Photographing children and truck campers, circa 1977.

I received this interesting email from a reader this week:

“There is an interesting tip that Oakland County Sheriff’s department followed up on in the FOIA document on the link below.  It is regarding Kristine’s case in OCCK.

Click to access m3-Final.pdf

You had posted this document on this link.

https://catherinebroad.blog/2022/02/page/7

In this 29 page pdf document, starting on page 10 there is a tip from Tim Trainor that leads OCSD to Harold Jamie Lamberth of Southfield.  He was accused of taking pictures of young children in the area where Kristine Mihelich’s body was found, and on the day before she was found.  He also wanted to know the children’s addresses to send them the pictures.  OCSD tracked down the car to Lamberth’s place of employment, and found out that Lamberth was fired from his job the next day (1-21-1977) because he was taking pictures of children.  OCSD interviewed Lamberth, and he gave a plausible explanation, but OCSD concluded that the suspect could not be eliminated yet.  

The pertinent pages and more detail begin on pages 10-12, and finish on pages 19-21.  These are pdf numbered pages.

Although the FOIA (page 19) lists Harold Jamie Lamberth as living in the Southfield Downs Trailer Park, the link below has him living at 25588 W 9 Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48033.  

https://information.com/reverse-address-lookup/25588-W-9-Mile-Road–Southfield-MI

The interesting part is that the link above also listed another person that once lived at this address.  This would be Charles C. Costa.  If you remember, he was the man that molested a young John Thompson (adopted son of Lewis Redmond).  Thompson was interviewed several times by Cory Williams.  Costa is also the man that Thompson said ran for Mayor of Detroit.

This address for Costa is somewhat corroborated by Costa’s friend, Gary Baumgarten, paying tribute to him by saying;

“Over the years, as a reporter for WWJ, I’d come across people who were burned out of their homes as I rushed from breaking news story to breaking news story in Detroit. Many of them had no place to stay.  At one fire, I got a brilliant idea. I called Chuck at home. He was asleep in his big easy chair in front of the TV in the basement family room of his house on Nine Mile Road in Southfield. That’s what he’d do. Fall asleep in front of the big plasma TV. It was a nightly ritual.”

https://garybaumgarten.blogspot.com/2015/10/my-old-friend-chuck-costa-has-died.html

Quite a big coincidence on the address and its residents.  

Also, the process Lamberth used was smart.  Similar to what “Portraits in the Snow” discussed of a specialty market. The photographs were the catalog, and once a purchaser found a picture they liked, they then use the obtained address or place of first contact to find the children again.  Just a thought.” 

***********************

That is a pretty interesting thought.

Based on information from Lamberth’s wife concerning their activities on the day Kristine Mihelich went missing (January 2, 1977), Lamberth was eliminated as a suspect. (PDF at 26, 29). The job he had been fired from “for taking photos of children” was as a driver for a nursery school, Adat Shalom Nursery in Farmington Hills. The car he was driving around while he photographed and interacted with random kids belonged to the school. His own vehicle was a white van with a brown stripe.

Also interesting is the mention in the OCSD report of sightings of a truck with a camper in connection with Kristine’s case. Many other FOIA documents and statements of convicted pedophile Arch Sloan’s victims note that he owned this type of a camper.

Page 26 describes information provided to Berkley PD from a woman who reported that she saw a light colored pick up with a camper in the lot of the 7-11 on January 2, 1977 between 1:15 and 1:30 pm. Date and times are a close fit for Kristine’s abduction. She said a white male in his early 30s, 5’8″, slight build, black hair (regular cut “although quite full), neat mustache, dressed in “policeman blue” pants with a matching 3/4 length jacket, was walking around this vehicle. She said the vehicle was not in the lot at 1:50 pm.

Page 5 of the report includes information from people who lived near where Kristine’s body was found on January 21, 1977. A woman who was visiting her daughter on Bruce Lane reported that at about 11:30 a.m. she saw an orange and white truck with a camper on the street.

The woman stated that while the camper remained running, two men got out, looked up and down the street, then looked across to the wooded area toward Bruce Lane. They then got back in the truck and drove away. This was approximately 90 minutes before Kristine’s body was reported located in the wooded area on Bruce Lane.

The driver was described as a white male, early 50s, 5’8″, 160 pounds, short jacket, wearing a cap with a bill. The passenger was a white male, 5’11”, 170 lbs, thick mustache, dark hair, dress unknown.

The woman’s daughter (the resident) told police she had seen this truck earlier in the week at about 8:30 am.

Surveillance photos show a truck/camper parked on the streets surrounding Holy Name Church in Birmingham on the day of my brother’s funeral. Of course you can’t read the license plate, and maybe it belonged to a resident of that neighborhood. And of of course it wasn’t a blue AMC Gremlin, so who cares.

Either way, it sure had a good view of the hearse containing my brother’s body before people started showing up for the service.