Yet another example of using 21st Century thought in decades-old cold cases, this time in the case of two 1983 murders in Toronto.
https://dnasolves.com/articles/tice-and-gilmour-toronto/
Here’s how it’s done:
The Toronto Police Homicide and Missing Persons Unit, Cold Case section, has been actively investigating the sexual assaults and murders of these two women since 1983. In 2007, DNA obtained at the crime scenes linked the cases and investigators determined the same man was responsible for both homicides.
Toronto Police made an appeal to the media and the public in November 2008, announcing a reward for information about the homicides, and in March 2016, investigators sent out a YouTube video appealing for any information leading to the identification of a suspect.
In 2019, investigators began an investigation that included the use of forensic genetic genealogy, with the assistance of Othram. The Toronto Police Service and Othram have collaborated on multiple cases, including the 1984 sexual assault and murder of Christine Jessop.
Othram used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile from the remaining trace DNA evidence in the crime. The profile was delivered to the Toronto Police Service and through the use of genetic genealogy, the TPS homicide team was able to identify a suspect in these murders, residing in Moosonee, Ontario. The investigation was led by TPS Detective Steve Smith.
On Friday November 25, 2022, Joseph George Sutherland, 61, of Moosonee, was arrested with the assistance of the O.P.P. He is charged with two counts of First Degree Murder.
DNASolves.com
Aside from logistical issues, like carting around Mark’s, Jill’s and Kristine’s clothing by MSP detectives and a crime lab scientist for show-and-tell, https://catherinebroad.blog/2023/10/03/interview-with-dr-richard-e-olson-after-the-mihelich-murder/, as well as credible allegations I have heard that the MSP used the evidence in the OCCK case in its POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) program, the resistance to taking the steps outlined above is because the MSP, the Oakland County Sheriff’s office and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office are all best-served by the initial game plan to make sure this case stays under the radar for all time.
Why would the Chris Busch “suicide” scene not immediately warrant asking members of all four victims’ families if they knew Christopher Busch, Greg Greene or Vince Gunnels? Over the decades, the police babysitter assigned to our family ran numerous names past my dad. But not Busch. Given the staged scene in Busch’s bedroom that screamed “child killer,” the way his autopsy was conducted and the immediate suicide ruling, so many questions are raised that have only a small range of disturbing answers. And here we are 16 years after Busch’s name was resurrected and there is no traction in this case. You know all the obvious questions. Was he involved? Who killed him? Why leave a “suicide” scene pointing to him as the OCCK? Why did he get probation in numerous CSC cases around the state? Why didn’t police investigate his open admission that he had gained victims through the Big Brother program?
At one point L. Brooks Patterson would have done anything to capitalize on the publicity attached to an arrest or a “solve” in this case. Why did he wash his hands of this case soon after Kristine’s body was found?
Patterson and Richard Thompson are the genesis of the “failure” to solve the OCCK case. Jessica Cooper thwarted any real inquiry 30-plus years later because she knew, as had her predecessors, that in a just world the county and the state police should be sued into oblivion for their actions in this case. The MSP and the state lab, for reasons that probably have more to do with safeguarding whatever reputation they have in Michigan, became unwitting accomplices in the county’s mission to deep-six this case. It is an ungodly formula for obfuscation and obstruction. It is by far the worst cover-up in a murder case in this country, ever.
Hey, no more kids died and we can’t bring back the dead. We answer to no one on this case. No sense in fucking up our careers or losing law licenses, let alone paying a judgment for some federal civil rights violation.
Even if people refuse to acknowledge the obvious about this case, it is long-past time to just extend a wishy-washy mea culpa for the way this case was handled back in the day. Hey it was another era, it was so intense, we had limited resources, [fill in the blank]. The lack of transparency, the failure to take any of the steps being taken by police agencies around the world in other cold cases, or the lack of an explanation about how and why the evidence in this case was so mishandled that advanced DNA testing is futile, says it all.
Thanks to a reader for the link to DNASolves.com.
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Cathy, have you reached out to our new prosecutor, Karen McDonald, yet? I’m assuming you have. Just wondering if things may have changed, now that we’ve, thankfully, voted Jessica Cooper out. PA McDonald seems far more on the ball & aligned with integrity than her predecessors. I’m hoping that, after the dust has settled on the tragic Oxford massacre & the dreaded Crumbley’s are all dealt with, she can catch up on older cases.
Yes, and yes, her office is “night and day” from that of Cooper/Walton. There is still a very big issue with having to dance with law enforcement.
The huge dilemma I have with Bush and it’s a huge one. As huge as his fat ass body. There were witnesses at Tim’s abduction site. Witnesses seen Tim talking to a guy that NO WAY describes fat ass Bush. We know Greene was locked up when Tim was abducted. This isn’t circumstantial evidence here. If it was one person describing the incident it would be one thing;however, logic tells us something different .
I get it, JN. Busch could have simply been set up to take the fall on the OCCK crimes or punished for walking on his sex crimes. But I still ask how law enforcement could so quickly dismiss the Busch “suicide” scene and do no investigation over why the obviously staged death scene. What does logic tell you about the investigation itself? Just botched every single step along the way? A sad mix of fuck ups?
And the obvious lack of an i.d. of an obviously obese, scruffy, dirty-looking slob in the parking lot on March 16, 1977, as well as the lack of a match between whatever partial, degraded DNA samples in this case and the DNA of Busch’s living brother, means it is all the more important to take every step to see if there is previously unidentified male DNA of another suspect that can be developed for use with forensic genetic genealogy. What is the explanation for such resistance to use of a third-party lab? Is it cost? Knowledge that the evidence is now useless due to negligence or the passage of time? Such resistance and silence only enhances the obvious issues raised by the death scene at 3310 Morningview Terrace.
It was totally botched with the state level. How could the largest criminal task force in American history botch this? Well I blame the main prosecutor of Oakland county. He always danced around the case. I don’t think he put much of an effort. This case should have been brought to the federal level. This was hardly mentioned on that level. Coke on this was 4 children .
The case was just boxed up and the investigation shut down at the end of 1978. All anybody got after that was some bullshit from the next MSP detective to “inherit” the case. Like Joe Koenig repeating the company line to a reporter–the killer is probably dead, in jail, or institutionalized. Then nothing. The lid got screwed on tight.
Robertson gets promoted and works on a book about the investigation with Tommy McIntyre. Patterson and Thompson cast a pall on the OCP office until 1996, when David Gorcyca defeated Thompson and became prosecutor. Patterson, in the meantime, kept his finger on the jugular of Oakland County during his reign as county executive from 1993 until his death in 2019. There was never going to be legitimate inquiry, transparency or honesty while that shameless self-promoter was still alive. The case was right where he and Thompson wanted it–effectively under seal.
So the most charitable and fact-free spin on this is that Patterson, Thompson and the MSP simply did not want any attention brought to their massive failure. What’s done is done. Then DNA testing shows up and they have a hell of a lot of explaining to do if the evidence is well preserved and there is a hit on a suspect.
I think it’s all about that one police guy, who was on North Fox Island. I’ve been trying to remember his name, something short. In your docs. It’s so painfully obvious that this is one of many huge cover ups in the area.
It’s been very obvious to me that they know who the killer is and where he is. Not sure why they are protecting him. This week a sheriff’s deputy from that county killed a guy off duty in a hit and run type accident while he was apparently driving a county truck. What would they do if an average man did that ?
For what it’s worth (since facts matter), the detective was off duty, driving his county assigned vehicle home from work. The pedestrian crossed the road in a non-crosswalk area and was hit. The detective remained at the scene. No “hit and run type incident”.
Did they ever complete the forensic studies on the white animal fur strands left on the victims? Or was that dropped like everything else?
I’m pretty sure they got an “incomplete” on this project as well.
Christopher Bush did not kill those children he was not an artist he was not neat and clean he was set up buy a psychopath who is an artist who is neat and clean and deceptive this person described as being 35 years old add 47 years equals he would be 82 years old now gray hair changed his looks laying low and probably still living in Michigan.. right under your nose!!
Gunnels DNA was on one of the victims. Gunnels was abused by Busch and then groomed by Busch as a lure. The 911 call to Montmorency County identifying Busch was at Ess Lake with minor kids when Tim was missing. These facts point the finger at Busch.
linda dew, I assume you provided a tip concerning this man to law enforcement. Do you realize that any tip or call to the MSP, the Oakland County Sheriff or the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office basically went into the circular file? Do you realize that when there is a changing of the guard (new prosecutor, maybe new detective at the MSP assigned to the case) it is another opportunity to submit a suspect’s name and possibly get some traction? Or did you pass on this name to someone without police power (family member, journalist, retired LE)? No police power = no traction. As things stand right now, the MSP will take your tip, but the odds of a return phone call or email, let alone any review is very, very low. A tip to the Oakland County Sheriff will be flushed immediately, as has always been the case. There is a new(ish) prosecutor–call that office and ask for the procedure for submitting a tip and then follow it. My guess is that your information will at least be acknowledged and it will be on the record. If, on the other hand, you are not willing to name a name, but would prefer to simply be a flamethrower on this blog, don’t bother.