Can You Help Indiana State Police Solve Cold Cases?

By Mike Perleberg (Versailles, Ind.) - Indiana State Police are making a new appeal for information in five cold cases in the ISP Versailles District jurisdiction. Those cases include the 2004 murder of Arturo Castillo in Switzerland County. Castillo was a Hispanic migrant worker living with two other migrants in a mobile home on a farm on State Road 129. His decomposing body was found in that trailer on June 3, 2004 by a farmer who owned the mobile home. Police believe his body may have been there since late May. The other two other Hispanic men he lived with had vanished along with their belongings. Efforts to positively identify and locate those men have not been successful. Another case investigators are seeking new information on is the 2008 disappearance of Daniel Reaves, of North Vernon. The 25-year-old was at his girlfriend’s home on E. Shafer Road in Jefferson County on May 3, 2008. Sometime before midnight as his girlfriend slept, Reaves left the home. It was around 4:00 a.m. on May 4 when Reaves’ girlfriend received a text message from Daniel. She called him back but he did not answer. It was the last known contact anybody had with Reaves. About a week after his disappearance, Reaves’ gold 1999 Chrysler Sebring was reported as abandoned on Green Hills Drive in Madison. The car had been there since 11:00 p.m. on May 3. Detectives found no clues as to Reaves’ whereabouts in the vehicle. Family members and close friends told investigators Daniel had no mental problems and there had not been any animosity between Daniel and his parents or other family members that would cause him to want to leave without contacting anyone and it is out of character for him to seclude himself.  According to family members, Daniel attended Indiana University Southeast in New Albany the fall semester of 2007.  Daniel Reaves is a white male, 5’11” tall and weighing approximately 145 pounds, he has dark brown hair, light blue eyes and at the time of his disappearance, was clean shaven. An exhaustive investigation and searches took place in the weeks following Reaves’ vanishing. Still, he remains missing. “Someone out there knows what happened to Daniel Reaves,” state police say. Other unsolved cases in the Versailles District include the 1982 shooting death of 24-year-old Clifford Smith in Seymour; the 1988 murder of 33-year-old mother of three Keyla Weddel at her home in Medora; and the 2002 death of 46-year-old Nancy Lyons in Rush or Bartholomew counties. Indiana State Police detectives are holding out hope that somebody will come forward with new information that can help solve the cases. Call the ISP Versailles Post at (812) 689-5000 or (800) 566-6704. Read more on these five cases at https://secure.in.gov/isp/2620.htm.