The Missing Left Heel and the Ticket That Broke a Confession

The Missing Left Heel and the Ticket That Broke a Confession

A single cream left heel and a soaked movie ticket stub were found upright on a dry steel worktable with no water source within six feet - and there had been no rain in eleven days. How did a wet ticket from Lane Six, car four, issued at 8:55 PM on June 3 appear pressed beneath a shoe linked to a woman who’d been dead for days, and why would that stub force a confession?

In this episode, we take you through the timeline, the discovery at the Starview Drive-In, and the investigative threads Detective Howard Riley followed as he tried to reconcile the ticket, the missing left shoe, and Janet Bennett’s death. What sequence of events connects a ticket from June 3 and a confession months later?

Person: Janet Bennett
Date: June 3-9, 1953
Location: Starview Drive-In, rear loading dock, Dunmore, Ohio
Cause: Manual strangulation
Investigator: Detective Howard Riley

- Janet Bennett, age 52, was last seen alive at approximately 9:15 PM on June 3 after leaving the First Methodist Church pantry parking lot.
- Her body was discovered in a drainage channel along the east fence line of the Starview Drive-In on the morning of June 7, roughly 400 feet from the rear loading dock.
- Time of death was estimated by Dr. Eugene Mast as a 60-80 hour window, placing death in late June 3 or early June 4.
- A cream left heel, size six and scuffed at the toe, was found upright on a dry steel table on June 9 at 8:45 AM with a soaking-wet ticket stub beneath it.
- The ticket stub was from Lane Six, car four, issued at 8:55 PM on June 3, and the surrounding area showed no moisture and no rain had fallen in eleven days.

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