I was so naive. I believed that once we handed over information about what Larry Wasser said in July 2006 concerning a private polygraph he was to perform on a pedophile, we might get some traction, some answers. We ultimately got nothing but obstruction and gaslighting. As 2023 draws to a close, there are no answers to any of it, including the following:

1. Why have the MSP and the state lab refused to submit the evidence in these four murder cases to a third-party lab to answer the question of whether or not previously unidentified male DNA is present?
2. Why has this cold case not been digitized?
3. Why not utilize the partnerships with WMU and MSU to digitize this case, as has been done in other Michigan cold cases?
4. Why does the information from survivors of the child sex rings in and around Oakland County continue to be ignored? Their information could inform not only how the evidence is reevaluated, but also credibly links various Oakland County men whose names you have seen a million times in this blog. This is not a coincidence.
5. Why has no one called Steve Duncan, the polygrapher from Georgia who polygraphed suspect John Hastings and reported to Garry Gray his alarming conclusions? Why are the associated documents/videos nowhere to be found?
6. Why are the still-living participants in the Flint interrogations/polygraphs of Greg Greene and Chris Busch in January and early February 1977 not being put under oath to discuss what they recall?
7. Same for every still-living person who responded to the “suicide” scene of Chris Busch in late November 1978.

The easiest of these considerations is the DNA testing. The failure to even pretend to treat the OCCK case like other cold cases in Michigan is so obvious and so twisted that it does not leave much room for an “innocent” explanation. There is either previously unidentified male DNA or there isn’t. The answer does not depend on one of the people I refer to in #6 or #7 who will most likely fail to recall anything. (Getting old is such a bitch, isn’t it?)

A reader recently wrote to say that if the focus is just going to be on the many freaks Michigan has produced who were active during 1976 and 1977, we could spin this case forever. He pointed to the case of the late Charles David Shaw, who was tied by DNA to two sex crimes from 1982 and 1983. https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/police-search-for-more-potential-victims-after-suspect-linked-to-2-michigan-cold-case-murders .

“Advancements in DNA led investigators to Shaw. His identification was confirmed by three separate familial DNA comparison tests because he was dead by the time the case was reopened. This DNA was entered into CODIS [Combined DNA Index System].” Does anyone at the MSP ever cross-check their limited DNA evidence in the OCCK case to updated entries in CODIS? Would anyone even answer such a question? Again, why are the most basic steps ignored in the OCCK cold case?

In October 2022, MSP Det./Sgt. Eric Young spoke to the press about the over 50-year-old cold case murders of Linda Wright and Gary Kasco. https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/cold-case-executions-who-killed-linda-wright-and-gary-kasco-over-50-years-ago. Young explained that “The evidence is still there with us, so time is usually on our side with a cold case, usually every 4 to 5 years science and technology usually assist us further and that’s what we are hoping for in this case.”

Not only were lab technicians said to be re-analyzing the evidence in those cases, but detectives planned to followed up with “those who were previously interviewed with hopes that they are ready to share more information.” I can think of more than a few people who fall into this category in the OCCK case. Instead, it’s one and done with most of them. Whatever happened to circling back?

This article refers to all the platitudes expressed in most cold cases (but not the OCCK case). Detectives “hope to give loved ones all-important closure.” “The families of the victims deserve to know what really happened.” If the person who murdered these two people is dead and can no longer face criminal charges, “investigators and family members need that information, too.”

This article explains that (as of October 2022) the MSP has about 70 cold cases at district headquarters and two assigned full time detectives. All the more reason to enlist the criminal justice students from MSU and WMU to assist in digitizing the OCCK case files.

For over a decade the OCCK case was assigned a MSP detective whose sole responsibility was this case. It now seems plain that the assignment was merely to keep an eye on any progress Det./Sgt. Cory Williams made on the case on behalf of Livonia PD and Wayne County. The MSP squandered millions of dollars of grant monies and tax payer dollars over the past 45-plus years. They have accounted for nothing. Don’t even try to argue the cost is too much to use a third-party lab or that you think the evidence is too compromised. It’s too late for such arguments.

Det./Sgt. Young and MSP First Lt. Michael Shaw are both quoted in this article. When was the last time anyone from the MSP agreed to speak on the record about the OCCK case? 2010? I know there was a response from the MSP in 2020 when asked about Marney Keenan’s book The Snow Killings: “We don’t comment on fiction.” This clever MSP spokesperson was unnamed. The reporter let that stand.

Have all of the evidence in OCCK case evaluated by a third-party lab. The state lab has apparently done nothing but extinguish evidence with little to show for it. Whatever methods they are allegedly using “every 4 to 5 years” have been insufficient. If there is no usable DNA the public must be apprised. If there is identifiable DNA somebody has to do some real investigating. Either way, answers are owed to the public.

Instead all concerned hide behind their press secretaries/offices, the open case/investigation charade, and/or some obvious unwillingness to press the MSP to do the right thing. Are the lives of these four kids, who were held captive and surely knew at some point during their captivity that they were never going home, worth less that the murder victims in the cold cases the MSP has discussed in the press over the past few years?

If you have never had to deal with a law enforcement agency in your life, add that to your gratitude list today.