The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 5

Indiana Edilic The Courier-Journal, Wednesday, October 19, 1977 southern regional news business deaths wmmm, IS Body found in cornfield tentatively identified as IU coed missing 5 weeks MARTINSVILLE, Ind. A badly decomposed body found in a cornfield was tentatively identified yesterday as that of missing Indiana University coed Ann Louise Harmeier, authorities said. Positive identification awaited a check of fingerprints and dental records. The 20-year-old Miss Harmeier has been missing more than five weeks, her disappearance triggering a nationwide search and an outpouring of time, concern and money from her hometown, the small eastern Indiana community of Cambridge City. The body was found in mid-afternoon by a farmer harvesting corn about five miles from where Miss Harmeier disappeared along IND 37 two miles north of here Sept.

12. because it (the body) was so badly decomposed." State police investigators, however, said they found a shoe string and a hairbrush around the young woman's neck, leading them to believe she might have been strangled. Summers said the body will be taken to Indianapolis for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The farmer, Lawrence Stafford, said he was working in the field about seven miles northeast of Martinsville. "I was just going along picking corn and ran on the body there laying between two rows," Stafford said.

He said his children often drive motorbikes through the area, and as recently as Monday, his small son, Jim, drove Morgan County Coroner James Summers said the body was that of a female about 20 years old and appeared to have been in the field about five weeks. Police said clothing at the scene a red shirt, jeans and tennis shoes matched the description of what Miss Harmeier was wearing when last seen. State troopers also said a purse found next to the body contained a paper with Miss Harmeier's name on it, and jewelry and other items known to belong to her. A police chaplain and minister were staying with Miss Harmeier's mother, Marjorie Harmeier, in Cambridge City, authorities said. Asked if there were signs of foul play, Summers said: "We couldn't tell, within 10 feet of where the body was' found and noticed nothing.

When the body was found, Indiana State Police Maj. Stan Kenney said it was unknown whether it was male or' female, but he added: "Of course, we're kind of assuming it's Ann." Crime lab technicians were dispatched to the scene from two state police posts to aid in the identification, Kenny said. On the day she disappeared Miss Har- meier's disabled car, with its emergency lights blinking, was found abandoned along the same stretch of IND 37 where the body was found. She was returning to IU's Bloomington campus from her home in Cambridge City when she dis- appeared. Bomb kills Evansville executive His car explodes in spa's parking lot Associated Press EVANSVILLE, Ind.

A wealthy city businessman died yesterday when his car exploded in the parking lot of an eastside health spa, authorities said. Ray Ryan, 72, wa9 apparently killed by professionals who rigged a bomb to the car, said Frank Cook, a local officer of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He said there were no suspects' in the case. The window-shattering explosion happened just after Ryan finished a two-hour workout at the Olympia Health and Beauty Resort, Cook said. Ryan, who became a millionaire in the 1930s as owner of the Ryan Oil was dead on arrival at St.

Mary's Hospital. Cook said the bomb was large and attached to the front of the car, but he did not know what explosive was used or how it was detonated. The health spa's owner told officers that Ryan joined about three months ago but visited the spa irregularly. Ryan was pulled from the burning car Associated Press terday afternoon. Ryan was killed in the blast, which shook nearby businesses and broke scores of windows in an adjacent apartment complex.

A bomb federal authorities believe was set by professionals left only a shell of Evansville oil millionaire Ray Ryan's 1977 Lincoln Continental yes- by an employee of a neighboring auto hotels in several states and the Mount club's membership records, but he won- parts store, who told police he heard Kenya Safari Club in East Africa. acquittal on Dec. 17, 1971. The 9th the explosion and saw the flames, Cook In 1970 a California judge sentenced Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles said. Ryan to three years in prison and fined ruled then that there was insufficient' Besides his oil interests, Ryan owned him $3,000 for allegedly altering the evidence to support the conviction.

Hearing on hurley prices tomorrow report Oil, gas data reported INDIANAPOLIS More than two-thirds of Indiana's counties produced oil and gas last year, said the Department of Natural Resources. The department released statistics provided by the Independent Petroleum Association of America that reported oil and gas exploration in 63 of the state's 92 counties in 1976. More than 23 million acres or 14.3 per cent of the state's land area were under lease for oil and gas activity last year, the report said. The average value of a barrel of crude oil at Indiana wells went up 35 cents last year, from $10.54 in 1975 to $10.89 in 1976. The department noted that oil and gas account for about 9 per cent of the state's mineral value.

Real estate rules change INDIANAPOLIS New state rules governing applicants for real estate brokers' licenses may affect people now qualified to take the broker's examination. The rules go into effect Oct. 28. Under the old rules, a person with a bachelor's degree was qualified to take the exam. The new rules say applicants must either be a licensed real estate salesman with two years' experience or have a bachelor's degree with a minor in business administration, economics or real estate.

Diana Jones, executive secretary of the Indiana Real Estate Commission, said people who qualified under the old rules must apply to the commission before Oct. 27 to be eligible to take the Feb. 25 exam. Boiven names three judges INDIANAPOLIS Gov. Otis R.

Bowen has appointed three Republicans to judgeships in LaPorte and Kosciusko Counties. Raymond M. Fox Michigan City, will replace the late Jack G. Ford, a Michigan City Democrat, as LaPorte County Superior Court judge. Fox will serve the remainder of Ford's term, which expires Dec.

31, 1978. Loren K. Collier, Warsaw, was named Kosciusko County Court judge, replacing C. Robert Burner, who resigned to accept Bowen's appointment to the Kosciusko County Superior Court bench. Collier will serve the remainder of Burner's term, which expires Jan.

1, 1981. Burner, who filled a vacancy created by the resignation of Allan A. Rasor, will serve until Jan. 1, 1979. In addition, the governor named Lucille DeVoe of Indianapolis to the Indiana Task Force on Migrant Affairs.

The duration of her term will be at Bowen's discretion. Woman dies in tractor mishap INDIANAPOLIS A woman was killed yesterday when her coat became tangled in part of a tractor, pulling her beneath it. Authorities said the victim, Joan Fulton, 37, and her husband were plowing on their farm on the northwest side of Indianapolis when the accident happened. Planes collide near Goshen GOSHEN Neither pilot was injured yesterday and only one airplane was slightly damaged after a mid-air collision near Goshen, officials of the Federal Aviation Administration in South Bend reported. Larry Pendell of Elkhart said he was flying east toward Kendallville and did not see the single-engine Cessna piloted by Jayne Schiek of Macomb, 111., until it was too late.

A window in Pendell's twin-engine Beech-craft was broken, but he landed safely at Elkhart Municipal Airport. Miss Schiek said she was on a southwestern course when she felt a slight jolt and assumed she had struck a bird. As she was landing at Goshen Municipal Airport to check for damage, she heard Pendell radio that he had just been involved in a mid-air collision. FAA officials said visibility was good when the crash occurred and said the incident was still under investigation. Treaty 'truth squads9 urged INDIANAPOLIS Indiana Atty.

Gen. Theodore L. Sendak yesterday urged American Legion posts to form "truth squads" to fight ratification of the Panama Canal treaty. He met with American Legion National Commander Robert C. Smith to discuss other ways the legion could fight the treaty.

Sendak suggested that the legion pose a series of questions about the treaty to the State Department to make sure Americans understand the treaty before the Senate votes on it. Sendak said he opposes the treaty on economic, military and constitutional grounds. Sendak and three other state attorneys general filed suit to halt ratification of the treaty on constitutional grounds, but the Supreme Court declined to consider the case. Transfer of TV license opposed BLOOMINGTON An assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University filed a petition Monday with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny the transfer of the license of television station WTTV from Sarkes Tarzian Inc. to Teleco Detroit, Mich.

The professor, Herbert Terry, filed the petition because he said the station, licensed to serve Bloomington and Indianapolis, may primarily serve Indianapolis if the sale is approved. He said Bloomington is legally entitled to top priority in service. Tarzian Inc. tentatively sold the station to Teleco in July for $26 million. The FCC must approve the sale for it to go into effect.

From Associated Press and Special Dispatches gin boycotting markets if their support prices aren't raised and some consider-. ation given to their increased production costs. "We're scared to death that there's a real effort to eliminate the tobacco price-support program, and we want to make sure that the burley farmers of Kentucky and Indiana are heard," Dorrell said. i The views of all the speakers at the meeting tomorrow will be tape recorded; Dorrell said, and written statements will be accepted, too. The statements and tape recordings will be forwarded to the Tobacco Task Force in Washington.

The Jefferson County, Indiana, 4-H Fairgrounds is located just west of the junction of IND 256 and IND 62, just west of Madison. utilizes a cost of production clause, so that when a farmer's production expenses increase, so does his support price. This year, according to the Jefferson County, Kentucky, extension office, the average support price will be $1.17 per pound. According to Dorrell, if the flat-rate plan rather than the current parity program is adopted, "it wouldn't be any time before your small burley farmers would be down the drain." "The flat-rate plan wouldn't take inflation into account at all, and pretty soon the government would have the tobacco farmers where they have the wheat and corn farmers now," Dorrell said. Many grain farmers in the Midwest have threatened in recent weeks to be But Bergland's task force, formed last year to review the federal tobacco price-support program, seemingly ignored these two burley-belt areas.

So the Indiana Farmers Union decided to hold their own hearing. According to Lawrence Dorrell, legislative director for the union, the Berg-land task force is said to be about ready to present its price-support recommendations to the Department of Agriculture and to Congress. The union thinks those recommendations will include scrapping the current price-support program in favor of a flat-rate system. Under the flat rate, the support price for tobacco would remain constant, without a cost-of-production increase factor. The current price-support program.

By GLENN RUTHERFORD Courier-Journal Staff Writer MADISON, Ind. When Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland's Tobacco Task Force didn't schedule any public hearings in Indiana or Kentucky, that made the Indiana Farmers Union angry. So they're holding their own public hearing at 1 p.m. EST tomorrow at the Jefferson County, Indiana, 4-H Fairgrounds here, and Kentucky hurley farmers are welcome to speak their pieces at the meeting, too. Indiana burley farmers produce an annual cash crop of about $17 million, and their counterparts in Kentucky are responsible for that state's largest agricultural crop.

Last year Kentucky farmers sold $520 million worth of burley tobacco. Inaccurate Indiana Gas Co. meters may be costing 44,000 customers Phone hearings slated today and tomorrow The Courier-Journal Southern Indiana Bureau CORYDON, Ind. Public hearings 'r on proposed rate increases for customers of the Continental Telephone Co. will be held here today and tomorrow.

The hearings will convene at the Com- munity Service Center in Corydon at 9:30 a.m., but they will be transferred at 10 a.m. to the circuit courtroom in Harrison County Courthouse. A 4 p.m. session is scheduled later in the day at the Corydon Junior High School gymnasium, 700 E. Chestnut St.

for those unable to attend the morning session. Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS More than 44,000 Indiana Gas Co. customers may be paying too much because of inaccurate gas meters, a Public Service Commission engineering report says. The report, based on January-to-Au-gust meter test information requested from the utility, is to be offered in evidence when the commission resumes hearings tomorrow on Indiana Gas' petition for a $15.6 million rate increase. However, a company official said about 35,000 customers aren't being billed enough because their meters are running too slow.

In either case, said H.C. Spencer, public-relations vice president for the utility, any bill adjustments would be that most of those were less than 4 per cent fast. The report recommended: That the PSC require the utility to "make every effort to immediately comply with the commission's rules for gas meter tests, but in no event should compliance be required later than July 1, 1979." The rules, it noted, should have been complied with by last April 12. That the PSC require the utility to make refunds or credits on all meters found to be more than 2 per cent fast since Oct. 14, 1976, the date that new rules affecting gas utilities took effect.

If this isn't done, the report said, the commission should hold a hearing to consider possible violations of rules. Under PSC rules, gas utilities are required to make refunds or credits when meters read more than 2 per cent fast. They are allowed to make extra charges when meters are found to be more than 2 per cent slow. Indiana Gas serves about 295.000 customers in and adjacent to 189 cities, towns and communities in 45 counties in north-central, central and southern Indiana. The utility does not serve Marion County.

The engineering report quoted Robert M. Bray, Indiana Gas senior vice president in finance, as saying the utility is not making billing adjustments as the result of inaccurate meters unless a customer requests that a meter be tested. The report said 23.5 per cent of 18,867 meters tested were more than 2 per cent fast. Spencer said, however, IU medical school won't follow plan to admit Americans trained abroad Tomorrow another session will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the circuit courtroom.

Telephone-company customers may testify about the proposed rate increases, which would give the telephone company the $485,180 additional annual revenue it says it needs. The rate increases would not affect all subscribers of Continental equally. Some who have private lines, as many Corydon residents do, would pay $13.15 a month. Georgetown customers, who can call New Albany and Jeffersonville toll free, would pay $17.55 a month. (Cory- don subscribers must pay long-distance i rates for Jeffersonville and New Albany calls.) Continental serves 13 exchanges in Southern Indiana and four in Western -Indiana.

The hearings are being conducted by the Indiana Public Service Commission. Beg your pardon Ms. Willena Hawkins was incorrectly identified as Mrs. William Hawkins in a cutline in a story about the Ebonaise Club Sunday in Accent. studies at the medical school, with preference given to Hoosier natives.

He added that most of the estimated 6,000 Americans enrolled in foreign medical schools are New York and New Jersey residents who haven't been admitted to the crowded medical schools in their own states. Beering said IU already graduates one of the largest medical classes in the nation and would be unfairly burdened if forced ot accept more students. their training at each U.S. medical school, regardless of their home state or academic qualifications. Beering said IU would not stand to receive any additional federal funds if it agreed to the admission guidelines.

He said the $1 million loss would be the final portion of a grant that probably will not be renewed. Beering said that, in the last 10 years, IU has been a leader in accepting foreign-trained students to finish their Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS The Indiana University School of Medicine will not follow proposed guidelines for admitting foreign-trained Americans, even though it may lose a $1 million federal grant. Dean Steven C. Beering said IU is among 94 of the nation's 118 medical schools objecting to the Health Manpower Act that Congress is considering. He said a provision of the bill would assign a quota of American students to finish.