INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Feb. 25, 2014)—The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are requesting the public’s help in locating a woman believed to be connected to an Ohio murder convict.
Authorities believe the photo of the woman was taken between the years of 1975 and 1984 at an Indianapolis-area mall. She is believed to be related or a friend of John Davis Smith, who was convicted of his wife’s 1974 murder. Smith was arrested 26 years later after his brother reportedly confessed to discovering Janice Hartman’s remains in a box years in 1979.
The box was subsequently discovered in 1980 in an Indiana cornfield, but authorities were unable to identify the victim at that time.
Smith was convicted for Hartman’s murder in 2000 and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
It is unclear why authorities are searching for the woman in the photograph. If you have any information, please contact the IMPD Missing Persons Unit at 317-327-6160.
