Steven Ray Hessler, now 59, was sentenced to 650 years in prison on Friday, April 1, for two counts of rape, six counts of misconduct, seven counts of burglary resulting in bodily harm, three counts of criminal misconduct, and one count of felony criminal mischief. robbery charge, according to Brad Landwerlen, Shelby County, Indiana District Attorney. The court found that he had committed multiple sexual assaults during the home invasion of Shelby County, Indiana between August 14, 1982 and August 17, 1985. According to Landwerlen, Hessler’s operation broke into homes in the middle of the night while he was armed and wearing a mask, where he tied, threatened, sexually abused and raped his victims. One of the victims was a 16-year-old child. In a subsequent attack, a male victim was handcuffed and tied to a pig and then beaten with a gun, driving the man into a coma for months and leading him to use a wheelchair for much of his life. The police chased the culprit for years, but with little progress. Landwerlen says the hunt for the suspect and their prosecution became more difficult because a previous task force had arrested and charged another local with some of the attacks in 1983. Surprisingly, the falsely accused man was Hessler’s cousin. The perpetrator took great care not to leave any evidence behind at the crime scene, even wiping surfaces after committing the crimes. However, detectives were able to obtain some DNA in one scene. Although DNA was not used in criminal investigations at the time, the vital evidence was retained. In 2020, investigators handed over DNA evidence to Parabon Nanolabs, the same team that helped arrest the Golden State killer and other notorious criminals. Just like these previous cases, they took the DNA and compared it to the vast amount of genetic data collected from commercial pedigree sites. Their analysis showed a small handful of people who may have left the DNA at the crime scene, one of whom was Hessler. To confirm their suspicions, the researchers needed a recently obtained DNA sample from Hessler. This was allegedly obtained from a licked envelope to send a water bill payment after investigators asked the utility company. As they hoped, the DNA in the file matched the DNA from the crime scene, Landwerlen said. The prosecutor added that another DNA sample was then taken directly from Hessler’s cheek to confirm the connection. “Steven Ray Hessler is one of the worst, most dangerous, sadistic predators I have had the pleasure of pursuing in my 30+ year career. “He took great pleasure in his useless brutal methods of terrorizing and sexually torturing his victims,” said Landwerlen, Shelby County District Attorney. “I promised the victims early on that my goal would be to go to jail for the rest of his life and everyone involved is very happy that we achieved this goal,” he added. Hessler denied all charges and his lawyer, Brian L. Cook, said he planned to appeal. His lawyer argued that critical evidence was missing from the trial and that the initial investigation contained a number of flaws that could have put the case at risk, including a mental “parade to the crime scene” before police processed the scene properly. “This was one of the most unusual cases a defense lawyer could possibly ever come across on the planet for a list of reasons. “The events involved are more like something out of a movie than real life,” Cook told WRTV. “This included 80-100 suspects, from Hessler’s cousin (who had previously been accused of 4 of the attacks), police officers, doctors, pharmacists, and even Michael Kenyon, who was the inspiration for Frank Zappa’s song. The Illinois Enema Bandit. Several potentially viable suspects were excluded from DNA, although 8 of the 10 victims were not DNA cases – something that was central to the case. “Many of the physical descriptions of the perpetrators did not match Hessler’s age, physique, weight, eye color or education.”
