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Palmer mother recalls final conversation before son’s murder

By Foster Lawrence

Fort Sackville Sentinel staff writer

FORT SACKVILLE, Ind. — Ruth Palmer will forever remember talking with her son Robbie Palmer the evening of May 2.

Robbie, 18, temporarily returned home from a party to pick up his favorite Levi’s, whitewashed denim jacket. “He wore that thing all the time,” Ruth said. “I gave it to him for Christmas last year.

“I was sitting in this rocking chair here. After he grabbed the jacket, he bent down and kissed me and said he would see me later.

“I told him, If you’re going to be late, or not coming home, please call, and he said, Of course I will. I love you, Mom.”

She never saw him again.

His decomposing body was found by two boys on three-wheelers fifteen days later, in a ditch off Highway 41 South near Knox Road. The location is about 10 miles from the party at 25 E. 1st Street in Fort Sackville.

Two autopsies failed to determine a cause of death. A police investigation has failed to determine how or where Palmer died.

Ruth Palmer has been critical of police and county prosecutor Dallas Ellerman for not pursuing the investigation with greater professional commitment.

During the two weeks Robbie was missing, Mrs. Palmer and friends searched for him. She learned about the discovery of his body while watching an Evansville, Ind., television station news broadcast.

When the body was found, Robbie was wearing the denim jacket he picked up at home.

A cheap gold-colored chain, according to Indiana coroner Vonderbreck, was worn around his neck.

“Robbie wore that necklace all the time too,” Mrs. Palmer said.

Vonderbreck says every death investigation has three parts.

The first part is an autopsy. The second is a police investigation. The third is either a grand jury or coroner’s inquest.

Since the autopsies and police investigation have produced no leads on Palmer’s death, Vonderbreck thinks it is time for a grand jury.

Mrs. Palmer has questioned the police investigation and allegations that the party her son attended was homosexual in nature.

“People can say anything they want because Robbie is not here to defend himself.

“I had a conversation with Robbie approximately a week before he died.

“He asked me, Mom, how would you feel if I was gay?

“I told him I wouldn’t love him any less. I wouldn’t tell you to go for it because that is not the way I brought you up.

“I asked him if he was gay.

“He said, I’ve never had sex with a man and I’ve never had sex with a woman. I do have some awfully funny feelings inside though.

“In my opinion, Robbie wasn’t gay, or if he was gay, he wasn’t gay very long.”

Ruth believes he got involved with the wrong crowd. “Classmates at school often teased him. I think he was just looking for someone to be his friend,” she said.