A Prom Night Massacre in Indiana
17-year-old murders his family to attend prom events
Thirty years ago, 17-year-old Jeff Pelley was determined to make his prom night perfect, even if it meant slaughtering his family.
Two members of Reverend Robert “Bob” Pelley’s church, the Olive Branch Church, discovered the Pelley family’s gruesome murders the following morning, April 30, 1989, after the family failed to show up for his regular Sunday sermon.
The two men walked to the Pelley family home sitting adjacent to the church to check on the family. After knocking several times and noting that the blinds were all closed, they suspected something was seriously wrong and used a spare key to enter the home for a welfare check.
Inside, they discovered a grisly scene. 38-year old Robert Pelley was sprawled out in the hallway, shot with two deer slugs. In the basement were the bodies of 32-year-old Dawn Pelley and her two daughters from a previous marriage, 8-year-old Janel and 6-year-old Jolene. They had each been shot in the head.
Three other Pelley children were not found at the scene: Reverend Pelley’s daughter Jacqueline was out of town and his son Jeff had attended the LaVille High School senior prom and then gone to Great America, an amusement park near Chicago with his girlfriend and other…
