“Safe haven.”
Suit: Michigan home for troubled girls a ‘house of horrors,’ rife with abuse
Vista Maria is a private, non-profit, pubic charity founded in 1883 by the Sisters of the Good Shepard. It serves as a contractor for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Wayne County, providing referral services for residential treatment of “at-risk” girls, foster care and juvenile justice case management. It ended its residential treatment program in late 2025. In February of this year, some 55 women and girls came forward alleging mistreatment and worse at the hands of Vista Maria staff. Six former residents have now filed a lawsuit against Vista Maria, alleging a pattern of abuse and neglect spanning decades.
There is a link in the above article to the lawsuit. Would you want anyone you loved to be sent to a residential placement like Vista Maria? “At-risk” kids are sitting ducks in these kinds of settings. It is reprehensible. Although the defendant would be wise to settle, if they want to play hardball a jury could do a good job with this case. Either way, the community and the state will learn what took place behind those closed doors using charitable donations and public grants. Do better next time, FFS.
The Shell Game Continues
I am going to keep this as short and simple as I can. I had hoped to add greater detail, but I was not present at the meeting I am going to describe and this is as good as it’s going to get. Because SHHH!!!!!! Everything is a secret in this 50-year-old case! Everything is so much horse trading of information, withholding, waiting for monetized projects to drop, law enforcement manipulating survivors.
In February, reporter Heather Catallo interviewed Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the abduction and murder of 12-year-old Mark Stebbins. She asked if his office had reached out to the families. Uhh–that would be a big NO because we had only ever heard rumors of some cold case examination by the sheriff’s office into the OCCK case, which was assigned for better or worse, to the Michigan State Police. After all, Bouchard’s office denied my FOIA request for OCCK documents a few years prior, stating that the office had no such documents and please contact the state police.
In fact, the interviews granted by the sheriff over the ensuing few weeks in February/March, would be the first public acknowledgment that the OCSD was operating a parallel investigation of this cold case. So guess what? In the wake of the interview with Heather Catallo, a meeting was hurriedly put together for the following week with two siblings of OCCK victims–Kristine’s sister and one of my brothers. The meeting was attended by two detectives from the MSP and one detective from the OCSD. I won’t name names, because SHHHHHH!!!!!
Both siblings showed up with a long list of questions, having not been contacted by law enforcement for years. None of their questions were/could be answered. When asked about the hair that had been linked to Vince Gunnels, the detectives did not know his name. They knew nothing about Chris Busch. Both siblings stopped asking questions when they realized we are right back to 1977. There is only so much head-banging one can engage in. Two of the detectives said they would get back to the siblings with answers to their questions. The third apparently sat there scrolling on his phone the entire time, saying nothing beyond introducing himself at my brother’s request.
That was almost two months ago.
Do you see how the game is played? Come meet with us so we can tell reporters and the public that we are in touch with the families! Come see how we just pass this case to a new set of youngish, earnest detectives who will never understand the case or take the time to get up-to-speed. We will wear your asses down for another 50 years.
That’s how the game is played in the OCCK case. Pass the turd until maybe (hahaha) there is some DNA hit in the world’s most misfiled and poorly stored evidence in a serial murder case, and then these assholes will fall all over themselves to get a finger in the pie.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Sometimes you don’t get justice, but you may get some honest answers. Sometimes you don’t get either, no matter how hard you bang your head against the wall.