Ada Haradine, 41, went missing from her Indiana home on May 8th, 1985. She was last seen approximately ten minutes before her son arrived home from school.
An eyewitness spotted her speaking to an unidentified man outside shortly before she disappeared, but nothing in their manner towards one another suggested there was a problem.
Yet by the time Jeff Haradine got off the school bus, his mother was gone.
Three years would pass before Ada’s remains were located—in a wooded area roughly 20 miles away—but with a lack of forensic evidence or solid leads to help shed light on the identity of her killer, her case soon went cold.
Who murdered Ada Haradine?
Ada Van Loo Haradine
Ada Van Loo was born in Germany in 1944. Her parents eventually immigrated to the United States. When Ada got older, she began working at a lodge, where she met Carl Edwin “Ed” Haradine Jr.—the man she’d go on to marry in 1965. The couple had two sons together, Greg and Jeff.
Ada was a devout Catholic and a devoted wife and mother, as well as a kind and quiet woman who worked as a teacher’s aide at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School in Elkhart, Indiana.
Ed Haradine, a successful businessman in the Elkhart area, was the president of Carlton Manufacturing Inc., which specialized in upholstered furniture.
The family lived on Crabtree Lane in the upscale East Lake Estates in what was considered one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city.
Ada’s Mysterious Disappearance
On the day she vanished—May 8th, 1985—Ada was originally supposed to visit a friend in Fort Wayne. However, she postponed these plans in order to attend a Mother’s Day mass at her son Jeff’s school. Afterwards, Jeff went to his classes and Ada left for home.
Her niece Susan was in town for job interviews and stopped by the Haradine residence. The two women got a ride from Ada’s friend Judy to a luncheon at the Elkhart YMCA. Ada and Susan came back at approximately 1:30 p.m. and Judy went home.
At one point during their conversation, the two women heard a strange noise inside the house, which Susan would go on to describe as a loud “thud.” They got up to investigate, searching the home and yard, but were unable to discover the source.
After her niece left, Ada went outside. She was reportedly spotted in her backyard just after 3 p.m. However, when nine-year-old Jeff arrived home from school at 3:20 p.m., he found the house empty and his mother gone. This was unusual, as Ada was typically waiting to meet her son when he got off the bus. She was always there for her kids.
Right away, Jeff knew something was off, so he called his father at work. Ed wasn’t sure where she was either, but he knew that Ada’s mother often came over on Wednesdays and thought that perhaps the two had gone somewhere together.
They would soon learn that this wasn’t the case.
The family reported Ada missing around 7:30 p.m. that evening. The Haradines’ other son, 18-year-old Greg, was away at college, but he came home as soon as he found out what was going on.
The Investigation
The Haradine home showed no signs of forced entry or a struggle. In fact, there appeared to be no evidence whatsoever relating to Ada’s disappearance. Additionally, she left behind everything, including her purse, money, and vehicle.
Ada’s husband was eliminated as a suspect early on.
Although family members insisted that Ada would never abandon her husband or children, authorities initially assumed that she had run away—an assumption that is often made in missing persons investigations.
The Unknown Man
A neighbor came forward claiming to have spotted Ada speaking to an unknown male at 3:10 p.m. on the day she vanished. This man was described as being well-dressed, roughly six feet tall, and 45–50 years of age.
He drove a four-door car; the witness couldn’t remember its color, but thought it was either black, dark green, or blue, and was parked in the Haradines’ driveway. The neighbor didn’t find anything odd about this at first, as the Haradine home had been undergoing renovations at the time and workers often came and went.
The stranger was never identified.
Ultimately, the police received hundreds of tips, some coming from as far away as Las Vegas, but none proved to be especially helpful.
Police Baffled
Authorities began to come around to the idea that Ada hadn’t left of her own free will, but they were still at a loss to explain what happened.
They felt certain that the eerie noise Ada and her niece heard that day was somehow linked to the disappearance. Had her assailant been hiding in the Haradine home? If so, how did he get inside, abduct Ada, and escape without leaving a trace?
According to Police Chief Tom Cutler:
“The Haradine situation is the most unusual ever to come before the department. We have no tangible leads, no concrete evidence to say whether she is alive or dead.”
With no real clues or suspects to investigate, the case soon went cold.
Ada’s Family Speaks Out
Ed Haradine had this to say about his wife’s disappearance:
“The frustration is there to no end. When someone dies, there is a funeral, an acknowledgement that it is over. We did not have that. Being in limbo is a fair description.”
Ed added: “There wasn’t a weekend when we weren’t together. We were a very married couple.”
Ada’s oldest son Greg said:
“We went from living a normal family life one day, and then the next day, you guys [reporters and photographers] were outside taking pictures and saying she ran away. It makes you feel violated.”
“I would describe her as very caring about the people around her. A well-grounded person, but for me at the time, she was just my mom,” said Jeff, Ada’s youngest son.
He added:
“It is hard when you are that age not to hold out hope that maybe someday she comes back to me.”
A Disturbing Discovery
On May 12th, 1988—almost three years to the day that Ada vanished—mushroom hunters in rural Cass County, Michigan, made an unsettling discovery. As they walked in the woods just off Birch Road north of U.S. 12, they found skeletal remains along a steep hillside. They were human bones.
No clothes or shoes were found on or near the remains. It was also clear that the victim had been badly beaten, as the skull and jaw were fractured.
Ada Is Identified
Using dental records, medical examiners determined that the skeletal remains belonged to Ada Haradine. Her wedding ring was also found near the bones. A forensic pathologist concluded that Ada had died due to blunt force trauma to the head. It’s likely that she was murdered soon after she went missing, though this couldn’t be conclusively proven.
Investigators couldn’t determine whether she was killed at the site—roughly 20 miles from the Haradine home—or if she was killed elsewhere and then dumped in the woods. Detectives found large rocks nearby that they believed could have conceivably been used as murder weapons, but this was never proven.
Additional undisclosed items related to the case were found at a nearby dumpsite and sent to a lab for analysis, but the results were not made public.
Was it a Neighbor?
Though none of Ada’s neighbors had stood out to authorities during the early stages of the investigation, this would soon change.
A woman named Connie reached out to law enforcement, telling them that she had once been employed as a cleaning lady for the Dye family, who lived next door to the Haradines. Connie explained that she left the position because Steve Dye, who lived there with his parents, had made her uncomfortable.
No details are available about what Steve might have said or done to Connie, but investigators decided to go over his original statement and take a closer look at him.
They noted the fact that he was one of the last people known to have seen Ada on the day she went missing. He told them that he’d stayed home from work that day because his back was hurting. He smoked marijuana and then, later that afternoon, drove to his friend Kenny’s residence in Michigan, which was located about 20 minutes away.
(Side note: Kenny wasn’t interviewed until 1988 and by then he couldn’t remember if Steve had come over that day, but he did say that Steve often spent time at his home.)
Jeff corroborated this account by saying that he remembered seeing Steve drive away sometime after he’d arrived home from school.
However, investigators learned that Steve had traded in his Toyota Land Cruiser in late May 1985 and found the timing in relation to Ada’s disappearance interesting.
He passed two polygraph exams and, although they found nothing troubling in his past when conducting a background check, nor anything to connect him with Ada’s case, they continued to focus on him as a suspect.
It seemed to be primarily his proximity to Ada’s home, as well as the fact that the Dye and Haradine families had keys to each other’s houses, that made them view Steve with suspicion. They managed to locate the Toyota that he’d traded in and found no physical evidence to link him to Ada’s murder.
Connie’s home was said to be a short distance away from where Ada’s skeletal remains were discovered. Steve, for his part, said he had only a passing familiarity with that area and hadn’t visited Connie’s residence before.
He voluntarily submitted to several interviews with law enforcement, in addition to the two polygraph exams he’d taken. Still, he was subjected to a third polygraph test and this time he failed. After this, he hired a lawyer and refused to cooperate further. However, it appears that he was eventually cleared as a suspect.
Steve’s former stepfather Tony would be questioned as well. In 1985, Tony allegedly suspected that Ed Haradine was having an affair with his wife Rae. It’s unclear if they were actually involved at that time, but it does appear that Ed and Rae were dating in 1987.
No connection between Tony or Steve and Ada’s murder was ever established.
A Shocking Claim
In September 1985, Terry, a friend of the Haradines, made shocking allegations during a white water rafting trip. While the group was sitting around the campfire, the topic of conversation soon turned to the disappearance of Ada. Terry spoke up and said he was the godfather of the couple’s son Jeff.
He went on to say that he doubted Ada would run away, but felt that she had the motive to do so. He claimed that the Haradine marriage was not a happy one, that Ed was often away—either working or drinking—and that Ada was lonely. He also alleged that Ed frequently cheated on her.
This latter piece of information was true. Authorities had uncovered evidence that Ed was having an affair (and might have had multiple affairs during their marriage), which Ed himself admitted to doing.
What was more surprising was Terry’s claim that Ada had affairs of her own and that Jeff was not Ed’s son, as no one else had ever accused her of such a thing. According to Terry, Ed had even confessed that he didn’t believe Jeff was really his child.
One of the people at the campfire that night was a woman named Debra, whose father Bill was a retired police officer. She decided to put Terry in contact with him so he could elaborate on his story.
The two soon spoke and Terry gave essentially the same account. Bill decided to get the police involved, as he felt Terry’s claims might be relevant in some way to the investigation.
Once the detectives assigned to the case interviewed Terry, he backtracked a bit on what he’d said about Jeff’s paternity, explaining that this was merely his own speculation rather than something he’d been told by anyone.
However, he did say that Ed was aware of Ada’s affairs and had once overheard him telling Ada that he wouldn’t let any of this destroy their marriage and that he still wanted to be with her.
Terry continued, saying that he had been a close friend of Ada’s and that they spent a lot of time alone together, but their relationship never became sexual.
It looks as if Terry fell off of law enforcement’s radar until February 1986, when they decided to interview him again. This time they found Terry angry and uncooperative. He said that he wasn’t the one who started the paternity rumor. He also stated that he wasn’t even that close to the Haradines anymore when Ada vanished.
The last time he’d seen them was at the YMCA in the spring of 1985. He said that Ada made a rude remark about him being “deaf” (Terry was hard of hearing) and that he hadn’t spoken with them again.
He was unable to give an alibi for May 8th, 1985. Detectives looked into his background and confirmed that Terry and his first wife were, in fact, Jeff’s godparents. They located his ex-wife and spoke with her. She said that during their marriage Terry was abusive—verbally and physically—controlling, unfaithful, and had a bad temper.
She also spoke of deeply disturbing incidents in which Terry had beaten their son with a board and pulled tufts of his hair out.
Others who knew Terry were questioned as well and agreed that he had anger issues and could also be the type of person who would seek revenge.
Ed Haradine noted that he hadn’t been close to Terry in years and didn’t think Ada had been that close to him any longer either.
For reasons that remain unclear, Terry was ultimately cleared of any suspicion in Ada’s murder. He passed a polygraph exam, but investigator Dave Gizzi would later say that no one was eliminated as a suspect based solely upon polygraph results.
However, Gizzi couldn’t say exactly why Terry was dropped from the suspect list and was never given any specific information regarding the reasoning behind that decision. He didn’t come on as the lead investigator in the case until after Terry had already been looked into and eliminated from the suspect pool.
Interestingly, the police records stop making any mention of Terry following his polygraph exam results, which would seem to imply that this was the basis upon which he was ruled out as a person of interest.
Still, it’s important to note that no solid evidence was ever found linking him to her murder.
Questions Loom
Though Ada’s family received some measure of closure after they were able to give her a proper burial, they were still devastated by their loss and desperate for her murderer to be found and brought to justice. They had no idea why the unassuming and well-liked Ada had been targeted or who could have committed such a horrific act.
The police, for their part, believed that Ada’s attacker may have been someone she knew, but who?
Later Developments
Ed and Jeff moved away in late 1987. Ed Haradine would die of a brain aneurysm in 1993. Jeff and Greg continue to search for answers, hoping to find their mother’s killer.
A Fresh Look and New Evidence
In 2013, a group of investigators from the Elkhart City Police Department, Indiana State Police, Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office and Cass County Sheriff’s Department teamed up to take a fresh look at Ada’s case.
According to WSBT 22:
“The team will also submit more physical evidence to the Michigan State Crime lab with the hope that new technology can find DNA not previously able to be detected.”
The results of these tests were not released to the public.
“The only thing strange at the home was that there was nothing strange,” said Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office Investigator Dave Gizzi about the lack of tangible evidence found at the Haradine home.
“The niece described the sound as being something strange. Just out of the ordinary. So much so they got up to take a look but they couldn’t find anything,” said Gizzi about the noise he believes was directly tied to Ada’s murder.
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Potential Suspects and Connections
“There are a few individuals they are looking at that might have a connection,” Gizzi went on to say.
He also believes that the murderer may have had a connection to the hillside where Ada’s skeletal remains were found.
Detectives initially had persons of interest, but taking a fresh look at the case means “taking the blinders off” and looking at all possibilities, which, according to Gizzi, even included a possible mob connection, though these rumors were never substantiated.
Ada Haradine’s case is still open and being actively investigated. There have been no further updates in recent years.
If you have any information regarding her case, you are encouraged to contact Michiana Crime Stoppers at 574-288-STOP or 800-342-STOP.
“I think people out there know something. I think a couple of people have the answers I would like to have,” said Jeff. “What do I want out of it? I think we want the next level of closure if that is possible… we would like to know a little bit more about what happened.”