It is clear that the Oakland County Sheriff, Mike Bouchard, has been conducting a parallel investigation of these crimes. He told reporter Jessica Dupnak that last summer he had a detective pull all the files they had on the OCCK case to take a look and see what they may have missed. He told her they started digitizing the documents in January so they could use an AI program to evaluate the documents. Interesting timing; I’m sure the state and the prosecutor’s office would agree.
So many points to make. But let’s start with the reminder that in July of 2021, Bouchard’s FOIA officer, Stephanie Lajdziak, denied my FOIA request for OCCK documents on the basis that “there are no records responsive to this request within the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office records.” She advised that “you may find the records you seek with the Michigan State Police.” Ms. Lajdziak did not deny my request on the basis of an active or open investigation. No, she said they had no such files. And she did so via their portal 15 minutes after I filed the request.
This was a lie, as we now know that the office started digitizing their copious files in this case in January. The brazenness of this lie, this FOIA violation, is stark but not surprising. After all, I was told by two reliable sources in early 2020 that a deputy prosecuting attorney under former prosecutor Jessica Cooper physically walked OCCK files over to Bouchard’s office to conceal them so they would not have to be produced in response to any further FOIA requests submitted to her office. This is what I’ve come to expect from Oakland County. It’s how they roll.
The prosecutor’s OCCK files were later retrieved once Karen McDonald took office. The documents, such as they were, were then sent in response to my FOIA request. None of them included documents I had already seen in response to two media FOIA requests, or any of the horseshit L. Brooks Patterson or any of his successors engaged from 1976 to the present. Nothing about the exhumation of David Norberg in 1999; nothing about the meeting with the mysterious witness “Bob” and sheriff’s deputies; nothing about the search warrant executed on the Busch home in Bloomfield Village; nothing about fucking over my dad with a bogus contempt filing after the fake grand jury. No, this document dump mostly included all things Arch Sloan and his red, 1966 Bonneville. Shit that should have happened in 1976. Nothing else could be found; or at least nothing else was produced.
Which brings us back to the hair evidence, some of which was found in the pedophile’s Bonneville, but did not belong to him. And it brings us back to last summer, the time period Sheriff Bouchard tells reporter Jessica Dupnak that he had a detective start reviewing their [nonexistent] OCCK case files.
Just like every single OG cop who was working in Oakland County during the reign of and in the aftermath of the child killer knows the stories about Chris Busch, H. Lee Busch, John McKinney and perhaps a few other related “suicides” in that county, these little bitches still gossip like there’s no tomorrow. I’m told to keep my cards close to my vest, but meanwhile, when the state has the misfortune to have to round up some of the hair evidence from the FBI last summer (holy shit, where is that other hair evidence?!), word gets out that something’s afoot with the hair evidence.
Think the FBI keeps quiet? Think again. Word gets out that the hair evidence is being rounded up again and now everyone who ever had a finger in the case wants back in. My emails and direct messages to my blog last summer support this conclusion. And yet I fear we will all end up disappointed unless that associate of Sloan’s who borrowed his ride or rode in the back seat is a priest, a state senator, or a GM executive. Just some random dirtbag who borrowed the car? Back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, other evidence sits untouched.
As I have said repeatedly over the past few weeks, the only other evidence I am aware of that could yield answers is the Y-str sample from Kristine’s autopsy and the kids’ clothing. This evidence is in the possession of the state lab. All that excitement about advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy? That Y-str and the kids’ clothing remain inexplicably immune from further review. If the sheriff’s office has additional evidence it must be tested by the state lab and they must explain any withholding of physical evidence.
This “collaborative effort” between the state police and the sheriff’s department is very, very new and only happened after recent coverage of the case by reporter Heather Catallo. Evidence of this nascent effort will be addressed in a subsequent post. It will be a gut punch.
Tonight though, it’s almost humorous. Back in the day, the sheriff’s department would have been a very logical choice to take on the child murders plaguing Oakland County. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office has done an amazing job handling the aftermath of the John Wayne Gacy murders with body identification and family notification. But the sheriff could never be involved in L. Brook’s Patterson’s county in 1976 and 1977.
Sheriff Johannes Spreen was a Democrat. The feuding between the sheriff and other law enforcement agencies was covered extensively during the summer of 1977. Spreen, who had been a New York City cop and later NYC Command of Operations and a Detroit Police Commissioner before he was elected Oakland County Sheriff, was smarter than attorney Patterson and apparently had a similar-sized ego. He describes the treachery involved in working in Oakland County during that time in American Police Dilemma: Protectors or Enforcers? (2003). He wrote that he regretted not being able to accomplish all he had hoped because he was “seen as a Democrat in the predominantly Republican county.” (p.229.)
I don’t imagine there was much, if any, collaboration between Spreen’s office and Patterson’s, or the MSP, back in the day. The current sheriff has been in office for 27 years and is only collaborating with others on the OCCK case in the past two weeks (although the office appeared to help out their old pal Jessica Cooper). Unlike Spreen, Sheriff Bouchard is a Brooks Patterson acolyte. He was a patrol officer in 1977. Unless he has been under a rock for the past 50 years, 27 of them as sheriff, he knows what happened to derail this investigation. He knows what Patterson and Thompson did. He doesn’t even need to read Guarded by Jackals (2024).
I know there was some initial excitement about having the sheriff’s office step in where the state police have been so slow, paralyzed and opaque in this case. I just can’t get on the bandwagon.
Am I the asshole here? Even in trying to throw us a bone here and there, the prosecutor has put us in a bad spot. The way around it is for the prosecutor to demand a solvability review where investigators for the MSP, state lab, OCSD and FBI each evaluate and report the case’s current status and potential for any breakthroughs using modern technology. They must share information they have previously withheld. There must be public accountability. Instead, all these agencies purport to stay in their own lanes–we don’t do this/we can’t do that–treading water and waiting for the spotlight to wane after this damn 50-year thing and hoping for a hit on degraded and unforgivably mishandled and poorly stored evidence to claim “victory.” Or an AI response that y’all screwed the pooch.
I know it’s inconvenient for all involved, but that’s what happens when you keep putting shit off and evading justice. Karen McDonald is running for AG and Mike Bouchard’s kid is running for Congress. Everybody needs that good press and name recognition. Everyone wants to be liked (and voted for).
You know what’s not good press? Not being straight with your constituents. Quit playing games and get on the same page. Your playbook is getting very, very old.
And so are we.