Hey Helen, Do you remember this one? Note-I remember them all
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Child killer probe renewed as 30th anniversary nears
November 16, 2005 - A monster roamed the streets of Oakland County in the mid-to-late 1970s, stealing children, keeping them hidden away and eventually — after some period of time — killing them. Panic and terror were rules of the day in suburban Detroit. Mothers walked their children to school and picked them up everyday after class during the winter months of 1976 and '77. No child walked home in the dark. Fliers citing a blue Gremlin and/or depicting a non-descript white male with dark hair were posted in hopes of someone identifying the suspect. Rumors flew as those who even looked suspicious were considered a suspect.
No leads ever panned out. After four children were murdered, the killings just stopped. Months, years and now decades have passed. With the 30th anniversary of the killings nearly upon us, an another effort has been made to bring the Oakland County Child Killer to justice.
Earlier this year, the Michigan State Police announced a renewed effort to solve the Oakland County Child Killer case, calling for anyone with information about the murders to come forward.
For nearly 30 years, State Police and Berkley, Birmingham, Ferndale, Franklin, Livonia, Royal Oak, Southfield, and Troy police detectives and Oakland County Sheriff's Department personnel have received a steady stream of tips from the public and have exhausted every lead. After three decades, responsibility for the investigation has been turned over to State Police Detective Sergeant Garry Gray and his partner Detective Sergeant David Robertson. They now lead a small team that's re-evaluating the case. Gray and Robertson spend a little more than half their time working on this case alone, with help from the Oakland County Sheriff's Department.
The first victim was Mark Stebbins, 12, of Ferndale, who was last seen alive in an American Legion Hall on Feb. 13, 1976. His body was found three days later in a parking lot in Southfield. Stebbins was strangled and sexually assaulted, post-mortem, with an object.
Jill Robinson, 12, reportedly ran away from her Royal Oak home on Dec. 22, 1976. Her body was found the day after Christmas 1976, along I-75 in Troy. Robinson was killed by a single shotgun blast to the face. She was fully clothed and still wearing her backpack when she was found.
The third victim, Kristine Mihelich, age 10, was last seen alive Jan. 2, 1977 around 3 p.m. at a 7-Eleven store in Berkley. Her fully-clothed body was found 19 days later in Franklin Village. She had been smothered.
The last victim was 11-year-old Timothy King. He was last seen in a Birmingham parking lot on March 16, 1977, at around 8:30 p.m. His body was found March 22 in a shallow ditch in Livonia. He had been suffocated and sexually assaulted post-mortem.
Then the killings stopped, as if the killer fell off the face of the Earth. Speculation ran wild. Maybe he or she died; they were in prison for another crime; or, maybe, they were just waiting for the right moment to strike again.
Gray, polite yet forthcoming, hesitates to talk about the case.
"It's been played out in the media," he said.
When pressed for information on the case, Gray stood his ground, saying that the investigation has been reopened and all new tips regarding the murders are being checked out.
"I really can't say much because this is a covert operation," Gray said. He confirmed that there are new tips in the case that made national headlines back in 1976 and '77.
Gray did reveal that the latest investigation unit, which is comprise of at least one other State Police investigator and a "handful" of Oakland County Sheriff's Department detectives, is spending a "significant" amount of time reworking the old files, entering new data into computer models, using DNA analysis equipment and following up on new tips.
"We do spend a majority of our time on this case but I do have other cases," Gray said. "This isn't the only case we are working on."
Gray admits that "sometimes we spend more time and sometimes less" on searching for the Oakland County Child Killer.
"We do have some new leads," he said, stopping short of saying there's a specific suspect or any solid evidence that points to a suspect.
The investigation has moved into the State Police Oak Park offices, but Gray would not say how long the task force will continue to hunt down leads or if the case will ever be closed.
The original task force investigating the case was created by the State Police just after the killings began. The children were individually abducted from suburban business areas and held in captivity from three to 19 days before their bodies were discovered miles from their homes. The rash of killings incited fear and paranoia in parents who would rarely allow children outside alone in the months and years following the abductions.
"The Oakland County Child Killer is one of the most notorious and horrific criminals in the state's history," Gray said when he first received the case over six months ago. "What we are doing is not reopening a cold case, but creating a renewed focus for an ongoing investigation which will continue until the truth is discovered."
The announcement of the renewed effort behind the investigation came shortly after the case files were transported from the State Police Second District Headquarters in Northville to the Metro North Post in Oak Park. The files, which contain 99,000 names, are housed in five, five-drawer file cabinets and 15 additional boxes.
"As the files return to Oakland County, the location of these horrific crimes, so must we," Gray said in a press release announcing the renewed investigative effort. "To that end, detectives and forensic investigators will review each piece of evidence and each interview, looking for clues to help solve these crimes and bring closure to the victims' families and the state."
In addition, scientists working in State Police forensic laboratories are meticulously combing over every piece of evidence using state-of-the-art technology that wasn't available in the past.
All the investigators now involved in the case say they believe a break is coming. The believe that the window is closing on a resolution to this case.
"I don't know anything about a window," said Oakland County Sheriff's Department Lt. James A'Hearn, a detective in the department's Homicide Task Force. Both A'Hearn and Oakland County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Clay R. Jansson of the Special Investigations unit, remember the time of killings well. A'Hearn was on the initial task force that investigated the killings and Jansson was a rookie patrolling southeast Oakland County when the murders ocurred.
"I was right in the middle of it. I worked in Birmingham and then went to work for the county later in '76," A'Hearn said. "After this got rolling the state police took over the investigation. The Oakland County chiefs of police got a grant to fund a task force. The homicide information went to three of the top pathologists around. The pathologists went through the cases and picked out the four that they thought were done by one person."
Both deputies become quiet and reflective when questioned about what the killer's motivations were or why the children were kept alive before being murdered.
When asked about the length of time the children were held before their murders and about the nature of their assaults, A'Hearn's eyes squint and seem to become more attentive. Both A'Hearn and Jansson say the crimes are the most brutal they've every heard of, and neither is willing to discuss specifics about the children's captivity and subsequent murders.
"In '76 and '77, I was a rookie police officer here with the sheriff's department working nights and working the Royal Oak/Birmingham area stopping cars, which was our order at the time. We were stopping everything that moved at that time in searching to find Timothy King," Jansson said. "The decision was made by then-prosecuting attorney L. Brooks Patterson, that if we saw a vehicle that looked suspicious or would lead us in the right direction, we had the green light to stop the vehicle and if we had the driver's permission, we would search the vehicle. The attitude of the community at that time was concern. It was a frightening time."
Both A'Hearn and Jansson said that pulling vehicles over to make inquiries became a more common occurrence after the first killing, and the practice was escalated by law enforcement officials by the time Timothy King was murdered.
"We tried to do everything we could to find Timothy King," Patterson recently said.
Patterson, A'Hearn and Jansson said that there were never any complaints lodged with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department or the county prosecutor's office regarding Civil Rights violations due to the aggressive vehicle stops and searches. The community, it appeared, was worried about one thing — finding the killer.
"There was a strong sense of awareness and people were taking preventative measures," A'Hearn said. "Any person in any phase of life was taking precautions."
Police officials good at not letting emotions involving a case spill out into the public, especially in front of the media. But privately, it's been made clear by those involved in this case that they would like to see the mystery solved regardless of whether the perpetrator is alive or dead.
"No one wants to retire with this case unsolved," Jansson said. "We want to solve this for the families."
There's one state police officer who's now retired but watching intently as the investigation continues. Former State Police Capt. Robert Robertson led the original Oakland County Child Killer Task Force. His son is Detective Sergeant David Robertson, who is now working on the investigation through the current task force.
Gray is the lead investigator on the case, the younger Robertson said. The task of collecting all the information regarding the case is a major part of the younger Robertson's responsibility.
"One of my tasks is to get all the information and data put into some kind of computer storage system or another," he said. "Gary (Gray) has the reigns and he's really driving the ship."
The younger Robertson's dad was in charge of a big operation when the initial task force was assembled.
"My dad was the assistant district commander," he explained. "At that time it was the first lieutenant rank in charge of detectives of the Michigan State Police out of Northville. When the State Police took the investigation and the task force was formed, he was the one who ran the investigation. Obviously, he didn't do everything, but he ran the operation. There were actually over 300 investigators involved at the peak of that investigation. It involved all the Oakland County agencies, state and federal agencies."
The elder Robertson retired in 1984. The younger Robertson said he can't reveal what's been said between father and son regarding the investigation, but indicated that his father has given him encouragement.
"All he really said was 'good luck,'" the younger Robertson said. "My brother is a detective with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department. We were all in high school when all this was going on. We lived in Livonia at that time. We remember (our father) being gone for long periods of time when this all first started. He would be gone before we started school and come home at about 11 p.m. That went on for, I think, about two years."
The younger Robertson said that he has two other brothers working in law enforcement. He said there were very few occasions that his dad brought the case home at the end of the day, no matter how long it was.
"He would bring a few boxes of tips or things home that he would clear, but he never really brought the job home," he said. "My dad was a musician and was very involved in the church so he had activities outside of work. I think that was a very positive thing for his mental state when he was investigating a case like this. For us it was more like 'Look, dad's on TV again.'"
The elder Robertson has been quoted in the past concerning the case, with his opinion broadcast on television and showing up in print.
"He's of the opinion that this guy (the suspect) is not among us anymore," the younger Robertson said. "The original theory is that the perpetrator(s) is dead or incarcerated. They were confident that the perpetrator was (jailed) or not with us any more. Remember, they did not have the network of information sharing that they have now. They did a lot of checking in other parts of the country and they never could find any links to similar homicides. They couldn't identify that this was a serial killer that was moving around the country. They never were able to make any kind of connection there."
The younger Robertson said he has "heard it all" when it comes to rumors and alleged sightings of individuals who are "odd" or "unusual" and potentially relevant to the case.
"We hear 'that composite drawing looks like a guy who tried to abduct me in '75," he said. "'I knew a guy who was strange and had a blue Gremlin.' We've pretty much discounted things like that. If they are going on the composite or the Gremlin, than there isn't a lot in those two items to pursue that tip."
Can the case be solved?
"Until there are no leads to follow up on," the younger Robertson said, "any case is solvable. I just don't think you can't solve it. You have to have the right information."
The younger Robertson acknowledges that there is "some" physical evidence that investigators have in their possession but he would not say what that evidence is.
"There is evidence," he said. "To say we have this golden fingerprint on the murder weapon — no, we don't have anything like that. If you can get the right circumstantial evidence you can make an air-tight case. I'm optimistic."
The younger Robertson said that the case still could remain unsolved for another 20 years and then — "boom" — a break could come in and the mystery gets solved.
"With technology, it could get solved," he said. "Everything changes. Back in '76 DNA was just three letters of the alphabet. Now, it's a very technical art. Even in the past three years it has changed significantly."
The stream of dead ends in the case has led all the way to Gillette, Wyoming, where the bones of David Norberg were exhumed. Norberg's DNA was matched with a single strand of hair found on Timothy King. But the investigation cleared Norberg.
Gray said whether there is something a person just remembered or something they want to make sure investigators are aware of, people are encouraged to call tips in at 248-584-5755.
"If you were afraid to step forward before, now is the time to act — 29 years is a long time to keep a secret," Gray said.