Taking a break from school and staying at home with her young daughter, a 16-year-old female student was sexually assaulted and brutally murdered.
For many years, the Weidner family mourned Amy Weidner – their 16-year-old daughter was brutally raped and murdered in her home. Finally, after more than two decades of deadlock, the investigation agency decided to re-examine the file and discovered missed clues.
Secret love affair
Amy Weidner is a 16-year-old high school student living in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, in a very loving and supportive family. Amy lives with her mother, older brother, and two younger sisters.
Gloria Weidner – Amy’s mother is divorced. Raising four children alone was a huge challenge for her, especially when she discovered her daughter Amy was more than 5 months pregnant at the age of 14.
Before that, even though Amy was pregnant, no one knew because she often wore baggy sweatshirts to hide her belly. Gloria only found out when her daughter could no longer keep the secret.
The baby’s father is Tony Abercrombie, 17 years old. Tony is a close friend of Amy’s brother – John Paul. The two had a secret affair, then they broke off their relationship.
Amy told her mother that she wouldn’t drop out of school just because she had more responsibilities. So, when she gave birth to her beautiful daughter named Emily on October 25, 1987, Amy quickly returned to school just six days later. The young mother received help and support from everyone.
For the next two years, Amy balanced motherhood with schoolwork. The female student has proven that she can do everything well. The teacher commented that Amy is a very good and responsible student.
Always busy, Amy doesn’t have time to socialize and play like most other teenagers. She has two close friends and usually only spends time with them.
Haunting scene
But then on November 13, 1989, a month after celebrating Emily’s second birthday, the Weidner family changed forever.
That morning, Amy told her mother that she felt unwell and had a sore throat, so she decided to stay home from school to rest and take care of her two-year-old daughter.
At around 9:30, Gloria called home to her children but no one answered the phone. After the second unsuccessful attempt, Gloria immediately called her neighbor to check, only to learn that no one opened the door.
Feeling very worried, Gloria decided to quit work and rush home. When she arrived, she saw baby Emily wandering around the floor. Gloria became even more confused, not knowing where Amy was. When she finally entered the bedroom, this mother witnessed a scene that will always haunt her.
Gloria found Amy dead in bed, her body and sheets covered in blood. The woman immediately carried her niece out of the house and called 911.
The first police officers on the scene noticed that the victim had many lacerations on his upper head and was not wearing any clothes. Preliminary autopsy results showed that Amy was also sexually abused and strangled to death.
Amy’s gruesome death quickly became shocking news throughout Indianapolis City.
The robbery was unsuccessful
Forensic doctors collected the perpetrator’s semen at the scene, but at that time DNA technology had not yet developed.
According to the investigation agency, the doors and windows of the house are still intact, with no signs of vandalism. They found a bloody handprint on the wall of Amy’s room. After comparison, the fingerprint did not belong to the victim. The police believed it was left by the perpetrator.
The investigation agency hypothesized that this was the result of a failed robbery. Amy’s family confirmed that some things were missing. It was Amy’s savings box and Amy’s brother’s stereo.
Based on clues, the police speculated that this was a crime committed by an acquaintance. He knew the living habits of the victim’s family and thought no one was home in the morning, so he sneaked in through the back door with the intention of stealing. The killer did not expect Amy to take a sick day that day.
Amy likely knows who killed her. He attacked, raped, and murdered her then fled the scene with money and a stereo.
The investigation is deadlocked
Amy’s funeral took place not only in the presence of friends and relatives but also in the presence of detectives. They went to cemeteries and funeral homes to observe people in hopes of finding clues.
This case has quite a few suspects. John Paul, Amy’s 17-year-old brother, often had friends over and knew about the victim’s family’s habits. Even John was questioned.
The first suspect is Tony Abercrombie, the man who got Amy pregnant. However, Tony was quickly eliminated from the suspect list because he had an alibi.
The next suspect was Troy Jackson, who lived behind Weidner’s house and somehow knew about the stolen stereo. They took pictures of Troy’s hands but did not see any bruises from the struggle. Troy’s hair sample also did not match any of the hair samples found in Amy’s room. After passing the polygraph test, Troy is cleared of suspicion.
Police also questioned and took hair samples and fingerprints from several neighbors and friends of Amy’s brother, but nothing matched the evidence from the crime scene.
Weeks and months passed, and the investigation stalled because no clues could be found. Amy’s family and friends wonder if the killer is really among them.?
The Mysterious Death
Then, in 2002, over 12 years after the murder, the police received an unexpected call from a man who used to live across from Amy’s house. He claimed to have been home on the day Amy was killed, and now he was having dreams about the murder that occurred in 1989. From these dreams, he claimed to know who the culprit was.
There were some details that matched the case file, but they could have been gathered from news reports at the time.
DNA evidence from the old crime scene had been preserved, and by 2002, technology had advanced significantly. The police also took DNA from this man to test, but the results didn’t match. Other previous suspects were also ruled out.
This sparked renewed interest from the police in the case. They revisited some individuals who had been investigated before. However, with no new leads, the case once again hit a dead end.
Unearthing Memories
In 2011, 22 years after Amy’s murder, her family and friends created a social media page titled “Remembering Amy Weidner.” Detective William Carter, who had no prior knowledge or involvement in the case, stumbled upon this page during his downtime and started paying attention.
In his spare time, William delved into case files, and notes on the investigation, reviewing everything collected over two decades. This included evidence from the crime scene, school records from the day Amy was killed, and even the list of attendees at her funeral.
William inputted all the data into a database and quickly realized that previous investigators had overlooked some leads. Many of Amy’s brother’s friends had never been interviewed or had their DNA sampled.
William began reaching out to Amy’s family and friends, asking if they remembered anything and collecting DNA from individuals previously excluded by the police.
Fortunately, in 1989, during the area sweep, the police had documented everyone living in the vicinity. From there, William went to those houses to see if those people still lived there, but most had moved.
So, William turned to find former neighbors, like Joy Haney, a friend of Amy’s who used to live across the street. Joy was asked to recall that day, if anyone stood out in her mind, or simply provide names of people who played with them.
Most of the people Joy mentioned were familiar names to William and had already been cleared of suspicion. But among them, a new name surfaced, one that had never been mentioned before, someone very familiar to the Weidner family.
Suspicious old friend
Most of the people Joy mentioned were familiar names to William and had already been cleared of suspicion. But among them, a new name emerged, someone very familiar to the victim’s family. That person was Rodney Denk.
Rodney is 42 years old, but in 1989, when Amy was murdered, he was only 18 and frequently visited the victim’s house. Rodney was a close friend of Amy’s brother.
Rodney had never been considered a suspect and hadn’t been mentioned by anyone for years. When detectives inquired about Rodney, Amy’s family stated that there was nothing suspicious about him.
He still lived in the same neighborhood after the murder. Detectives contacted him and requested a conversation. However, Rodney didn’t show up on the agreed-upon date. Nevertheless, William visited Rodney’s house. He had been married and had a son but was now divorced. Rodney currently lives with his mother and works at an auto shop.
After the failed meeting, William grew suspicious and searched for records of Rodney. The detective discovered that this man had a criminal record, having been arrested for assault in 1991 and theft in 1997.
Growing more attentive to Rodney, William took fingerprints from his last arrest to the forensic unit to compare with the fingerprints found in Amy’s bedroom years ago.
A Shocking Discovery
Shortly after, William received astonishing news: Rodney Denk’s fingerprints were a perfect match. Finally, after over 20 years of waiting, there was a breakthrough.
The police had a genuine suspect in Amy Weidner’s murder. Now, they just needed to apprehend Rodney, but by this time, he had vanished.
Rodney had rented a car using a credit card to flee. But with the tracking device equipped in the car, the police located it in Indianapolis. Rodney turned out to be at a friend’s place.
As the police approached, Rodney pulled out a knife, slashing his own wrist while shouting, “I didn’t do it.” The police swiftly subdued him.
While Rodney was taken to the hospital for treatment of his deep cuts, the victim’s family was in utter shock. They wondered why their former friend had betrayed them. Rodney had attended the funeral, even crying alongside the victim’s family, signing the guestbook. His name had also been provided to a detective for questioning but had been overlooked.
The Failed Robbery
At the hospital, investigators obtained some insight into his motives. As suspected, there had been a failed robbery.
Rodney admitted to breaking into the victim’s house for burglary. “I didn’t know she was home. I was in John Paul’s room, grabbing the radio. And she walked by, and I hit her on the head,” Rodney confessed. “I’ve always tried to be a good person, but maybe deep down, I’m not,” Rodney told detectives.
Throughout 48 hours of interrogation, Rodney confessed to raping and assaulting Amy with an object but constantly changed his statements when asked if he acted alone. One thing Rodney firmly asserted was that he did not see Emily – Amy’s 2-year-old daughter – at the time.
Rodney provided a DNA sample, and as predicted, it matched the DNA from semen collected in 1989 from a bedspread and blanket of Amy.
Recurring Crimes
Another surprising revelation surfaced during the investigation. It involved Rodney’s son – Dillon Denk. For many years after his divorce, Rodney rarely communicated with his son and ex-wife.
In 2009, Dillon was charged with killing his mother, Mary McHenry, after beating her to death with a baseball bat. Records showed the victim had a history of abusing her son. After a plea deal, Dillon was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Both father and son committed heinous acts at a very young age. While Rodney committed the crime at 18, his son was nearly 17.
Before the trial, Rodney admitted that besides him, no one else was involved in Amy’s murder.
In June 2012, just 10 days before the scheduled trial, Rodney pleaded guilty to the murder and rape of Amy, receiving a sentence of 65 years in prison.
For the victim’s family, Rodney’s imprisonment brought some relief, but Amy’s death and what she endured continued to haunt them. They tried to focus on the present. Amy’s old bedroom, where the horrific murder took place, now became a space for the family’s happy moments.
In January 2014, Detective William Carter received a commendation from the Indianapolis Police Department for his significant contribution to solving a murder case that had remained unsolved for over two decades.
