Maybe I’m quiet because I take solace in the fact that the investigation is in the best place it’s been in–well, ever. Details? I don’t have them. But I trust what’s going on. Those of you who want to freak, who want to try to scare the shit out of family members, who want to move investigators off the dime–good luck. Those of you who write me with information and expect an immediate and considered response–I’m not a cop. If your shit doesn’t make sense, none of us can help you. Simple as that. If people had come forward back in the day, it wouldn’t be this convoluted. But you didn’t, did you???? Live with it. Just like the rest of us have to. Only you don’t have to deal with the freaks who come out of the woodwork in these cases when you leave a vacuum because of your cowardice. How I wish I could send these folks to you. The pain that reverberates from this freak show cannot be quantified. It is a constant, it is a horror. The craziness cannot even be quantified.
Hello? The investigation is in the best place it’s ever been? Did I miss something? Maybe you are being sarcastic? Don’t understand.
Not being sarcastic. Will the case be solved once and for all? Who knows.
If the investigation is in the best place it’s been ever, let’s hope the outcome bears tangible fruit. Hopes and prayers sent your way Catherine!
Family, friends, classmates (my category) and the communities that suffered and feared during this awful time deserve to be able to put it to rest. I hope you are right, Catherine. Let’s pray definitive answers are in the near future.
I don’t want to even begin to speculate, as there has been too much of that already. Any type of active investigation is better than no investigation at all. Which quite honestly, I thought there was no investigation going on now at this time except for maybe the occasional public image charades. Your positive vibes in your words about the investigation is uplifting. I pray and hope that there is finally some type of resolution coming to this after all these years.
Pray for your family..
Dear Cathy,
Please send some of the freaks and idiots my way. I have a lot of rage to take out on something or someone.
XOXO,
Tom
Cathy,
I want you to know that I stumbled onto your blog last year. I want to assure you that people care about this case. It shaped my childhood to some degree. I remember the nightmares that I had. I am still furious for Timmy and the other children that this sickness touched directly. I shudder for your family and the other families. While I can never really imagine the impact to you directly, I stand firmly behind you and your family in your quest for the truth.
I grew up in B’ham. I was in the class of 85. You went to school with my brother and Mark went to school with my sister. My dad coached Timmy in baseball and I was very close to a few of your neighbors. My best friend told me 35 years later that your brother was babysitting him that night.
To hear that you are optimistic regarding the case gives me hope that these sick bastards – whomever they may be – will face some type of justice.
I am compelled by the evidence that you and your father have presented and hope for closure. As I get older, it makes me more sick – not less.
We are going to vacation at Glen Lake next summer and I was looking at Google earth and there that godforsaken island sits with the landing strip still showing.
Derby Dragon
James, thank you for your kind words. I don’t often respond to comments for a variety of reasons–not because I don’t appreciate them (the comments I post, anyway). Thank you.
Cathy,
Have your heard what happened in Armada this past week? I know you have a large group of followers, perhaps you could share and try to help solve this very sad mess.
I thought of the Oakland County Child Killer case when I heard about the girl in Armada getting killed. It’s having a similar affect as far as the stranger danger fear. But not quite. Now imagine having this happen to three more kids in the surrounding area in the next year.
That’s what it was like in 1976-77. Then imagine after having four kids murdered and the killer never caught.
Hi Cathy, I hope the quiet is still a good sign of hope. I would still like to understand after all these years how someone that has made claims and seems to be firm on his story for so many years now, claiming they handled Jill’s bike can be completely ignored by LE. Why would they not at least have the interest of taking this man’s fingerprints? Wouldn’t this shed some light on this case even if there was a partial match to prints on the bike? Must we accept the suggestion that Jill’s bike was left at Tiny Tim’s when the odds of this are nearly zero and never supported by any documents? Why must everything dealing with this investigation be so convoluted and so far away from common sense? It’s understood that it’s not exactly a ‘silver bullet’ for this case but nevertheless it’s better than a complete wall of doubt with nothing concrete. It seems to me that if Spidey’s claims could be proven true then the acceptance of where Jill’s bike was left that night is fact. How can this continue to be overlooked? I would like to at least know if his fingerprints can be traced in any way to the bike. Sure seems to show more promise than finding all these buried Gremlins and trying to trace them back to the crime. Or maybe even a worse thought that there was never any attempt to get fingerprints off Jill’s bike to begin with. Is there anything in any of those papers that even give a clue to an investigation of Jill’s bike from the 70s?
Hi Reasoning–I think quiet is a sign of hope right now because I believe the investigation finally went back to the very beginning, which is where a cold case investigation/review is supposed to start. The very beginning. Mark’s case. The first 250 tips. Somebody finally trying to build on many missed opportunities, like Jill’s bike, as you describe. As you and I and many others have experienced here, the cold case reviews of these murders always began with the mindset of the investigators at the MSP. You know how that went. My head still hurts from banging it against that wall. We may be past that, and whether anything can be salvaged remains to be seen. Why is everything so convoluted and contrary to common sense? To steal a line from a show I saw on t.v. last night, a homicide investigation can become more complicated as time goes on because someone wants it to be. In this case I think “someones” is more like it. As for the FOIA documents, don’t forget that sadly the request was limited to documents related to Chris Busch and his partner Greg Green. It cost my Dad $13,000 to get those 3,000-plus documents and that figure does not include attorney fees incurred in prying those documents out of the MSP’s hands. So a lot of information is simply not to be found in the documents (many of which are redacted and many no doubt withheld due to some “exemption”). A lot of interesting information can be found in the documents, but it would take a month of Sundays to cross-reference all the haphazard documents deemed to be responsive to the FOIA request. I believe everything has been convoluted and much of it contrary to common sense because it allowed the MSP to say the case was unsolvable for over three decades. One thing I think we have all learned is that these cases most certainly were not what they were portrayed to be: completely lacking in viable tips or evidence. This is completely depressing but at the same time gives me hope that current investigators have something to work with.
Hi katherine, im the guy who passed on the info to you about shelden and grossman/n fox island awhile back.im glad to hear things are going better for you. I started a youtube series on based on my research into the subject http://youtu.be/_1-q4xW0PV0. Good luck and, as always, if you ever want any help let me know.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/10/cellmate_may_have_killed_inmat.html
Kathy,
Wasnt this guy part of the pediphyle ring?
Not sure, Mike. Need to do a little research.
Theodore dyer.
The name is very very familiar
Catherine, July 21st was a long time ago,I’m sure when you are talking about amost 40 yrs ago it doesn’t seem that long, but I was wondering if you still feel in a good place with the investigation? I do apologize for the question. I wish I could be freed of some thoughts of my own.
No apology necessary, Kathleen. I still feel like it is in the best hands it has been. None of this changes that a few people at the very top levels of this investigation, including prosecutors then and now, have almost certainly ensured that this case will never be easily solved. When you add in all the people who came forward with information and have been ignored, as well as the people who knew what really happened and kept their mouths shut–it becomes suffocatingly hard to think about. I have no inside information on where things are.
And I mean those at the MSP at the top levels back in the day who were completely in charge of all levels of the investigation, not current participants.
Wow, I just stumbled on to your pages/blog and your brother Tim was sure never forgotten and oh so loved. I find what your father, you and your brother have done to be truly remarkable. I am a bit taken a back by the fumbles of the police work but at 58 years of age not surprised although never have been related to any police officers, this makes me very angry that just like learning when having a sick child how awful our health care system is now I am learning detectives and law enforcement sounds the same. Just like you have to be your own patient advocate, I guess your have to do your own police/detective work as you have done. I admire your family and having lost all three of my siblings to illness, in a short period of time, sibling grief is the pits. But, what your family went through is a nightmare. I am truly sorry for all your pain and suffering but I truly admire all of you. To me you are the people give me hope that our world still has people with the right stuff. Blessings, Mary Flaherty
Yes the 60s, 70s and 80s were interesting times for the country, state and Antrim County in northern Michigan. The Antrim County airport was a source of lots of questionable activities as well as the attraction of wealth to the lakes and resorts. I have thoughts on the larger scale of these crimes and where the scale of the picture is referenced in the writings. Someone said something to me several years ago that made me think that the activities, as well as some of the past younger players, haven’t gone away and that the scale was far greater than the sole legal accountability of one man locally that when I heard someone quote that man as saying, “when you do it once you’re in it for life.
I very much would like to share my thoughts with Ms. Broad.