The Oakland County Child Killer

“At the time, university staff connected that individual with support resources rather than opening a personnel investigation,” the school said. These fucking university hair-splitters. Protect your students from predators.
— Read on www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article316860400.html

For subscribers to the Detroit Free Press:

Natalie Davies | Intern @14natalied11

Good morning, Free Press subscribers, I wrote my first story about alleged sexual misconduct at Interlochen Center for the Arts in December 2025 when the prestigious Up North education campus was mentioned in a lawsuit included in the Epstein files as the place where Jeffrey Epstein found one of his first victims. At the time, I didn’t realize the school was conducting its own independent investigation into decades of sexual abuse or that the Free Press would go on to report that 47 adults who held leadership roles are accused of sexually abusing and exploiting at least 70 students. The entrance to Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen in August 2025. Melanie Maxwell, Detroit Free Press Since then, I’ve spoken with several alumni who say they experienced abuse as students. This week in the Free Press, one alum shared his experience with a faculty member who went on to teach elsewhere for 20 years after the former student told Interlochen staff the teacher sexually abused him on a boat. This accused faculty member was forced out of his position at Appalachian State University in August . He did not respond to requests for comment. The stories are based on accounts of the past, but they’re important to tell even decades later because they’ve left lasting impact on the people involved and their alma mater. This week’s story is one of few included in the investigation report from the year 2000 and beyond. Interlochen’s President Trey Devey has said “Interlochen today is fundamentally different from the institution described in this report.” In recent years, Interlochen has doubled down on safety protocols, such as rigorous background checks, clear professional boundary standards, multiple reporting pathways for those with concerns, coordinated supervision of students and independent assessments of policies, according to a Devey released with the report. Though the school has said it changed, there hasn’t been much legal recourse for survivors under current Michigan statute of limitation laws . Survivors and their legal representation have told me the release of the report and the volume of cases from decades ago renew calls to expand the amount of time survivors of childhood sexual abuse have to file lawsuits. The latest “Justice for Survivors” package passed the Michigan Senate with bipartisan support in May 2025 and has not gone through the House. Now you’re up to date on the latest Interlochen reporting in the Free Press. Thank you for following along with the story and for your subscription that makes this work possible. — Natalie Davies ndavies@freepress.com Scroll for more subscriber-only stories you may have missed this week.

Thanks to a reader for sending this email to me.  Especially because it is a reminder that the Justice for Survivors legislation is stalled in the Michigan House.

Again.  Still.

Leaders in the House Judiciary Committee simply evade/avoid comment.

https://www.wilx.com/2026/08/15/mid-michigan-lawmaker-pushes-reopen-legal-windows-childhood-sexual-abuse-survivors/

How about some continued and deep reporting about why these Michigan representatives are stalling this legislation?  Who are they kowtowing to?  Who are the lobbyists that are causing this failure to act on this legislation that Michigan, of all places, is in dire need of?

Here’s a prompt for you to get you going:

The “Justice for Survivors” bill package remains stalled in the Michigan House of Representatives because it is trapped in a legislative committee without receiving a hearing or a floor vote. Despite passing the Michigan Senate with strong bipartisan support, leadership in the House has not scheduled the legislation for action.

The delay is primarily driven by the following factors:

• Committee Bottleneck: The bill package (Senate Bills 257–261), which aims to drastically extend the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse survivors, is currently sitting idle in the House Judiciary Committee (and previously the Government Operations Committee). Without a scheduled hearing by committee leadership, the bills cannot advance to a full house vote.
• History of Political and Attendance Gridlock: This is the second legislative session where the package has stalled. A previous version passed the Senate in late 2024 but died in the House during the “lame-duck” session due to legislative gridlock and attendance issues where lawmakers failed to show up to session.
• Renewed Bipartisan Pressure: Lawmakers like State Representative Julie Brixie (D) and State Senator Kevin Hertel (D) continue to heavily pressure House leadership to move the bills. The urgency has been magnified by high-profile institutional scandals, such as the Interlochen Center for the Arts abuse investigation.

Advocates point out that Michigan has some of the narrowest statute of limitations laws for childhood sexual abuse in the country, and the stalled legislation is intended to open a one-year civil revival window to let past victims seek legal recourse.

Six months ago I posted the work of a reader who had compiled the various composite drawings that populated the OCCK files, with analysis.

A 28,000-word novel?

The reader has updated the document and new information has been added in green-colored text.   It is compelling.

OCCK Composites and Timelines_V2

On page 4 the reader speculates that composites 11-15 could be the additional men that were arrested in Flint in January or February, 1977.  This includes Busch as possible #11, since this image is in the FOIA document (OCCK MSP p. 308 of 3369, BLK 00355) along side Busch’s incident report and mug shot.

There is a new slide (#5) that refers to Operation ESP and some new psychic composites.  This operation began August 8, 1977.  A report was completed by out-of-town people and they left Michigan on August 19, 1977.  The reader observes that maybe it’s just a coincidence, but this was happening during the Greg Greene mug shot on August 17, 1977 (if it really is 1977).

I agree with the reader’s further observations, as follows.  That there is a distinct possibility that many, if not all of these composites seem to be an attempt by the MSP to portray the appearance of these men based upon the story they wanted the public to believe.  And, perhaps, to sway the public towards looking for anybody that resembles someone other than Busch and Greene.  While there are some possible close resemblance to some of the known suspects (like Busch, Greene and Hastings), maybe this was done to scare them.  As if to tell them “we know who you are.”

This week another reader and I exchanged emails about the Busch and Greene mugshots and similar suspect sketch discrepancies.   And I have to tell you, based on these exchanges, I have renewed and sickening concerns over the actions of the Birmingham PD, circa 1977-78.  I’m talking at the top of the food chain there, but a small department like that–they all knew.   That department already had a track record of dissuading parents from filing reports on the fat fuck for things like indecent exposure and worse.  He’s the son of a big wig–“there’s nothing we can do.”  They dropped the ball before Patterson and Burgess stepped on their necks.  Kids were not safe in that town before my brother was abducted.

You really cannot believe some of the amazing work people send me concerning this case.  It involves anything from deep background on many of the suspects and their family members, to timelines, interactive link analyses, geolocation coordinates, AI analysis, and these composite sketch comparisons and evaluations.  Most ask me not to post it or ask me to curate it.

It really helps if I can post this kind of work with the author’s evaluation and comments.  Please, please respond here in the comments rather than by email.  Let’s compare notes here for a change.

Thanks very much to the reader and to those who comment below.