On April 29, 1989, This Family Was Murdered While Their Son Was At Prom. Decades Later? Police Have Answers
By Mike-Ross
On April 29, 1989, the entire Pelley family was massacred inside their home in Indiana—all except for one.
Almost exactly 28 years ago to this day, the bodies of the Reverend Robert L. Pelley, 38; his wife, Dawn, 32; and their daughters Janel, 8; and Jolene, 6; were discovered in the family’s home.
The family has been discovered by their neighbor, Will Tisdale, who decided to check on them after they failed to show up to church.
“The kids was at the foot of the stairway just a little ways down the stairway … and I didn’t go all the way down, I went about two or three steps. That was enough for me. … It was a bloody mess,” he said later.
Miraculously enough, the Pelleys’ teenage son, Jeffrey, managed to escape the bloody massacre, as he was attending his high school prom on the night of the murders.
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But it soon became clear to investigators that it was not only a mere coincidence that Jeffrey was out of the house on the very night his entire family was murdered.
While speaking with friends and family of the Pelleys, authorities in Lakeville discovered that Jeffrey was not actually allowed to go to the dance that night.
In fact, his father had banned the teen from attending prom altogether. Even his girlfriend at the time, Darla Adams, was shocked when Jeffrey showed up at her house to take her to the dance.
In 2007, Adams told ABC News that she remembered Jeffrey saying something odd to her while they were at prom together.
“He told me he had a strange feeling something bad happened at home,” she said.
Still, Jeffrey Pelley had told all his friends that his father had had a change of heart right before the dance that night.
The next day, Jeffrey was even able to take his girlfriend to Great America just north of Chicago.
Over time, investigators began to put together a theory about what really happened that night in the Pelleys’ home.
Angry that his father refused to let him attend the dance, police theorized that Jeffrey snapped, grabbed one of the family’s guns, and shot his father, stepmother, and two sisters at close range.
He then attended the dance with his girlfriend as if nothing had happened to save face with his friends.
While the case went cold for two decades, Pelley moved on with his life, eventually getting married and having a child.
Although Pelley has remained adamant of his innocence over the years, he was finally charged with the murders in 2002.
In 2006, Pelley was found guilty of the murders of his family members and sentenced to 160 years in prison for the murders, 40 years for each killing.
To this day, Pelley swears he is innocent.
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