stephen ray hessler is 58 years old
he left a shelby county courtroom friday headed to an indiana prison for the rest of his life
good afternoon and welcome to true crime mysteries if you're new to the channel hello and welcome and
if you're returning welcome back today we're discussing the solved cold case of a serial
predator that has recently been identified arrested and convicted let's get into it
from 1982 to 1985 a small town in shelby county indiana lived under a reign of
terror when a vicious masked man broke into homes at night armed with a gun or knife
and sexually assaulted women shelbyville was the center of all but one of the atrocious attacks the
town is about 30 miles southeast of indianapolis and at the time had around 20 000 citizens
the series of crimes disturbed the town and fear-gripped the hearts of women for many years
as that mysterious assailant remained at large gun sales skyrocketed and even a local hospital
offered shooting lessons to the residents police urged women to take extra precautions and they
were told to avoid being alone make sure to close their curtains lock their doors and windows at
night and alter their routines as the authorities believe that the perpetrator stalked his victims
before making his move the nightmarish spree began on the night of august 14 1982 when a
woman woke up in the middle of the night after a man entered her home through an unlocked door
he held a knife to her throat demanding money he took some cash from her purse
then he threatened to hurt her young daughters who were sleeping in the next room if she didn't
comply with his orders he forced her to put on a nightgown and then proceeded to assault her
he knew that she was a recent divorcee and told her that her ex-husband paid him to intimidate her
and teach her a lesson he also threatened that he would come back to hurt and kidnap her daughters
on their way home from school if she ever thought about reporting the incident to the police
a few months later a similar incident took place on the night of november 1st 1982
the assailant forced his way into a home where a mother lived with her son they were both awakened
at knife point and the man threatened to hurt the little boy if the mother didn't comply with him
he made her put on lingerie and performed sexual acts while her son watched before sexually
assaulting her similar to the previous incident he told the woman that he was paid to hurt her
and that he would come back if she contacted the police on december 16 1982 a mother and
her sixteen-year-old daughter were assaulted the daughter was awake when a man entered her room
holding a knife he forced her to perform sexual acts before taking her to her mother's room
he also compelled the mother to perform sexual acts and assaulted her he boasted
about committing other attacks and claimed that he was a police officer he also tried to take
pictures of the two women using their personal camera but discovered that there wasn't any film
a couple of months later on february 2nd 1983 the suspect armed with the gun attacked a man
standing outside his home and forced him inside where his wife was waiting
he forced a couple to perform sexual acts on each other and photographed them
he told them that he was being paid to do that and stole some cash before leaving the scene
after that incident the police feared that the suspect's behavior was escalating
they first believed that he was primarily targeting recent divorcees and women living
on their own but the last incident showed that he didn't have a problem attacking couples
or breaking into homes where men were present over a full year after his last attack the perpetrator
struck again on february 18 1984 a woman was in the shower when a man forced his way into her home
the woman was completely vulnerable and when the man took her by surprise and held her at gunpoint
he asked her if she knew anything about his other attacks and bragged that the police had arrested
the wrong guy he told her that he would leave her alone if she cooperated with him and threatened to
kill her if she screamed or struggled against him he then proceeded to assault her and took multiple
photographs of her he had told her that they had met before and that she had served him at her job
a few nights before by saying that he proved that he was used to stalking and keeping track of his
victims movements he then left after stealing a small amount of cash then on november 25 1984 the
assailant broke into another home he first woke the victim's little daughter and took her to the
mother's room healed the daughter at gunpoint and used her to threaten the mother into performing
sexual acts he then assaulted the mother while her daughter watched and left after stealing some cash
he put his crime spree on hiatus until august 17 1985 when he forced his way into a couple's home
he forced them at gunpoint to perform sexual acts on each other and demanded they give him money the
wife told him that she had a heart condition and then faked a heart attack she aimed to get some
sympathy but unfortunately their attacker had none he first focused his attention on the male victim
he handcuffed him tied him to a chair and started to beat him mercilessly he repeatedly hit him over
and over again with the back of the gun causing permanent brain damage and a coma that lasted
for months the victim had to get speech therapy to learn how to talk again he currently suffers
from many disabilities and is confined to a wheelchair after leaving the husband for dead
he took the woman to the garage and sexually assaulted her he threatened to come back and
kill them if they went to the police little did he know that he made a fatal mistake that night
which would later lead to his arrest around this time the authorities noted many similarities and
links between the attacks making them confident that they were all committed by one suspect
they knew from descriptions given by the victims that he always wore military style boots a chained
wallet and a ski mask his mo involved sexually assaulting women sometimes with an enema bottle
and he also used vaseline in every attack he would often tie his victims to immobilize them and he
would take or attempt to take photographs of them and sometimes he would even have the audacity
to ask his victims for a drink and would always threaten to come back if they contacted the police
he also had a pattern of stalking and observing his victims for several weeks before breaking
into their homes and he usually attacked after 9 30 pm and left the crime scene before 5 30 am
in 1985 the indianapolis newspaper shared a facial composite of the suspect based on the victim's
descriptions and in the same article task force detectives said the suspect was believed to be
white male 5 foot 9 to 6 foot 1 170 to 200 pounds with blue eyes
short to medium light brown or blonde hair and that he was in his early to mid 30s
the victims also described him as muscular so they believed he had an athletic body type
but despite all efforts the suspect still managed to elude capture and the authorities were unable
to discover his identity the culprit was generally very cautious and made sure never to leave behind
anything that would lead to him he always wore gloves wiped down surfaces and took all the
items he touched or may have left dna on with him such as a victim's nightgowns towels and bedsheets
but one time he finally got sloppy and unknowingly left dna behind and that was in his final attack
that took place on august 17 1985 however the case remained unsolved for decades and it wasn't until
2020 that it finally had a breakthrough a detective suggested sending the dna sample
extracted from the last crime scene to a company specializing in the same sort of dna testing
used to capture the golden state killer in 2018 a company called parabon nano labs a company based
in virginia that specializes in genealogical dna identification and uses it to solve cold
cases the test results led to two men of the same family one of them was stephen ray hessler
an ex-convict who spent most of the 90s in prison for sexual assault convictions in a county
close to shelby county he served about 10 years in prison and was released two months before inmates
were required to submit dna samples investigators started watching and digging into the lives of
the two men and it didn't take long for them to eliminate the first suspect leaving only stephen
ray hessler hessler lived in greensburg indiana and used to pay his utility mills by mail police
used that against him as they obtained an envelope he used to send a bill payment for his water bill
they extracted dna from the licked envelope and compared his saliva to the dna collected back in
1985 it was a perfect match they brought him in for questioning and they were able to obtain a
better dna sample from the inside of hessler's cheek further confirming the link in the early
morning hours on august 17 2020 exactly 35 years after the last attack in shelby county
police entered hessler greenberg's home with a search warrant they described what they found
inside as a treasure trove and a gold mine full of trophies and evidence from the crime scenes
they found several photographs that he had stolen from the victims clothing and garments the victims
described him wearing during the attacks a chained wallet ski mask knives handcuffs and zip ties
they also found 30 pairs of women's underwear an enema water bottle petroleum jelly polaroid photos
of the four sex acts and newspaper clippings of the articles written about the attacks
police also searched his computers and found that he'd been researching the surviving victims names
and whereabouts he'd also downloaded a google earth street view photo of one of the victim's
homes in georgia he'd also been similarly cyberstalking the victim of his sexual assault
conviction stephen ray hessler was convicted on march 3rd 2022 after an eight-day trial of two
counts of sexual assault six counts of unlawful deviate conduct and seven counts of burglary
resulting in bodily injury three counts of criminal deviate conduct and one count of robbery
each a class a felony during the trial the prosecution called 27 witnesses most of them
were victims who bravely testified despite having received death threats some witnesses were flown
in from as far as florida georgia and ohio as well as secret service computer technicians
from the east coast bradlen warlin the shelby county prosecutor said stephen ray hester is
one of the most evil cruel sadistic predators that i've had the pleasure prosecuting in over 30 years
he is where he needs to be he needs to stay in jail until it's time to put him in the ground
during the trial the prosecutor also described hessler as a coward sadist he clarified that
hessler is a sadist because he loves getting pleasure from hurting other people and a coward
because he could only do it when he was armed on april 1st 2022 stephen ray hessler was sentenced
to 650 years in prison 50 years for each crime and finally after nearly four decades hessler's
victims are at peace knowing their assailant would spend the rest of his life behind prison
where he belongs it is a huge relief i don't have to be afraid anymore said the victim of the
november 1st 1982 attack she also encouraged all victims of sexual assault to always come forward
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