you get a phone call saying I'm your daughter. And many things she mentioned on the call sounded like something Denise would say, when David and Judy arrive in Norfolk, the girl denies having called the family. Finally the girl admits to calling because she thought she sold the niece at a local shopping center. Despite the cruelty of the hoax, the flams Do not press charges. That's how jacked up people are now that's two years later. So what that tells me probably is the boyfriend may have been with this woman, right? That called the police because she's talking about only information that the daughter would know. But if they were together for three years in high school, that he knew that information probably to maybe the work schedule of her mom, right? Like that. Right? That makes sense to me. So I don't know why they didn't proceed to press charges. But they did. And how horrible is that they travel all the way to Virginia thinking that their daughter has called them just to find out that it was a hoax. People are horrible. You know what, and that happens a lot too. And then we talked about that too, when we have these like big high profile cases and help people you know, like you have the people that do want to help and they're like, oh, maybe I did see him so they call then you always have those loonies that just call with, you know, crazy. Oh, I saw him you need to come here just for attention. It's just horrible. What a horrible thing for the family. Okay, so 1980 sensitive. Oh my god. So. So 1988 then we jump to 2007 There is nothing that happens in between there. There's no they don't know new information. 2007 at this detective Scott Jarvis he is assigned to the case and he is from the Indiana State Police. He begins working in the new unit the cold case unit in 2007. He follows up on numerous tips received today, but no new information is revealed. Despite this a detective feels that while the to just grow smaller the cooler kit the colder the case gets, there's always a chance that the case can be solved. So at least we have a new detective on it. 2007 We jump another seven years 2014 Denise's DNA submitted to the National Database. Okay, so they must have gone to the home or gotten something 2014 sample of Denise's DNA taken from a baby tooth are submitted to the Indiana state police lab and the national DNA database system. However there are no matches. Okay, that's 2014 we jump ahead to 2018 The detective he starts at justice for Denise Fleming Facebook page. Another detective a female Stacy Reese, a police detective and Vincenz county had been working the case on a volunteer basis for several years detective race who grew up in the same town as Denise and whose mother babysat Denise start a Facebook page to raise awareness of her case and that's in 2018 2018. That's in May of September. Based on a tip from the former girlfriend of a person of interest and Denise's disappearance. The Mary gray bird sanctuary is searched. cadaver dogs from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security alert to the possibility of human remains at the fourth pond at the sanctuary. After a long delay, do torrential rains due to torrential rains, the pond does search but nothing is found. So they're still searching for her in 2018 which is good but you see that there's a lot of gaps between the years like seven years four years before anything is like kind of worked on it. That search in that pond was in September of 2008. Teen now December. The sheriff who is now working the case, interrogates McClung, the boyfriend, okay about Denise's disappearance and assumed murder. The previous year. McClung had submitted to a voice stress test and in the eyes of the authorities had failed miserably despite a rigorous interrogation. McClung does not crack. He does not prep, and I liked the voice stress test better than the polygraph. We don't use them as much. I use them some during my investigations because I liked them better. They were more interesting and I felt that they were a little bit more reliable, but again, still not being able they're not able to be used in court. So that happens in December of 2018. They go back and they interview and they give them the voice stress. Nothing comes from it. 2020. Denise's export from McClung is arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter, Sean McClung, who had been arrested for an unrelated fraud charge confesses to Denise's 1986 murder. He tells police that Denise had picked him up on the day of her disappearance. They argued and he killed her later calling a few friends to help move her body. According to a press release from the sheriff's department Sharon McClung was charged with voluntary manslaughter and Class B felony resulting from the investigation into the dinette to the death of Denise flum. Led by the detectives the information and probable cause alleged that McClung previously claimed that flum was still alive but has recently admitted that he killed her in March of 1986. No further comments will be made at that time when they do the press release as the investigation is ongoing regarding the involvement of other parties. Astonishingly, a deal is worked out where if McClung agrees to take authorities to the location of her body, he would be granted immunity from the murder charge. However, it became clear that he is unable to provide authorities with the location of her remains, because he cannot hold up his part of the bargain. He is charged with voluntary manslaughter in recants his confession? Okay, so he confessed but he can't remember where the body is. Or he's just saying he was refusing to show them where the body is what I mean it has been for two years almost. Well, now he can't remember where the body is. Okay, so that isn't And how old is he now? July of 2020s He's in his 50s Oh, my God. So he's lived a complete life. Yep. He is confesses to it. He gets arrested for voluntary manslaughter. No, mind you, there's no body right and that's a hard charge. But he says that he did it. So we jumped to that's in July of two Only 20 In September, but he says that a cup he says a couple of friends helped him move the body so those friends could cooperate his confession. I mean, yeah, and it sounds like they never they never caught up to his friends. So that's July of 2020. September of 2020. McClung dies from an undisclosed terminal disease at the age of 56 before a trial could take place. April of the next year 2021. The Aqua search Midwest in conjunction with CCRT, Indiana canine search and recover and the Fayette County Sheriff's Department conduct the search for the remains of Denise the area search are not publicized, except to mention that they are all different areas in the county. The start the search started at seven and continued until 630. At night, the search results in no reporting and any specific discoveries of Denise's following remarks it gives them a better idea of where Denise's remains are not located. Now, I can't begin to describe to you the amount of farmland that's in that area. It's nuts. Okay, so it sounds like they did a pretty good job of trying to piece together what he said in any of other information. But wow, where the case stands today still remains unsolved. Even though there was a discussion made to the by the police, to McClung or by McClung. But again, he had he died in police custody, there is $100,000 award, if for any information in relation to this case, so Oh, it's just horrible. I. So 2021, January 2021, a family. There's a lot of kind of news articles and stuff. And so I found a little bit of information that I thought was interesting. So if Ken there you know, they think that there's a huge break in the case because of the confession, and it makes sense that he probably did it. But what's crazy to me, and I think I mentioned this before is that they didn't get a chance to fully question him. And I don't know why they didn't fully question him in 1986. And like you said, he moved to to Arizona after that. So according to some news outlets, he had agreed to share information about the case in exchange for immunity and dismissal, the two unrelated cases, the state agreed to the offer. But again, his failing house. So what that means was, the offer was like, we're not going to charge you with murder. But on the flip side, you have to cooperate everything that we know about this investigation, and you have to find, you know, you have to take us to the body. That was the deal. Now good or bad, hopefully, and a lot of times, during please, especially if the family is really, really involved, the prosecutor will go to the family and say, Look, this is what we're thinking about doing. They kind of lay out the case and where they're at. They talked to the family, they get their opinion, how would you feel, you know, if we did this, now the family can say we don't agree or at all, or we do agree and the prosecutor ultimately makes his or her decision. You know, they they tried to say that they weigh in with the family wants, but it sounded like the family was okay with that. Because, you know, at that point, I mean, at this point, I can only imagine that knowing what happened and knowing definitively what happened with Trump, everything. Maha McClung did not receive immunity from the state because he didn't satisfy the agreement. So he was ultimately charged with murder. But of course, then he died in late September and this is 2021, the attorney that was appointed to to McClung. During a conversation between the two McClung denied knowing anything regarding her whereabouts or circumstances surrounding her alleged death or disappearance. So he goes and tells us attorney that he doesn't know anything. When the attorney asks him if the previous confession was accurate, McClung told him it was not saying he did it because they offered him $25,000 into get out of there with his family, which doesn't make any sense to me at all. They do that. Yeah, the sheriff's department said McMillan, it's in insinuated to the prosecutor's office and in the show and Sheriff that more details will be forthcoming, and that it would be shocking. They did not receive any official statements after McClung is dead. They said McMillan did provide an auditor audio recording of McClung recounting his confession He quoted as saying it is the understanding of our offices that Mr. McMillian is now withholding a statement from a potential witness that has also not been turned over to investigators or prosecutors. As of this release. Attorney Jetson Macmillian provided the following statement. It is unfortunate that Mr. Klein made false statements to investigators that likely brought about a fleeting hope of closure for the film family. Yet under the circumstances, where Mr. McClellan's days were dwindling. His statements appear to be nothing more than a desperate attempt to live his last few days on this earth as a free man. No words can adequately express the heartfelt sorrow that I have for the Muslim family. Nor can they express my unreserved hope that they that they one day find peace. My job is to defend the liberty of the accused in order to make sure that the innocent is not wrongfully convicted based on my own private conversations with a clog and his overall lack of credibility. I believe the person responsible for the death or disappearance of the needs one is still out there. So that is where they are on this day with that so what I'm wondering which they obviously haven't made public, the investigators is what else do we know about McClung? How do you say, his name? McClung? Yeah, how, what else do we know about McClung life? His circle of friends? How many people have the interview? And the two people that supposedly helped him? Yeah, move her body when they be also accused? You would think so. And they be convicted of murder? Well, they could be absolutely, absolutely, absolutely so or disposing of a body if it was after the murder or whatever. But there could be some charges. But when you go back and you look at this, you know, 18 years old, she doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of history. Right. So I don't know why they didn't hammer down more on the boyfriend, especially with some suspicious behavior a may have been upset and not wanting to go out and search because she broke up with him. Who knows. But there's motive right there. Right? And so why, why didn't they hammer down on him? And it's not like if he was 18 at the time, and I think he was it wasn't like he was a juvenile or they needed parental permission to interrogate him. But he leaves pretty quickly. And it sounds like because he left Connersville to head to Arizona that they just stopped with him. They did a brief interview, and then just let them go. And you'd think it would be the opposite, because that's the dishes. Why would you think especially, and also the circle of friends, because like you said, when somebody does something like this, they tell some Yeah, usually at least one person, especially high school, right where it's like talked about, but when you do the victimology of her. It's like, it's gotta be the boyfriend, like, Who else could it be? You know, because she's not running. She's not doing drugs. I mean, you don't go to the University of Miami on track scholarship if you're not well put together. I mean, you just don't. But you know, and then you look at the when mom said she, you know, she wanted somebody to go, but there are 200 people at that party. You know, there's a lot of interviews to be done, but I just feel like wow, it just kind of once you mess it up, it's so and I tried to say this to detectives and stuff. And I did it and I've done it myself. Once you mess up the investigation. At the beginning, it is really hard to kind of backpedal a little bit. So man, it just goes to show you that especially new investigators, you've got to do it right the first time that you're there and, and wow, it's just it's too bad that they let him go because obviously, you know, he had a career. He was a career criminal of domestic violence. So exactly right. But what the hell made him come back to the city where this frickin happened. He honestly thought they thought he was invincible right? Yeah, they have a copy yet? I don't even they don't even Yeah, that's me. Yeah, so that's interesting. I mean, obviously gotten some trouble to Arizona. So maybe he's tried a fresh start again. And you know, what had been like a difficult like, I think even if they had arrested him for a murder based on the confession at this point in time, it kind of that that kind of sounds like they all it's all they had, because they weren't able to retrieve any evidence from the car. So there was really nothing other than the confession. And it's such a small town like they didn't know probably maybe there wasn't an investigator like you who didn't have the street experience to know how important it is to interview everybody in her life. Find out what was the nature of that relationship with her boyfriend? What is his character, like what kind of people did does he hang out with? What kind of what's changed? What How has she changed after the relationship? ship and how was he affected by that? I mean, there was there's so much that we don't know. And maybe Investigators didn't find out or hopefully they did but sounds like maybe didn't well in that couple of the female detective that was just kind of looking at this case on our own, you know, she was trying to do some work on it as well. But when you look back at the very beginning to with the, with the investigator and how he kind of just didn't, you know, there's no notes like you can't remember that shit. That's trouble. Yeah, that's weird. So I mean, if it if it wasn't written down, it didn't happen. Like, um, you know, and that's the scary right so it would have been hard I feel to prove that you know, beyond a reasonable doubt and a jury if that's all right. Means Yeah, you still don't have the body so parents are are obviously a little bit elderly. I did see a quick interview with mom, you know, she just said it's a nightmare that haunts you every single day of your life. You're always looking for your kid, always looking for your kid. So that's that's kind of what was her interview. So okay, so if anybody has any information at all, please reach out to the Fayette County Sheriff's Department and they can be reached at 765-825-1110 And again, we appreciate you guys listening rate and review tell your friends and we'll see you guys next time on murder with Mannina. If you have a cold case you'd like Chris to review submitted through our website at murder with mannina.com and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at murder with mannina and Twitter at murder W mannina. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of murder with mannina.
