Victim of northwest Indiana serial killer identified 37 years later

MOROCCO, Ind. (WISH) — The last victim of northwest Indiana serial killer Larry Eyler, has been identified by the Newton County Coroner’s Office and the DNA Doe Project nearly 40 years later.

Keith Lavell Bibbs, who was long known as “Adam Doe,” was one of four people found on an abandoned farm in Lake Village in northwest Indiana.

Scott McCord, the Newton County Coroner, brought the case to the DNA Doe Project in 2020 with hopes of identifying the victim.

The case spent more than two years in the labs, according to DDP.

“We needed to stay focused, committed, and consistent in our work,” Elias Chan, the DDP team leader, said. “It was a complicated family structure involving many name changes. We were able to find a DNA cousin’s public family tree that helped point us in the right direction.”

DDP said the identification was “hampered” because Black people have long been underrepresented in DNA databases.

“In African-American research, you’ve got to get into the weeds,” Janel Daniels, the DDP researcher who found the critical lead, said. “It’s very, very delicate – it takes a careful touch to connect.”

DDP also identified John Brandenburg Jr., another victim of Eyler, in 2021.

Eyler confessed to killing more than 20 men in the 1980s and 1990s. He was sentenced to death and died in 1994 while on death row.