This powerful conclusion is that of Rita Williams, founder and editor-in-chief of Clutch Justice, an independent Michigan-focused investigative accountability journalism platform. It covers judicial misconduct, prosecutorial conduct, and public institutional failures. I referenced her website this past July, specifically noting her N. Fox Island reference library and evaluation of the OCCK case.
Check out this OCCK & North Fox Island Research Reference Library
A reader wrote yesterday about Williams’ website and work and said it is nice to see someone else writing in 2026 about the problems never explained in the OCCK case.
I urge you to read this piece, entitled “The Oakland County Child Killer Case Did Not Go Cold Because the Killer Was Untouchable. It Went Cold Because Michigan Institutions Were Fractured, Self-Protective, and Built to Fail at Exactly This.”
https://clutchjustice.com/2026/05/08/rre-occk-oakland-county-child-killer-institutional-failure/
Here’s the bottom line, but I urge you to read the entire piece and the other two links.
Multiple compounding failures: no shared investigative database, jurisdictional fragmentation across municipal and county lines, a botched polygraph clearance of a documented prime suspect, and institutional self-protection that prioritized reputation over accountability. The killer was never identified. The failure was not mysterious.
See also
https://clutchjustice.com/2026/05/25/occk-newblatt-bond-reduction-christopher-busch/ [Context is not evidence of corruption, but the context is pretty goddamn depressing.]
https://clutchjustice.com/2026/05/26/occk-christopher-busch-staged-suicide-forensic-evidence/ [“The state questioned Busch and released him; the state’s forensic lab produced results inconsistent with the suicide ruling; the state disbanded its task force weeks after Busch’s death; the state withheld Busch’s identity from the victims’ families for 28 years; and the state fought Barry King’s FOIA requests through three lawsuits. Whether those facts support a civil claim is a question for lawyers. The question of why the state has fought this hard, for this long, against the families of four murdered children, is a question anyone can ask.”]
Thank you for your work, Rita Williams. It helps to see things from another perspective and it’s pretty boiled down and undeniable at Clutch Justice. And thanks to the reader for reminding me to circle back.