Ada Haradine (3 of Clubs, Indiana)

Speaker 1 Ada Haradine was a quiet woman who lived a quiet life in a quiet neighborhood with her family. It was the kind of neighborhood that lulls you into believing it's immune to evil.

Speaker 1 Yes, a mother six months before and 50 miles away in Argus, Indiana had been attacked in her home in front of her girls and taken away by a crazed killer still on the loose at the time.

Speaker 1 But if that news even reached Ada in Elkhart, Indiana, it surely felt a long way off as she worked outside in the yard one warm May day in 1985.

Speaker 1 A next-door neighbor waved to Ada. Another passed her on his afternoon walk at 3.10.

Speaker 2 She opened the mailbox and there was a ski magazine that had come. As I'm pulling out, backing out of the driveway, she holds up the ski magazine like, you know, summer's coming.

Speaker 1 By 3.20, Ada was gone.

Speaker 3 Nobody's seen anything, and there were people out that day.

Speaker 4 Everybody said, oh, yeah, it was a nice day. Really warm.
And we were out.

Speaker 3 I seen her in the backyard. I talked to her across the fence.
Just seemed so out of

Speaker 4 whack.

Speaker 3 I mean, that's not the type of neighborhood where you get abductions.

Speaker 4 It was a high-dollar neighborhood.

Speaker 3 A lot of influential people lived there.

Speaker 6 Everything was as it's supposed to be. Your purse was there,

Speaker 6 all of those things. Nothing to indicate that there had been any sort of crime or struggle there.

Speaker 7 We hadn't been there too long when the main detective from the L Cart Police Department came in. Immediately, his reaction was

Speaker 7 not one of concern, particularly. He said, oh, they probably had an argument and she just went off someplace.

Speaker 7 And all four of us said, no, that's not Ada. She's not like that.

Speaker 6 Our problem was we didn't have any idea what had happened to her other than she wasn't there.

Speaker 6 As people were interviewed, we realized that we didn't know anything. It's hard to have a direction when you're directionless.

Speaker 3 They basically told us a few days into it, we don't have any good suspects in this case.

Speaker 7 I think we kind of resolved ourselves to the fact that It happened and I just prayed and prayed and prayed that somebody would find her body.

Speaker 1 It took three years,

Speaker 1 but some 10 miles away in a densely wooded area, someone did eventually find Ada.

Speaker 5 My dad said, we've got some news about your mom. I need to talk to you about it.
And he said, they found your mom's remains, and it floored me.

Speaker 9 I think part of you always thinks you're going to see her again until somebody tells you you're not.

Speaker 1 The mystery of where Ada had had been was finally solved. But finding her only compounded the questions.

Speaker 1 Questions about what happened the last day she was seen.

Speaker 6 The noise in the house has always bothered me. And I always thought it was somebody in there and they got caught and they couldn't get out.
So they had to sit up there and wait.

Speaker 6 And then whatever happened, happened.

Speaker 1 Questions about how Ada ended up where she was in the condition they found her.

Speaker 4 If she had clothing, where's her belt buckle?

Speaker 3 Where's the eyelets on the shoes?

Speaker 4 Where's the buttons?

Speaker 3 None of that stuff shows up. So you got to assume she's probably naked at that spot.

Speaker 1 And questions about what was really happening in Ada's life before someone took it.

Speaker 9 I always thought we were a perfect family. And, you know, the old day get, nobody's perfect.
No family is perfect.

Speaker 1 the facts are strange

Speaker 6 this case is full of weird stuff

Speaker 1 the players

Speaker 1 even stranger obviously it's still unsolved yeah

Speaker 8 but again all we can do is try

Speaker 8 well

Speaker 8 yeah i think it's wasted effort not

Speaker 1 in my experience digging in and asking questions has never been a wasted effort. And it certainly wasn't in the case of Ada Heradine.

Speaker 1 Season two of The Deck Investigates is coming soon. Follow the show so you don't miss new episodes on Friday, October 4th.
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