The ones that closed · and one that was never this county's

CASES THAT LEAVE THIS FILE

A case that closes leaves this section, by this section's own rule — the solved record belongs to the Crime section, and what is owed here is one accurate line each, so the reader knows why a famous name is missing.

Theresa Burns, 16, of Mishawaka, was killed in her family's home on January 11, 1988. Her case stood open in 2002 when the St. Joseph County Prosecutor, Chris Toth, announced the formation of a Cold Case Squad — staffed by retired Mishawaka detective Craig Whitfield, who had worked her homicide since it occurred, and South Bend Police Lt. James Clark — with her mother in the room. She leaves this section because it closed: Phillip Geans was charged with her murder on December 13, 2013, a jury convicted him, and the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction on September 16, 2016. The killing was Mishawaka's, and the solving is the crime record's; it is printed here at this size because the county's own cold-case announcement carried the case as open for fourteen years of its twenty-five.

Delia Lerma, 33, left her home at 713 South Bendix Street at about 2 p.m. on December 4, 2007, to buy ingredients at Rosales Food Store, 2812 West Western Avenue, and never came home; her body was found four days later in the family's van along South Carlisle Street, stabbed. Her case stood on this county's cold-case record for eighteen years — worked by South Bend cold-case investigators Craig Whitfield and Gary Hasbrook, and featured, with the department's cooperation, on television in November 2025. It leaves this section because the South Bend Police Department announced on March 24, 2026, that a St. Joseph County grand jury, sitting March 16–19, 2026, had indicted Lucio Lerma Sr. for her murder, and that he was held without bond. An indictment is an accusation, not a verdict, and he is presumed innocent; no verdict in the case appears in the record reached. But a charged case no longer stands on the open list, and its telling belongs to the court record now.

Darlene Hulse, 28, of Argos, was abducted from her home on August 17, 1984, and found dead the next day; her case is carried on the same State Police district page as this county's McDonough case and is a staple of the same television series as this county's appeals. She is printed here once, as a boundary: Argos is in Marshall County, and her file belongs to that county's history, not this one — however often the two counties' cold cases are broadcast in the same hour.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune (2002), "Toth announces Cold Case Squad; victims' families hope for answers in long-unsolved murders" — the squad's formation, its staffing, and Theresa Burns's case as it then stood.
2. Phillip M. Geans v. State of Indiana, Indiana Court of Appeals, Memorandum Decision, September 16, 2016 (71A04-1512-CR-2341) — the date of the killing, the charge of December 13, 2013, the jury's conviction, and the affirmance.
3. South Bend Police Department news release (March 24, 2026), as reported — the Lerma grand jury, the indictment, the investigators named, and the custody standing; WNDU, Michiana Unsolved, "Who killed Delia Lerma? South Bend cold case active again" — the December 4, 2007 departure as the appeal stated it.
4. Indiana State Police, Bremen District Investigations — the Hulse listing's date and its Marshall County standing, as noted in this section's state-list entry.