Toddler Sits By Murdered Parents’ Side For Two Days

Bruce Wayne Moser and Margaret Adamson were highschool sweethearts who married in 1975. The couple attended Ball State University and lived in a mobile home about eight miles from Hartford City, Indiana, in rural Montpelier.

In 1976 the couple had a daughter, Kerri. Margaret had a degree in social studies but was a stay at home mother while Bruce worked at Bob’s Grocery Store.

On January 4, 1978, Bruce’s boss contacted the authorities because he had not shown up for work in two days. Police went to Bruce and Margaret’s home and found a gruesome murder scene.

22-year-old Margaret was found lying face up in bed with merely a ripped blouse on. She was tied to the bed and had been sexually assaulted. The rest of her clothes were on the bedroom floor. She had been shot in the back of the head, two to four times.

On the bedroom floor, 20-year-old Bruce was found with his hands tied behind his back with boot laces. He was fully clothed and had also been shot in the back of the head two to four times. The attacker had used Bruce’s gun, a .22 caliber single-shot rifle, to kill the young couple.

17-month-old Kerri was sitting on the bed beside her murdered mother. It is believed that Bruce and Margaret had been dead for two days. Kerri was malnourished and dehydrated but the attacker had not harmed her. She was taken to a hospital and later released to a home under police custody.

Authorities theorize that Bruce walked in on Margaret being attacked. He had come home early to pick her up for an appointment in town. It is unknown if the attacker’s motive was only rape or also robbery. Nevertheless, authorities had a couple of suspects at the time.

36-year-old Robert L. Leslie, originally from Indiana, was wanted at the time for kidnapping in Florida and was implicated in over 12 homicides. A lot of these homicide victims were hitchhikers in Georgia and Florida. Authorities were interested in questioning him about Bruce and Margaret’s murders.

Detroit Police received a tip that he was staying at the Willard Hotel and headed there to arrest him. However, as they approached his room, Leslie shot himself in the head.

Leslie left behind a few letters, including one for his five children and another for the Detroit Police. He had previously given his sister a sealed letter and asked her to hold it for him. In the letter, he confessed to the murder of 16-year-old Trena Biddle. The young girl’s body was found half-clothed on the side of a road in rural Fort Wayne, Indiana. Leslie also implicated his wife, 22-year-old Patricia, in Trena’s sexual assault and strangulation.

According to Leslie’s unnamed sister, he told her he had not killed the couple in the mobile home. He also claimed to not have committed most of the crimes police were involving him in.

Authorities also looked into three men who Bruce had a previous incident with. In 1974, as Bruce was returning home from a date with Margaret, he found a man’s body in a roadside ditch and witnessed three men fleeing the scene.

The slain man, Ronald Parks, had been shot to death. Bruce served as a state witness in the trial. William “Pete” Walters was found guilty of Park’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. The other two men, believed to have also been involved, were set free.

These two men were investigated after Bruce and Margaret were killed. However, authorities could not prove their involvement.

Bruce and Margaret Moser were buried together at Jones Cemetery. Their murders remain unsolved 42 years later.