The Bill on Her Back Door: Fraud That Framed a Murder

The Bill on Her Back Door: Fraud That Framed a Murder

A utility bill propped against a back door changed the course of a disappearance: a February statement, addressed to a gas office seven miles away, was found in a plastic sleeve with a handwritten note saying "She asked me to hold this for her." Who planted a duplicate bill, who had daily access to Marie Hensley's workplace mailroom, and why was that note meant to redirect investigators?

In this episode, we present the known facts of Marie Hensley's disappearance and the odd evidence that followed, laying out the timeline from her last confirmed actions to the discovery at her home. How did a meter reader's forty-minute delay and a wrong-address bill become central to a case that would take years to decode?

Person: Marie Hensley, age 61 Date: Last known alive April 11, 2003; bill found last Thursday of April 2003 Location: 416 Sycamore Terrace, Dellman, Indiana Event: Missing person; duplicate February utility bill found Investigator: Ron Hecht, homicide and major crimes detective, age 53

- Marie worked 12 years as a billing coordinator at Lakeview Regional Medical Center and missed three consecutive shifts before a missing persons report was filed on April 14, 2003. - On April 11, 2003 Marie made the last confirmed financial transaction: a withdrawal from her checking account. - A February utility statement existed twice: one copy was in Marie’s kitchen drawer with a phone number in her handwriting on the back. - The bill found at Marie’s back door was addressed to a natural gas office on Birch Crossing, seven miles from her home, and was placed in a clear plastic sleeve with a yellow legal-paper note. - The phone number on the copy in Marie’s home connected to a prepaid, unregistered cell in 2003 and could not be traced with subpoena technology available at the time.

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