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THE CASES THE APPEALS CARRY, 1990–2025
What follows is the named open record as Michiana Crime Stoppers presents it with the investigating departments — the closest thing this city has to Fort Wayne's published board. Each case stands at the size the appeal itself states it.
Geraldine Reasor, 64 — South Bend, May 3, 1990. On that day the 400 block of South Scott Street filled with police lights. Reasor was found in her home, barely alive and incoherent, when her husband returned home from work. A window screen on the south side of the house had been cut, which is presumably where the attacker made entry, Lt. Kayla Miller of Michiana Crime Stoppers states. She had been severely beaten — multiple face fractures, eight fractured ribs, and a fractured collarbone, among extensive injuries — and she was also raped. She spent ten days in hospital, was transferred to a nursing home, and died eighteen days after the attack, of a heart attack brought on by the trauma she sustained. Her husband Bill is now dead as well. The case is a South Bend police cold case, with a detective assigned to it; Crime Stoppers carried the appeal again in May 2024, thirty-four years on, with her grandson Michael Reasor asking that the person responsible be identified and held responsible.
Ronnie Ciesielski — South Bend, May 28, 1994. South Bend police were called to the 200 block of North Kenmore Street. As Lt. Miller states the record: Ronnie was inside the home; presumably there was a knock on the door, and three individuals then entered the home; after somewhat of a struggle, shots were fired, and the shots struck Ronnie. He died of the wounds. Thirty years later, Crime Stoppers states, the sounds from that scene are still part of the appeal — who the three were has never been established in the public record.
Shasta Horston, 25 — South Bend, August 2015. Horston was shot and killed inside her house on the corner of Yukon Street and Portage Avenue. Her son, four years old, was in the house when she was shot, and stayed in the dark house for eight hours before concerned relatives persuaded him to open the door; the relatives called police when they saw her body in her bedroom. Police said at the time that they were still investigating and had named no suspects. In August 2024 — more than nine years later — Crime Stoppers carried the case again: investigators are still working to determine who killed her.
Hannah Turgeon, 27 — South Bend, October 13, 2019. Turgeon and her father, both Notre Dame graduates, were in town for a Notre Dame football game. Around 2:15 a.m., on South Bend Avenue near the Linebacker Lounge, as they were preparing to leave, she stepped into the street to speak to a vehicle she thought was picking them up; as she turned back, another vehicle struck her, and its driver fled. She died on the way to the hospital, her father witnessing it all. The vehicle, as Crime Stoppers publishes the description, was a dark SUV with a very distinct light bar through the bumper, and it would have had front-end damage. The driver has never been determined. Crime Stoppers' appeal, carried in October 2022, set an enhanced reward of $10,000 and asked after anyone who was in town that football weekend — the driver, the appeal notes, may not be from this area.
Juwan Hamilton, 28 — South Bend, December 4, 2020. Around 11:30 p.m., Indiana State Police troopers, seeing a vehicle driving erratically, made a traffic stop in the area of Sample Street and Michigan Street. When the car stopped, the driver — Juwan Hamilton — fell out of it, wounded by gunfire. He died of the wounds. Where and by whom he was shot is what the appeal asks: more than three years later, Crime Stoppers states, police still need the public's help to find out who killed him.
Bradley Hodges, 43 — St. Joseph County, October 6, 2020. County police were called around 1:30 p.m. to the 61000 block of Locust Road, on reports of a dead man inside a trailer. They found Hodges alone. An autopsy the following day ruled the case a homicide: he had died of a single gunshot wound. He had last been seen alive around 8 p.m. the evening before. The case was originally investigated by the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit; the St. Joseph County Police Department has officially taken it over. Crime Stoppers offers a $2,500 reward, and gives the county police number, 574-235-9611, beside its own. What the appeal asks for is the timeframe leading up to the killing — what transpired, who he was talking to, what he was doing — as much as the moment itself.
Johnnie Lee Johnson, 53 — South Bend, May 12, 2022. Johnson, known to many as "Car Wash" for the cars he loved to wash, often for extra cash, was shot and killed in his front yard in the 1200 block of North Huey Street, on a day when the block was full of people enjoying the weather. South Bend police state, through the appeal, that no one is willing to speak out, even though there were several witnesses. A later appeal carries the case's present standing in the authorities' own words: progress is being made in the homicide investigation, but investigators say they need more.
Brien Franklin Jr., 37 — South Bend, October 28, 2025. Franklin was shot and killed outside an apartment complex in the 500 block of West Colfax Avenue, shortly after noon. A year later, on October 26, 2026, Michiana Crime Stoppers announced a $2,500 cash reward for information leading to the person responsible, and the investigation stands active, detectives seeking witnesses who were in the block that day. He is the newest name on the appeals — the proof that this list is a working list, added to as cases go cold, not a monument.
Sources:
- WNDU (16 News Now), Michiana Unsolved, Christine Karsten reporting, with Lt. Kayla Miller, Michiana Crime Stoppers: "Who killed Geraldine Reasor?" (May 6, 2024); "Who killed Ronnie Ciesielski?"; "South Bend mom killed in front of toddler" (August 26, 2024); "The Death of Hannah Turgeon" (October 20, 2022); "Who killed Juwan Hamilton?"; "The Homicide of Bradley Hodges" (February 6, 2023); "The Murder of Johnnie Lee Johnson" and "More info needed on murder of Johnnie Lee Johnson." Each case above is stated as the segment states it.
- South Bend Tribune, as carried by the Post-Tribune — the account of Shasta Horston's killing, her son's presence in the house, and the police statement that the case remained under investigation with no suspects named.
- Michiana Crime Stoppers reward announcement for Brien Franklin Jr. (October 26, 2026), as reported by WNDU — the reward, the date and place of the shooting, and the investigation's active standing.