1818
Winchester was laid out in 1818 as the county seat of Randolph County; five early settlers donated the land, and it was probably named for Winchester, Virginia.
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FILE 738 / 25 September 2026 / 74 MIN / express
We're going to Indiana this week... Winchester, Indiana, like the rifle; it's in Randolph County about 0:04:45
Winchester was laid out in 1818 as the county seat of Randolph County; five early settlers donated the land, and it was probably named for Winchester, Virginia.
about 0:07:04Randolph County was a major spot on the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s, and the area was big in the abolition movement before the Civil War.
about 0:07:22Indiana was one of the states with the heaviest Klan presence, and in the 1900s and 1920s the Klan controlled politics and police forces.
about 0:07:33Oil and natural gas were found in the late 1800s, and Winchester changed from a farming community into an industrial town.
about 0:07:53Winchester was laid out in 1818 as the county seat of Randolph County; five early settlers donated the land, and it was probably named for Winchester, Virginia.
about 0:07:04Randolph County was a major spot on the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s, and the area was big in the abolition movement before the Civil War.
about 0:07:22Indiana was one of the states with the heaviest Klan presence, and in the 1900s and 1920s the Klan controlled politics and police forces.
about 0:07:33Oil and natural gas were found in the late 1800s, and Winchester changed from a farming community into an industrial town.
about 0:07:53Cheap natural gas and oil let the glass-making industry thrive, because the furnaces needed very high temperatures to melt glass.
about 0:08:13In 2024 a quarter-mile-wide EF3 tornado hit Winchester, badly damaging the Goodwill store, the lodge at Summer's Point, a strip mall, the Freedom Life Church and the Taco Bell.
about 0:08:32Thirty-eight people were injured in the tornado, three critically, and one of those three died weeks later.
about 0:09:31In June 2024 the rest of the strip mall was demolished; a Wendy's was rebuilt and the Taco Bell was repaired and reopened.
about 0:09:31"5016"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:05:33
"$51,985"
Comparison: "about $20,000 below the rest of the country's average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:05:45
"$118,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:05:52
"$114,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 1:22:58
3.2 / 5 · average of 5
“An excellent place to raise a family and a perfect place to settle down and put roots; a cozy small town that feels like home and always will be home.”about 0:09:53
“Your average town in the middle of a cornfield, easy to miss; everyone knows everyone, which is either really nice or terrifying.”about 0:10:17
“You know the town like the back of your hand and it has a little diner known for miles around; not much, but it's home.”about 0:10:42
“A cute little hometown feel, but it has recently fallen victim to a lot of major drug use, and the reviewer has lost loved ones to it.”about 0:10:58
“Not a good place to raise a family; it traps you in the town.”about 0:11:20
David L. Brumley was born on 13 February 1957 in Winchester, Indiana, the son of Robert and Deloris Brumley, and he hardly ever left. He graduated from Winchester High School in 1976, worked for Omega Enterprises and lived on West South Street, where a detached garage held his pride and joy: a maroon 2006 Ford Mustang GT with black stripes, a hood scoop and the plate RSP 657.
On 5 July 2003, at 2.23 a.m., a fire destroyed the 35,000 square foot Mastercraft factory, which made upholstered furniture and mattresses for boats and RVs, and did seven and a half million dollars of damage, putting roughly 300 people out of work. The plant had been closed for the three-day Fourth of July weekend.
On 31 October 2018 Brumley took out a $5,000 bank loan to replace his broken furnace. Brumley missed work on 1 and 2 November, and at about 1 p.m. on Saturday 3 November officers went to West South Street for a welfare check. The Mustang was missing from the garage. In the entry room they found scraps of black electrical tape and clear packaging tape and a cardboard box containing a white disposable dust mask, used zip ties and two belt loops cut from a pair of jeans, one with a zip tie pulled tight around it. Brumley was in the bedroom, wedged between the bed and the wall, a pillowcase taped around his neck and a black bin bag taped over the pillowcase, electrical tape around his right wrist, and his jeans missing two belt loops. The autopsy found asphyxia from ligature neck compression and suffocation, and the death was ruled a homicide.
Police said nothing for a month. On 8 December they named him as the person of interest. Fingerprints on the tape scraps were his, and a partial DNA profile on the dust mask matched him strongly as well as Brumley. His browsing history, taken from two Google accounts, showed searches in the fortnight before the killing for undetectable poison, whether DNA survives a burned body, how long a body takes to burn, dissolving a body in acid, the trunk size of a 2004 Mustang and cabins in the Tennessee mountains; after the death came jobs in the Bahamas, how to disappear, fake passports, hiding in a hole in the woods and the fugitives who had stayed hidden longest.
He had hitchhiked from Arkansas towards Nevada with Alexander Gross, a man he met online, then robbed him at knifepoint, forced him to drive to Arizona and to rent him a hotel room. The judge gave him 62 years for murder plus consecutive theft terms, 64 years in all.
July 2003 / the Mastercraft factory, Shipshewana, Indiana
As told in the episode, on 25 September 2026.
Accused
November 2018 / his home on West South Street, Winchester, Indiana
As told in the episode, on 25 September 2026.
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
business
about 0:20:57business
about 0:41:07crime scene
about 0:45:29home
about 0:52:28school
about 0:14:58business
about 0:15:09home
about 0:32:19business
about 1:06:57other
about 1:08:02other
about 1:09:01business
about 0:08:48church
about 0:09:13business
about 0:09:13other
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