The Online Reflector

By Marcus Whalbring
Entertainment Editor

When Andrea Simmons, attorney-at-law and University of Indianapolis graduate student, had to find a thesis topic for her master’s degree in biology, she resurrected the most notorious story of her hometown; now, she’s hoping to solve a near century-old mystery.

The serial killer of LaPorte, Ind., Belle Gunness, has had a flicker of doubt placed over her death. A county coroner in 1908 proceeded that Belle Gunness and her three children had died in a house fire on her farm in LaPorte. But for almost a century, people have believed that she faked her death and lived for years afterward.
“There were Belle sightings all over the United States,” Simmons said.

A Norwegian immigrant, Belle Gunness came to the United States in 1880. She settled in a Norwegian suburb of Chicago and married a man named Mads Sorenson. When she found out she could not have children of her own, the couple adopted. But her two adopted children died in 1895 and 1896. Her husband also died in 1899. Some believed, including her husband’s brother, that she had killed him to receive life insurance proceeds, but the case was dropped.

According to Simmons, Gunness took the money and bought a farm in LaPorte, Ind. When she moved to LaPorte, she married Peter Gunness. Three months later, he was killed.

Supposedly a meat grinder had fallen on Peter’s head, but the coroner who examined his body said he had multiple wounds in his skull. However, Simmons said no conclusions can be reached by the coroner’s claim.

Between December 1902 and April 1908, Gunness is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of several individuals in the LaPorte area. Though the numbers are not certain, Simmons has the names of 25 to 30 victims, most of whom were men.

“Most of them were killed by luring them to her farm with offers of marriage and sex,” Simmons said. “And then they were dispatched when they came with their worldly possessions.”

During that time, Gunness adopted and took in many children.
At the time of her “death,” Gunness had custody of three children: Myrtle, who was 12; Lucy, who was nine and Phillip, who was five. Around that time, suspicions began to grow about Gunness and the disappearances of men in the area. That’s when the fire happened.

The bodies of the three children and a headless adult woman were found in the ruins of the fire. Witnesses said the body was too small, and the fact that the head was missing made many others suspicious. However, when Gunness’ upper and lower dental plates were found in the ruins, the county coroner pronounced Belle Gunness dead, and her body was buried in Chicago. Still, people believed that Gunness had faked her death and fled.

Ray Lamphere, who worked for Gunness as her handyman, was arrested for the arson and the murder of Belle Gunness and her children. However, he was only found guilty of arson. About a year later, Lamphere died in prison. On his deathbed, he claimed he and Gunness had gone to Chicago before the fire took place. While there, he claimed that he and Gunness found a woman, killed her and used her body as a substitution so Gunness could fake her own death.

In 1931, a Los Angeles County Sheriff believed he had the real Belle Gunness in custody. Although the woman had a different name, she fit the description and was arrested for poisoning a man with strychnine, Gunness’ usual method. However, this possible suspect died of tuberculosis while in custody.

Since then, the mystery of Belle Gunness has remained unsolved. Simmons said three books, multiple articles and two screenplays have been written about Gunness, but no scientific examinations of the bodies had been conducted. That is, until Simmons was ready to take on her thesis for a master’s degree.

“I grew up in LaPorte,” Simmons said. “So I went back up there to look through the county museum’s archive.”
Simmons found plenty of documents about Gunness, including coroner’s inquisitions and depositions of witnesses.

“Over time, it became clear that we actually had an opportunity to, perhaps, exhume the body in Chicago,” Simmons said.

With the permission of a licensed funeral home director, Gunness’ next of kin and a cemetery director, Simmons, along with professor of anthropology and biology, Dr. Stephen Nawrocki, and three other team members, exhumed the body. Using DNA retrieved from that exhumation, Simmons hopes to determine whether Belle Gunness died in a fire in April of 1908 or faked her death. Simmons will compare that DNA with a sample she hopes can be found on envelopes used to mail letters to one of Gunness’ victims.

“The flaps are still sealed, and we hope to get saliva from those envelopes,” Simmons said.

If the DNA from the envelopes is successfully taken, Simmons could have results in about a month. But if it can’t be done, Simmons has another source she can go to next. Gunness’ sister is buried in California, and she would have identical DNA samples. However, if that step must be taken, Simmons may have to wait six months to a year before she knows anything.

“There’s no guarantee that we’ll ever get an answer from DNA,” Simmons said. “But if we do, it could take up to a year, and it depends, in part, on funding for the work.”

If Simmons can clear away the debris that has buried the truth about Belle Gunness for a century, she will have satisfied more than the requirements for her master’s degree.

Simmons has met family members of Gunness and Gunness’ victims over the years, and she said they’re all still interested in the story.

“They visit the museum; they visit the graves; they are in touch with one another,” Simmons said.

Simmons said she took on the task hoping to provide answers to them and the rest of the United States.

If she reaches a conclusion, she will have solved a century-old mystery, a mystery buried beneath the ashes that have blackened the soil of a LaPorte, Ind. farm.