WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:24 — 11.4MB)
Jill Behrman, 19 years old, logged off her computer at 9:32 am, according to court records, and grabbed her bicycle for a ride as she had done many times before. However, later that day she failed to call in to work or show up to her shift at noon. Later that day she also missed a lunch date which she had planned with her father and grandparents.
She never returned home. This was Wednesday, May 31st, 2000.
Police jumped on the case, as well as volunteers to search for Jill. During this time police received many leads, some witnesses saying a white van had been seen where Jill would have been on her bike, but most were dead ends or discredited. However, On that Friday, June 2nd of 2000 Jill’s bike was found on a county road North West of Bloomington. The report that led police to the bike stated that a trailer home near the location of the bike had all of their blinds shut, which was seen to be out of character to the owner. This trailer was the home to John Myers. This led to an interview with Myers and his parents where they discovered Myers had access to a white van through work and had recently broken up with his girlfriend. However, no promising leads were found after the discovery of her bike. On June 3rd 2000, Police suspended the search for Jill Behrman.
But her family and even Indiana University, where Jill had just finished her freshman year of college, would not let that end the search. According to an IndyStar report “Behrman’s parents, university officials and others offer a $25,000 reward for information. The reward is later raised to $50,000.” Marilyn Behrman recalls the reward being even higher than that.
Over the next two months the FBI joins the search and John Myers begins to become a person of interest, but not an official suspect in Jill’s disappearance. In an interview with police in August, John’s brother Samuel brought up that his 12-gauge shotgun had gone missing. On November 10th of 2000 the Behrman story hits the Fox TV series “Million Dollar Mysteries”.
The show prompted over 50 called in tips to the FBI. However, in 2002 the police received an unexpected confession from a woman named Windy Owens. She confessed to herself and two of her friends hitting Jill Behrman on her bike with their truck, stabbing her, and throwing her in Salt Creek. Officials dammed the creek and searched for any evidence that would support this claim, But Owens later withdrew her confession. Later in March of 2002, Myers, who was in jail for unrelated circumstances, reported to an officer he had found letters relating to the Behrman case on lunch trays he was washing. He then told police he wanted to help in the search for Jill, records say “Myers additionally compiled a list of places potentially providing clues to Behrman’s location,”. Officials investigated these locations, but nothing was found. A year later in March 2003 Jill’s remains were found, three years after her disappearance and discrediting Windy Owens confession.
A hunter found her remains in a Morgan County field. Beside the body were also shotgun shells, determined to most likely be from a 12-gauge shotgun. Court records said “The cause of Behrman’s death was ruled to be a contact shotgun wound to the back of the head. Scattered skull fragments and the presence of lead pellets in a variety of places, together with certain soil stains consistent with body decomposition, suggested that after being shot, Behrman’s body had come to rest and had decomposed at the spot where it was found.” A coworker of John Myers reported to the police that Myers had mentioned he often hunted in that area Jill was found. On March 13, 2006 the Morgan County Grand Jury began an investigation case and found enough cause to charge Myers. In April 2006 Myers was arrested and indicted on a charge of murder by a grand jury. The trial began in October and lasted 16 days. The jury found Myers guilty and the Judge sentenced Myers to 65 years in prison.
But that isn’t where the story ends. Myers did not hesitate to begin appeals processes on the case. He went through many attempted appeals through Morgan County, the state of appeals, and now through the 7th circuit. However, this last appeal was different. Myers filed a Heabeas Corpus claiming his attorney, Patrick Baker, had failed him in trial. He stated that his defense team was careless and committed a number of errors such as not objecting to incorrect charges or facts during his trial. He claimed his council did not prepare a well opening and closing statement for his case. U.S. District Court Judge James R. Sweeney of the Southern District of Indiana approved this appeal and vacated the murder conviction against Myers. In the ruling, Sweeney wrote that John Myers received ineffective counsel from attorney Baker at his trial. This decision meant Myers could be released from custody unless the state decided to retry him within 120 days. Judge Sweeney then cited a disciplinary hearing to Attorney Baker, and Baker admitted to failing him in court, saying he did in fact violate Myer’s 6th amendment rights. Marilyn Behrman said this all came as a bit of a shock.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill filed, on Jan. 8th, for a 60-day extension to the 120 days that the state had to decide on a retry before the release of Myers. According to an IDS report “Approval of the 60day extension would give Hill time to file an appeal against the Sept. 30 order, prolonging or preventing Myers’ release or retrial.” During the appeals process on April 7th 2020, Myers requested to be released from prison due to the fact that a medication he was on weakened his immune system making him more susceptible to COVID-19. Myers was granted this request on May 9th and will be released from prison on June 15th after a two-week quarantine, until the court makes a decision on his appeal. He will be released on house arrest on the agreement he will have no contact with the Behrman family, electronic monitoring, and compliance with CDC guidelines and social distancing. At this point I reached out to Judge Sweeney however, I did not get past the woman who answered his office phone number. She wished to remain anonymous and to not be recorded. She explained that if no appeal of the order is made then Myers would stay out of prison unless the state brings new charges against him. The decision of the appeal is set to come from court within 6 to 2 months. At the end of everything, Marilyn Behrman just hopes for the sense of justice.
In the meantime, John Myers will be living on house arrest with his mother in Ellettsville awaiting the results of his appeal.
