DNASolves.com announced that this continued relationship between the Michigan State Police and third-party forensic lab Othram, resulted in the naming of a second suspect in the 1980 murder of 21-year-old Karen Umphrey near Port Huron in St. Clair County.
https://dnasolves.com/articles/michigan-murder-karen-umphrey-1980-anthony-harris
In 2022, the Michigan State Police submitted forensic DNA evidence from the crime scene to Othram, who developed a comprehensive DNA profile and used forensic genetic genealogy to develop leads used by the MSP and the St. Clair County Sheriff Department. Douglas Laming, age 70, was arrested on December 15, 2023.
DNA from a second unknown contributor was similarly tested by Othram and this lead to the arrest of 63-year-old Anthony Harris, who was arrested on February 6, 2024.
Further proof that the MSP and the Michigan state lab well know how to work with Othram in cold cases.
What we have now in the OCCK case are a few people mumbling on the sidelines about how there is no viable nuclear DNA to test in the OCCK case, and notations in the FOIA documents that some evidence has been extinguished during testing. Without answering to the families or the public, the stance seems to be that DNA testing by Othram would not be fruitful. That may well be, but your assumptions over the past decades have resulted in exactly squat.
I can certainly understand the reluctance given the inside knowledge people have about how this evidence was mishandled time and again. And how it was misfiled, lost, unaccounted for and maybe worse. But why won’t they come clean? You tested the evidence “a million times”? What did you test, how did you test it, and what was extinguished? As I have pointed out, in more properly handled cold cases, third-party labs have been able to develop DNA previously undetected by state and FBI labs. And how can they say for sure that a final review of the evidence, especially the four kids’ clothing will not be amenable to methods used by Othram to test for DNA not previously found using less advanced techniques? You’ve spent so many grant dollars, so many tax dollars in the OCCK case–but now you decide the purse is closed in this case but not others?
Oh, I understand you probably have big chain-of-custody issues due to your sloppy investigations, but we all know you will never make an arrest in this case and no one will ever go to trial. Pretend you really want to solve these homicides or provide some answers, in spite of your previous failures.
The failure to treat these four child homicides like your other cold cases (digitize the files and third-party lab) and the failure to account for why the stand-off/news black out is indefensible. It constitutes a continuation of the intentional infliction of emotional distress on victims’ families.
How on earth you all managed to keep this shit under wraps for almost 50 years should be part of a case study for dirty agencies at every level around the country.
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I do not know how they sleep with themselves.
Apparently not a problem. Must be nice.
This past week we began in the healing of the murder of 4 children in Oakland County. Next week we begin 48 years in continuing in the cover up of at least 4 murders of children in Oakland County. In no time it will be 50 years. For some, they will see 60 years, and so forth. All because someone at the highest levels of government were either involved in the murders, or felt the need to cover up the murders to protect themselves, their friends, or their organizations.
How proud the Oakland County Prosecutors office must be. How proud the Michigan State Police must be. How proud some in the FBI must be. How proud the Police Officers of Ferndale, Southfield, Royal Oak, Berkley and Birmingham and many others must be. They chose to be weak and stay silent. Lets all give them praises for their heroic efforts.
I look forward to telling all of their future relatives of how weak their parents and grandparents were in doing their jobs and doing what is right.
Thank you, Anonymous, and thank you for the reminder that the FBI’s role has been suspect, too. The men who used the “services” of people like Frank Shelden and his cheap imitator, Chris Busch, had money, power and prestige they could easily wield like a cudgel with their victims and law enforcement or anyone who might come sniffing around about their proclivities. The FBI and CIA often protect men like this. See, the Franklin Scandal and Jeffrey Epstein.
Aside from these clients who manage to not only rape children but get protection for doing so and keep their “reputations” intact, there are no doubt, as you mention, one or more people directly involved in the OCCK crimes who were cops or employees of Oakland County. Assistant prosecutor John Agnew was turned in as a suspect. https://catherinebroad.blog/2022/06/20/flashing-a-badge/. Other cops have been named along the way. A credible source told me a Michigan State Police trooper from somewhere in Northern Michigan was a child sex ring customer, that he liked girls, and would not hesitate to kill a child. The trooper’s name is unknown, but he often showed up IN UNIFORM.
Then the obvious, but still unprovable cover-up. I recommend a rereading of Chapter 14 of Marney Keenan’s book The Snow Killings. Consider all of the versions of “we took care of it, the killer was the son of a wealthy GM executive who told police he would institutionalize him to protect society, the families are o.k. with that result.” Or “he was the kid of a wealthy GM exec and we couldn’t touch him.” “An attorney or representative of the family went to the Birmingham Police station and said they would institutionalize the killer on their own dime.” “We were afraid of the insanity defense.” They were allegedly even afraid of fucking Jane Burgess just because she did some criminal defense in her small Detroit firm.
Where do the strings get pulled? Only by Brooks Patterson or someone at the FBI. But you are very right, Anonymous. There were no Serpicos in the bunch of law enforcement allegedly devoted to solving these crimes and protecting other kids in Oakland County. No one who had trouble with the corruption. No one who was a whistleblower. Then or now.
These people covered up or went along with covering up, the crimes of child raping murderers. The kind that kept kids captive for days and weeks. The kind that suffocated kids and in one case, afterward shot her face off.
I might not ever get any traction in this case. But I will be goddamned if I ever let that community forget what kind of people were “protecting” kids in Oakland County and what kind of people continue to look the other way. Especially their kids and grandkids. That is the legacy they could have prevented.