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Logline
More than five decades after a brutal 1968 abduction and murder in western Pennsylvania, the people who survived it, and the families who lived with its aftermath, finally tell the story in their own words.
Film Synopsis
On March 28, 1968, four young people were kidnapped in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Three escaped. Mike, a Virginia Military Institute cadet, didn't survive the night. For 55 years, almost no one talked about what happened -- not Mike's family, not his fiancée Cheryl, not Rick, the friend who survived alongside him. No one ever asked.
In 2023, a local author published a book on the case, based on court records and rumor. He approached us about bringing the book to life. But the deeper we looked, the more we realized the book only had half of it. The people who actually lived through that night had never been part of the story at all.
A Murder in Mercer is built from their accounts. Mike's story, through his family and friends, and Rick's story, in his own words, after 55 years of nobody asking. And the story of Bob Perrine, son of one of the men responsible, who the book never mentioned at all.
The film isn't interested in simply retelling what was already documented. Instead, it turns to the people who lived with the consequences and finally gives them the opportunity to tell their own stories.
PRESS KIT
Quick Facts
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A Murder in Mercer
Documentary Feature
Dr. Brittany L. Fleming & James Cressman
1 hour 10 minutes 10 seconds
FarOut211@gmail.com
2026 McDonough Storytellers Film Festival
Press Coverage
The Record-Argus (Aug. 22, 2026). Based on local true crime, '[A] Murder in Mercer" hots big screen as documentary. Reporter: Holly Patterson.
Renda Digital TV (August 21, 2026). A Murder in Mercer: An Interview with Directors. Reporter: Matt Lewis.
The Indiana Gazette (Aug. 13, 2026). True-crime documentary to premiere at Indiana Theater. Reporter: Amanda Dunlop.
Film Stew (Aug. 7, 2026). Documentary revisits horrific 1968 abduction and murder spree in Pennsylvania. Reporter: Richard Horgan.
NewsTalk WCCS 101.1 FM and 1160 AM. (July 24, 2026). Brittany Fleming and James Cressman Visit Todd Marino on Indiana in the Morning.
Filmmaker Bios
James Cressman -- Co-Director/Producer graduated from Slippery Rock University in 2023 with a degree in strategic communication and media and an emphasis in digital media. He is a freelance videographer and editor, and a part-owner of Horizons Media. Cressman specializes in archiving and preserving analog media.
He lives in Indiana with his two dogs and fiancée.
Brittany L. Fleming, Ph.D. -- Co-Director/Producer is an associate professor at Slippery Rock University and a documentary filmmaker based in western Pennsylvania. A Murder in Mercer is her debut feature.
Fleming's connection to this story is personal as much as professional. She attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the same school Mike's fiancée Cheryl once did, and has spent her life and career in the communities this story touches: Ford City, Indiana and Slippery Rock, all within reach of Mercer County. When she began looking into what happened in 1968, it wasn't as an outsider. It was in her own backyard.
What kept her on the project, though, was Rick. Getting to know him and his family over the course of production is what turned a research interest into a three-year commitment to telling this story right.
Fleming co-directed the film with James Cressman, who began the project as her student at Slippery Rock University. For Fleming, that collaboration reflects what she tries to bring to her classroom: the belief that students learn most by doing real work, not simulated versions of it.
She lives in Indiana, Pennsylvania with her family.
