Delaware County reporters chronicle area unsolved mysteries in 'Cold Case Muncie'

Deanna Watson, Muncie Star Press
·2 min read

MUNCIE, Ind. – Who killed Maggie Mae Fleming, shot as she sat at a window in her Muncie home in 1962?

Who killed Lou Ann Cox, her body found dumped near a Muncie reservoir in 1996?

Will the murder of Ruby Dean Moore, killed on Christmas Eve 1962, ever be solved?

"Cold Case Muncie," the fourth book by Keith Roysdon, now a freelancer based in Tennessee, and Doug Walker, still writing for The Star Press, will be available Aug. 14 wherever books are sold. The book features a number of unsolved murders in the Muncie, Ind., and Delaware County area.
"Cold Case Muncie," the fourth book by Keith Roysdon, now a freelancer based in Tennessee, and Doug Walker, still writing for The Star Press, will be available Aug. 14 wherever books are sold. The book features a number of unsolved murders in the Muncie, Ind., and Delaware County area.

Those unsolved murders related to Muncie, Ind., and other lingering mysteries consume the latest crime nonfiction by Douglas Walker and Keith Roysdon, whose tenure in Delaware County area journalism span several decades.

"Cold Case Muncie," the fourth book by Roysdon, now a freelancer based in Tennessee, and Walker, still writing for The Star Press, will be available Aug. 14 wherever books are sold. Through their careers, the two award-winning reporters have written about dozens of murders still awaiting justice and conclusion.

A murder mystery's conclusion isn't a common climax, Roysdon points out, as CBS News reported in 2022 that the the percentage of murders actually solved had fallen to about 50 percent. Therefore, "Cold Case Muncie" had a wealth of cases to depict.

“We tried to do more than reintroduce those who were killed without justice,” Roysdon said. “I also hoped that we could help spur the creation of a ‘cold case squad,’ a group of retired police investigators who would, working with local police departments, revisit cold cases, going over files and even re-interviewing people connected to the cases. So far, that hasn’t happened.

“We also wrote about a stumbling block that has hampered police who’d like to review old cases: missing police files. In some cases, we’ve been told, files were damaged in flooding from broken water pipes in police storage rooms. In other cases, we fear, old case files were just disposed of.”

"Cold Case Muncie," published by The History Press, also features the tale of Sebastian Cisneros, killed in 2009. His father still seeks justice; and the 1979 murder of Paula Garrett, whose young son Eric was bludgeoned and critically injured by the murderer of his mother.

The publication of the book could help solve these murders, as "Cold Case Muncie" includes contact information for the police departments investigating the cases. For more information, go to the Facebook page for the authors’ series of books at https://www.facebook.com/wickedmuncie/

The authors have scheduled a few talks and book signings for the days following the Aug. 14 publication date of “Cold Case Muncie.”

The schedule, which continues to be updated as interest demands:

  • Noon, Wednesday, Aug. 16 - Talk and signing at Kiwanis Club of Muncie luncheon at MCL at Muncie Mall

  • 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug 16 - Talk and signing at E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center

  • 2 p.m. Friday, Aug 18 at Aw Yeah Comics

  • 6-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18 - Talk and signing at Kennedy Library

  • 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 19 - Minnetrista Cultural Center and the Orchard Shop

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: New book by area reporters looks at Delaware County cold cases