Cynthia Albrecht was a Speedway chef who catered to Indy 500 drivers and celebrities, until she disappeared.

Weeks later, authorities found her body. They never found her head.

The murder of a rising culinary star that horrified and captivated Indianapolis 26 years ago will be featured on an episode of "True Conviction," scheduled to air 10 p.m. Tuesday on Investigation Discovery.

Albrecht, 31, disappeared from her Speedway home on Oct. 25, 1992. It was the day before a court date was set to finalize her divorce from race car mechanic Michael Albrecht.

Three weeks later, deer hunters found Cynthia's body in Newton County in northern Indiana, headless and naked under a thin blanket of leaves and twigs.

Investigators immediately focused attention on her soon-to-be ex-husband, but Michael had an alibi. A friend swore that Michael was with him in Milwaukee on the night Cynthia went missing.

It would take authorities five years to pierce the lies and arrest Michael for his wife's murder, said Larry Sells, the lead prosecutor in the case.

"He didn't want the divorce," said Sells, who still works for the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. "The evidence showed he was really upset with her."

An alibi and a changing story

Michael had been fired from his job with Simon Racing. Sells said Michael was convinced his wife was behind his dismissal.

Cynthia was a chef for Penske Racing, traveling the country and catering to drivers, sponsors and celebrities including Donald Trump, General Norman Schwarzkopf and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

On the day she disappeared, Cynthia had just returned home from the final race of the season and was planning to meet her boyfriend in Florida.

Police found her unopened luggage, purse and wallet. The front door was locked, the back patio door was unlocked. Her keys were in the apartment and her car was parked outside.

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Michael's alibi kept him out of jail, but detectives on the case were never convinced of his innocence.

Details of the timeline and the alibi kept changing, Sells said. Police learned that Michael took out a $50,000 insurance policy on Cynthia — after they separated.

Sells said Speedway Police Lt. Bill Jones and an Indiana State Police Detective Bill Kruegar kept the investigation alive and in 1997, they convinced Sells and then-Prosecutor Scott Newman to file murder charges.

Police arrested Michael and the friend from Wisconsin who provided the cover story.

Facing a possible felony for assisting a criminal, Albrecht's friend William Filter tearfully admitted he had lied.

'You want to see her?'

"Filter broke down and cried when he changed his story and told us that Albrecht admitted he had killed Cynthia," Speedway police investigator Bill Jones told The Indianapolis Star in a story published Sept. 4, 1997.

"I think it finally got to him. He had been carrying it around inside himself for a long time and couldn't deal with it any longer."

Filter testified in exchange for immunity. During Michael's murder trial, Filter admitted he had lied to protect his longtime friend.

Filter told the jury that Michael had talked about killing and decapitating his wife before she went missing.

Albrecht drove to Milwaukee and returned to Indianapolis that night to kill Cynthia, Sells said. Filter testified that Michael showed up in Wisconsin the next morning.

Filter, Sells said, asked Michael: "Did you do it?"

"Yes," Michael told him, according to Sells. "She's in the trunk. You want to see her?"

Filter took a step towards the car then said, "No, I don't think so."

"Just listening to him say that sent chills up the spine," Sells said. "It had a ring of truth to it."

Michael was jealous that his wife had started a relationship with the other man she was planning to visit in Florida, Sells said. He was angry because he believed Cynthia was the reason he got fired.

He was also motivated by money, said Sells, the co-author of a soon-to-be published book on the Albrecht case titled "Race To Justice."

Sells said Michael was afraid that once the divorce was finalized he would not be able to collect on the life insurance policy he had recently taken out on Cynthia.

Michael Albrecht has maintained his innocence since the day his wife disappeared.

A jury disagreed. A Marion County judge handed Michael a maximum prison sentence of 60 years, which he is serving at the Plainfield Correctional Facility. His earliest release date is June 4, 2023.

Sells said he believes Michael strangled Cynthia in her apartment, wrapped her body in a comforter, loaded it in his trunk and drove to Wisconsin to meet Filter.

Michael, he said, then drove to the northern Indiana woods to hide Cynthia's body. Police know Michael spent a lot of time on the road and even drove to Florida in the days after Cynthia disappeared, Sells said.

Sells said he suspects he cut off Cynthia's head in those woods and kept it with him for a couple more days at least.

"We never did find her head," Sells said.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at 317-444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.