Before I move on to Volume 2 of the FOIA response from the MSP, I wanted you to understand how it came to this. This is just a rough overview with accompanying documents. Many of you have heard this background before. Bear with me as I try to demonstrate how we learned in real time that something was very wrong with this investigation and why the actions of the MSP meant we had to file a FOIA request.

In October 2006 we were all at my Dad’s house to go through the last of my Mom’s belongings after her death in 2004. While there, my Dad showed us a letter with accompanying documents he had received from retired Lieutenant Jack Kalbfleisch about the reactivation of the OCCK task force in 2005. Jack worked on the OCCK task force back in the day and was with Birmingham PD. He worked very hard on Tim’s case as well as the murders of Mark, Jill and Kristine. 2020-03-31_194111

Long story short, Jack reluctantly reached out to my Dad because his attempts to reach out to Det. Ray Anger and Sgt. Garry Gray of the rejuvenated task force were being rebuffed. These guys NEVER went back to talk to cops who actually worked in the trenches when they started up another cold case review of this case. Anger, who had also worked on the initial OCCK task force and was from Berkley PD, blew him off so Kalbfleisch contacted a Detroit News police beat reporter from with a long history with this case (Mike Martindale) to try to get someone to move on the LeMans information. Gray then was forced to respond to Jack and then the reporter. See some of the documents I read that evening in October 2006 below:

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I asked my Dad if I could call Jack, and Jack agreed to speak with me and my two brothers via conference call. This letter memorializes the conversation:

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This is the letter I sent my Dad subsequent to our discussions. It is heavily redacted, and unfortunately a page went missing and this was a couple of computers ago. You will still get the gist. I had redacted because I shared the letter with a detective from another agency and later a reporter and I was trying not to throw LE outside of the MSP under the bus with them.

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Almost a year later (November 2007), the name of Christopher Busch surfaced after investigation of information private polygrapher Larry Wasser gave to polygrapher Patrick Coffey. Damn near a year after that, Busch’s house on Morningview Terrace was searched (October 2008). This was reported in the news. And keep in mind that our family was aware of the Busch lead because I gave the information about Wasser to Det. Williams of Livonia PD. I knew better by then to go to the MSP.

So my Dad starts calling Garry Gray with the MSP to ask for a meeting to discuss the status of the investigation. Here is an email he sent to us about setting up this meeting after a few failed attempts. None of the email addresses are good anymore, so I have left them as is.

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I respond to my family.

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The meeting keeps getting bounced.

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The cops keep blowing my Dad off so he calls an editor at The Detroit News and reporter Marney Keenan blows the lid off of the MSP foot-dragging with an epic news story that October.

In the wake of this, the meeting takes place. The meeting where Tim and Kristine’s relatives sit in a conference room equipped with a listening device for 45 minutes waiting for the meeting. (That is from a very reliable source.)

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I “love” that quote from then Captain Harold Love: “We are hoping there will come a point and time to bring this together and have everybody come together and present a conclusion to the public and to everybody else so we can put this thing to bed,” he said. You needed 6 weeks of delay to put that statement together? Eleven years later we are still waiting for bedtime.

In the meantime, reporter Marney Keenan writes this story for the News:

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This is an awesome column. She gets it. “[The families] now say they look upon those in charge of delivering justice with grave distrust.”

My Dad sent this letter to Captain Love on January 4, 2010.

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Of course there was no reply, no phone call. The FOIA request to the MSP followed within the week.

The cops were all pissed that we went to the media. They have never recovered from that, as far as I can tell. The MSP “doesn’t talk to families,” and the families sure as hell better not go to the press. I guess we were just supposed to eat their bullshit for the rest of our lives. Just like they tried to shut down Jack Kalbfleisch. And all kinds of witnesses who came forward over the years. They were on the verge of losing control of the narrative when Jack Kalbfleisch pushed Gray to release information about the car bumper information at the Mihelich crime scene. They ultimately lost control of the narrative when Larry Wasser spilled about Busch. Because we later learned about the information witness Doug Wilson supplied to the FBI and MSP about a LeMans seen near Tim before he was abducted and that this was also squelched, there was really only one conclusion. Our grave concerns were more than justified. To this day, the MSP continues to keep a lid on this case. Just wait and it will blow over. They know that from the 1977 playbook and I have to say, it’s been very effective.

While I was searching through these documents, I found a document someone sent me in the days leading up to the FOIA request. Not everyone forgot about these crimes and I’m sorry to say, I enjoyed reading this:

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Volume 2 starts tomorrow.

If you are looking for a podcast to listen to while on lockdown, Down the Hill: The Delphi Murders, is a really interesting listen. https://www.downthehillpodcast.com/. The podcast is about the unsolved February 2017 murder of two girls, Libby German (age 14) and Abigail Williams (age 13). The girls went on a hike starting at around 1:30 pm. The girls did not show up for their ride home and a search of the area was started early that evening. The next day their bodies were found in the woods near the trail. These two girls, with everything to live for, had the misfortune of crossing paths with a coward/predator. Libby snapped a photo of him with her smartphone and captured some audio of the monster’s voice and somehow did this without the killer’s knowledge. The photo and audio are not completely clear, but both were broadcast to the public. No one has yet been arrested. Law enforcement and the podcasters have concluded that this monster is probably a local who was or is walking among the residents of Delphi, Indiana.

The way law enforcement spoke to and dealt with the press as well as these podcasters was impressive. Episode 9 is particularly poignant. In it, a retired fire chief speaks emotionally about the search for the girls. The superintendent in charge of the murder investigation and the grandfather of Libby German speak candidly, together, about the status of the investigation three years later.

If you want something interesting to read, start here with the FOIA documents provided in this case by the Michigan State Police. You have seen the letter sent by the MSP’s Assistant FOIA Coordinator Linda Ortiz in initial response to my Dad’s FOIA request:

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My Dad’s attorney responded to this letter, rejecting Ortiz’s claim that there would be any exempt materials.

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To my knowledge, the MSP never identified any documents they considered exempt. The 3,000-plus pages include numerous blank pages. Again, no explanation for blank pages, exemptions or redactions.

The following are from the first volume of the FOIA response. The responsive documents filled six large binders. I am posting these documents in the order they were provided. Sometimes the same documents appear in various volumes. Some of the documents are missing, as evidenced by gaps in the Bates stamp numbering. Where did these go? I can only say that documents were pulled for reporters, authors, podcasters and other media people. Some of the documents never ended up back where they should have been. I would say that approximately 25-plus pages from various volumes are missing. Presumably, they just didn’t get refiled as they should have been. They are floating around out there but are not in these computer files.

Many of the pages from Volume 1 have been previously posted, but I am posting again in order so that you can see how they showed up. Remember that these documents were provided in late spring of 2010 (a decade ago and still no answers) and are the documents selected by the MSP as responsive to a limited FOIA request concerning this case. I’m sure they withheld their little log notations concerning hacking the computers and cellphones of victims’ family members and those communicating with them, and of using a listening device in October 2009 in an MSP waiting room where family members of Kristine Mihelich and Tim King were sent to cool their heels until law enforcement deemed that their bullshit powwow could begin 45 minutes late. I doubt you got an earful that day, but wow, do you suck. Such a complete contrast to Episode 9 in the podcast referenced above.

These documents are very triggering and will challenge your faith in humanity. They raise more questions than they answer. For me, there were numerous themes that ran through these volumes from Hell. You readers are smart people; you can come to your own conclusions. I won’t even ask you to put yourself in the shoes of a victims’ families as you read them the way we did. Post your comments here; my email is so, so full. Will the truth ever prevail here?

If you have read the past few posts about Busch and Hastings, the first 13 or so files here will be redundant for you. Click on Binder 7 then on 8, even though they are on the same line. The last 6 files are new to this blog. Future posts will be shorter. This is Volume/Binder 1 of 6. More later.

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Hastings did show up for a polygraph in Georgia as he agreed to do. The interview was August 2009 and the polygraph took place in October 2009. Thank you to a reader who found the relevant pages in the FOIA documents.

The polygraphs were apparently in connection to his possible involvement in the killings of Mark (document says “Douglas,” Mark’s middle name), Jill and Kristine. Because he was polygraphed in 1992 in connection with Tim’s murder (only), they did not polygraph him in 2009 with regard to Tim again.

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The questions asked and the results have been redacted. I can only conclude that John Hastings passed these polygraphs in 2009 or that the results were inconclusive. I believe Helen Dagner’s website listed these results as “inconclusive,” but there is no basis I can see in these particular files for that conclusion. If I find other notations to the contrary, I will post.

There is also a notation that John called the Georgia State trooper who polygraphed him saying he wanted to talk again about one of the questions. It seemed to relate to his reading of one of the books about these crimes.

So I don’t know if this series of polygraph questions established whether or not John Hastings knew Chris Busch. It would seem that because the police moved on, they were convinced the two, who lived a short distance from each other, were basically the same age, and were both working in the restaurant industry, did not. It is a good sign for him that he showed up for these polygraphs, as he had agreed to in the police interview. I can’t deny that.