Recently I had to spend some time looking through the many documents and emails I have collected in the past decade-plus, after this case was resurrected in response to information about Ted Lamborgine and Richard Lawson in 2005. Although at the time this stuff was all going down, I thought I would never forget dates and details, I needed to go back to establish some timeline information. Many might not realize that prior to this, none of us had reason to suspect anything about the way this investigation was conducted back in the day. We simply accepted that whoever tortured and killed Tim, Kris, Jill and Mark got away with it. The cops had done the best they could. Too bad, so sad.
I found so much that documents the journey since the case resurfaced in 2005 or so. I’m going to post a lot of it. Pay close attention to the dates on this stuff. Much of it goes back almost a decade. The attached is a document I prepared and sent to my family after reading When Evil Came to Good Hart: an up North Michigan cold case. Unfortunately, I did not date it, but I think it must have been in 2009 judging from the links I cite, and it was during the time my family was locked in a Freedom of Information Act case battle with the Michigan State Police and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.
The attached document mentions the name John Hastings. He was the subject of many online forums dating back over a decade. He was investigated by police sometime around 1992, and again some time after 2005. This man knew way, way too much about these crimes back in 1992, was the around the same age as Chris Busch and lived walking distance from Busch’s parents’ home in Bloomfield Village during the time of these murders. Police must have bought his excuse that he was just a serial murder aficionado, and his DNA must not have matched anything police had. Was he polygraphed and did he pass? I don’t know. His name has not come up in some years but I don’t buy his excuses. I think he has knowledge. We do know he bragged to a friend of his about these crimes, was overheard by a man who came forward many times and was always blown off, and did not have the balls to tell cops what he knew or suspected. He most likely denied knowing Busch or Greg Greene. He does not at all strike me as the kind of person who will come clean.
The more important part of the attached document is how the Michigan State Police treated the author of Good Hart, who was investigating and writing about a still-open murder investigation. I think you will find the contrast enlightening.
Before you read the attachment, consider this from an email I received at least five years ago:
For years, I wondered about this case. I remember how Adams School installed a bunch of cool new playground equipment, which, it was my understanding at the time, was put there in memory of Tim King; less than ten years later, the school was sold to Roeper, converted into a high School, and the playground equipment was removed. It was as though these crimes had never happened. It boggles my mind to think that it would be probably a couple of decades before I would finally get on the internet, idly wonder about these crimes, do a google search, and finally learn the name of a single suspect in the case–Ted Lamborgine, and also David Norberg. Suddenly these crimes once again began to resonate–not only was there evidence of a suspect or two, but there was also evidence that somebody was still trying to figure out what happened to these four children, evidence that somebody remembered them.
What I’m trying to say is that I was astounded to think of how much time had passed in my life between the dismantling of that playground equipment, and my first few weeks on the information superhighway about ten years ago. I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you and your family.
All I can say is–please, please keep going. What these victims, and the conduct of those ostensibly investigating their murders, need more than anything else is the sort of national media attention that both already merit. In two other notorious crimes of the 1970’s–the D.B. Cooper skyjacking and the Zodiac murders–the relevant law enforcement agencies have publicly discussed essentially everything they possibly can under the notion that there is nothing left to lose at this point. This business of having to employ the FOIA act is obscene, but I’m glad your family is doing it.
So, take a look at how the MSP treated the author of Good Hart and ask yourself how long Oakland County, the MSP and others involved in investigating this case can justify not revealing everything–because there is in fact, nothing to lose. And how they can justify treating the open case of the Robison family murders one way, and the OCCK murders another? Scan 2018-7-14 07.01.18