This comment from a reader is powerful and makes some very good points. Rather than having it buried in the comment section, I am reposting it here:
What a sloppy investigation. I am embarrassed to have grown up in Michigan. I wonder if they have all the secretary of state records for all the Leman’s owners during that year. If they do it would be nice to see if they can run the last three plate numbers 222. Doug Wilson repeated multiple times how confident he was about the last three numbers of the license plate. I doubt you would even the car’s color. There can not be very many leman’s owners with a license plate ending in 222 from that year. The State of Michigan needs to e-file all government documents. This way old documentation can be searched in a keyword/advanced search database. Not just information from criminal investigations. The government just lets all the old documentation sit in filing cabinets to collect dust. IMO it is one of the worst parts of this investigation. There is so much old fashion detective work in this case when it needs to be digital. Just to pull a hand full of files must take hours. This is completely unacceptable. I have a feeling this was never a cover up. This could be the result of the shittiest police work ever and prosecutors funneling money for a massive investigation. I would not be surprised if the state police have files they won’t let your family go through with the excuse that they are in an active investigation that already that proves who the killer is. They just need to hand over the damn files already. If they had such strong evidence that was too risky to release to your family than why did they relaunch the task force after Richard Lawson incriminating Ted Lamborgine and after Patrick Coffey mentioned his conversation with Larry Wasser about admitting to polygraph testing Christopher Bush. They don’t even know what evidence they have. Their only tool right now is taking tips and giving polygraphs. Your family and the media has done better with this investigation they have. I bet these detectives only work this case part time. Which is probably less than 5 hours a week at best. Don’t stop complaining. This is bullshit.
When I look at the articles describing all the grant money and other funds that went toward this investigation over the years, it makes me crazy. When Garry Gray was working on this case from 2005 on, he was quoted somewhere in the press as saying they got funds to digitize the files in this case. They never did it. I have been told by a number of sources that the “war room” and evidence storage area for this case are shit shows. Isn’t there some younger person at the MSP who has not been tainted by the culture there who has a conscience? How about someone still living who worked for Brooks Patterson from 1976-1980 who knows what happened to this investigation and has a conscience? Dick Thompson, we know we can count you out.
The state police need to account for all of these funds and how/if they were put to use in the OCCK case. Then they, and the OC prosecutors office, need to atone for their mis and malfeasance in this case. Other agencies are actually working on behalf of children, not just saying they do. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-marshals-find-39-missing-children-georgia/; https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/2020/08/27/u-s-marshals-find-25-missing-kids-including-one-mansfield/5647820002/; https://nbc25news.com/news/local/genesee-county-sheriff-has-arrested-17-alleged-child-sex-predators-since-march. In the MSP’s and the OCP’s failures in this case and their resultant doubling-down and refusal to make anything right here, they continually miss the larger picture. Here is the larger picture, in case those charged with protecting the most vulnerable in society don’t get it: 1. What happened to Mark, Jill, Kristine and Tim (and no doubt other victims); 2. Living abuse victims; 3. The damage done here to society at large.
There needs to be an inquiry into this investigation as was done in the Yorkshire Ripper case in the UK. This case was the longest running serial killer case in the UK. These cases were atypical because
the British Parliament conducted a major review critical of the investigative procedures; a procedure unprecedented in U.S. criminal investigations. The product of the review was the discovery of a multitude of investigative errors and the establishment of the HOLMES system, a central repository of case information in major cases. That kind of database, along with the ability of investigators to draw on the data contained therein, goes a long way to solve many of the information disconnects that plague interagency task force investigations, particularly the cases involving serial offenders such as killers and sex offenders.
The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations, The Grisly Business Unit, Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes (Academic Press 2003), p. XV.
When a new prosecutor is sworn in for Oakland County (and I hope it is Karen McDonald) and hopefully a new OC sheriff, a game plan has to be implemented to stop this drain on the taxpayers and to answer to the public for what has happened here and how officials plan to make sure it never happens again.
I don’t care who killed John McKinney or Chris Busch and no one else appears to, either. Focus on the failures of this task force and the culture that not only permitted it but encouraged it. Answer and atone.