A man has been arrested in the disappearance of an Indiana girl who mysteriously vanished more than 30 years ago, police say.
Connersville, Indiana, high school student Denise Pflum went missing in 1986 after she planned to return to the site of a party to retrieve her purse, Dateline NBC reported in a feature story about the case in March.
Since then, her parents have been left with questions about their missing daughter.
“It is a terrible thing to simply say your daughter is missing without having any concrete knowledge as to whether she is missing or whether she is dead,” her father, David Pflum, told WTHR in 2018.
On Wednesday, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office announced Shawn M. McClung was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the teenage girl’s death.
“The information and probable cause alleges that McClung previously claimed that Pflum was still alive, but has recently admitted that he killed her in March of 1986,” the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office released few other details, saying the investigation of other people involved in the case is ongoing.