LAKEVILLE — New questions are being raised about the conviction of Jeff Pelley in what’s become known as the “Prom Night Murders.” An investigative podcast has brought new attention to the 1989 Lakeville case and called the investigation into question.

It was a Sunday morning in 1989 when the bodies of Reverend Robert Pelley, his wife Dawn and two of their daughters were found dead inside their home. It shocked the small community, but the case went cold.

That is until more than a decade later, when Pastor Pelley’s son Jeff was arrested for the murders in 2002.

He was convicted in 2006 and is currently sitting in prison, but has always maintained his innocence.

“There were just so many things that were questionable about methods and just things that they decided to do or not to do, and so that was really surprising to me,” said Counter Clock Podcast Host Delia D’Ambra.

Journalist Delia D’Ambra has spent more than a year looking into the case, and last week, on the 32nd anniversary of the murders, released an entire season of her podcast “Counter Clock,” focused on the murders.

She says the case against Jeff has several gaps.

“There was none of his blood, no forensic evidence that indicated anything incriminating on the four victims, there has never been a murder weapon found, there have never been the shell casings found, so that makes me wonder, ‘okay, what do we have here?'”

With the help of legal clinic at the IU School of Law, Pelley is currently fighting for a new trial.

D’Ambra believes he didn’t get a fair trial the first time around. As part of her investigation, she found other people who had been murdered with connections to Jeff’s father, but the original investigators she spoke with insisted that Jeff is guilty.

“I did have some of the initial investigators contradict themselves. I had an investigator unable to explain how he came to a conclusion based on physical evidence and so it’s sort of left to the listener to go, ‘well, if they can’t explain it, how was a jury ever supposed to understand and interpret these things.'”

She says she hopes the podcast gives people a deeper understanding of the case, but wouldn’t say how she personally felt about Jeff’s guilt or innocence.

Jeff Pelley’s legal team is hoping to get access to the discovery evidence in the case.

The Counter Clock podcast can be found on Spotify, Amazon and Apple Podcasts.

Source: WSBT