More documents. I want to preface these with the following, especially in view of a comment from a reader, basically pissing and moaning about agency secrecy. Let’s get something straight right now. This is a 45-year-old case, which cannot, under any circumstances, be described as “open.” It is uncleared for reasons that do not foreclose the necessity of a FOIA response. All of the information in these documents is distilled in The Snow Killings: Inside the Oakland County Child Killer Investigation (2020). That I did not have to pay for these documents, which I could obtain via FOIA, is irrelevant.
I also point out that the current Oakland County Prosecutor’s office did not charge me for the documents they provided to me in response to my FOIA request. I think, given the prosecutor’s predecessors’ behaviors in this case, that this was fair. I also had to wait a long time for the documents and did not press statutory time restrictions.
The Birmingham Police Department (post-the Don Studt-era) was very cooperative and kind to our family. Remarkably, they told us they could not change the past, but would help in any way possible, as they considered themselves our hometown police department. They allowed one of my brothers to come in and review the documents they found from the OCCK case–the only documents that remained with that agency. There wasn’t much there, but it was still quite helpful and the openness was appreciated.
The Freedom of Information Act is a means for the citizens to know what their government is up to. https://www.justice.gov/archives/open/foia#:~:text. With limited statutory exemptions, FOIA “encourages accountability through transparency.” “The United States Supreme Court has explained that the, ‘basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.'” Id.
FOIA documents and other documents legally obtained have been read and used by authors, documentarians and podcasters in the OCCK case many times over. If the authorities ever advance the ball through advanced DNA testing and genetic genealogy and can clear the case, or if they conclude DNA testing is futile in this case, due to their faulty evidence retention methods, nothing can be said to be “secret” in this case ever again.
My most hard-core trolls surfaced when I started posting the FOIA documents on my blog in the spring of 2020. I have read everything. Don’t worry, the biggest secret of all in this case, why it has never been solved, has been taken to a few graves. Those still alive who know, and feel like they “did good” because the killings stopped for reasons only they know for sure, are self-interested cowards who will never talk.
The plan involves keeping this case “open” forever so that the MSP and the OCS can be safeguarded from full disclosure in this case. We all know documents were destroyed in this case. Tapes erased. DVDs gone missing. So don’t anyone dare complain that after pulling teeth, begging and paying a lot of FOIA fees, we have documents (almost all redacted) and I am posting them here. If you love agency secrecy, love on U.S. secret service agents loyal to trump. Or warm up to the FBI, who never adequately adheres to FOIA rules or even Senate committee questioning. Maybe you are against the use of body cameras, too, and feel like there is no need to ever question any action by law enforcement. If so, you are in the minority. And history shows you should be.