After last night’s post no one came forward with information about Bloomfield Township/Bloomfield Village cop Richard J. McNamee, who was the first cop to the Busch “suicide” scene. But journalist and author Marney Keenan came forward with a lot of information.

The woman who contacted me regarding McNamee readily agreed to let me contact Marney with her information and the two of them shared the limited information they found online. Marney Keenan then filed FOIA requests and told the agencies she was a journalist familiar with FOIA law and that she would require the legal reasons for any exemptions. In other words, don’t give me your “no files,” “limited retention schedule” bullshit or the total-redaction special.

While the state police were sitting on this woman’s information–not even calling her–Marney got most of the FOIA files today. If you are at all familiar with this case, the documents speak for themselves and they speak volumes. Tonight I will post the most relevant files and tomorrow I will just pile it all on and you can see for yourself what this man’s file contained.

I am making an open plea to national media to take a hard look at what has happened here. Marney Keenan’s book has been out for a little over a month. Someone reads it, contacts me with information about being sexually molested as a girl by the very cop who just happens to show up to the Busch home for a “wellness check” on Chris Busch. MARNEY KEENAN does the heavy lifting researching this cop while the state police DO NOTHING. Tonight you will see what she found. The Detroit area press has been as weak and lame as the Michigan State Police. NATIONAL PRESS, WE NEED YOU! Police are going to do nothing here. It is outrageous to have a victim of sexual abuse, a murder victim’s sister and a retired journalist and author carrying the water for the cops.

There’s lots more to say, but check this out and we will dissect it tomorrow.
I will just preface the link to the files with the following:

–Richard J. McNamee was employed by Bloomfield Village on 10-2-71.
–He was the first cop to respond to the Busch “suicide” scene on 11-20-78 and was there alone with Busch’s brother Charles for a period of time before back up came.
–He was suspended on 4-12-79
–He resigned four days later on 4-16-79
–On 4-18-79, Police Chief Robert L. Snell provided McNamee a letter of recommendation, recommending him to future employers and wishing him much success.

Check this out and there will be more tomorrow:

Suspicious Circumstances

1982 McNamee Incident Report

In other files, the state police contact Bloomfield Village for McNamee’s attendance records for 1976 and 1977.

Witness Doug Wilson described an older man in a LeMans watching my brother Tim as he was skateboarding and then speaking with a younger man. Wilson described the man as looking somewhat like John Wayne Gacy. More on this tomorrow, too.

Contrary to what I previously posted, it appears this dead guy has a daughter. Law enforcement (not Oakland County or the MSP) needs to go get a DNA sample, and not lose it.

A woman contacted me just over a month ago, telling me she had started to read The Snow Killings and was surprised to learn that Chris Busch lived half a mile from her family when she was growing up in Bloomfield Village. She was around my brother Tim’s age in 1977. She then found the Busch “suicide” report in the FOIA documents posted on my blog.

The documents include an Incident Report handwritten by Corporal McNamee, who received a radio run to “check on the welfare of a Mr. Busch” at 8:37 a.m. on November 20, 1978.

Incident Report, McNamee author.

The Busch’s maid, Christine Bracken, could not get into the home at 3310 Morningview Terrace to clean on Monday morning and saw the Friday newspaper in the door and thought something might be wrong. She went to a neighbor, who called Chris Busch’s brother Charles. Charles then called Bloomfield Township P.D. McNamee met the maid at the home and Charles showed up at about 9:00 a.m. McNamee eventually forced the front door open, breaking the chain lock from the inside wall. Both men went up to Chris Busch’s bedroom, opened the door and found Chris Busch in bed “with a 22 cal rifle by his side lying on his back obviously dead & for some time (3-4 days).” [Note that McNamee did a better job of pinpointing the time of death than Oakland County ME Robert Sillery, who just used the date of discovery of the body–11-20-78.]

As described in McNamee’s handwritten Incident Report, I.D. Technician Paul Brabant, Officer Speicher, Detective Quarles and Officer Uhrig were notified to come to the scene of a suspected suicide. McNamee notes that he then made a check of the home inside and out before they arrived.

The typewritten Narrative Report by Officer Uhrig confirms that he and Det. Quarles met Cpl McNamee at the scene. As you will recall, at 10:45 a.m. two members of the OCCK Task Force, John Davis and Ron Pierce, also came to the scene.

Narrative Report, Officer Uhrig

The woman who contacted me was really surprised to learn that Corporal McNamee (known to her as Officer McNamee) was in the room when Chris Busch was discovered. She told me it had taken her some time to get the nerve up to contact me. This is why:

Officer McNamee sexually molested me when I was eight to about 11 or 12. I didn’t know what he was doing. He was our police officer in our village and we loved him. He enticed us with Fruit Stripe gum and Juicy Fruit gum and let us get into his car and run in front of his speed radar. But when I would run up to his car door he would put his fingers between my legs and twiddle them around. Also he did this when I was in the front seat of his car [and other kids] were in the backseat. . . . It happened quite a few times but I was very young and we were not taught any of this behavior to look out for. I was uncomfortable, felt sick inside and I would back away but something told me it was wrong but I just loved this guy. We would run out of the house we would run down the street when we saw his car because he would park outside of our homes.

. . .

In 1982 or 1983, my father called me when I was [at college] and reported to me that Officer McNamee had been arrested for being a pedophile and was going to prison. Someone’s parents reported him. This happened in Michigan, too, I believe. I couldn’t believe it and went silent. My Dad [asked] what was wrong and I told this happened to me! I never realized it was molestation until then! Talk about being naive.

I remember seeing the news articles about it and I do remember googling McNamee sometime since the web’s been around and seeing that he had died.”

This woman said that prior to contacting me she scoured the web to look for the articles about this arrest, and could find next to nothing–and no news articles whatsoever.

I asked her if she would be ok with me forwarding her information to police. She had no problem with it and I provided the state police with the full email and her contact information. She was eager to help in any way she could. On August 14 I contacted the state police again and included pages from the “suicide” report and urged them to contact this woman. As of tonight, no one has contacted her. I’m guessing no one ever will.

In the intervening month, here’s what little she and another researcher have learned about this man online.

–Born December 21, 1929
–Served AIC US Air Force Korea
–Worked at Bloomfield Township P.D.; as of 1978 was a corporal
–Believed to have left B.T.P.D. in 1979
–Arrested on April 14, 1982 in Mt. Clemens for sexual assault. Records show no charging information/details, just one count of “1100 sexual assault,” “charged by prosecutor.” McNamee was found guilty and sentenced to 2 years probation, a $200 fine and ordered to complete a Macomb substance abuse program.
–Died at age 66 in New Jersey on June 19, 1996.
–According to a cryptic death notice (no obituary), he was cremated in Newark. His remains were interred at the National Military Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. It seems he has relatives in Florida (nieces and nephews and maybe a sibling or two). It appears he never married and has no children.

A past address of 423 S. Cranbrook Cross Road comes up for Richard McNamee.
Pretty close to the Busch home and that of John Hastings. I know, I know–just a coincidence.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/423+S+Cranbrook+Cross+Rd,+Bloomfield+Hills,+MI+48301/3310+Morningview+Terrace,+Bloomfield+Hills,+MI/200+Tuckahoe+Road,+Bloomfield+Hills,+MI/@42.5443697,-83.2583449,16z/data=!4m20!4m19!1m5!1m1!1s0x8824c78719bcf0af:0xbf4ed1a885c0f36d!2m2!1d-83.2485037!2d42.541715!1m5!1m1!1s0x8824b87ddd93e267:0xfdb882e950f57413!2m2!1d-83.256392!2d42.547208!1m5!1m1!1s0x8824b87d26709c65:0x636822e21f0af1fd!2m2!1d-83.260512!2d42.5465639!3e0

I think police should have gotten back to her to ask her about her information and she is waiting. In the meantime, is there anyone else from Bloomfield Village who remembers Officer McNamee? The world needs more people like this woman who came forward. If you had a similarly horrific experience with “Officer Friendly,” or have more information that would shed light on his involvement in investigating the Chris Busch “suicide,” email me at catherine.broad@yahoo.com. Don’t bother with the tip line. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on there now that the behavior of the MSP has been exposed in The Snow Killings.

Marney Keenan’s book has rattled the branches of a very old, sick tree. The truth needs to come out here. It is so fucking obvious what went on and that the cover up continues to this very minute. Maybe this cop was just another free-range pedophile from the 1970s and 1980s and it was just his luck he got called to the Busch diorama suicide scene. If you were a kid in Bloomfield Village back in the 1970’s, you were lucky if all you got from him was a stick of gum.