Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA rural La Porte County cemetery holding the graves of named Belle Gunness murder victims, including Jennie Olsen and Andrew Helgelien.
Patton Cemetery Rd, La Porte, IN 46350
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission; public cemetery.
Access
Limited Access
Rural cemetery with grass-covered grounds; uneven terrain possible
Equipment
Photos OK
Burial Site of Belle Gunness Murder Victims · Jennie Olsen Grave · Andrew Helgelien Grave · Peter Gunness Grave · True Crime Pilgrimage Site
Patton Cemetery occupies rural La Porte County ground within a few miles of the McClung Road farm property where Belle Gunness killed an estimated 40 or more people between approximately 1901 and 1908. In the aftermath of the April 1908 farmhouse fire and the subsequent excavation of victim remains, the identifiable victims were buried in area cemeteries, with Patton serving as the resting place for several of the most historically significant.
Jennie Olsen, who was approximately 15 years old when she disappeared from the Gunness farm around 1902, is buried at Patton. Gunness had told neighbors Jennie left for a Lutheran college; her remains were among those excavated from the farm in 1908 after the fire. Andrew Helgelien, the South Dakota man whose correspondence with Gunness and subsequent disappearance in January 1908 prompted his brother Asle to contact La Porte authorities, is also buried at Patton. Peter Gunness, Belle's second husband, who died in December 1906 in circumstances officially ruled accidental, has a marker in the cemetery as well.
The La Porte Herald-Dispatch has covered the cemetery's significance on multiple occasions as community interest in the Gunness case has grown. The early 20th-century graves retain their original markers, and the site has become a point of pilgrimage for researchers, podcasters, and true crime enthusiasts who make the Gunness case part of a wider La Porte County heritage itinerary that includes the former farm site on McClung Road.
Sources
The paranormal dimension of Patton Cemetery is inseparable from its documented historical identity as a burial ground for named Gunness victims. True crime accounts and paranormal research focused on the Gunness case treat the cemetery as part of a dual-site itinerary alongside the McClung Road farm location, with the farm generating more specific paranormal claims and the cemetery serving as a place of historical documentation.
Accounts from cemetery visitors describe a solemn and historically charged atmosphere rather than specific paranormal events, though a handful of investigators have reported anomalous photography results and cold-spot phenomena near the Olsen and Helgelien graves. The graves of children who died at the farm are similarly noted as focal points for visitor attention and occasional reported sensitivity.
The La Porte community has had a complex and evolving relationship with the Gunness legacy. The case received national press coverage in 1908 and has never fully left public attention — it was the subject of a major true crime podcast revival in the 2010s and continues to draw researchers. The cemetery is not actively promoted by the county as a tourism destination but is regularly referenced in Gunness case materials as an accessible, historically significant site.
Notable Entities
Patton Cemetery holds the grave markers of several named Belle Gunness murder victims and family members, including Jennie Olsen, Andrew Helgelien (the suitor whose disappearance broke the case), and Peter Gunness (her second husband). It is a documented pilgrimage site for true crime researchers and Gunness case historians.
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