The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office said it made an arrest last week in a murder case that has been unsolved since 1980. Detectives arrested 70-year-old Douglas Laming of Fort Gratiot in connection with the murder of Karen Umphrey, after working for the last year on a break in the case. Advancements in DNA testing helped lead to a match.
“Working with the Michigan State Police and Othram, a company specializing in forensic genetic geneology [sic], information was uncovered that previously would have been impossible to find. From there, St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office detectives spoke to many people that were connected to the victim and suspect over 40 years ago, gathering information and making vital connections,” officials said in a release.
They WORKED WITH MICHIGAN STATE POLICE AND OTHRAM. See https://othram.com/. If anyone from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office is reading, I am beyond pissed off. Wednesday will mark one month from my last email to you which remains unanswered. A month ago, that email was in response to your failure to respond to a email from at least two weeks prior.
In April, the OCP contacted my brother and me and we discussed a path forward, which included testing the evidence in the OCCK case by a lab like Othram. Det/Sgt Eric Young of the MSP, who inherited this file, was unwilling to meet with me and my brother to update on on where the case stands and to discuss, among other things, use of a third party lab. His refusal was based in part on the fact that “the sister is difficult.” The sister. I guess that’s me, right Eric?
OCP, if you are reading, I am going to send you an email on Wednesday with MY game plan. If you don’t respond by December 31, I will write about our limited interactions during the past eight months that you have been stringing me along and playing a version of the same game as your predecessors.
THE STATE POLICE KNOW HOW TO PREPARE EVIDENCE TO BE HANDED OFF TO OTHRAM. YOUR FOOT-DRAGGING WILL SPELL ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OF SLOW WALK AND FURTHER EVIDENCE DEGRADATION. MAYBE THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT.
Over it. St. Clair County did it. You can, too.
UPDATE, 10-14-24: Last week a jury found Douglas Laming guilty of first-degree murder in the 1980 death of 21-year-old Karen Umphrey. Laming is scheduled to be sentenced on November 18, 2024. A second suspect, also identified by third-party lab Othram and who testified against Laming, is to be sentenced on November 12.
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For you non Michigan viewers, St. Clair County is not that far from Oakland County.
I’m proud of your perseverance, Cathy.
The sister is difficult. Fuck you, Det/Sgt Eric Young. You don’t know “difficult”. And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to. Difficult.
Retired Southfield Det. Lourn Doan refers to me as “the sister,” too. As in “the sister is pretty bitter.” I don’t expect either of you gentlemen to remember my name (trust me, I wish I didn’t know your names), but you can call me Tim’s sister, rather than “the sister.” I have a feeling you think I have no right to be bitter because Busch “got taken care of.” Leaving that bullshit aside, I’m not bitter–I’m angry. If it was your sibling and you knew what I know, you’d be angry, too.
With you all the way, Cathy!
So if a family member is kidnapped, molested and murdered the main criteria is be nice to the detective.
Perfect
I exchanged three emails with him, trying to set up a meeting. My brothers and I just wanted to know where the case stood and what to expect. Never spoke on the phone; I was on my best behavior in the emails. He HAD HEARD I was difficult. I know for a fact how “difficult” and unprofessional some of his predecessors on this case are/were. If you can’t handle victims, get out of homicide.
I think “difficult” is the good ol boy pejorative definition of Challenging and Proactive which makes them uncomfortable – avoiding eye contact and searching for the donut box.
Had occasion to reread a PM thread from a friend who has passed (BC) the other day and in 2014 she noted, “King won’t stop until she has answers. She is a warrior. She needs to be able to live the rest of her life knowing she didn’t give up until the truth came out.”
One man’s “Difficult” is another woman’s WARRIOR.
Thanks, Judi. These children were brutalized and murdered and then wronged by prosecutors and police. How does the world ever change if no one will examine this kind of evil and corruption? In a county with this kind of sick history and legacy, judges are handing out six day jail sentences to pedophiles?! Child porn users victimize every time they download or watch. This is not a victimless crime. And why shouldn’t the OCP and the MSP have to answer for what they have done/not done in this case? Who decided the public is not entitled to any answers, any explanation of anything? How do you “resurrect” an investigation for over a decade and then have nothing to show for it? Close up shop as quickly as possible for the second time. Michigan has some very complacent taxpayers.
We support you, Cathy. This is unconscionable.
keep being difficult Cathy!
They busted another sex ring in Detroit today.
The St. Clair County sheriff’s department solved this cold case. Do you ever wonder why the OCCK case went to the state police and not the Oakland County Sheriff? How it ended up at an agency that apparently answers to no one (maybe the Governor?), with a task force headed by a man in his early 40s with no homicide experience? How this task force exhibited complete lack of coordination with the local PDs and the sheriff’s office?
OC Sheriff Johannes Spreen had previously been Police Commissioner of Detroit. Before that he had been on the NYPD and helped restructure and develop New York City Police Academy training leading to a college program. He was also a Democrat. And that was something a political animal like Republican prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson could not abide. That, and I’m sure in spite of Brooksie’s law degree, Spreen had 50 IQ points on him and more integrity than Patterson would ever muster up in his many decades on this planet. (I know, I know–who didn’t?)
In his book American Police Dilemma (2003), he explains that the 12 years he spent as OC sheriff were “filled with joy, sadness, triumph, tragedy, turmoil, trouble, treachery, and much more.” (p. 229). He told Patterson he knew the two of them could work together, but he found out differently. “Brooks was all for Brooks. After a couple weeks of so-called cooperation, he and the Republicans, resentful of my victory as the only Democrat at the County level, a victory they had not anticipated, gave me nothing but trouble. And that continued for the entire twelve years I was in office.” (p. 231).
Somebody like Spreen might well have gotten to the bottom of the OCCK case, but Brooks couldn’t have that. The only “blessing” is that had the case continue to be unsolved/uncleared by Spreen, it would have ended up on the desk of Patterson acolyte and eternal sheriff, Mike Bouchard, whose office agreed to hide case files for Jessica Cooper so they would not have to be provided in a FOIA response. An office who claimed they had not one FOIA document responsive to my FOIA request in the OCCK case a few years ago. Nothing to see here, try asking the MSP. An office which has been, in my opinion, credibly accused of withholding evidence in this case and never sharing it with the MSP. An office where an ex-employee told a friend of my brother’s in a Chicago bar decades ago that the child killer was the son of a “rich guy and we couldn’t touch him.”
Mike Bouchard or the state police. Man, that one is indeed a dilemma. An American Police Dilemma.
It is also ironic there is a huge rivalry between the MSP and the Oakland County Sherrif’s Dept.
MSP has their orders. Make this case go away. Also make people think that the MSP is never wrong. Well, for 47 years, MSP has been extremely weak in being right.
Challenging is another word that can be substituted for difficult. He knows he is not up to the challenge of this case, and does not wish to be embarrassed. However, by his actions, he his embarrassing both himself, and the agency. Just like his predecessors.