Listen to Kevin Price, host of the nationally syndicated Price of Business Show, interview J. Reuben Appelman, author of The Kill Jar and on-camera investigator and an executive producer of a two-part documentary series, Children of the Snow about the Oakland County Child Killer crimes.

Producer of Chilling Film on Oakland County Child Killer Talks Personally About It, Part 1

Part 2 of Interview with Producer of Film on Oakland County Child Killer — How He Narrowly Missed Being Abducted

Turns out that although no one in law enforcement in Michigan ever says much about these crimes, there is discussion going on at a national level. Michigan State Police, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department, local Oakland County police departments, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office–they all stick to the script drawn up at some point in 1978. Keep the case open, control the narrative (misinformation if necessary), say nothing of substance and punish those that speak up or ask questions. This has been going on for over four decades. Sorry, but we all smell the bacon and now people around the country and beyond do, too.

Soon after my Dad’s death, I spoke with reporter Randy Wimbley with Fox News Detroit. We discussed my Dad’s pursuit of justice for answers in my brother Tim’s death. I told Randy if he called the MSP or the OCP they would have no comment on this story. I don’t know if Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard was contacted about this story or whether this was old footage. Check out the bullshit at about 2:15 in this story:

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/barry-king-father-of-oakland-county-child-murder-victim-and-relentless-justice-advocate-dies-at-89

Incredibly frustrating? Man, you don’t know the half of it.

I guess Kevin Price is still interested in the story. His third interview with J. Reuben Appelman is next week. I will post the link.

Children of the Snow originally aired on the ID channel in February 2019 and is streaming on Hulu. The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent and a Search for Detroit’s Most Notorious Serial Killer (Simon & Schuster, 2018) is available on Amazon.com.

Listen to Episode 3 of The Clown and the Candyman, an Investigation Discovery true crime podcast. It evoked so much in me; I want to go outside and scream at the top of my lungs.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-clown-and-the-candyman/id1540131474

In fact, listen to it twice because there are parts that your brain is going to resist absorbing, especially if you are a parent. But it needs to sink in. Share the link on your social media sites, especially if you live or grew up in Michigan. Share it with people who still live in Michigan. SHARE. THIS.

Just last week Mike and I were discussing how even though law enforcement is basically doing nothing in these cases now that Det. Cory Williams has retired (after being gaslighted and subjected to whistleblower treatment by fellow law enforcement, including the FBI), there is a small victory in having these stories told. Mike pointed out it started with reporter Marilyn Wright at the Traverse City Record-Eagle back in the mid-1970s. She was brave enough to scream into the wind about Frank Shelden and his band of criminal conspirators and child assaulters. (See https://catherinebroad.blog/2013/03/12/north-fox-island-circa-1975-76/; https://catherinebroad.blog/2014/01/13/; https://catherinebroad.blog/2019/12/09/what-do-i-think/.). Her reporting was so solid, and an incredible contrast to the Detroit area newspapers too afraid to touch it.

I have great respect for Mike and consider him a friend. Near the end of the podcast, Mike mentions the letter he wrote to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in February, 2019. Mike sent me a copy and gave me permission to post the letter on my blog. Please read the letter, link about mid-way in the post:

Justice for all

As he describes in the podcast, he never got a response. Not from the Governor’s office, not from Attorney General Dana Nessel. A little over a year ago, a reader wrote me to tell me of correspondence with the same offices. This woman got a call back (maybe because she mentions growing up in Birmingham?) and was told to contact the Oakland County Sheriff’s Dept. and the MSP Metro North Posts–which, if the staffer would have taken even a cursory look at this case online, would have realized that’s like asking the chicken to report to the fox’s den to ask for help.

“Have a good day.”

While you are at it, take a listen (or another listen) to criminologist Dr. Michael Arntfield discuss the OCCK case with author J. Reuben Appelman:

THIS.

This is another podcast segment that has so much in it that it takes more than one listen to fully absorb the gravity of what is being said.

How come every time you hear the sentence “This case is too big to solve/dig around/touch,” it’s always uttered by some old, white man? Thank you to others who have dug much deeper and sounded the alarm; who have gone where law enforcement in Michigan would not go in these cases of extreme child sexual abuse. Who looked past the law enforcement bullshit that has been slung in these cases for over four decades. After Marilyn Wright there were reporters Marney Rich Keenan (Detroit News, 2009) and David Ashenfelter (Detroit Free Press, 2012). Then author M.F. Cribari (Portraits in the Snow: The Oakland County Child Killings . . . Scandals and Small Conspiracies (2011). Then author J. Reuben Appelman (The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit’s Most Notorious Serial Killer, 2018). Then the documentarians at Cineflix who produced Children of the Snow, a four-part documentary based on The Kill Jar, which still airs on Hulu. Then an article in Business Insider by Aine Cain that examined the striking similarities between Jeffrey Epstein and Frank Shelden (summer 2019). Then Marney Rich Keenan’s book The Snow Killings: Inside the Oakland County Child Killer Investigation (2020). And now the podcast The Clown and the Candyman (eight parts, started airing last week), the work of Jacqueline Bynon, Tara Hughes and their team at Cineflix.

Too big to touch? Fuck you. Tell that to victims like Mike, whose story should resonate in your brain for a few days at a minimum. WHEN is a survivor’s story in the cases of Michigan pedophelia and child pornography going to be enough to force meaningful change?

The antidote to shame is truth. How about some truth for a change, Michigan?

Thank you, Mike, for your courage and clarity. It is remarkable.

In 1978 the Michigan Department of State Police published a 245-page team manual (including appendices) concerning the operations of the OCCK task force. It was presented through a grant award from the Michigan Office of Criminal Justice Programs.

This document can be accessed on the NCJRS (National Criminal Justice Reference Service). Here is the abstract page:

https://www.ncjrs.gov/app/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=53805

Click on “PDF” to access the manual.

While it is merely denoted with a year, not a date, it appears to cover information dated through April 1978, and the document explains that as of yet, there have been no arrests in the case. In eight month’s time, the task force will be disbanded.

While this document seems to do a good job trying to justify the $637,662 in grant money the MSP task force had received (see pages 12 and 13; Grant #1 was $341,987, and Grant #2 was $295,675), the most important take aways are found at page 49 (“A tool is only as good as the person who is using it”) and page 14 (chart of law enforcement personnel who, if still living, should be grilled under oath about what happened in this investigation, especially concerning Chris Busch and his attorney Jane Burgess). The incident maps on pages 99-107 are also interesting.

I keep forgetting that these crimes and the N. Fox Island crimes took place under the watch of not only L. Brooks Patterson and Oakland County local law enforcement, but also on the watch of Michigan A.G. Frank Kelley and Governor William Milliken (native of Traverse City). Exhibit F is Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley’s AG Opinion No. 5031, dated September 17, 1976–well before the formation of the OCCK task force).

The AG opinion addresses the use of local police agencies “in conjunction with” the Michigan State Police.

The opinion is clearly concerned in large part with the question of civil liability arising from actions of local officers. The answer: The state need not provide legal counsel for local police officers and “assumes no financial responsibility in connection with a civil suit arising from the actions of local peace officers.” So you’re not responsible for Birmingham PD, but you are for the MSP.