Reading these documents you get some sense of how crazy-making this case is. There it is in black and white. Nobody really believes a family member of a victim when s/he says something is very wrong here. Like the FBI agent who spoke with my brother Mark, many assume we just want vengeance or revenge. No, we want answers. Even if the answer is “we understand your frustration, here is what we know, here is where things may have gone wrong, here is why we can’t tell you more, here is our game plan for DNA testing, here is how we are manning the tip line and following up on leads that surfaced after Children of the Snow aired in February 2019.” We even understand that active cases need your attention first. I wouldn’t want to have to defend the MSP investigation prior to 2006 (and probably not even after). But this failure was compounded by the loss of control when Wasser spilled about Busch and we went public and then they doubled-down. Cops seem to be good at that, doubling-down. So the FOIA request followed. Now you see how it’s done and it is not reassuring.
Google “Oakland County Child Killer tip line” and see what you get. Do you get a press release from the Michigan State Police or Oakland County? No you do not. You get Wikipedia, my blog and other crime websites. The tip line number was given out in Children of the Snow. Had the producers not forced the issue, there would not have been a tip line (such as it is). Umm, four unsolved murders of children and no place for the public to call in if they know something? Yeah. Should have thought of that, right?
The FOIA documents demonstrate that when my brother and my Dad went to the rejuvenated task force, Garry Gray’s message always contained “don’t go to the press,” “I don’t want to deal with the press,” or some such version. In Decades of Deceit my Dad describes one meeting where apparently he asked one question too many and Garry Gray prefaced his response with the fact that he considered himself on the OBD program. What’s that you ask? Gray explained “one bad day and I’m out of here.” My feeling was–hey, that was your bad day, now get the fuck out.
Now that you have read some of the MSP file (and again, this is the tip of the iceberg), you know why they have been so silent. Here are some observations from readers. I have a small group of readers who are helpful and very observant. You wouldn’t have believed these observations had you not read the documents for yourself. Here’s what they said:
The documents prior to Volume 5 reflect complete disorganization. It seems like quite a bit of evidence was collected and even prepared for testing. Yet it sat for decades, it looks like with the MSP.
When polygrapher Wasser slipped and revealed information leading to Chris Busch, it was like a volcanic eruption of so much concealed evidence that should have been shared first with the families, then to pursue any suspicious people and activities connected to the cars and the suspects. Then they should have asked for the public’s help.
If your father had not pursued the FOIA requests, at a cost of almost $12,000, we would all still be in the dark.
Regarding evidence storage and testing: the documents say evidence from all four crimes went to the MSP/state lab. They could not find some evidence and then they did. Documents state that the state lab said evidence needed to be retrieved because they do not store it. The FBI stated that the evidence they tested needed to be refrigerated or frozen for preservation. Was there proper follow up? And the evidence sitting at the MSP Oak Park post is still not catalogued after some 40 years.
Names from the documents indicate other suspects besides Busch–Todd Warzecha, Richard Lawson, Clark Lankey and Michael Grant.
Over 500 OCCK case polygraphs??! And the polygraph records were found at two different locations. No secure, centralized record-keeping system.
Over 20,000 tips called in during the early part of the investigation. How many tips are ignored today?
It looks like the overall treatment received by the OCCK families since the flood gates opened up after the Wasser disclosure by LE and the judicial system has been COMBATIVE. And these public employees work for the taxpayers.
I really feel this disorganization and hack job of criminal evidence retention and testing is grounds for the involvement of the DOJ Inspector Generals Office. Many key pieces of evidence came up “missing” like the gun and ropes at the Busch death scene, Busch’s suitcase of child porn, as well other evidence seized from the Flint arrests and “lost” by the FBI in a facility flood. As is the verbal gas lighting of family members by the FBI.
The Volume 5 posts are much more organized. Night and day difference of evidence and investigation notes from previous files. Livonia Det./Sgt. Cory Williams’ work is how this case should have been implemented from day one with detailed chronological notes and having all leads followed up on.
A reader also sent a link to this article from the Macomb Daily and noted the contrast between how agencies approached this serial murder investigation, the involvement of the press and communication with the victims’ families. A clear contrast to the OCCK case: https://www.macombdaily.com/news/copscourts/police-several-items-found-during-search-for-missing-girls-remains/article_2ebd5fae-c90b-11e9-914c-b311421e79a9.html
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So I am a fan of you all seeing this for yourselves. Lots more in Volume 5 to be posted next. Feel free to send comments to me or to comment in comment sections below posts.
One thing I find absolutely unbelievable is the gun, fingers/toes of Busch were not checked for residue. The way he was rolled up should have been a dead give away that Busch did pull that trigger. What the hell kind of police work is being conducted in this state? It certainly is not investigative. I don’t believe the investigated Hoj’s suicide either. They took everything at face value and closed cases. I read in these files no one knew Busch had any king of firearm. You know what? Neither did Hoj. So who do you think offed these guys? Someone offed that Berkeley cop too? And the art dealer in Birmingham!
Yep. And whoever it was wasn’t about to go to prison for offing bad guys. That’s part of the code of silence here.
And you can certainly see why someone might think the only way to stop a Chris Busch was to kill him. The justice system in Michigan bowed to his family influence.
Another thing law enforcement can’t explain away is the Blue Vega Wagon with the white stripe owned by Christopher Busch and driven by both he and Greg Greene. Det. Lorne Doan investigated throughly if Greene was out on bond in March of 77 and his conclusion was. Yes, he was. Greene looks just like the infamous composite sketch with the blue hatchback white striped car. It just can’t be a coincidence!
And then law enforcement waits over 30 years to inquire about the Vega with Busch’s nephew?😡
Why won’t the FBI release the composite sketches or car drawn from Doug Wilson’s description , what are they hiding?!
Incompetent F———!!!
They didn’t look back at this stuff because as far as they were concerned (Robertson and Krease and therefore the entire MSP) the case was closed. Busch and others were dead, Greene was in jail and other low level pedophiles and child pornmeisters scattered. And there was that little problem of Prosecutor Patterson saying a month before Tim was found dead that Busch and Greene were polygraphed and cleared. The cops and others who knew or suspected that this is how it was “taken care of” were ok with it. Unbelievably, nobody asks any questions and this just eventually evaporates. No one else dies and so the community doesn’t care that justice is never pursued. That is why evidence was never filed or stored properly and why tips were never truly computerized or cross-referenced. The MSP’s sole job at that point was to keep a lid on this thing. Patterson and Thompson at the OCP, too. There just is no other explanation for it.
One brief observation.
You view ‘four unsolved murders’ because that is what is visible from your very personal and local perspective.
A person can look at the evidence and support your viewpoint, it’s certainly not inaccurate, but it is limited, incomplete.
Looking at the totality of evidence, the involvement of Shelden etc, it’s clear that your ‘four unsolved murders’ risk starting a contagion if they are investigated properly.
When I clicked on that link you just posted my first thought was that Michigan sure produces a lot of serial killers.
But then I read the article and briefly researched, and quickly realized something very different.
That fellow in the article complains that he is being accused of more murders because police/fbi are ‘fakesolving’ other murders by pinning them on him.
You can dismiss that out of distaste for the person, he did commit some unknown number of murders.
But the question in that case isn’t whether he is a decent guy, it’s which murders he committed, whether you like him or not.
Without reading more than a tiny bit of a few articles, I’m very sure that ‘authorities’ were in fact trying to use him to solve difficult cases.
My guess, and it’s based on having researched similar things, is that an examination of investigations by the fbi and other agencies during the time period of the ‘four unsolved murders’ risks risks opening a very rotten can of worms.
Sorry this isn’t a brief comment anymore, but google Joseph Paul Franklin, a fellow that got electric chaired a few years ago. He supposedly committed most of the unsolved racial crimes in the U.S. during a certain time period, shooting Vernon Jordan, shooting Larry Flynt, firebombing Morris Amitay, sniping synagogues. Problem is, there is overwhelming proof he did not commit several of those killings, he may not have commited any of them, and there is proof the fbi knew that when they prosecuted him.
Good luck with your effort but chances are slim.
I’ll take the chance. Thanks for your support.
Cathy I said it once and I will say it again the suitcase full of pornography that Chris Bush was found with was child porn pictures of myself and other children that Bush received from Gerald Richards those pictures showed that we were on that island and that’s where the pictures were taken they showed Francis Sheldon’s Ann Arbor apartment where pictures were being taken and for me to find out that the FBI is Saying the pictures floated away it’s very disturbing because you know what that tells me that the FBI covered this whole thing up in the name of Blood by me I always admired the FBI and I always trusted them I trusted everybody my whole life just like your father did and he’s a smart guy I am so disgusted by this whole thing so let down in life by Authority what am I to teach my grandchildren smh
Blood Money
It is horrible, Mike and I am so sorry. What will I teach my grandchildren? Same thing I taught my kids–adults are not always right and some times they do things to hurt kids because their brains are messed up and because they are bigger than a kid. And NOT to trust the FBI. Ever.
I really just wanted to leave this up to the professionals the authorities the one those were supposed to be able to trust but for some reason today they fear the truth or they just don’t care about 11 dead children who were molested and tortured and murdered like I said this isn’t over we will survive the corona and come back strong a higher power is listening