Could the murders of the four young Burger Chef employees have gone down over a few hundred bucks? It's hard for some to believe, but it's the theory that former Indiana State Police detective Stony Vann came to hold after nearly two decades of work on the Burger Chef case.

In this week's episode, the Murder Sheet sits down with robbery gang theory expert and retired ISP detective Todd McComas of the 10-41 podcast. Together, we'll delve into the prolific robbery crew that targeted Burger Chefs in the months before the murders.

If you want to hear even more about this theory of the crime, listen to 10-41 on Apple, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. McComas outlines the case in his first four episodes.

Follow 10-41 on Twitter at @1041podcast, and keep up with McComas at @toddmccomas.

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Donald Forrester, a man with a long history of violence, confessed to the Burger Chef murders not once but twice — providing details that some investigators claimed had never before been publicly released. Yet neither he nor the other men he implicated ever faced criminal charges for the crime.

Was this a failure of the criminal justice system? Or did the mistake lie elsewhere, with the investigators who devoted so much time and resources to pursuing a lead that left them doing little more than running in circles? 

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Donald Forrester is perhaps the most famous suspect in the Burger Chef murder case.

But before he confessed to the murders twice, he perpetuated a number of awful crimes. He terrorized the women around him, until a brave young woman survived a horrific encounter and sought bring him to justice.

Learn more about why many people still insist that he got away with the killings.

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Allen Pruitt was more than a witness in the Burger Chef case.

He told police in 1981 that he almost became a victim himself, saying that he barely escaped the two killers the day after the murders. He said that he ran for his life through the woods after Tim Willoughby and Jeff Reed lured him out to a lonely country road called the Devil's Backbone.

But a deposition from a different police informant concerning yet another unsolved murder upended Pruitt's version of events.

All these years later, questions still remain. Was Pruitt's initial statement a lie? Did he witness a missing man and the King of the Snake Pit abduct the four victims from the restaurant? What exactly did his eyes take in as he staggered toward the Burger Chef on the night of November 17, 1978?

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Could a missing man accused of killing his girlfriend be responsible for the Burger Chef murders? Or is he yet another victim?

This episode covers one of the most confounding theories in the Burger Chef case. In 1981, Indiana State Police detectives Jim Cramer and Donovan Lindsay received a call from a jailhouse counselor. A young man was claiming to have information on the Burger Chef murders — an eyewitness account, in fact.

Allen Pruitt went on to tell police he saw two men abduct the employees from the restaurant three years before. And he named names, telling detectives exactly who he saw force the four victims out of the Burger Chef.

But revelations from yet another informant ultimately throw everything about Pruitt's story into question.

Here's a link to Donna McIntyre's group Missing and Not Forgotten. In the years since her friend Mary Ann Higginbotham vanished, Donna has worked as a tireless advocate for victims.

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On November 17, 1978, four young employees vanished from the Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana. 42 years later, the Burger Chef murders — as they came to be known — remain one of the Midwest's most notorious cold cases.

Join the Murder Sheet's Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee in the first episode of "You Never Can Forget: Investigating the Burger Chef Murders." This episode will delve into the events of November 1978, with never-before-heard insights from witnesses, investigators, and the victims' loved ones.

"You Never Can Forget: The Night" will provide a solid foundation to support upcoming episodes that will dive into different theories around who perpetrated these heinous murders.

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On November 17, 1978, four young employees began the night shift at the Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana. By midnight, they had vanished, never to be seen alive again. Two days later, their bodies were found in a wooded area in Johnson County.

To this day, no one has been convicted of the Burger Chef murders, as they came to be known. But the young victims — Jayne, Ruth, Danny, and Mark — and the brutal way they died have not been forgotten. The unsolved case continues to haunt loved ones, investigators, and the communities of Speedway and the greater Indianapolis area. 

Brand new podcast Murder Sheet will launch with an inaugural six-part miniseries delving into the Burger Chef murders. Titled "You Never Can Forget," the miniseries will debut on November 17.

Cohosts Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee will be taking a close look at the facts of the case, and a number of twisty, fraught theories that have arisen over the years. Kevin is a lawyer from Broad Ripple who began researching the case in 2016 after coming across the online community dedicated to discussing the murders. He now represents the sister of one of the victims. Áine is a journalist from New York who became obsessed with the case while writing a feature story on the murders for Insider. 

 After the six-part series concludes, Murder Sheet will continue as a weekly podcast focusing on different crimes and topics in the world of criminal justice. The show's first season will cover the phenomenon of restaurant homicides and shine a spotlight on the violent underbelly of the fast food industry. 

The podcast's title is a reference to the spreadsheet of around 1,000 homicides involving restaurants, bars, and other eateries that Kevin and Áine have compiled, starting with 17th century tavern shootouts and ending with the modern rage slayings that often occur in burger joints.

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