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SOUTH BEND. – Family and friends believed convicted sex offender Michael Lindsey had made significant strides during 25 years behind bars.
Lindsey was a model prisoner, espousing deep religious beliefs, completing law courses and helping other inmates with criminal cases.
"I thought if anybody in the world can make it on release, it would be Mike," said prison minister Tim Blakley, who has known Lindsey for almost a decade.
But in February, eight months after he was released from prison, Lindsey abducted a 19-year-old woman at knifepoint in Mishawaka and forced her to drive him 80 miles before releasing her. Now, he is in the St. Joseph County Jail, waiting to be transferred to a state prison to begin serving a more than 40-year sentence.
Officials say Lindsey had been complying with parole regulations, receiving court-ordered treatment and holding down a full-time job. He was adjusting to life with his wife, Jan, whom he met and married after she began writing letters to him in prison.
What happened?
While some believe Lindsey was never truly rehabilitated, Lindsey, 48, says he wasn't adequately prepared for the overwhelming pressure to readjust to society.
"It really started to overwhelm me," he said during sentencing. "I didn't know how to get gas, how to order food. I started wondering if I should even be out."
Lindsey served 25 years of a 50-year sentence for rape and child molesting out of Elkhart County. One of the cases involved a 13-year-old girl Lindsey abducted at knifepoint.
"I knew what he did before was terrible," Jan Lindsey said. "(But) that wasn't who he was anymore."
She said a prison psychologist told her that Lindsey, who had completed a special treatment for sex offenders while in prison, was considered low risk for re-offending.
But the world had changed since Lindsey entered prison, and he had trouble readjusting.
Lindsey had to take factory work instead of the job he'd hoped to find as a paralegal, and his stress was building though his wife said their married life was good.
"Life is so fast out here," Jan Lindsey says. "It's so slow for them in there. How do you prepare someone for something like that?"
