This transcript was provided by then Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper in response to a FOIA request by The Detroit Free Press in 2012. I posted it in the spring of 2020, along with hundreds of other pages from the OCP, but recently ran across it again while searching for something else. I have heavily annotated it because it was just that frustrating to reread this garbage. If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen/don’t read. Those of you who know this case will recognize the genesis of this work of art.
And, if you do decide to read it, tell me that anyone in their right mind would take a polygraph in Michigan unless it was required for an amazing and very high-paying job. See also https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio/news/local/polygraph-test-at-issue-in-danielle-stislicki-murder-case.
If my memory serves me correctly, the ONLY reason Busch was ever known to anyone but the insiders back in 77/78 is because of what Wassar told Patrick Coffey. I believe I read at one point that Gray suggested ‘well maybe you (Wassar) said something to Coffey, and he embellished it’. Ol’ Larry agreed with that right quick.
But how do you embellish the suicide, info about the attorney, and enough information that just happens to lead back to a prime suspect that was kept secret for 30 years? He can try to discredit Patrick Coffey all he wants, but the fact remains – what he said in Las Vegas broke open the information about Busch. He just doesn’t want his reputation ruined, and I think Steve Duncan in Georgia has the same concerns. (Plus Duncan probably thinks “this is Michigan’s issue, not mine”.)
The fact is, when you take on a job of polygrapher, you have to know you will make tough decisions. He said he would talk all day long to Chet, how is that not violating any confidences? Also, as a side note, he mentioned some suspect that incidentally told him he killed a cab driver. Isn’t there some case about a murdered cab driver that I have read about on this site? Probably coincidence.
KP, I think you’re absolutely correct and nailed it right on the button! After everyone has blown off the Hastings case from the beginning. Some people made their own claims to glory over matters with this case. Others made a complete joke out of the whole thing! Others behind the scenes had buried the polygraph results nowhere to be found by anyone so it will never be questioned. Others practically steered everyone away from ever looking at Hastings seriously and made claims for years that he passed his polygraph with flying colors in Georgia. What does anyone expect out of this now? I’m sure Mr. Duncan does not want to get involved with any of it. Why in the hell would he? The sad thing is though that there might have been things revealed that could solve this case with people’s involvement. Some of those answers could be sitting on some buried DVDs. I guess we can keep pretending that we have all the answers already as some here have proposed here. We really have no other choice over the matter!
That fact is, Michigan let Busch off the hook, and the consequences were horrifying. Busch is dead, so his reign of terror stopped. But look at Hastings… his poly was so damning that Georgia Police were willing to have someone stay with Hastings until Michigan came and picked him up. But, nobody did. I imagine Duncan regrets being the examiner that day- it would be hard to have that information and see nothing come of it. I wonder if we will ever know the consequences (if any) of Hastings not being properly dealt with.
I’m sure his loyalty and dedication to his work that this case must have bothered him deeply at the time and maybe it still does. But by now he must know the politics of this case and it’s completely untouchable and something to avoid. Sadly Michigan and some key people involved with this case have put it in this state with their protected egos. Would like to know who was behind burying the polygraph records and DVDs. Is it the same people that made the famous Mark sketch left at the Busch murder scene completely disappear from the files?
The OCP could not have anyone circling back to Busch–the suicide, the January 1977 arrest, the February 1977 arrests. The OCP could not have anyone sniffing around Busch neighbor John Hastings for long either. So the 2009 polygraph info on Hastings goes missing (when the MSP themselves described this as an “active, ongoing case”). The evidence from the suicide scene, even the ropes state lab scientist David Metzger stated in writing should be retained, the evidence from the Busch arrest in Alma–all disappears. How about that?!
There should be Children of the Snow – Part 2 which should cover the entire Hastings fiasco with the details that are left in print over the polygraph along with all of the missing evidence that relates to it. Also cover all of the record traces of known missing evidence on the case. Like the Mark sketch that was left at Busch’s murder scene ends up coming missing in the files. Show the sketch match to the only suspect photo that actually matches someone. Cover the Doug sketch as well done under hypnosis and was completely unknown and buried from the public all of these years. Get some crime experts to discuss these matters out there. There has never been a crime like this in history and the whole world should be aware of it and how bad it really is and remains an open case!
That’s what I would love to see as well. My dream would be a book/document with all the loose ends you mentioned along with a list of all the available DNA that could be re-tested. It would basically be a handbook that someone from Cold Cases could pick up and run with. Mention Sloan and his car/DNA, Gunnels and his DNA, Hastings, all of it.
I would like to see the Paul Johnson file further investigated. Mind blowing that Denise Powell of the MSP’s e-mail traffic shows she’s eager to track him down & test for DNA, until they’re not. That is DNA that surely needs to be obtained.
If the OCSD was sure he was the “one”, then why keep it all under lock and key until around 2010/11.
The blue Tempest that got all new tire replacements at the beginning of March ‘77, but yet was no longer owned by PJ on 3/16, so that muddies the water about him being the one after reading DW’s statement.
So witness Hoffman at the HM parking lot was so close to TK and the man talking with him that she heard his voice to say he was soft spoken? Well PJ certainly resembles the composite sketches, heavy brows(from his one picture) and all.
They will have to get DNA from his sister.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/rochester-mi/paul-johnson-7494143
I agree. The only way through this thing is if somebody would take the goddamn gloves off and find a way around the hesitancy to deal with a heinous case involving child victims and those pinched and dirty motherfuckers in/from Oakland County. It is a deeply disturbing story, not just because the victims were children who were held captive before being murdered, but almost even more so because of the way the investigation has been handled since January 1977. Expose all of it so that in the future somebody does the right thing or at least responds to investigative stench early and often. So sickening.
Not to mention that no one has been able to dig deep into the fact that the largest car manufacturer in the world employed a bunch of pedophiles during this era and not just on the assembly line. Kids and child porn were being run out of GM–a photographer who worked there is alleged to have been involved. They got away with it all. That’s why it is so sick that the OCP glommed on to that blue Gremlin “lead” and if you read the witness statement carefully it does not state it is for sure a Gremlin–looks like/could have been. So it just as easily could have been a blue Vega with a white stripe, which police knew arrestee Chris Busch drove in January 1977. In the FOIA documents as plain as day. That’s the car Greene drove while Busch accosted a boy in the back seat. Kind of a difficult image, I would think, but it was forgotten soon enough. That Vega was at 3310 Morningview Terrace in Bloomfield Village and meanwhile, every Gremlin within 50 miles was being pulled over.
Nice catch on the cab driver comment. I missed it on page 000560, or just did not make the connection.
Perhaps the cab driver case you may be thinking of is when Cory was assigned a 15 year old cold case in 2004. The murder of Exavor Giller who owned the Detroit Cab Company. This investigation led Cory to Richard Lawson, who then tried to bargain with Pittsburgh Police using information he had on the OCCK. This eventually got Wayne County involved with the OCCK case, and led to Ted Lamborgine.
That’s exactly who I was thinking of. Thank you.