The Michigan State Police refuse comment on this 47-year-old serial homicide claiming “open” or “active” investigation. Law enforcement comments on actual open, active investigations all the time. Even in cold cases. Especially in cold cases.

Try to find a substantive, non-circular comment or request for help from the public made by the MSP since 2007. Reference or quote in comments below.

For an eye-opening comparison, watch Still Missing Morgan on Hulu. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11595808/. The series covers the 1995 abduction of 6-year-old Morgan Nick from a little league game in Alma, Arkansas, as well as the resolution of the 1989 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in St. Joseph, Minnesota.

A documentary crew with exclusive access follows the new leadership with the cold case team devoted to Morgan’s case. Watch how the lead detective actually meets with family members (even extended family members) and allows the documentary team to film him. Both Morgan and Jacob’s families were, at least at this juncture, treated with compassion and respect.

Obviously not everything went right in the early days and years of the two cold cases profiled in this series, but law enforcement didn’t hide from the past or shut the families out. It is a powerful contrast to the 47-YEAR-OLD OCCK case.

Silence intensifies suspicion. This is continued OBSTRUCTION. They apparently believe that their failure to solve or clear this case protects them from discussing anything whatsoever about the cases. They use this ploy to avoid the press and evade the families. They use this circular argument to thwart FOIA requests or use the request to charge for an expensive fishing expedition before responding “sorry, can’t find it.”

The governor, AG and OCP won’t prod this strange agency. The FBI and the OC Sheriff “defer” to this agency. Maybe your state police should stick to the highways and officer-involved crimes. The thought of this agency having a serial abduction/homicide case of four children should make your blood run cold. Michigan is shameless.

A reader offered the following this morning, and I am going to end the week with their observations. Headed somewhere this weekend with limited cell coverage, so comments might be delayed longer than usual. Thanks and thank you to this reader:

“Cathy, I am not ignoring your posts. I am past the point of being shocked and angry, as I will not allow this to ever be normalized. The many decades of deceit, public corruption, evidence contamination, and including the lack of following up on anything. Accepting what “is” here is NOT acceptable.

I think it is going to take a whistleblower with some damn good evidence, going to the DC feds.

Reporting suspects and suspicious events seems to go nowhere.

I think it is someone who has evidence of both the public corruption and the incriminating evidence that was covered up. That is the type of whistleblower that is so needed here.

I do not understand how this can even continue? Epstein, Weinstein, R. Kelly, Nassar, and various others all brought down. What type of public corruption grip still holds power over the OCCK case? LBP is dead; who is in control??”

https://www.freep.com/story/news/crime/2023/02/22/cold-case-team-finds-suspect-in-1983-murder-through-dna-testing/69931515007/

1. 1983 murder of 19-year-old Christina Castiglione.
2. “The work that was done back in 1983 to preserve the evidence, to process the scene, was an outstanding effort by everybody that was at the scene, detectives as well as the responding deputies,” Sheriff Mike Murphy said.
3. Cold case team evaluated the case.
4. In March 2022, the Sheriff’s Office applied for and received grant funding through Season of Justice to conduct advanced DNA testing on the samples taken in 1983.
5. In May 2022, DNA evidence from the case was sent to Othram Inc., a private forensic laboratory in Texas. Othram scientists used “forensic-grade genome sequencing” to develop a comprehensive genealogical profile from the DNA of the unknown suspect.
6. Othram’s in-house genealogical team used the genealogical profile to produce leads. Othram returned the leads to the Livingston County Cold Case Team, which used the leads to continue following up on the this murder.
7. Said Sheriff Murphy: “We are hopeful that the surviving family members of Christina Castiglione, along with victims and families of other violent unsolved crimes who have been awaiting justice for decades, experience closure as genealogical DNA continues to help law enforcement advance efforts to achieve justice for victims.”

As a reader observed: “Looks like Livingston County has no problem applying genealogy, even seeking grants, and investigating dead suspects. I guess they figure the victims and their families deserve the effort.”

And another DNA/genealogy success announced yesterday in a 52-year-old case:

https://www.aol.com/discarded-cigarette-butt-dna-tests-205835237.html

In 2019, a team of Burlington, VT, PD detectives, officers, technicians and others began working the case as though it had just happened. That’s how the killer, who died of a drug overdose in 1986, was identified and the case closed.

The evidence in the OCCK case may all be garbage. But you don’t know until you test the kids’ clothing (FOUR sets of clothing) and I mean using advanced DNA testing, not your standard state lab check-off-the-box tests. The public is owed an explanation as to why these tests have not been run or rerun and why there are/are not any answers. Ideally the families would be notified first, but that may be asking too much.