On October 26, 1965, a 16-year-old girl named Sylvia Lykins died in Indianapolis from shock, malnutrition, and a brain hemorrhage.

She'd been tortured for three months, and by the time she died, she could barely move or speak.

She'd been tortured, neglected, sexually humiliated, starved, beaten, and cut by her tormentors.

Her autopsy later revealed 150 wounds on her body, including cigarette burns, skin brandings, and knife wounds.

What had Sylvia done to deserve such torture?

Nothing.

And who had tortured her so brutally that it killed her?

Was it a faceless abduor, a stranger who took her for

some depraved purpose? No, her killer was a family friend and a group of children who lived

in her neighborhood, attended her school, and were actually once considered her friends.

Police officers considered her murder, one of the worst crimes in her friends. Police officers considered her murder one of the worst crimes in Indiana history.

As one senior investigator later said, I'd never seen anything like it. It was the most sadistic case I ever investigated in the 35 years that I served with the Indianapolis

Police Department. The district attorney who prosecuted the crime described it as the most

diabolical case to ever come before a court or jury. This is, without a doubt, one of the worst stories we've ever featured on the podcast.

I don't often give you a warning about the story you're about to hear.

I usually feel like you know what you're getting yourself into when you see its description ahead, but this time it's different.

I'm not sure this episode will be for everyone.

So if you choose to listen, just remember, you've been warned.

Welcome to American Hauntings, the podcast dedicated to the history, hauntings, legends, lore, and the dark side of American history. And welcome to the latest episode of Season 9, a season we call, based on a true story.

American Hauntings is written and performed by Troy Taylor, that's me, and is produced and co-hosted by Cody Back.

And this season, we're bringing you some of the scariest and most unsettling films about ghosts, demons, murder, and mayhem that have ever been shown on the silver screen.

But you can't watch any of them and say, it's only a movie.

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