THRILLER THURSDAY - Brown Murder Mystery (Part Two)

One of Brown Counties UNSOLVED MYSTERIES:
Lee and Lourena Brown Murder Mystery (written by Rhonda Dunn)
Part Two:


Lee and Lourena Brown Coroner’s Inquest

     At an inquest a report is made by a coroner who examined the body and questioned witnesses to the event. There might also be witness statements from those that found the body, witnessed the person’s death, or was a witness to part of the day’s events involving the death. The report below was made by Joshua Bond the current presiding coroner for Brown County at that time. His report is based on his findings on the death of Lee and Lourena Brown.

      “According to the evidence obtained from Chester Bunge, I find that Lourena Brown was wounded by pistol shot and that she was standing in the kitchen as he left the house and according to the position in which her body was found I could not determine whether she went to the basement or fell through the burning floor to the basement. I could not determine whether she died of pistol shot or fire.”

     The two doctors that were present at the scene of the fire was Dr. M. T. VanDement and Dr. M. G. “Pat” Murphy. Their descriptions go into pretty graphic detail about the conditions of the bodies and how they determined the sex of each person found.

     When the bodies were taken back out of their graves for a second autopsy in Indianapolis the findings were different from the first two doctors’ findings. The Brown County Coroner and the two local doctor’s stood by their initial findings that the two bodies were that of Lee and Lourena Brown and that Paul Brown’s body was not found.

Chester Bunge made a statement about his experience at the scene of the crime.

Also Frank L. Crews made a statement about his part in the events of that day.
      “On Dec. 15th, 1930 about 12 o’clock noon our telephone rang . . . It was Mrs. Lee Brown calling and she asked, Is this Frank? and I answered yes. She then said, Come over here as quick as you can . . . I met Chester Bunge who had been working at Brown’s. He told me that Paul Brown had shot him twice and had also shot his father and mother. I took Chester home and telephoned Dr. Murphy, the sheriff and my nearest neighbor, Dan Allender. Before we got to the Brown’s house we saw the smoke coming from Paul Brown’s workshop.”


80 years later the final outcome remains a "Brown County Unsolved Mystery".


 (Article written by Rhonda Dunn, and appeared in the Brown County Genealogical Society Newsletter, Fall 2010.  Rhonda has written several local articles that have been later published by Indiana Genealogical Society publications.)

THRILLER THURSDAY - Brown Murder Mystery (Part One)

One of Brown Counties UNSOLVED MYSTERIES:
Lee and Lourena Brown Murder Mystery (written by Rhonda Dunn)
Part One:

     Marion Lee Brown was the son of Michael T. Brown and Mary Veach and was born in Marion Co., West Virginia. His parents had moved to Indiana when he was three. On April 21, 1889 he married Lourena Baughman, the daughter of Jacob Baughman and Elizabeth J. Snider. Lee and Lourena had children: Rolland, Olive, Mary, Maudelle, Mark, Beryl, Glenn, and Paul Brown. Mark died as an infant. Glenn lost his life in France during World War I. For 40 years the couple worked to make their home and orchard on Lanam Ridge the best in the county. Their children had the best opportunities for education and advanced well in their lives. Lee was even featured in the “Biographical Record of Bartholomew and Brown Counties” 1904 as a highly esteemed citizen in his community.

     The day of Dec. 15, 1930 ended all that. Chester Bunge was working for Lee helping to cut wood. Somehow the day turned to a bad end when their son, Paul went in a rage and shot both his parents and shot Chester. Chester was able to get away from Paul and ran into Frank Crews. With help they returned to the Brown home and found it all in flames.

     In the rubble of the burned out home 2 bodies were found. Two doctors, were called to examine the remains, Dr. M. T. VanDement and Dr. Pat Murphy who had been Lourena’s physician. Of the two examined one was ascertained to be Lee Brown. The other was a little harder to tell the identity but was believed to be a female and Lourena upon careful examination of the remains.

     Paul was nowhere to be found. It was thought that Paul had left the area and had headed north toward the railroad to jump a train because the family dog was seen coming from that direction 3 hours later by a neighbor, Mrs. O. E. Hammer.

     Another thought had occurred that Paul might have gone out in the country and committed suicide so a search was conducted by Sheriff Fremont Weddle to look for him. Paul’s brother, Rolland accompanied them hoping to find his brother. He or his body was nowhere to be found.

     Lee and Lourena’s bodies were so badly burned they were buried together in a double casket in a single grave. It was decided in March of the following year to have the bodies exhumed to have further testing done and were taken to Indianapolis. At the second autopsy it was determined that the 2 bodies were male and thought that it was Lee and Paul that had burned up in the fire. If that is so then what had happened to Lourena? This fueled all sorts of theories of what had really happened. With the mystery still open 80 years later it is doubtful it will ever be solved.

A single stone in Lanam Ridge Cemetery lists all three:
Marion Lee Brown
1862 - 1930
Lourena Brown
1864 - 1930
Paul Brown
1901 - 1930

SEE PART 2 of this story for the report of the Coroner's Inquest.

 (Article written by Rhonda Dunn, and appeared in the Brown County Genealogical Society Newsletter, Fall 2010.  Rhonda has written several local articles that have been later published by Indiana Genealogical Society publications.)