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Hi, crime junkies. The story I have for you today reads more like an old film noir than real life. It starts with a
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mistaken identity and murder in DC, pivots to small town power politics, spirals into domestic violence, [music]
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and ends with a town marshal gunned down on his own doorstep in Indiana. And the
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reason I know about this [music] case is because I actually got a call from Captain Kevin Smith with the Indiana
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State Police, who is known for cracking cold cases and who urged us [music] to cover this story in hopes that someone
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somewhere can bring him [music] answers to a question that has haunted the small
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town of Fremont, Indiana [music] for decades. Who killed Bobby Moore? It's July 13th, 1974
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in DC, a time of epic [music] unrest in the capital city. Watergate just broke. Nixon is like a month away from
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resigning from the presidency. And when this is happening, Metro PD homicide detective Bobby Moore gets a call that a
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judge has been shot. He rushes to the hospital and finds Judge Lewis A. Sysler dying in a bed. And some of his final
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words to the detective are telling him that he had been at his father-in-law's house. And when he opened the door,
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there was a group of people who shot at him as they tried to get into the house.
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They didn't, but they got him. And shortly after giving that information to the detective, Lewis dies. With only
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those few facts to go on, Bobby sets out investigating what is now a homicide. [music]
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So, he goes back to the scene of the crime, which as Lewis told him was at his father-in-law's house, Samuel
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Haynes. Samuel's daughter, Barbara, had married Lewis 23 years before, and they'd built a life together in northern
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Indiana, where Lewis had been a state judge. They'd left their three adult children and moved to DC for Lewis's
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work, cuz after he retired as a judge, he went to work for a senator on Capitol Hill, and he was also a lobbyist for the
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National Rifle Association. So for a hot minute, considering the political climate, they probably wondered if Lewis
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was targeted for his work. >> But the real motive was much different and as it turns out, had nothing to do
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with politics at all. Apparently, earlier that night, a young woman who is referred to as Mrs. Brandon in the court
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records. She was walking home from a neighborhood bar when a guy grabbed her, forced her into a garage, and sexually
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assaulted her. After the assault, she made it back to her mom's house, told her mother, Mary, what had happened. And
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right away, Mary went to police to report that assault. Now, I don't know what their response was, but probably
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not great because it seems like Mary thought she needed to take matters [music] into her own hands. So, she got
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her grandson and his friends together and they decided that they were going to go back to that bar she had been at to
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find this guy themselves. Now, he wasn't there, so they came up with another idea. Mary's daughter identified two
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garages in the neighborhood that looked like the ones she was assaulted in, but it's not totally clear from the limited
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records that we were able to get why she thought that the guy who assaulted her might have owned the garage that she was
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attacked in. But, this is all she has to go on. So they go to one house and they
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determine this isn't the right guy. So then they go back to the bar, started a bar fight, and then [music] left,
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possibly after several drinks, and when they leave, they go to the second home that Mary's daughter had [music] picked
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out. And that second home is Sam Hayne's house. So Mary and several others march
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up to the [music] front door, knock, and when Lewis opens the door, the New York
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Times reported that they said, quote, "We're looking for the guy that raped our sister." And Lewis is like, "Listen,
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you must have the wrong house." And he tried to close the door. And it was then that two people in the group started
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shooting through it. The judge gets hit several times and, as we know, later dies in the hospital. So once Detective
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Bobby Moore pieces all of this together, he comes to the conclusion that this must have been a case of mistaken
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identity and all the arrests are made. According to an appeal document, which was one of the only records we could get
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for this case, Mary Harris, who is the mother of this woman, she ends up getting convicted of conspiracy to
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commit assault with a dangerous weapon, felony murder, and attempted first-degree burglary while armed. Now,
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the burglary charge was because someone in the group allegedly tried to push past the judge into the house, and the
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court suspected it was to commit a burglary. Now, I know two other men were convicted, too. They were the ones
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police that actually pulled the trigger or triggers, but I don't have as much detail because there weren't any court
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records for them that we could get. >> Wait, so who actually committed the assault on Mary's daughter?
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>> So, short answer, >> I don't know. Uh, we couldn't find anything saying that a suspect had been
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arrested for that sexual assault. Like, in all the court documents, the perp is referred to as an unknown asalent,
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>> but they know it's not the judge. >> That's what they said. Mistaken identity. How do we How do we know it's
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not the judge? Cuz it's not like they were shooting at everyone's front door. They went to someone else's house first
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and they >> like knew it wasn't the right guy. >> Like, did they say they got the wrong
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guy? Are they standing behind the ID? You're asking all the right questions, the same ones I did, but they're the
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questions I can't get answers to. At first blush, I'm like, um, how hard did we look at former judge Louisis Sistler
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who works for a senator in DC, >> right? >> Like, did Mary and her crew say that
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they got the wrong person, or were were, like you said, were they standing by their statements? What weight did they
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give their statements, whatever they were, compared to that of Lewis and his family
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>> who have all these political connections, these friendships? So, >> yeah. I mean, is Mary or any of her
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family still around? Girl, I tried to find them. I can't. I'm like weirdly obsessed with this part of the story
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now, which like >> it's kind of sad you said part of the story cuz that means we can't like hang
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out here and dig deep. >> It's literally just like the setup for our main story. But I don't know. I I
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don't know. I There's like layers here. I can feel. So, if this story makes anyone listening like their ears perk
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up, if you knew Mary or her family, like I'm still down to talk. Email me tipsuck.com.
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But I'm kind of wondering what if it's everything like what if it was mistaken identity? [music] What if it wasn't
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Louis but it was someone else at the house? Like what if it's I mean like he's not even in his own house, right?
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Like he's not he doesn't own the house. >> No, it's it's his in-laws. But I don't
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know if he was there. I don't know if anyone else was there. This is where the investigative records would have been
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really helpful, but I don't have those. Based on everything that's been reported
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and documented, it seems like the judge was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And at the end of the day, Bobby
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got what he was after, a conviction for a judge's shooting. But like I said, that is just the start of our story.
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Because believe it or not, the murder investigation ends up changing the course of Bobby's life. Because through
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investigating the death of Louiswis Sysler, Detective Bobby Moore meets his wife, Barbara Sysler, and they get
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married 3 years later. >> Wait, you you meant his his wife like Louiswis's wife?
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>> Yes. >> He You're telling me he marries the victim's wife? >> Yes. >> I don't know what it would be, but like
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is there not a policy against dating a murder victim's wife after you investigated the murder? I don't I don't
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know. It's definitely It's weird to me. Yeah. But for Bobby, this is like a Hollywood ending. He solves the crime.
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He gets the girl. And he eventually retires from Metro PD. And now that they can live anywhere, he and Barbara decide
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to move back to Fremont, Indiana in 1984. My guess would be so that Barbara could be closer to her grown children,
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Barbara Jr., Samuel, and Debbie. One big happy family. But apparently things weren't as movieesque as they appeared
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on the outside. And this move to Indiana marks the beginning of a very twisted end.
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Whenever there's a controversial trial, do you ever wonder, did the jury get it right? I'm Brandy Churchwell, and this
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is the 13th Jur podcast, where we break down real court cases and put you in the
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jury seat. >> All right, jury and courtroom. >> When the gavl falls, the jury's decision
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may be final, but [music] the debate is far from over. Listen to 13th Juror wherever you get your podcast.
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>> We have the jury find as follows as the cow. >> Not long after moving, Bobby gets
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appointed as town marshal, which is like the chief of police in small towns. And
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he is viewed as this like hero, right? This big shot homicide detective from DC. And all these deputies seem to look
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up to him. According to the Washington Post, Bobby is officially appointed in June of 1984. [music] Captain Kevin
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Smith with the Indiana State Police says that Bobby was the town marshal you picture. Like when you think of a 1960s
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TV show, he's friendly. He's pretty lax. He probably wasn't always that way, but
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you know, as a homicide detective, especially in DC, he would have seen it all. Like the worst of the worst. And
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Captain Smith says that he was at that point in his career where he probably wanted to be as laid-back as he could.
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Like >> let things slide a little, you know, >> and like small town versus DC, like it
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feels like an easier job maybe. >> Yeah. But there might have been more to it than just where he was in his career
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because you see, Bobby has a pretty severe alcohol use disorder and it just seems to worsen once they moved to
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Indiana. So along with all the ways that that could affect his job, it also affects his home life. His and Barbara's
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marriage begins to fall apart over the [music] next couple of years. They're fighting all of the time. And Barbara
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confides to her daughter that she thinks Bobb's actually having an affair. So by
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the end of 1987, the two of them are barely coexisting. They're still in the same house, though. Like Barbara lives
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on the main floor of their home, and Bobby stays out of her way paying his wife rent to live in the finished
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basement. And it was done up like almost like a little apartment. It had a bedroom, a kitchen, separate entrance,
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separate phone line, everything. And by the way, like this fairy tale ending is dissolving publicly in small towns.
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Everybody knows everybody's business. I mean, specifically small town Northern Indiana. We know that place.
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>> So, it doesn't come as much of a surprise to anyone when Bobby and Barbara both file for a divorce. But it
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is not amicable. Nothing like, oh, you know, we just realized like we're not good together. It's not
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>> I mean yeah they're living in the same house like even they're they're in different parts of it like yeah
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>> yeah it's and toxic but the clock is on now divorce papers have been filed and I
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assume that once the divorce is final one of them will have to move out and they can both move on. I don't know what
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the arrangement was. They might have still been figuring that out, but they won't need to because just three days
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before their divorce is set to be finalized, Barbara is shot dead in their home, and Bobby is the one holding the
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gun. But when he calls police at 10:41 p.m. and they show up 5 minutes later, he says it's not what it looks like.
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What really happened in the basement of Bobby and Barbara's home on the night of
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February 26th, [music] 1988 is still a mystery. One that divided a town and turned locals against one
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another. Only two people were in the house that night. One of them is now dead. Here is what Bobby said happened.
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According [music] to the probable cause affidavit that we got, Bobby says that around 10:30 p.m. he was downstairs in
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his apartment area of the shared house talking to someone on the phone in his kitchen when his wife Barbara, who
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wouldn't be his wife in 3 days when the divorce was finalized, started pounding on the door of the basement. He hung up
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the phone and went to unlock the door at the end of the hall. And when the door opened, Barbara was on the other side
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just liv. She came in hot and accused him of having an affair with the person that he was speaking to. He says that
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she had come all the way in and was in the kitchen by that point. And he says that Barbara was so angry that she like
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swept this stack of papers off the counter and threw his phone at him. And at that moment, he says that Barbara's
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phone line rang. Now, she had a receiver like in the main floor, but also at the
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bottom of the basement stairs. So, she went to pick up that one in the basement. And the next thing Bobby knew,
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she was yelling at him to come to the phone. But Bobby didn't want anything to do with it. He said he went back into
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his bedroom and Barbara followed him. He tried to close the door to keep her out,
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but Barbara was pushing against it, trying to force her way in. I mean, she's smaller than him, but she's got a
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little leverage since the door opens inward. So, she's pushing in. He's pushing out against it, trying to hold
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it closed. But he said that he was pushing the door so hard to try and close it that he pushed the door through
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the frame and broke the door off the hinges. And when that happened, he says that Barbara rushed into the bedroom
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where he was brandishing a cocked pistol in her right hand. He shouts at her to put the gun down, but she keeps coming
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at him. So he grabbed his own gun off a nearby shelf and shot her. Oh my god. Now his phone was out of commission cuz
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she'd thrown it at him. So he immediately went to the phone by the bottom of the stairs. It's still off the
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hook. So he hangs it up and calls 911. Now they're here and he's like, you know, this is terrible. But it's all
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self-defense. >> The thing is the receiver was off the hook because someone was on the line,
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someone who heard everything. And between her story and what the crime scene is showing, something isn't adding
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up. So, here's the story from the person on the other end of that receiver. That was
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Barbara's oldest daughter, Barbara Schuford. And I know them having the same name could get a bit confusing, so
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I'm just going to call her by her married last name, Schuford. So, Schuford says that her mom called her
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earlier that evening, [music] and in that time, she seemed to be in a good mood. To my surprise, based on what we
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know, Barbara told her daughter that even though her divorce from Bobby was imminent, she and Bobby were getting
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along and they'd actually just gone out to a nice dinner. So, they had that conversation, they hang up, that's that
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nice call with mom. But later that evening, Barbara calls back and [music] now she's upset and she said that she
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found out who Bobby was having an affair with. The record doesn't say who it was
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or explain how Barbara allegedly caught them. I mean, I wonder if she was like listening in on their phone
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conversations. >> I don't think she could. So, there there was that phone in the basement, but it's
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connected to her main line, not his. So, like I don't know what she thought she knew or how she knew it. But regardless,
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>> at this point, when she thinks she knows, Barbara is so angry that she didn't even want to be in the same house
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anymore. She wanted her daughter to come pick her up. So, her daughter hangs up.
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It's like, "Listen, I'm going to talk to my husband about this." And then she calls her mom back. This is the call
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that Barbara went to answer on the basement phone mid-fight. So, Barbara picks up on the first ring and her
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daughter could tell that she was even more upset now. So, she's trying to like calm the situation down. And at some
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point, her mom said that she wanted her to speak to her stepfather, meaning Bobby, and she could hear her mom put
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the receiver down. And then she heard Barbara and Bobby shouting at each other. Her mom was yelling to Bobby that
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he needed to come to the phone and like [music] admit what he'd done. and Bobby just replied by yelling profanities and
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then he told her to quote shut up. She then heard a loud noise [music] and then the next thing she knew, Bobby was on
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the phone telling her to hang up because he had to call 911. Now, the second she
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heard him say that, she and her husband got in the car and headed to her mom's house. And the first thing her husband
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Tom says when he walks up to the scene leaves little room for doubt about what they think happened. He looked right at
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Bobby and he said, "Why do you kill her?" And Bobb's only response was that he didn't mean to. But they don't
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believe him. Not just because of what Barbara Schuford heard on the other end of that phone that night. She's basing a
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lot of her feelings on what she heard on a tape that her mother made her 3 months
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before her death. a tape that she hands over to police where from beyond the grave, Barbara talks of Bobby trying to
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kill her before and that if something ever happens to her, no one should believe that she took her own life.
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Basically, if I die, look at Bobby. Did she hear anything more than shut up on the phone? I mean, he said he told her
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to put the gun down. She tells police in no uncertain terms that she did not hear
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Bobby say put the gun down. There was no talk of any gun ever. And by the way, she had no reason to believe her mom
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would even be holding a gun. And moreover, she says that her mom usually kept her gun in a closet upstairs. And
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she didn't hear her mom go up or down the stairs, which she feels like she would have because the phone is right
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there by the stairs. And she says that she wouldn't even had enough time based on the length of the call that like in
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what she was hearing and everything happening. But there might be an explanation, just not one that really
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helps Bobby's position much. Allegedly, Barbara's son-in-law, Tom, had heard from Barbara's other daughter, Debbie,
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that within the last week or so, her mom told her that Bobby had taken her gun from her. So, that gun was probably in
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the basement if he took it. Yeah. But that still doesn't line up with his story. I mean, in his version of events,
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the phone call comes in and then she tries to get into his bedroom. He breaks the door off the hinges, which by the
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way, I feel like you would hear. >> I feel like that would be a little bit of a commotion, especially with two
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people kind of battling it out on either side of the door >> and the door coming off the hinges like
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so. And like, so they they're fighting, the door comes off the hinges, then Barbara supposedly comes at him with the
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gun, he fires. Her daughter only hears one loud noise. It just doesn't add up. No, it doesn't. I also don't like
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physically get how he pushes the door so hard it breaks through the door frame and comes out into the hallway yet she's
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[music] left standing to pull a gun on him. >> I guess that's what I'm thinking. Like
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if like when I say a commotion, I'm like the door is coming through and it's got
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to knock her over. Knock her into the wall like >> or p I guess push her back if if it
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happened kind of slowly or >> it just like it just feels like there would be so much more again. And like
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and like right away like right he she's pulling the gun on him, he shoots her. Like it's all happening so fast that I
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just can't make heads or tails of it. Also, none of the stories explain how Barbara ended up where she did. Bobby
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said that Barbara was well inside his bedroom holding the gun in her right hand, but officers found Barbara's body
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outside of the bedroom in the hallway, but there is blood spatter from Barbara's exit wound inside the bedroom,
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>> which would [music] have like exit wound would have been like kind of behind her
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if she's in the hall, not the bedroom, >> or her body was moved. Like so the question is like if she's shot inside,
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how does she end up in the hallway or outside of the room? >> And where exactly on her body was she
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shot? >> Her chest just to [music] the left of center. >> Okay, >> but listen, if you want to ignore all of
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the above, weird logistic things, everything happening so fast, heat of the moment, he doesn't remember,
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whatever, fine. Okay, let's just look at Barbara. So, according to Bobby's version of events, he pushes the door
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out of its frame. She comes advancing at him with the cocked gun in her right hand. He grabs a gun off his shelf,
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shoots, and hits her while she's still quote well inside his room. There is what they call the back spatter, which
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is like the blood material thrown from the bullet inside Bobby's room. But we know Barbara herself is found outside of
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[music] the room. The gun is laying next to her hand. And honestly, listen, the position of her body could work. So,
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there's some blood on a wall across from Bobby's room that suggests that maybe she staggered back, like out of his
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room, hit the other wall before collapsing. But the state police at the time could not figure out how to make
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sense of the gun if that is what happened. They're like, it makes more sense that she would have dropped the
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pistol either when she was shot >> or even if she had held on to it, she would have dropped it when she hit the
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wall as she like staggered back. The weapon could have gone off at any point, but it didn't. And even if it didn't, it
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should not have landed next to her hand. Her right hand, by the way, the very right hand, which, oh, by the way, she
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physically couldn't have pulled a gun on him with. According to her daughter, Barbara's daughter told police that her
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mom recently had surgery on her right hand for carpal tunnel syndrome, and she wouldn't have been able to grip anything
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as heavy as a revolver in that hand. What's more, when the police dust the gun that Barbara was allegedly holding
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for her prince, none come back. >> So, she never even held it. >> Not so fast. Are you ready for a crime
00:21:50
junkie first? >> Always and never at the same time. >> I did not know that this was a thing
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until this case. But in this case, police talk with Barbara's doctors and they basically say, okay, yes, she had
00:22:03
carpal tunnel syndrome, but they actually say she probably would have been able to hold a gun of that size and
00:22:08
weight, whatever. So, that's not shocking. As far as her prints not being on it, they say that's actually not
00:22:14
surprising either because apparently she had another condition where she could not leave fingerprints. What? I'm sorry.
00:22:23
I've No. What? I'm actually going to have you read this right from the prosecutor's motion to dismiss. It's
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wild. It says, "The victim was 59 years old. The skin of her right hand, according to her family doctor, was
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atrophied, tightly drawn, and very, very thin. In interviewing the victim's physicians, it was learned that she
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suffered from a medical condition known as reflex sympathetic distrophe of her right hand. One of the symptoms of this
00:22:51
condition is a dimmonition and/or sessation of perspiration in the affected hand. Given this fact, the lack
00:23:00
of the victim's fingerprints or smudges on the weapon she allegedly was holding at the time of her death is not a
00:23:06
significant evidentiary datim. So legally aside and like medical jargon, Barbara couldn't secrete oils in her
00:23:17
fingers to leave fingerprints. I mean, not 100% of the time. So what that all means is that like this
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syndrome would make it less likely that she Yeah. would leave any fingerprints. [music] Like it's not that it's not
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weird to them. They're like, "Yeah, she like she could touch something and not leave a print."
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That is bonkers. >> I know. And it all really ends up working in Bobby's favor because even
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though he's been arrested and held on murder charges over the course of about a month, the special prosecutor that's
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brought in realizes that their case [music] just isn't super solid. >> I mean, how there was an ear witness,
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>> but so even that falls apart. investigators actually set up this experiment where they did a kind of
00:24:04
sound test reenactment and they had one officer and Barbara's daughter listening
00:24:08
on the phone at the bottom of the stairs and then they had two other officers like shout at each other in the basement
00:24:13
and they found that very little could actually be heard. So they were basically like while the daughter didn't
00:24:18
hear the mom go upstairs or hear Bobby yelling at her to put the gun down that doesn't prove that those things didn't
00:24:25
happen. Okay. What about the tape that Barbara made saying that Bobby was going to kill her? You know, they don't even
00:24:34
mention that in the court record. My thinking is like even though Barbara may have had a good reason to think that her
00:24:41
life might have been danger. They were going through what sounds like a contentious divorce. And it even might
00:24:46
prove the opposite, that Barbara was already scared for her life and that she had reason to grab her gun to protect
00:24:51
herself against Bobby. So, because they can't prove Bobb's lying about anything,
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the prosecution decides that they don't have enough evidence to win a trial against him for murdering his wife on
00:25:03
purpose. And a little more than 6 weeks after the shooting, prosecutors dismiss all charges and they let him out of
00:25:10
jail. Did they ever figure out if he really was having an affair? >> Might have, but it's not in the few
00:25:17
documents that are publicly available. [music] And if they did, it didn't help them build their case, which as you can
00:25:22
imagine was not very comforting to Barbara's children. Like, they are angry. And they start to rally the
00:25:30
people in Fremont against Bobby. Like, how could they let this man who they all believe so clearly killed their mom just
00:25:37
like get away? And it's important to mention that at the time, they didn't have the benefit of actually reading
00:25:42
through the evidence like we can now. The prosecution didn't have a case beyond a reasonable doubt to prove that
00:25:49
Bobby definitely killed his wife [music] in anything other than self-defense. But
00:25:53
as far as everyone outside the investigation knows, Bobby's story is murky at best. And as a former homicide
00:26:01
detective, they think he would definitely know how to stage a crime scene to make it look like a
00:26:05
self-defense shooting. And to add fuel to the fire, 4 days after Bobby is let out of jail, dude wants his job back.
00:26:15
>> Uh, bold move. >> Yeah. The [music] town board has to hold a vote to decide whether or not to give
00:26:21
it to him. And this meeting draws a crowd. >> Oh, I'm sure. >> People come out with what local
00:26:28
reporters describe as torches and pitchforks. But despite this, just about 2 months after the shooting, the board
00:26:35
votes 2 to one to reinstate him as the town marshal. And people are big mad. It's not like they can just elect
00:26:44
someone new. The position of town marshall isn't elected. It's appointed by this board. And listen, I went down a
00:26:51
rabbit hole on this like board and like some weird stuff. I think there might have been like something up going on
00:26:57
there. I don't want to derail our episode, but I will do a short little video on social for anyone who wants to
00:27:02
know what I found about this board makeup and what I think is a little sus, but anyways, the decision to reinstate
00:27:09
Bobby ignites this firestorm. Literally, people are making threats against Bobby
00:27:14
and someone even plants pipe bombs at the homes of two board members who were, I assume, like the two that voted for
00:27:20
his reinstatement. And both of these actually explode, >> though it's unclear if anyone got hurt.
00:27:26
Now, people are so mad that a senior county official warns Bobby to leave town for his own safety. But Bobby's
00:27:34
like, "Nah, I'm just going to sell the home. I'm going to move a little closer to town and get back to work. I'm going
00:27:39
to be fine." But he is not fine. 5 months [music] to the day that Barbara was shot, someone comes for Bobby and it
00:27:49
is so clear that they're sending a message. On July 26th, 1988, Bobby gets off duty
00:28:01
and guides his cruiser into the driveway of his new home at around 10:30 p.m. He
00:28:07
gets out of the car and mounts the stairs up to a little side porch when suddenly a shot rings out. The first
00:28:14
shot doesn't hit him, but a second bullet rips through Bobby's right shoulder and out through his [music]
00:28:19
left, cutting a clean path through his aorta and both lungs. He drops to the ground. I mean, within minutes, he's
00:28:26
dead. Now, this is a much more populated area than where he and Barbara lived just a few months ago. So, neighbors
00:28:32
hear the gunshots and call police. Bobby is the one who would normally respond, but it's his deputy that arrives, then
00:28:39
the Indiana State Police. Investigators eventually find two shell casings from a
00:28:44
high-powered rifle in a vacant lot across the street. So, it sounds to me like whoever shot Bobby was probably
00:28:51
laying in wait. And that could suggest that the killer knew Bobby's schedule well enough to know when he would be
00:28:58
getting home. The current investigator on Bobby's case, Captain [music] Kevin Smith, says that the fact that the
00:29:03
killer missed the first shot doesn't say anything about their experience with a gun. He doesn't like to speculate about
00:29:09
things like that because he says even if you're an experienced shot, shooting at
00:29:12
a human is way different and like your nerves can get in the way. I just keep coming back to 5 months to the day of
00:29:20
when he shot Barbara. Like that feels like such a message. >> It's not even just the day though. It's
00:29:26
to the hour. Yeah. And this ends up being a critical clue for investigators. If the timing was intentional, which it
00:29:34
sure feels like it was, then that tells them that whoever shot Bobby may have been avenging [music]
00:29:40
Barbara, and that is motive, folks. So, although there could be a long list of culprits, police pretty quickly have one
00:29:47
person that they want to talk to most. Barbara's son, Samuel [music] Sisler. I feel like we haven't talked about him at
00:29:54
all. Yeah, there because there's nothing about him in the court documents for Barbara's case where he's mentioned,
00:29:58
[music] but I know he'd split his time between Fremont and Lafayette, which is like a
00:30:02
town a couple of hours away. He was a new grad of the Indiana State Police, and so that's where he'd been stationed.
00:30:10
>> But come July, when Bobby is killed, he's actually in a whole different position. So, he had been dismissed from
00:30:17
the Indiana State Police job in May. He was definitely in Fremont the night of the shooting. Someone saw him like 25
00:30:24
minutes before, but in the days after, no one can find him. All police can find is Sam's car, which is at his sister's
00:30:32
property at Crooked Lake, which is like 15 minutes at the most from Fremont. So,
00:30:37
rumors quickly swirl that Sam could be involved in Bobby's death. >> Turns out Sam was in Colorado Springs.
00:30:44
And when police do reach him, he's like, "Yeah, I'll talk, but later." But by the
00:30:50
time he gets back to Indiana, seems like he's had a change of heart and he tells
00:30:55
police basically to stuff it and he's not talking to them. >> Him not wanting to help in the murder
00:31:01
investigation of the guy who killed his mom. Like I don't know. I'm not shocked.
00:31:06
>> Yeah, I get it. But there is a lot that they would love to talk to him about.
00:31:10
According to a local reporter, Mike Martello, Samuel had allegedly bought a long rifle at a local gun shop about 15
00:31:18
minutes away from Fremont, like 3 or 4 days prior to Bobby's shooting. Mike said that a couple of Fort Wayne TV news
00:31:25
stations at the time reported this, but we could not independently confirm [music] that. He also was said to have
00:31:32
bought similar caliber ammunition as the bullet that killed Bobby. And again, this is just according to Mike. But when
00:31:38
police got wind of this, they could not find the gun that Samuel allegedly bought. Still have not found anything
00:31:44
like it to this day. >> Were you able to find out why he got dismissed from the state police? Like,
00:31:50
that feels important. >> It sure does. I couldn't really get a straight answer. We tried though. So,
00:31:57
the Southbend Tribune reported that he had been dismissed for quote unsatisfactorily completing his
00:32:03
probation period end quote. We tried to get official records on this, but because it involved an internal affairs
00:32:10
issue, we weren't able to confirm that. I of course asked Captain Smith and he said he couldn't comment on why he
00:32:16
[music] got dismissed, but I know he knows. Not just because he's the lead investigator. Now, in a weird twist made
00:32:24
only for Hollywood, Captain Smith, who is now in charge of Bobby's cold case, he went to the academy with Samuel
00:32:32
Sysler. Smith Sysler. They sat near each other in every class. They roamed right
00:32:38
next door to one another. Graduated in the same class December [music] 19th, 1987.
00:32:46
>> Samuel L. Sisler, [snorts] >> Kevin W. Smith. [clears throat] >> Our reporter asked Mike like what he
00:33:09
remembered from back then. Does he know why he got dismissed? and he did confirm
00:33:12
the dismissal for us, but he said it's been a really long time and he's not totally sure, but he remembers the
00:33:20
police telling him that Samuel was dismissed because he made comments about wanting revenge for his mom.
00:33:28
Translation, he wanted to either hurt or kill Bobby. Captain Smith did say that it certainly seems like revenge is a
00:33:36
motive here considering the timing of the shooting, but there's actually no real evidence that connects [music]
00:33:42
Samuel or anyone for that matter to the murder. Captain Smith said it could be anyone. And we tried reaching out to Sam
00:33:50
on two occasions, but we're not even sure if our contact information is correct because no one ever got back to
00:33:55
us. [music] Smith said that they've had a lot of leads in this case and they continue to follow up on them. Bobby was
00:34:01
a cop. Cops make enemies and it could be anyone with reason to murder him. And you know, as we know, lots of people
00:34:07
were angry [music] with Bobby before he died. >> Was there ever a definitive connection
00:34:12
made between like the pipe bombs that were planted and exploded and his murder? >> We asked that, too, but Captain Smith
00:34:19
declined to comment on that. And I don't like this whole case. I don't know. Like
00:34:24
for me, it it's lives in the gray area. Like Bobby's story is steeped in tragedy
00:34:30
and it is so complicated because Bobby was far from a perfect victim, >> right? >> But he was a victim. We all want
00:34:39
justice. We want right and wrong to be super clear, but sometimes it's not. >> He was ultimately cleared of murder. And
00:34:47
to most people who knew him, Captain Smith said that Bobby was known as a peacekeeper, like this quiet, agreeable
00:34:53
man. and murdering Bobby for whatever motive was wrong. I can feel it already. I think the comment section [music] is
00:35:00
going to light up. It's hard not to have an opinion on this case. >> And I want you to have an opinion. I
00:35:06
want you guys to tell us what you think. Keep it productive, [music] but let's talk about it. What does this
00:35:11
case make you feel? What does justice look like for Bobby? This case is personal for Captain [music] Smith. I
00:35:18
mean, he knew Bobby and Barbara. He knew Samuel. and he still wants a chance to talk to the guy that he roommed next
00:35:24
door to. There are only a couple of unsolved police shootings in the state of Indiana and Bobby's is one of them.
00:35:31
So, Captain Smith is determined to get to the truth. If you lived in Fremont, Indiana in July of 1988 and you know
00:35:38
anything about the shooting of Bobby Moore, please reach out to the Indiana State Police cold case [music]
00:35:42
investigations at 1 8004534756 or you can reach out anonymously [music] through Crimestoppers at crimetips.org.
00:35:52
You can find all the source material for this episode on our website [music] crimejunkkey.com and you can follow us
00:35:57
on Instagram at crimejunkie podcast. We'll be [music] back next week with a brand new episode.