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Murder of Kelly Eckhart

On September 27th, 1997, Kelly Eckhart got off her shift at Walmart around 10:00 pm. She met her boyfriend and his mother, and the three shopped for an hour. Eckart and her boyfriend left Walmart in separate cars, heading to their respective homes.

Echart never made it to her place in Boggstown, Indiana.

Sixty to ninety minutes after leaving Wal-Mart, her 1990 Pontiac was found abandoned with the lights on and her purse inside. It had rear-end damage, which indicated an accident may have occurred.

Four days later, on October 1st, Kelly’s partially clothed body was discovered in a remote wooded area in Brown County.

She had been dragged into the woods, strangled with a cord, beaten, and violated.

Investigators received a tip that Scott Overstreet knew something about the case. Scott was questioned and implicated his brother, Michael.

As detectives looked closer at Michael, they matched fibers on Kelly’s body back to Overstreet’s van, and his DNA matched evidence from the crime scene.

Michael, a Columbus, Indiana, resident with a history of violent behavior, was arrested on November 6th, 1997.

During his 2000 trial, prosecutors presented overwhelming forensic evidence, while the defense argued he had a severe mental illness.

The jury found him guilty of murder, rape, and confinement. He was sentenced to death along with 20 years for the rape conviction and 20 years for the confinement conviction.