LOGANSPORT, Ind. — Ruth Becker was retired, never married, 77 years old, with only a sister and brother-in-law to claim as family who said she only left her house on Brown Street in Logansport to fetch groceries or go to church.
On January 13, 1991, the man married to Becker’s sister came by to check on Ruth and found her on the floor of her home, stabbed to death.
More than three decades later, Logansport Police are still searching for her killer.
”This attack appears to be a surprise attack,” said Detective Flaude Dillon. ”Ruth had been stabbed numerous times. The original attack happened in the living room on the couch and, at some point, Ruth was able to make her way to the front door and eventually collapsed at the front door.
”There were no signs of forced entry in the house. No signs of burglary. Everything appeared as it should be inside the home.”
Everything but a murder weapon.
“This was a brutal attack on a very small elderly lady that would not have been able to defend herself,” said Dillon. “This individual is a vicious person and needs to be behind bars.”
Investigators have long believed its likely that the killer was from Logansport but remain baffled that their suspect never left a trail of similar assaults or an account of the killing.
”I would like to think that somebody knows who did this and is possibly intimidated or scared to give up the information, that it is a loved one or family member,” said Dillon, “but, in my opinion, it’s time, its time to come forward and give the information that they have.”
Recently, detectives received family and church approval to exhume Ruth’s body to seek potential DNA evidence.
”It was a touchy conversation,” said Dillon. “This was 33 years ago. We dug up a lot of the past. The feelings that they had 33 years ago, we brought them all back up to the present. It was something that we had a long discussion with the surviving family and asked for their approval and that we wanted to take the right steps to do the right things for Ruth. Ruth was a devote Catholic so before we did anything we contacted her church that she went to and spoke with the priest and had him there the entire time the exhumation happened.”
The exhumation revealed no new evidence.
The killing happened more than a decade before Dillon was sworn in as a Logansport Police officer, but he’s inherited the Becker murder files and continued conversations with retired LPD Sgt. Cathy Collins, the original detective from 1991.
“We went down memory lane. She walked us through the scene of the crime,” he said. “What some of her thoughts were of the crime and some leads that were still kind of out there that had always bugged her.”
With only one blood relative left to mourn her death, Ruth Becker is now remembered by investigators who refuse to let her cold case stay frozen.
”The first time I saw a picture of Ruth she reminded me of somebody’s grandma,” said Dillon. ”The police department has kind of became that part of Ruth’s family from Detective Collins to myself and my sergeant Clayton Fry, the more we know about Ruth the more she won’t ever leave us, especially if we can’t solve this crime.”
Dillon hopes that someone either recalls the killer’s self-incriminating account of the murder or the murderer is no longer in a position to intimidate witnesses.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-TIPS or reach out to Detective Flaude Dillon at (574) 725 2826 or rdillon@logansportpolice.com.
