Pam Milam's Murderer Was Finally Identified. He Is Gone And Can't Hurt Anyone Else.

Pamela Gail Milam

She was a well liked lady, full of love, faith and promise. She was good spirited, bubbly and bright. 

Pam was born on May 9th, 1953 in Illinois to Helen Love Bird Charles Edward Milam. She was the middle of three sisters. 

In the fall of 1972, Pam lived with her parents and two sisters on Terre Haute’s Southside. She was a Hoosier Scholar and involved with clubs and activities at school and church. Her closest friend was younger sister Sam, who she had a twin like bond with.

Pam was a sophomore at Indiana State University where she was studying to become and English teacher and was involved in the Sigma Kappa sorority. Her sister Sam was a freshman at the same college.

On Friday, September 15th, Pam went to a rush meeting at Holmstedt Hall. After the meeting, she planned to stay the night at the sorority’s suite in Lincoln Quad. around 11 p.m. Pam left Holmstedt Hall after a party and told some of her sorority sisters she would return to the suite in a few minutes. Pam walked to her car, alone, to move it from Holmstedt to lot 27 across from the Quad. Pam never returned and no one did anything about it.

Pam never showed up for work the next morning and no one heard from her all day. Nearly 24 hours had passed, when Pam’s boyfriend Dave Smith came to the Quad to pick her up for a date. Pam was no where to be found so Smith phoned Sam. It was now around 7 p.m. and while Smith was on the phone to Sam, two of Pam's sorority sisters spotted Pam's 1964 Pontiac LeMans parked in Lot 27, about a block away from where it had been parked the day before. Her glasses were on the rear-window shelf.

Smith told Sam about the discovery of the car. Sam and her father drove to the campus lot. Less than an hour later, with a spare key Mr. Milam opened the trunk. He screamed when he saw his daughter's body inside.  Pam had wounds to her face. Her hands were tied behind her back with what appeared to be clothesline.  She was gagged, which was held in place with a piece of white masking tape. There was also a white  rope around her neck, which seemed to be the same as that that bound her wrists. All of the items had been used at the rush party and were in a box of decorations she had been carrying to her car.

A stick and other debris found between her pantyhose and pants indicated her pants had been removed at some point, likely in a wooded area. DNA was recovered from a stain left on her light-blue blouse.

The autopsy determined Pam died of strangulation by a rope found around her neck.

Police were left with no witnesses and no description of the suspect. Police questioned many people, including Pam’s boyfriend, Dave Smith.

About seven weeks after Pam's murder, Robert Wayne Austin was arrested for a series of attempted and successful abductions on campus. Police say he sexually assaulted the students and then later returned them to the campus. 

In 2001, the Indiana State Police lab did another analysis of a stain on Pam's blouse and Austin's DNA did not match. Police were also able to identify a fingerprint on Pam's glasses, but it did not match Austin either.

In 2008, 21 year veteran of the Terre Haute Police Department, Police Chief Shawn Keen, began working on the case. 

The ropes used in the murder helped establish a partial DNA profile. That helped establish it was one male suspect involved.

In 2009, familial DNA testing was requested, but it was never approved.

In 2017, the Indiana State Police lab used advanced DNA testing to indicate the suspect had brown hair, brown eyes and medium complexion.  

A composite of what the person might look like was then developed. Keen then pulled out every arrest record from 1969 to 1974, and went through them by hand, filtering out those with brown hair and brown eyes. He was able to work that down to about 106 potential people, but no suspect was found.

In 2018, Keen sent what the State Police Lab had warned him might be the last usable bit of the 46-year-old genetic sample to Parabon NanoLabs. which was known for harnessing partial family DNA matches and traditional genealogical research to help police identify potential suspects. 

Parabon was able to create a new composite image of the suspect, this time with light hair and blue-green eyes. It also identified a distant female cousin of the suspect who had family about 70 miles south of Terre Haute. Starting there, Keen found additional relatives, eventually mapped out an extensive family tree and found two potential suspects. 

Through more DNA testing, Jeffrey Lynn Hand was then identified as Pam's killer. He was 23-years-old at the time of Pam's murder. Hand was working for a Chicago-based record company, delivering records to stores throughout Illinois and Indiana.

Less than a year after Pam's death, Hand met 24-year-old Jeffery Thomas and his 22-year-old wife as they hitchhiked through Vigo Co. The newly weds were making their way back to their Evansville home after visiting friends in Chicago when Hand picked them up just south of Terre Haute, near the intersection of U.S. 41 and I-70. He then began driving south towards Gibson County. Hand told the couple he wanted to stop at his sister’s house to “see about getting some money.”

When they arrived, he held the couple at gunpoint and demanded money. They didn't have any, so Hand took them both to a grain bin on the property and told them he wanted $500 in ransom.

When Hand disappeared with Thomas, his wife, somehow was able to free herself from the bin, ran to a nearby home to call for help.

When police arrived, Hand had discarded Thomas' body in a weedy area just over the Posey County line. Thomas’ autopsy revealed he had been shot in the head, stabbed eight times in the abdomen and chest and that his throat had been slit. His hands were tied behind his back.

Hand was found not guilty by reason of insanity on murder and kidnapping charges, but was committed to the state reformatory until 1976.

In 1978, Hand trying to abduct a woman near a Kokomo shopping mall. He was spotted by an off-duty deputy and a short pursuit ensued. Hand fired at the deputy. injuring him. Another officer returned fire, fatally wounding Hand as he ran away.

Pam's younger sister can finally breathe a sigh of relief. She can rest a little easier knowing that the person who robbed her and her family of a lifetime of memories with Pam has been identified and can never hurt anyone again.