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MISSING: Denise Pflum
On a Friday afternoon in 1986, 18-year-old Denise Pflum leaves her home in Connersville, Indiana, to go searching for a purse she had left at a party the night before. When she doesn’t return home, it’s just the beginning of a nightmare that will haunt her parents for over thirty years.
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For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode.
Please contact the authorities If you have any information about the following case:
If you have any information about the disappearance of Denise Pflum, please contact the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department at 765-222-1272.
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If you’re a law enforcement agency or family member of one of the people we mentioned in this episode, or if you’re looking for more coverage on a case, please reach out. You can email us at:
Episode Source Material
- Small Town Secrets: The Disappearance (Season 1, Episode 1) via Philo.
- Small Town Secrets: Rumors (Season 1, Episode 2) via Philo.
- Small Town Secrets: Confessions (Season 1, Episode 3) via Philo.
- The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN): Police seeking missing teen-age girl, by Star State Report.
- Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN): Connersville girl missing; no leads, by Mark Bever.
- The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH): Foul play suspected in girl’s disappearance, by Post staff report.
- Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN): Nothing found in Pflum search.
- The Times-Mail (Bedford, IN): Missing girl may be in Lawrence County, by Marda Johnson.
- Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN): Detective has personal stake in getting Denise home, safe, by Harold Wiley.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Father appeals to county residents, by Kay Hineman.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Authorities baffled by Denise Pflum mystery, by Kay Hineman.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Frustration surfaces in search for teen, by Kay Hineman.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Pflum family maintaining faith, by Kay Hineman.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Suspect in Pflum disappearance sought for Marion Co. abduction, by Danny Lee.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Hughes caught in Monroe Co., by Danny Lee.
- Rushville Republican (Rushville, IN): Phone call raises false hope for Pflums, by Daniel McFeely.
- Indy Star (Indianapolis, IN): Indiana Missing: Rumors abound but no leads in Connersville teen’s disappearance, by Kristine Guerra.
- WTHR (Indianapolis, IN): Denise Pflum mystery continues 32 years later, by Matt McCutcheon.
- NBC News: Family of missing Denise Pflum continues to fight for justice 34 years after she vanished in Connersville, Indiana on Good Friday 1986, by Andrea Cavallier.
- NBC News: Man charged with manslaughter in death of Denise Pflum 34 years after she vanished from Connersville, Indiana in 1986, by Andrea Cavallier.
- WTHR (Indianapolis, IN): Suspect in 1986 cold case dies months after confession, by Matt McCutcheon.
- The Rushville Recorder (Rushville, IN): Suspect in Denise Pflum Cold Case maintained innocence on death bed.
- WRBI (Batesville, IN): Search ongoing for missing woman in Fayette County, by Annie Nunley.
- Justice for Denise Pflum (Facebook Page).
- WTHR (Indianapolis, IN): ‘He may just be completely lying’ | Recanted confessions of Larry Hall cast shadow over multiple unsolved Indiana cases, by Madison Stacey.
- Connersville News Examiner (Connersville, IN): 37 years later, family still holds hope to find their daughter, by Kate Thurston.
- Connersville News Examiner (Connersville, IN): Team Adam works with FCSD on Pflum case, by Kate Thurston.
- The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, IN): Ex-con hunted after girl abducted, by George McLaren.
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