The FOIA documents I posted in early December this year contain three FBI lab reports from the Mitochondrial DNA Unit, one from 2008 (two hairs from Tim King’s shirt) and two from 2010 (1-10-10, hair from Mark Stebbin’s clothing and four hairs found on Tim King (resubmitted), and (12-20-20, four hairs, also “resubmitted,” two “from car” and two “from Pontiac”). A few readers contacted me about these reports and I want to share some observations. None of us has any qualifications to evaluate; these are just questions raised.
There have obviously been advancements in DNA testing, mtDNA testing and databases and genetic genealogy since 2010. https://portlandpress.com/emergtoplifesci/article/5/3/415/229502/Mitochondrial-DNA-in-forensic-use; https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/253077.pdf. I cannot tell you if the MSP has resubmitted anything addressed in these lab reports since 2010; whether at this time mtDNNA can even successfully be used in genetic genealogy; or whether they have submitted the Y-STR sample developed in Kristine’s case to any data bases such as GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA or MyHeritage (see https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/a-dna-company-wants-your-dna-to-catch-criminals/586120/). Significance of Y-STR testing, which has much higher discriminatory power than mtDNA: https://www.sakitta.org/resources/docs/SAKI-Y-STR-Testing.pdf.
I am betting the MSP has done exactly nothing with that Y-STR sample. But they will no doubt still maintain, as they will until the end of time, that this is an open, ongoing investigation and that the public deserves to know nothing about how they drag their feet and push paper around.
A few other preliminary observations. First, as noted in these three lab reports, various hair evidence was extinguished during testing. Very old samples, degraded due to extremely poor storage procedures at the MSP, are pretty tough to work with. Second, no surprise, the MSP conveniently refuses to collaborate with third-party labs in this case as police agencies around the world have in most of the recently solved cold cases. Third, you will see that there was quite a bit of hair evidence. When you read these reports, think of how many times those gaslighters in Oakland County and the MSP told the public just how flummoxed they were because the ingenious serial killer left not one single shred of evidence! Finally, consider how Jessica Cooper and Paul Walton scoffed at the mtDNA evidence from the hair found on Kristine’s jacket that could not be excluded as coming from Vince Gunnels, who was first a victim and then an associate of Chris Busch. That hair evidence was worthless. But this other hair evidence from “the Pontiac”–why, this is gold!
As is the case with every FOIA response in the OCCK case, there are duplicate documents and the order is disorienting. First let’s take a look at the January 8, 2010, report from the FBI lab to the MSP lab:
The two biggest questions a reader raised were:
- Why do the specimens Q26.1 (Tim), Q43.2 (Mark) and Q19 (the hair from the Pontiac) also have great similarity to that of K24 (Ruth Stebbins; differences highlighted in yellow–4 extra segments, but 10 others match)?
- Why do the only two segments listed under Q34.1 (“hair from debris from shirt”) match two segments in the HVI range for K41, Vince Gunnels?
Next another section of FOIA response, the December 20, 2010 FBI lab report which is followed by the January 8. 2010 report shown above, and then the August 11, 2008 report:
Note that specimen Q18.1 is hair from the Q18 slide “containing debris from car (#11), which given the narrative on pages 3 and 4 of the report must be John Crosbie’s car. If you have read the FOIA documents I posted in this case, you know this now deceased freak looked pretty good for participation in the abduction of Mark Stebbins.
The 12/10 lab report is followed by another copy of the 1/10 report and then by the August 11, 2008 report. Except for the notations “Larry A. Smith” at the top of page 3 and further down, “Gunnels” and “Smith” in the HVI section for specimen Q34.1 and “Hair was [too] small to analyze further to make definite conclusions”, all other notes are mine.
Has anything been done with Q19, the hair found in Arch Sloan’s Pontiac Bonneville in the days after Mark went missing? How about the other hair evidence? What has become of that all-important Y-STR sample developed in more recent years in Kristine’s case? The Y-STR sample in Kris’s case points, in my opinion, to the beginning of the shady dealings in the OCCK crimes by the then Oakland County prosecutor, L. Brooks Patterson and his proxies. No way they were going to reveal any details about sexual assault on the third victim of a serial killer in Oakland County. They could try to control that autopsy narrative and the even the story about what was happening to boys and arrests in Genesee County that same week. But they couldn’t control what would happen on March 16, 1977 or the fact that the Wayne County ME would conduct the autopsy on Tim King, not some sketchy, drunk OC ME.
There have been dramatic developments in DNA science since these reports were filed. The state police should not be able to have it both ways–do no work on the case, don’t stay on top of DNA developments that could affect this case, and still claim the investigation is “ongoing.” I’m not even sure the MSP would keep track of or store the evidence as instructed to do so by the FBI upon return from that agency. The Oakland County Prosecutor should request a report on the status and location of all evidence in this case, and make it available to the taxpaying public.
Do me a favor and comment here because I am about 300 emails behind. Share your insights with other readers right here.
If you have information about how Kristine’s autopsy was manipulated by the office of then OC ME Robert Sillery or the office of L. Brooks Patterson, or any information about violations of procedure by the Michigan State Police in their evidence retention in this case, email the FBI at michigancorruption@fbi.gov. If you feel you need to be anonymous, block your caller id and call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
THIS IS A PUBLIC CORRUPTION CASE. BY DESIGN, WE WILL PROBABLY NEVER KNOW EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THESE HEINOUS CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN OR THE FAMILY MEMBERS WHO LIED AND COVERED FOR THEM. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY WHO VIOLATED THEIR OATH OF OFFICE TO ASSIST ONE OR MORE OF THE MONSTERS INVOLVED AND HOW THEY PULLED ONE OVER ON THE CITIZENS OF OAKLAND COUNTY. SPEAK UP. PREVENT A SIMILAR ABUSE BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu