(ALBION) – One of the two suspects arrested in connection with the 1975 death of a teenager has been found guilty of murder.

Tuesday afternoon, 67 year old Fred Bandy Jr. of Goshen was found guilty of during a Noble County Superior Court bench trial.

The victim, 17 year old Laurel Jean Mitchell of North Webster, disappeared on August 6, 1975 at approximately 10 PM. She left work at Epworth Forrest Church Camp on the north side of North Webster Lake. She did not arrive home and her parents reported her missing.

Laurel’s body was found at 10:30 AM on August 7 in the Elkhart River, at the Mallard Roost Public Access Site in western Noble County, 17 miles from where she was last seen. An autopsy showed she had drowned, but she struggled and fought for her life.

The case had gone cold until a break happened in early 2023 when Indiana State Police lab personnel were able to make an evidentiary correlation, which led to investigators talking to Bandy and 67 year old John Wayne Lehman of North Webster. They were both arrested in February 2023.

Bandy is scheduled to be sentenced on October 22.

Lehman agreed to a plea deal in August that would change his murder charge to conspiracy to commit murder. He will be in court on Friday.