The Oakland County Child Killer /// Part 1 /// 232 | Forensic Files

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well on a very basic level people who are from Detroit simply don't like to get pushed around I guess and and I got
tired of listening to the rhetoric surrounding the the investigation or the alleged in alleged investigation into
the Oakland County child killings um there there are two possible reasons this case was never officially closed
and I I don't I don't believe in the first one which which is that the incompetence of the
investigation uh led to it remaining open for four over four decades now the other the other reason this case was
never officially closed was that it was not meant to be closed and and I could tell from from very early on listening
to the news stories about this case and doing some initial reading there were certain people in in positions of power
who didn't didn't want this thing shut because to shut the case means you have to come up with a a conclusion and but
on a very personal level this case anchored in me very early on uh because when I was a kid somebody tried to
snatch me while I was walking home from the Sentry drugs that that used to be at
uh Evergreen Plaza they called it over at 11 Mile in Evergreen in Southfield which is outside of Detroit nothing
happened somebody I thought was a security guard had followed me out of the store gotten into his car followed
me for three blocks and and then later tried to get me into that car I ran away I never told anybody and as an adult um
I started thinking of of the time period in which this attempted snatch of me happened and and it was the same time
period in which the uh Oak County child killings were occurring 7677 and uh the same M Mo uh people
thought uh snatching kids from outside little strip malls they speculated that it was uh somebody acting in a position
of power like a security guard or police officer [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
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gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime people from Michigan often describe
their state as a mitten they hold up their right hand and point to where they live on their Palm in regards to this
week's case they would show you the location of Oakland County by pointing to the base of their
thumb sounds odd but ask anyone from Michigan and the Hand will come up Oakland county is near Detroit in the
1970s it was a county that had very high- paid Executives as well as many middle class blue collar
workers this combination provided both great schools and a safe environment but Oakland county is not
famous for the schools or the industry it is Infamous for the serial killer who found his prey
[Music] there this week we are talking about the case of the Oakland County child killer
it is a 40-year-old unsolved mystery where in 1976 and 77 children were abducted and held for days then they
were murdered and staged the killer stole these kids off the streets before holding them captive he fed them and
took care of their physical needs while at the same time torturing them the bodies were not tossed out or dumped
like garbage the killer cleaned them and placed them in public places the bodies were easy to find but
the killer was not what happened to him some have speculated that the killer committed suicide taking his secrets to
the Grave some believe that just like the boogeyman he terrified us and vanished
back into the Shadows years later people began to wonder was this the work of something
bigger something even more Sinister than a lone [Music] [Music] killer Mark steans lived in Ferndale
Michigan one of the many hamlets inside Oakland County Ferndale is primarily residential with a smaller commercial
and Industrial sector in the southeast part of the city ferndale's business district is anchored by the intersection
of Woodward Avenue and 9mile road where privately owned storefronts dance clubs bars and numerous restaurants are
featured in the 1970s the Ferndale suburb Community emerged as a place for families to raise children during the
baby boom era with its elementary schools a Downtown City Parks active churches and Civic groups it was a small
town just like the other towns where these victims lived peacefully up until the day that they were taken Mark was
born September 13th 1963 now in 1976 Mark was a seventh grader at Lincoln Jor high he lived with his
mother after his parents split up when he was just 5 years old besides his mother Mark lived with his older brother
Michael Mark was an average 12-year-old boy in just about every way he was 4' 8 Ines tall and weighed about 100 lb but
life was about to change for everyone in Oakland County yeah this is going to be
Sunday February 15th 1976 this would turn out to be a rainy day but it was quite warm for the season
Mark's mother Ruth wanted to attend a work party at the American Legion Hall so mark his brother Michael Ruth and her
boyfriend drove the three blocks to the hall when they arrived there was a pool tournament in progress but watching
adults drink and play pool only entertains a 12-year-old boy for so long so Mark before the party was over asked
his mother if he could head home he wanted to go home and watch television his mom was hesitant but she did allow
Mark to leave alone Mark then asked her for a quarter so he could buy some ice cream at the store
next door to the American Legion his mom reminded him that he had just received his allowance and said no now his
brother offered to go along with him but Mark he was 12 and he said he would be fine by
himself at 12:25 p.m. Mark steans walked out of the hall alone now sometime in the 700 p.m. hour Ruth tried to call
Mark at home but there was no answer this did not raise any alarms and probably shouldn't have but she so she's
not worried and she continued to enjoy the party at 9:00 she returned to an empty house now this put her on edge a
bit but she figured she would wait one more hour to see if Mark would come home he did not and at 10:00 Ruth called the
police and reported him as missing the police responded to the Steen house not expecting anything more than a runaway
or a kid who lost track of time the police informed her we haven't had any kidnappings in Ferndale in 10 years but
nonetheless the search for the 12-year-old boy began they searched abandoned buildings and other stops
popular with the kids but nothing turned up and he never came back and then the hours turned to days the walk from the
American Legion to Mark's house was only three blocks what could he have encountered on such a short walk home
and unfortunately 4 days later they're going to find his body yeah this is on on Thursday February 19th at
approximately 11:40 a.m. when a man is out picking up lunch from the Fairfax Plaza office building he spotted a body
lying on a pile of leaves near the building's dumpster the man found Mark Stan's body curled on a snow bank in the
fetal position it appeared that the body was placed there gently the odd thing here Captain this is not a secluded
location it is and was an active office building with people coming and going all day long right so the perpetrator
could have been seen by anybody yeah this killer was bold enough to remove mark from whatever kind of vehicle he
was driving and place the body in a location where he the killer could have been easily spotted or at least his
vehicle seen by somebody well on the extra time that he's going to be taking to place the body in a certain position
this spot is only 2 and 1 12 miles from Mark's house but even in that short distance we have a different police
jurisdiction so the victim Mark lived in Ferndale but his body was found in Southfield this is another town in
Oakland County and one has to wonder if this is done on purpose yeah would the killer have been aware of this uh did he
Place Mark there knowing that it would involve another Police Department so the Southfield Police arrived to find Mark
the scene was like no other upon the first review of Mark there were several things that jumped out at the officers
Mark appeared to be clean Mark was wearing the clothes he had on the day he disappeared his jacket was zipped up and
his hood was pulled over his head the Southfield Police radioed in the information that they had found the
boy's body this quickly got back to Ferndale police and they realized that their missing person's case just became
a murder investigation the Ferndale police showed up at the office building and started to
process the scene this is hard to believe knowing today's practices but remember we have two different police
departments working this one crime scene well and remember it's the late 70s I mean doctors used to smoke in the
hospital well and in this area too Captain neither of these police jurisdictions neither of these
departments had much experience in murder cases so rather than process the scene believe it or not the Southfield
Police removed Mark's Body this is just wrong of course but they take the body to the police station not to the morg to
the police station then they decide to remove Mark's clothes at the police station then after sending the body to
the morg they go back and processed the scene back at the dump site they decide to involve a local psychiatrist this is
Bruce Danto he was brought to the scene to create a profile of this killer but he had a better idea or at least at
least a better idea that he thought to him yes so he suggested that they place a life-sized
child's mannequin wearing similar clothes as Mark in the same spot so let's stop here and review shall we well
first of all what the hell does it have to do with profiling the perpetrator well he's brought into profile and I
think what he thought was let's see if we can get the killer to return to the scene and we'll just arrest him on the
spot and I we won't need to up with any profile so I know that this whole thing sounds like a very weird technique but
it's not unique it's not a unique technique so well let me just see if I'm hearing you right okay so the idea from
this doctor is that we're going to take this mannequin and we're going to place them in similar clothes or the same
clothes no similar clothes similar clothes and we're going to put them in the similar position and it's kind of
out in the open we know that sometimes Killers will go back mhm to where they dump victims to kind of see has the
victim been found yet so their idea is that the the suspect will come back mhm and when he
comes back we arrest him on the spot correct okay and and like I said though it it sounds weird but it's not a
technique that was unique and I mean that for the time period I don't know that they would do something like this
today or I can't find any recent where they did something like this today but we know that in the Michigan murders in
the case it's often referred to as the Michigan murders they used this technique they've used it in the Green
River Killer case as well as the Atlanta child murders right now question would you sign up for this special Duty CU
that's what they'd call it they'd have special Duty where police officers would have to wait in their vehicle somewhere
mhm looking for the suspect to return of course of course so like in the you get
the Donuts I'll get the coffee but here's the reason why I think that he decided to do this or at least suggested
it was because the Michigan murders took place in 1967 through 1969 right and that was when Ann Arbor brought in a man
named Peter Heros to assist he had he had assisted in the Boston Strangler case so they brought this dude in and
say look we got a serial killer and we need to try some things to try to figure out who this guy is now I don't recall
for certain whose idea it was but it was likely Hero's idea that they employed this technique in the Michigan murders
the idea as you said that the killer would return to the bodies um I'm guessing my guess here captain and I
would be willing to wager a $100 bill bill and sixpack of beer that Danto the guy brought in on the Oakland County
case on Mark stean murder had studied the Michigan murders case and was taking a tactic from that and whether or not
you think this is a genius idea or a dumbass idea what could it hurt really right well other than destroying the
crime scene it doesn't hurt much well but if you process the crime scene properly in advance correct but here's
the problem with it with using this technique uh or tactic in this particular case so the main there's two
main reasons why the killer will return turn to the body the first being and and
actually most of the time it being sexual for sexual reasons the killer will return to the body there's also
investigative where the killer wants to see why nobody's found the body right the problem with this situation is this
situation is unique in that most of the times when the in fact the the investigations that we just discussed
the Michigan murders the Green River Killer the Atlanta child murders and there's more but the bodies that they
were returning to were secluded they were in the woods they were hidden this this body is left out in the open so
returning to the body for sexual reasons means you're going to have to bring the
pick up the body and take it with you you know it seems unlikely that a killer would dump the body in a very public
open location not secluded and then choose to return to it yeah and you got to be pretty Brazen to return to open
area and then drop trial and it almost seems usually when a killer will leave a body in a very public place like this
that psychologically for some reason it's almost a sign of of that maybe they want the body to be found sooner rather
than later for some some unknown reason yeah you wonder if that is um kind of a control thing like I'm letting you find
the body well we could go through our thoughts on the actual crime scene but the general report is simple they just
took a crime scene that that they could have produced something and they destroyed it so Footprints fingerprints
and fibers were destroyed they had nothing and we will get back to this in a minute the medical examiner findings
were as follows Mark had been alive wellfed and cared for during the time he was missing about 4 days presumably by
his killer or someone involved we say care for for a lack of better terms someone who is kidnapped and later
killed is never really cared for by the perpetrator mhm the cause of death was strangulation this could have been any
number of ways some suggest it could have been as simple as covering Mark's nose and mouth with a hand or hands or a
bag placed over his head they found a large wound on the back of Mark's head they concluded this was from either from
the car trunk slam slamming down on his head as he was thrown into the trunk of the car right or it could have been from
the killer striking Mark in the back of the head with a shotgun this was violence that Mark had experienced in
the first few hours of the abduction Mark was sexually assaulted with an object what object we do not know but
this would be important so police could find could they could possibly look for this item as they investigate the case
Mark was bound and likely for a good length of time we know this because he had rope burns on his ankles and hands
further digging we find that it was determined that The Binding marks on the wrist and ankles were believed to have
been caused by an eighth or qu inch Bell Telephone type wire his body was bathed
his nails were cleaned and trimmed and this leads to several questions right Captain one did Mark struggle with his
abductor scratching him leaving evidence under Mark's fingernails and the killer
then decided to clean and trim the nails was Mark bathed before or after he was killed did this killer tell Mark he was
safe in taking him home convincing Mark to bathe and put on his clean clothes to
meet his parents after this nightmarish 4 days these are all good questions that
anyone who has studied this case has likely pondered right you want the answers to these questions well here you
go well if we have the shotgun attack on the back of the head and they think that
happened early in the abduction maybe is that how he got Mark into his car if he's posing as a
security guard or a police officer and he gets this young kid to turn around put your hands on the car crack him with
your shotgun mhm or a gun and then put him in the vehicle well let's provide a few answers to some of those questions
okay because this is reported just wrong and it has been reported wrong for 40 years so why here's the truth okay Mark
was washed cleaned uh clothes washed and cleaned no evidence or mess was found that has always been what was reported
because of a report PR prepared by Lauren D of Springfield PD the truth is and this is taken from this week's
recommended reading the kill jar that on February 20th 1976 evidence collected from The Mark steans scene was received
by Charlotte day at the Michigan State Police crime lab and reported on March 2nd 1976 as chronicled in that report on
the body of steans his blue parka with blood stains on the hood blue jeans soiled with dirt
and oil from the parking lot where he was found Trace fibers of white wool red wool blue wool and yellow or gold
carpeting one human hair whose Source was other than Steen was found rodent hair and dog hair on all outerwear and
unknown source of decorative blue paint on Stein's left rubber boot urine and feal stains in his
underpants soil and perspiration stains on his T-shirt Stein's red sweatshirt was stained with blood now that's a
completely different report than we found no evidence and the boy was washed and cleaned his clothes were washed and
cleaned right just if you're wondering you shouldn't find any of that stuff after you wash clothes right right uh
yeah so a completely different report why I think it has to do with several things here likely one the mishandling
of the body remember we said that the body was sent to the police department before it went to the morg right the
clothes were removed from the body before it went to the morg so I'm guessing here that what you have is you
have two different reports conducted by two different people at two different locations and they each have different
findings one finds a messy body with evidence on it all over it and the other finds a clean body with no evidence well
maybe one of them's processing the dummy well what has always made its way to the
media and to documentaries regarding this case this 40-year-old unsolved mystery is the clean version that no
evidence was found that the body was cleaned so for the next 10 months Captain the Southfield infernale Police
investigated they called in The Usual Suspects the registration of sex offenders would not start for another 20
years but they would round up the local sex perverts and they were checked out yeah you got to round up the local
flicky flickies but uh the other thing here though is this if you're going to if you're going to profile this suspect
having a clean victim washed and bathed and clothes clean and now a dirty victim
with dirty clothes you would profile this killer differently mhm oh of course I think the thing to hone in on is the
the four days the 96 hours that someone held Mark captive so let's think about that how do you hold a child for that
long from the afternoon of Sunday then all of Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday morning can you go to work
during that time can you do this by yourself or do you need someone's help and where do you live that you can bring
a child to your house without suspicion and hold them there for that many [Music]
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freedom [Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers captain on Wednesday December 22nd
1976 12-year-old sixth grader Jill Robinson and her mom agreed on one thing that they had had enough of each other
they lived in Royal Oak another town like Southfield and fern this is about 10 minutes from where Mark
Stein's body was found Jill's dad Tom had divorced the mother a few years earlier now she had a long day already
and now she was rushing to get dinner on the table before going to church Jill's
mom asked Jill to make biscuits for dinner and Jill was known as being a smart and stubborn girl she was having a
bad day too so Wednesdays are supposed to be the days that Jill would spend spend with her father he would get her
after school and they would have the evening together well Tom failed to get Jill on this Wednesday no surprise
surprise and now she is stuck with her mom and sister for the night not exactly what she wanted she was also not
sleeping well lately because she was having this reoccurring nightmare this nightmare was so concerning to Carol
that Jill was seeing a psychiatrist to help uh help her through this problem what was the dream about the nightmare
that she was having I don't know exactly what the nightmare was but she's stating that it
caused Jill to have fear that someone was going to shoot her to death that she would be shot at some point in her life
Jill refused to help with the dinner and an argument started between the two Carol was at her breaking point and she
looked at her daughter and she shouted get out which was Was Heard loud and clear Jill grabbed her denim backpack
and she was going to take off she filled she filled the backpack with her hairbrush a blue and green plaid blanket
some makeup some underwear and two books no so she's going to go live out on her
own not exactly the the first book is a first edition Little House on the Prairie book this one had an inscription
from a family member that gave it to her as a gift the second book she checked out of the library which was a Nancy
Drew mystery these books are very important Clues now Jill before leaving is going to put on winter clothes it was
below freezing outside and as she was leaving she told her younger sister that she was going to their father's house
she slammed the door behind her now her father's home is approximately 6 miles away so she grabbed her bike she loved
her bike it was a high-speed brand 20-in frame purple with chrome f Enders it had
a white banana seat sounds like your bike she hopped on her bike and she was gone mhm Jill's mom waited an hour and
went outside to look for her Carol thought that she would find Jill sitting out front of their house ready to
apologize but when she got out there there was no sign of Jill so Carol called Tom Jill's father and when he
told her that she wasn't there and he had not seen her Carol called the police and reported her missing the police
began searching they checked if she had stopped at any stores and they interviewed a bunch of people Joe was
seen by a family friend at about 7:30 p.m. near the Tiny Tim hobby center they didn't find anyone who saw her after
this nothing the police found nothing else until the next day this is when the police found her bike in the 160 block
of Washington Street it was leaning against a tree the police started searching the neighborhood when a local
teenager came up to them and informed them that they had found the bike he and his friends somewhere else and they had
been out joy riding it through the area before leaving it at the tree MH so the police went to 1523 North Main Street
this is where the boys said that they had originally found the bike the address was for a building in a business
area the bike was found at the rear of the building according to the boys now this would be a concealed area behind
the building about a 3/4 of a mile from Jill's home it was in the direction that
she would have traveled if she was in route to her father's house I won't put too much emphasis on where the bike was
found or where it could have been during the course of that day because we now know all these years later that we have
many reasons to believe that the bike was moved several times throughout the course of this time period before it was
found by the police well first of all the police need to tell these kids look what you did you little jerk don't move
a bike it's not yours that's stealing long days passed as everyone searched for Jill now the day after Christmas
Sunday December 26th 1976 at 6:30 a.m. 4 days after her disappearance a motorist
driving Northbound in Troy Michigan saw her body on on the I75 shoulder he got on his CB Radio and contacted the police
MH he reported this but was gone by the time that the police had arrived the police arrived to find a girl who was
shot in the face and killed it appeared she was shot Point Blank the police reported a Halo of crimson around her
head Jill's body was placed in the snow fully clothed with her backpack still on
her there was a light layer of snow on the body this location was not shielded in any
way anyone driving down the road could have witnessed this murder or The Dumping of the body in fact Jill's body
was within Sight and Sound of the Troy police station no one at the police station heard or saw a thing but there
was a witness the witness was driving his car on Highway I75 at 3:30 in the morning when he spotted a 1971 ponti
lamons idling on the highway shoulder the witness slowed down and merged into the left lane as he approached the
lemons the lemons slowly pulled onto the road the witness was adamant to the police that it was in fact a 1971 lemons
because he had once owned the same vehicle similar vehicle the witness offered up specific details regarding
the vehicle there were primer spots on the left side and a broken left tail light Jill's body was transported to the
morg and an a topsy was performed she was fully clothed she still had her backpack on the two books were missing
her body was bathed and her nails were trimmed and clean Jill had been quote cared for and fed during the 4 days that
she was missing Jill was also placed where she was found not dumped or thrown I I think it's fair to say we have the
right to question the last few items that we stated here you know we we saw in the mark steans incident that one
thing is reported and another thing actually happened regarding the body yeah if there's urine and FEI those
clothes weren't washed the cause of death was from a shotgun blast to her face while she was lying on her back so
she was killed where she was found she had died the same way that she had feared that she would or at least what
she had told her mom and the psychiatrist wait go back to that so you're you're claiming that they're stating that she
was killed where she was left yes but this eyewitness that saw the car leaving the scene did not hear anything did not
hear anything and there's also no other reports of hearing anything right and like I said the Troy police department
is within an earshot yeah shotgun blast going to there's going to be somebody reporting that what what makes them
believe this if nobody heard it then there's no one to report it mhm I'm just saying what other evidence did they have
to make it them think that the the actual death happened where well where the victim was I had reported the Crim
the Halo of crimson above her head mhm so that would be the the blood being blasted out of her I mean I can't put it
there's no nice way to put it the blood being blasted out of her head as she was
shot in the in the in the face with the shotgun mhm uh the crown of her I was going to leave this out of the story but
uh since pushed for an explanation the top of her head was located there as well did they do an autopsy to find out
if she if there was strangulation at all um look it's the report is the same as with Mark and what we will with the
other two victims as well the public the public reports of these are not the actual findings not the actual police
findings right and all of these situations we're going to be told and at some point it became like almost like
lore like like local Legend right that this mystery of a killer who's who's so smart and so tactful that they decide
you know what I'm going to I'm going to abduct children off of the streets um and these are middle class kids too
I'm going to take these kids and I'm going to keep them do whatever I want and I'm going to clean them scrub them
clean to the point where you can't find anything on me mhm you know they want that there's this portrayal of some kind
of Genius child killer that was stalking the area right and really as we saw with
the Mark Stein case that wasn't the case that's not how the body was found it was
right but we see this a lot in the the 60s 70s 80s 90s 2000s and and it's really just starting to turn over now
where this idea of these genius killers and these genius serial killers like if this guy was such a damn genius then why
is his tail light busted you know what I mean if if in fact that was the car that
dumped the body or placed her there and then shot her there right but again here's a here's folklore taking over
going uh this guy's an evil genius and he grabs these victims and he cleans them up and you'll never catch him you
brought up a great question though was there any sign of possible strangulation I believe that there was
and and I have not much to base this off of at all but my here's what my suspicion is she was laid on her back
and her backpack was found on her I think that somebody one of two things possibly happened I think that this
individual that was dumping her body there on the side of the highway took the shotgun along with them for two
reasons one in case they needed it to use it on the victim and two if they needed it for protection of themselves
mhm okay so picture this he's walking he or they are carrying the body of of a girl that they have already strangled
that they believe to have been dead right and they're going to put her in the snow place her off the side of the
highway and then get back in the car and drive on right mhm now I think one of two things happened they lied her down
they laid her down on her back and they said that her backpack was found still on her back so I think that either a she
wasn't actually dead and when they placed her on the ground she came to and took a breath and it scared them and
they shot her there and then or she was in fact dead they placed her down and because of the backpack it may
have made the cause the body to move in a way or even push out air from the lungs where they would have the same
reaction they would think maybe she was still alive and react the same way using
the shotgun there and then okay you want to know the fact what's up you want to know the fact
Jack that came out a little hairier than I thought it would here's the fact Jack
this is what I believe I believe like you said perfectly is that she was strangled before she was strangled at
this suspect's house she was dead she was in this person's possession for 4 days what was the biggest thing going on
in her life or one of the biggest things going on in her life she's seeing a therapist about these nightmares of
being shot and killed and I think she was dead and I think this killer went out of his way to bring
a gun to shoot her in the face as a sign to the parents as like I got to know her
and that's what I believe right I think this person I think this killer knew about these dreams and and thought they
were clever in some way well and I think that goes with the profiling as well we're we're not talking you know let's
stop calling these people evil Geniuses but this person does have some intelligence and they do have some
thought process on what's Happening and what's interesting here is you have one body that's found in the fetal position
and one body that's found face up right with the book bag on and I wonder if that's some kind of clue that they're
trying to leave because they took their time to put these bodies and they're wide openen spaces right mhm but they're
taking their time to almost place the body that's there's some thought process behind or possibly again that could just
be the way that it's reported what we learned with the first murder is you can't we can't trust the reports on the
Mark steans Case so I don't know that we can trust all of the you know it it almost looks to me more like Mark was
just dumped not not really placed with a whole lot of thought and it it could just be reported that way oh well he was
found kind of in the fetal position right and I think I here's the one thing that we
cannot uh dispute you know you got to look for actual scientific fact in these things and so what we're going to go
ahead and talk about here is we the the layer of snow that was on Jill is going to tell us what time she was
approximately killed because it it didn't start snowing until about 3:00 a.m. that night okay so they would they
would determine that she was killed between 3 and 6: a.m. that helps us out a little bit
scientific fact we know about what time it started to snow well we know not killed possibly but we know when the
body was left in that spot correct correct um there was no sign of sexual abuse found with Jill um some so the
cause of death uh lack of sexual assault different gender different victim gender
and the location was enough to keep these two murders unrelated as far as police are concerned
at least for the moment so now Captain what we have is we have police from four different agencies working these cases
Troy police Royal Oak police they are working the Jill Robinson case right while Ferndale and Southfield are
working the Mark steans Case now again gut your gut feeling here is does this person know does the suspect know does
the Killer know that they're leaving them in different areas under different jurisdictions it's
possible it's very possible it could also be possible that the victims were victims of opportunity for the killer uh
that they went out trolling around looking for somebody walking alone and that's who they took and presumably did
the same thing when it came time to dump the body I'll drive around and look for
a spot where nobody is and if it happens to be out in the open then boom I got to
park my car and get this thing on the side of the road very quickly well there's another two victims so I think
that's going to lead us down more of a funnel a week after Jill's body was found Christine melik vanished she was a
10-year-old fifth grader who lived in Berkeley Michigan another Detroit suburb on the day of her disappearance
Christine was helping her mom around the house she already had run an errand for
her mom that required her to cross 12 miles this is considered to be a busy street
to most So Christine asked her mom if she could run to the 7-Eleven across 12 mile she'd love to paper her walls with
the pictures from the hottest teen magazines the new Teen Superstar magazine had just come out and she
wanted to pick up this issue who you think was on the cover uh this was Donnie and Marie Osman were that was
going to be my guess her mom had trouble saying no to Christine she didn't really
want her to go but she had already sent her off on an errand for herself mhm across this busy road and so now it's
going to be tough to say no to her so she lets her go to go pick up this magazine she even gave her $2 so that
she could pay for it now it was around 27° that day so she put on her baby Blue ski jacket over a white blouse and gray
jeans it's about a five minute walk for her when Christine was not back in an hour her mom started to panic she
contacted the police and Christine's father the police checked with the clerk at the 7-Eleven and found out that
Christine made it to the 7-Eleven store and in fact had purchased the magazine this would be around 300 p.m. so the
search for her began immediately after finding out that she had made it to the store but not returned home it was a
fullon search the the parents hit the streets looking for her uh her father he was he was out on the streets with his
gun in his belt looking for his daughter we had two missing children that showed
up dead the police were stopping cars and investigating every possible lead the neighbors of the melic started
collecting money in case of a ransom demand the total was up to $117,000 in just a couple of days the
parents and grandparents went on TV begging to whoever to allow Christine to come home the search in the media
attention stayed strong for 19 days for the 19 days that Christine was missing let's emphasize that one more time 19
days over two weeks almost three weeks Jerry wasney a an 11-year-old veteran of the postal service was following the
same route that he did every day when he saw tracks leading about 6 ft off of Bruce Lane there he spotted what he
thought was just a blue blanket as he approached this and got closer he noticed that a hand and knees were
sticking out from it terrified he jumped in his mail truck and he went to the closest police station wasney told the
police that the body was snow covered except for a hand and her knee sticking out Christine's father received a call
at work from a reporter nice that that's how you get notified about your daughter's body
being found her father drove through a blizzard to the state police station in Pontiac Michigan he arrived in time to
see his little girl's frozen body lying on the metal autopsy table and then did he punch somebody in their freaking face
for not letting him know he did not after defrosting the coroner was able to perform the autopsy she was dressed in
the clothes that she was kidnapped in they had been cleaned and pressed like the other two victims she was recently
bathed and her fingernails had been cleaned and trimmed the cause of death was Suffocation there were no signs of
sexual assault or blunt force trauma they ruled that she had been killed within 24 hours of the discovery that
means that she was alive for at least 18 of the 19 days that she was missing there was one thing noticed about
Christine's clothing that the parents of the other children did not mention Christine's mom was adamant that
Christine did not dress herself the way that her body was found she cites two reasons one her pants were tucked into
her boots and two her blouse was tied in front instead of in back or may have been put on backwards right these are
two signs that might at least in this case show that the killer dressed the victim after death there was evidence
left at this scene tire and Footprints were found in the snow with the discovery of Christine's body a task
force was formed authorities announced that they believe the children were murdered by the same person the task
force will investigate the three murders and the possibility of a serial killer the task force was made up of law
enforcement from 13 communities and led by the Michigan State Police the Detroit
News offered up of 1,000 I'm sorry Captain a $100,000 reward for the Killer's apprehension and local stations AGG Ely
covered the case the Michigan State Police and the police departments where the children were last seen or the
bodies were found received a Federal grant to help pursue the investigation Oakland County was on high alert police
were giving classes at schools on how to stay away from strangers and how to escape if someone tries to grab them
yeah old stranger danger parents were not allowing their kids to walk by themselves there was a safe house House
program established where participants would be screened and then allowed to put a safe house placard in their front
window if a child felt that they were in danger they would be able to run to one
of these houses for help fathers sat down with their children and told them to be careful and steer clear of
stranger dangers lurking in the nearby areas this is what Barry King did with his son Timothy on Wednesday March 16th
1977 Tim King a straight A student he's a sixth grader at Adams Elementary School went out to play around on his
skateboard it was chilly but not freezing Tim was small for his age at 4 foot3 in and only 63 lbs Tim and his
family lived in Birmingham Michigan this was a it's a little bit nicer than the other towns that we've already discussed
but not rich by any means Tim's father Barry was a lawyer and on this night he had to meet with a client since he
needed a witness he convinced Tim's mom to come with him Tim has always been the
responsible type he even recently took on a paper route but his parents were worried about him being out on his route
so Tim was spending the night at home with his brothers and his sister throughout the evening they each got
called away his sister Kathy was getting ready to to leave when Tim asked to borrow 30 cents so he
could buy some candy at the local pharmacy she lent him the change and left to meet her friends Tim ended up
alone for the night at about 8:15 p.m. wearing a red nylon shirt dark green Levi corduroy pants and white sneakers
Tim headed out and he arrived at the pharmacy on Maple Road at about 8:30 Tim left the pharmacy through the
rear door that led to the parking lot which is where he would typically ride his skateboard Tim's parents were eating
at the diner across the street this is at Peabody's restaurant after dinner Tim's parents went home arriving around
9900 p.m. they immediately contacted the police once they realized Tim was not home police suspected this to be the act
of the serial killer that they were looking for and they wasted no time searching for the boy and spreading his
story an intensive search was exec uted that covered the entire Detroit metropolitan area and there was
widespread media coverage in an emotional television appeal Timothy's father Barry King begged the abductor to
release his son unharmed in a letter printed in the Detroit News Tim's mother wrote that she hoped Timothy would come
home soon so she could serve him his favorite meal Kentucky Fried Chicken a tip came in from a woman claiming she
had seen a boy with a skateboard talking to a man in the parking lot of the drugstore that Tim had been to the woman
described the man as white with a dark complexion and around 25 to 35 years of age he had shaggy hair and sideburns and
had been driving a blue AMC Gremlin with a white stripe on its sides so we got two two cars now this Gremlin was seen
during the evening Tim went missing by his brother a deposit sketch of the man was released all over the area
authorities question everybody in Oakland County who owned a gremlin this is a good move right here Captain they
they got a countywide search warrant so officers could randomly pull over vehicles to search for Tim King a lot of
effort was made here but sadly in the late evening hours of March 22nd 1977 two teenagers spotted Tim's body in a
shallow ditch alongside Gil Road in Leonia this is across the county line in Wayne County his skateboard was placed
next to his body again it has been reported that Tim was found like the others his clothing neatly pressed and
washed he had been tied up sexually assaulted with an object and suffocated the postmortem showed that Timothy had
fried chicken before he was killed and that he was suffocated approximately 6 hours before his body was found the
Oakland County child killer task force reportedly investigated over 18,000 tips but when the Federal grant money ran out
in December of 1978 the task force was formally disbanded as of 2012 reports the case File has acred 20,000 tips
500,000 pages of documentation thousands of interviews and hundreds of pieces of
evidence yet to this day no one has been convicted of the murders of Mark steans
Jill Robinson Christine melich and Timothy King however the investigations continued the victim's families have
refused to let these Child Murders be forgotten they have formed their own task force conducted their own
investigations and from that came theories the theories put together in the last 15 years are far more plausible
than the theories worked by investigators in the late 7s we believe that now we are closer
than ever to solving these murders and tomorrow we will explore the mother of all theories in the continued search for
the Oakland County child [Music] killer want to thank you guys so much for listening thanks so much for sharing
on social media if you'd like to hear the us talk about the update on the Aurora Hammer Slayer
murders you can check us out on Stitcher premium.com truecrimegarage and use promo code
garage and you can get a month for free so check us out on Stitcher premium until tomorrow everybody be good be kind
and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can start your day off right when
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to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you
Angie that

The Oakland County Child Killer /// Part 1 /// 232

Part 1 of 2

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Four children were abducted and murdered in Oakland County, Michigan during the winters of 1976 and 1977. All of the victim’s were held captive for several days, one victim for nineteen. All four children appeared to have been well care for during their time in captivity. This week we revisit a case in an attempt to layout the final solution in one of America’s most haunting serial murder cases. And Captain and Nic crack a few beers and have a quick chat with J. Reuben Appelman the author the much anticipated book “The Kill Jar.” Beer of the Week - Scotty Karate Scotch Ale by Dark Horse Brewing CompanyGarage Grade - 4 and a quarter out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Oakland County child killings, focusing on the victims and investigation mishandlings.

Key points

The Oakland County Child Killer. A 40-year-old unsolved mystery of child abductions and murders in the 1970s.
Mark Steans' Disappearance. On February 15, 1976, 12-year-old Mark Steans went missing after leaving a party.
The Discovery of Mark's Body. Four days after his disappearance, Mark's body was found in a public place.
The Investigation's Mistakes. Police mishandled the crime scene, leading to the destruction of crucial evidence.
The Killer's Profile. A psychiatrist suggested using a mannequin to lure the killer back to the scene.
Conflicting Evidence Reports. Two different reports on the condition of Mark Steans' body reveal shocking discrepancies.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This case anchored in me very early on.

Reflecting on personal experiences related to the case.

2:13WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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