This 17 years old was jailed for murdering his entire family because he couldn't go to prom ---- But did he actually do it?

This 17 years old was jailed for murdering his entire family because he couldn't go to prom ---- But did he actually do it?

Jeff Pelley was just 17 when he allegedly murdered his stepmom, his dad, and his two little sisters after being grounded on prom night for stealing CDs from a neighbor's house in 1989 — but did he really do it? Investigators settled on Pelley as their number one suspect when they learned that his father had grounded him for the burglary and forbidden him from attending prom without his supervision. Police also found the family’s shotgun missing but no signs of a break in, suggesting that the murderer either entered from a bedroom or was otherwise close to the family.⁠

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Though the initial case against Pelley was thin with no forensic evidence, murder weapon, or witnesses to hold him responsible, Pelley was nonetheless found guilty in a trial nearly two decades later. He remains behind bars to this day. Go inside the maddening case of Jeff Pelley by visiting the link in our bio.⁠

April 30, 1989 was supposed to be a typical Sunday morning at church in the small town of Lakeville, Indiana.

Instead, the bodies of the pastor, his wife and her two young daughters were discovered at their nearby home.

'I saw something that day that nobody should ever have to see,' John Botich, the detective who investigated the quadruple homicide, said on a new podcast.

The motive, prosecutors contend, was a teenage rite of passage: prom.

Jeff Pelley, 17, was so angry that his father, Bob, wouldn't let him go to the dance's before and after events – a dinner, a party and a trip to an amusement park – that he shot the pastor. Jeff had to kill his stepmother, Dawn, and his two stepsisters, Janel, eight, and Jolene, six, to leave no witnesses, according to prosecutors.

He then met his date and enjoyed the Saturday night festivities into the next day.

It took until 2006 to bring Jeff Pelley to trial and a jury found him guilty of all four counts. He was sentenced to 160 years, which he is currently serving at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Indiana.

Yet he has maintained his innocence and his case is still making its way through the courts. The murder weapon, believed to be the family's shotgun, was never found nor was physical evidence presented at his trial. His sister, Jacque, who believes he is innocent, runs a website called Justice for Jeff that pointed out the police did not fingerprint the crime scene.

The new third season of CounterClock, audiochuck's true-crime podcast, probes the complicated case and promises fresh leads. 'Information has come to light,' Delia D'Ambra, the podcast's host, told DailyMail.com.

All 20 episodes are being released at once on Thursday, the anniversary of the tragedy. D'Ambra visited Lakeville several times and said on the podcast: 'The buildings are still there today. Thirty-two years ago the parsonage became the scene of one of the worst and most infamous family massacres in Indiana history.'

While what some dubbed 'the prom night murders' has been covered extensively in the press, there has been less focus on how the blended family came to be. The relationship between Jeff and his father as well as with his stepmother, Dawn, was 'a huge part of investigation into the crime,' D'Ambra explained.

After the murders, detectives interviewed Jeff with his grandparents. He said this about his stepmother in a video obtained by 48 Hours: 'We didn't get along real well. I mean, we talked hi, bye type thing but we never really talked to each other or anything. I mean I didn't hate her or anything but we just we – we tolerated each other.'

Bob Pelley met his first wife - her name was Ava but everyone called her Joy - while they were both studying at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio in the 1960s. The couple were married by 1970 and Jeff was born in 1971. His sister Jacque followed in 1976.

Jacque recalled: 'I have all good memories of growing up with my mom and dad and Jeff. Our life was normal, I mean comparatively to other people. We were all close.'

In 1980, the family moved to Cape Coral, Florida. While Bob had once focused on religious studies, his interest in computer programming had landed him a job. Still, the church was very much a part of the Pelley family's life. 'Throughout the early '80s, Bob and Joy instilled their strong Christian faith in their two kids,' according to the podcast.

But four years later, Joy Pelley was diagnosed with skin cancer and she died in February 1985.

'My mom was big on she did not want to fight it,' Jacque said. 'She loved Jesus. She wanted to go to heaven and meet her Savior.'

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Dawn Huber lost her husband, Edward. While working on a car in their garage, the 27-year-old was believed to have accidentally died from inhaling exhaust.

Dawn was a widow at 28 with three young daughters: Jessica, five, Janel, four, and Jolene, two. Jessica remembered her relationship with her father as being good. She said on the podcast: 'He was one person that really got me.'

Bob and Dawn met one weekend at his niece's home in Ohio. Jacque and Jeff were visiting relatives and Bob had come to pick them up. Dawn was there visiting Katie, her best friend.

By November 1985, the pair were married. It happened so quickly that Jacque and Jeff weren't at the ceremony. Dawn and her three girls moved to Florida. At the time, Bob had a good job working at a bank's data center but had decided that he was being called to the ministry, according to the podcast.

The family moved from Florida to the rural Lakeville in 1986.

Reverend Robert Pelley, known as Bob, ministered a congregation of 40 to 50 members at the Olive Branch United Brethren Church. The family lived at the parsonage, a white house that still shares a parking lot with the church in a quiet neighborhood

Pastor Bob was late for the 9:30 a.m. Sunday service that April 30, 1989.

It was unlike him and one of his parishioners, David Hathaway, went to the parsonage to check on him and his family. He knocked but there was no response. Also unusual for the small town, the house was locked. Blinds were drawn and curtains were shut.

Hathaway headed back to the church. But, D'Ambra said on the podcast: 'Something just didn't feel right to him.'

A little after 10, he and two other church members were able to get a key. 'Dave made it only a few steps into the house before he knew that something was horribly wrong,' D'Ambra said.

He first noticed the pastor's glasses on the carpet in the hallway and then 'saw Bob laying face up in a pool of blood,' according to the podcast. A call was made to 911 and the St. Joseph County Police were on their way.

After the police arrived, it was confirmed that Dawn, Janel and Jolene were dead in the basement. John Botich, former St. Joseph County Police detective, recalled: 'Dawn Pelley was on her knees, had a girl in each arm trying to protect them.

'And it was a pretty devastating sight.'

But three of the Pelley children were still unaccounted for: Jeff, 17, Jacque, 13 and Jessica, nine. Jessica was sleeping over at a friend's house while Jacque had been at a nearby college visiting friends. Jeff was at an amusement park called Great America in the Chicago area, an after-prom activity.

At the parsonage, Botich was soon joined by Mark Senter, then a detective with the Indiana State Police. Senter knew Bob Pelley as they were both members of the Lakeville Lions Club.

The detectives went through the rest of the house and Botich said that 'nothing was in disarray.' Witnesses told them the house had been locked and it did not appear to be a burglary.

Investigators started to suspect Jeff.

'I know there was… a lot of angst in that family between him and his dad - between Bob and Jeff. I know a situation where Bob punched him one time. I think the neighbors saw a lot of that same thing as well,' Senter told 48 Hours for an episode that aired in January last year.

Before prom, Bob had grounded Jeff after he was caught stealing CDs and some money from a home, and he was not allowed to attend dinner before the dance or events after it. 'The embarrassment of his dad driving him… not having to do any of the other activities, was crushing to Jeff Pelley,' Senter told 48 Hours.

In 1989, there was not enough evidence to bring charges against Jeff. It wasn't until 2002, that a new prosecutor decided to pursue charges and he was arrested. By that time, Jeff was married with a son and working as a computer consultant for IBM in Florida.

When the case went to trial in 2006, the prosecution put forth a theory that hinged on a timeline. There was a 'very, very small window when the family could have been murdered, and it was very clear the only person who could have done this was Jeff,' Frank Schaffer, former chief deputy prosecutor, told 48 Hours.

The Saturday of that 1989 prom, students had dropped by to show off their outfits to Pastor Bob, who Schaffer said kept his home open to the community, until about 5 p.m. According to the prosecution, the four murders took place between 5 and before 5:30, when visitors who came by found the home locked.

In that around 20 minutes, Jeff took the family's shotgun from its rack, shot his father, stepmother and two stepsisters, hid the weapon and shells, showered, and then went to a friend's house to meet his date, according to prosecutors.

'There's no possible way that he could have done all of those things in the amount of time he had,' said Alan Baum, Jeff's defense attorney during the trial.

Baum also pointed out that there was nothing that indicated Jeff acted differently at prom. 'To think he could spend that whole evening doing all of the things they did and just having fun like a kid after murdering his family is preposterous,' he told 48 Hours.

The jury found the prosecution's case convincing and convicted Jeff Pelley.

'He wouldn't have pulled the trigger, I believe with all my heart,' Jacque, his sister, said in 2007.

However, his stepsister, Jessica, told 48 Hours she thinks the evidence points to Jeff.

Delia D'Ambra, the podcast host, told DailyMail.com she spent hours in living rooms in the tiny town of Lakeville talking to people about the case. Some said Jeff is guilty while others feel there are still unanswered questions more than 30 years later. She said: 'There is a split.'

Jeff Pelley's lawyers appealed the conviction, which was upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court in 2009. After the appeals, his current lawyer, Frances Watson, filed a petition for post-conviction relief, which challenges the legality of his conviction. (Watson is a law professor at Indiana University's Robert H McKinney School of Law and a founding director of its Wrongful Conviction Clinic.)

D'Ambra said there is a court date this month. 

'I loved my family dearly and I have lived my life trying to pattern my life after my father,' Jeff Pelley said through tears at his 2006 sentencing. 'I would not, I could not and I did not do this.'

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