Email from my Dad to MSP that I was copied on this morning:
When I called Sgt. Gray in late 2006 he informed me that the task force and its FIRST hard lead. Someone (Lamborgine) had flunked a lie detector test. The same rule apparently does not apply to Busch and Gunnels.Busch is released on January 28, 1977 because he passed a lie detector test administered by an inexperienced MSP polygraphist. When the MSP has this polygraph reviewed by 3 experience polygraphists we are advised that all 3 concluded he did not pass. The first test results were published in the Detroit News and the Daily Tribune. My family has been denied access to these later readings. Last year Pat Coffey advised me that one of the three polygraphists was in the zero to minus 6 range and was inconclusive. Coffey was also told that the other two concluded the proper reading was well below minus 6. The MSP talks to the media and Coffey but not to the victims.Chris and I met with Gunnels in October. He acknowledged taking 2 polygraph tests. The MSP reports state that the first test was inconclusive because Gunnels took evasive action. The results of the second test are redacted in the MSP reports.On November 20, 2012 the OCP responded to my third FOIA request regarding the Gunnels investigation. The OCP repose contains the following information:“POLYGRAPH QUESTIONS RESULTSOther than the control questions, Gunnels was asked three specific questions regarding the Child Killing investigation. Due to his DNA hair being discovered on Kristine Michelich he was asked the following:1. Did you participate in any way in the killing of Kristine Michelich?2. Do you know for sure . who killed Kristine Michelich?3. Did you have any physical contact with Kristine Michelich?”
Both of the MSP polygraphists present concluded Gunnels “COMPLETELY” failed all aspects of the examination.Why and by whom was Gunnels removed as a suspect at the February 26, 2010 meeting?
Discover more from The Oakland County Child Killer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
As a mother, my blood just boils as I read this. I can’t imagine the frustration and rage that YOUR family must be feeling. I am a new subscriber to your blog, but lived in MI when these crimes occurred and have never been able to forget them. The Gunnels/Busch hair connection is too powerful to overlook, and I am glad your family is not letting the official investigators off the hook on this lead, as well as others you have pursued regarding Busch and Greene. Obviously Arch Sloan was part of some predatory ring with these three, and I pray the recent hair developments involving his car pan out. To know that someone out there knows something and is keeping silent is infuriating. My deepest condolences to you and yours.
Amen cc2001,have been on Cathy’s blog for awhile.Grew up in B’ham and remember it like yesterday.I pray for her family every night.As a mother also,I can’t say what I want to do to these so called men?
Yes, of course, Gunnels is the one who really has my attention. He is a living witness. No question about it. Lots of people are reading Cathy’s blog. You who are out there who have been associates of this man, if you have an ounce of decency in your souls, need to tell what you know. You can do it anonymously. If BTK can hide for 20 years so can you. You can put on some rubber gloves, take out pen and paper and write what you know. Send it to a newspaper, Mr. King or the Detroit Police Dept. If you have never done anything you are proud of here’s your chance.
Dear Ms. Broad,
I turned nine years old in April of 1977. I lived in Troy, less than a couple of miles away from the Hunter-Maple pharmacy, and I knew that back entrance well. Obviously, Tim’s abduction and murder was an event that impacted my life; these murders marked a loss of innocence for the entire community, and if they had happened in a major media center, there would have been entire shelves of books written about this case.
You talk about web searches; every couple of months, I google “Oakland County Child Killer” to see if there have been any new developments. However, I have apparently not done so since January. I’ve spent a couple of hours now reading your blog, and I just feel compelled to write. I couldn’t figure out a way to e-mail you directly, so I’ll just comment, although I’d kind of just as soon that this be a private communication, I’ll leave it entirely up to you what you want to do–my main concern is that you not think I’m some anonymous creep. But there are several memories and bits of information that I’ve picked up over the years that I’m compelled to pass along for no better reason than–again, this case made an impact on me.
First–I seem to recall seeing a TV news story, perhaps in late 1978 or early 1979, to the effect that police officials announced that they were either ending, or at least winding down, the OCCK investigation, I can’t remember exactly. I do remember it being probably about a couple of years after Tim’s death (and for what it’s worth, I seem to recall that I saw it on Channel 7.) But what I remember more than anything else was that the police were quoted as stated that they believed that the killer–and this is virtually as direct a quote as I can provide 35 years later–that the killer “was either dead, or in a mental hospital.” Again, I was very young when I saw this, but I remember it quite well, and more to the point–this may be the only instance of a case where the police publically announced, not an arrest, but that they believed that the killer was dead or in a mental hospital.
I live in Florida these days, and an unable to search back issues of the News or Free Press to see if either of them picked up the quote, but the question of whether or not I am remembering this news story correctly has bothered me for quite some time. The fact that the announcement could very possibly have been spurred by Busch’s suicide only intensifies this bother.
Other thoughts…when the former Busch residence, and its possible tie to the murders, was made public, my mother discovered that she had been in the house–my parents apparently knew the people who bought the house from Busch’s parents. They have since sold the house again, but apparently the new owner, just before moving into the house, visited it roughly around the time of the closing, to find the father–apparently the bigshot GM executive–in the garage, hosing down the walls. I know that this sounds like some crazy friend-of-a-friend folk legend where somebody told somebody something, but again–my mom was familiar with this house–it had an odd layout where the garage somehow entered into the basement or something like that. Again, she learned this only recently—I don’t think those other people (who bought the house) were at all aware of the OCCK connection.
My parents apparently also know your father, although I’m not sure how they know him, other than the acquaintance was certainly made at some point within the past ten or twenty years, as they did not know your family back in 1977.
The final thing is that a couple of years ago, I was taking a class at USF-Sarasota-Manatee taught by William Kemper, a former Southfield police detective. At one point, in class, he talked about an old case involving a serial killer, and I knew he had to be talking about the OCCK, because he was talking about a crime scene involving a boy with a skateboard–and how as the police were attempting to preserve the crime scene, some bigshot with Oakland County (he wouldn’t say who, but my first guess would be L. Brooks Patterson) either landed or attempted to land nearby in a helicopter, compromising the integrity of the crime scene with the draft from the rotor blades. Later, when I asked him point blank about the OCCK, Professor Kemper quite candidly mentioned that he had recently turned over all of his OCCK notes to, I’m assuming, Ms. Cooper. The final bit of information that Professor Kemper mentioned was how a local psychiatrist named Dr. Bruce Danto had supposedly been contacted by somebody who was associated with the killer at the time of ther murders. Professor Kemper believed that it was not coincidence that Kristine Mihelich’s body would subsequently be left on a street named Bruce Lane.
Anyway, I wish you and your family all the best. I understand how frustrating this must be for you, and hopefully this case will soon finally see some resolution, at the absolute least.