48 years ago tonight–four of his 12-year-old lifetimes–Mark Stebbins still was not home after leaving the American Legion Hall in Ferndale, Michigan in the early afternoon to walk home so he could watch a movie. February 15, 1976 was a Sunday. He had been at the hall where his mother Ruth was working and people were watching a pool tournament.

Missing posters were distributed in Oakland County, using a drawing of Mark. His mom did not have school photos from that year, as she didn’t have money to spare for them. On the morning of February 19, Mark’s body was found at the Fairfax Plaza parking lot in Southfield, about four miles from where he was last seen.

Eleven months later (and two other child murders later), on January 25, 1977, violent pedophile Greg Greene was arrested in Flint for raping and molesting boys from a baseball team he helped “coach.” During his interview, Greene told Flint Det. Tom Waldron that “Chris Busch killed Stebbins.” To shorten the story very considerably, this was the basis for Busch’s arrest in Alma on January 28. Nothing ultimately comes of this arrest, except for the biggest bunch of fuckery ever perpetuated in a serial killer investigation. No one would hear the names Busch, Greene, or Arch Sloan or John Crosbie for 30 more years.

And of course no one was to ever know of the drawing of a screaming boy who closely resembled Mark, found hanging on the wall in the Bloomfield Village bedroom of rotting monster, Chris Busch, at his “suicide” scene at his parents’ home in late November 1978.

Here are some file documents to review on the 48th anniversary of Mark’s first night in captivity.

Anyone with half a heart has to realize both how extremely evil this crime was and how dark and fucked up this investigation was and is. No one came forward to call “foul,” and it was very, very foul.

Arch Sloan, named early in the investigation into Mark’s murder, is still very much alive. The 82-year-old pedophile POS has been serving a life sentence for the rapes of boys in 1983. https://mdocweb.state.mi.us/OTIS2/otis2profile.aspx?mdocNumber=100765 . He has been interrogated, interviewed, offered deals post-2007, but he’s offering up nothing.

Mark’s mother Ruth died in 1998. Mark’s brother Mike died at age 60 in 2021. Light a candle for the three of them in the next few days if you can, as an acknowledgment of Mark’s young life and potential cut short, and for the pain his mom and brother endured with no answers.

You don’t get to forget, Oakland County. You had a 30-year run keeping the lid on. And even with the lid off, nothing will happen in these cases, much to the relief of not only people like Arch Sloan, but people who know how this investigation got derailed. What a cesspool.