With thanks to a reader who sent this:
Thought you might be interested in this: Leonard Victor Hugall, 74, was released on parole in Sept 2024 from a FL prison where he served 31 years of his 50-year sentence for sexually assaulting a woman and her 5-year old daughter. Just a couple of days ago, he was charged with felony murder and brought back here in MI to stand trial for the death of his stepdaughter, Kelly Jean Harris.
Kelly, 13, was last seen in Aug 1984 riding her bike near her mother’s Jackson home. On the day of her disappearance Kelly was upset that her mother would not allow her to go to the county fair, so when police learned that Kelly had been seen boarding a bus to Detroit, they assumed she was going back to Maryland where she lived with her father. She was initially listed as a runaway.
When Kelly did not return to Maryland, suspicion eventually turned to Leonard Victor Hugall, her stepfather. And for good reason. In 1968, Hugall was released from the Traverse City Psychiatric Hospital where he had been a patient several times since he was 13 years old. He already had a long record of mental problems and criminal offenses which included the sexual assault of an 11-year old girl, an attack on a pregnant woman, and indecent exposure
Then, in 1969, when he was just 18, he abducted Cindy Hayward, 12, by gunpoint just a half-mile from her rural Newago Co. home. After 4 days, his 1930 model car was spotted by Marquette police and, after a chase that ended in Hugall running his car off the road, he was taken into custody and Hayward was reunited with her parents. She was not injured and said that Hugall had treated her “nicely.” He pled guilty to the technical charge of concealing a minor from its parents and was sentenced in Dec 1969 to 5-15 years. After his release, Hugall moved to Jackson, married, and became the stepfather of Kelly Harris.
Hugall and his wife separated after Kelly’s disappearance and he moved to FL. It was there that he sexually assaulted a woman and her 5-year old daughter after binding them with duct tape. In 2006, while in a FL prison for that offense, he was interviewed once again by Jackson, MI police about the disappearance of Kelly. For years he had denied any involvement, but now he confessed that he had abducted Kelly under the pretense of taking her to the county fair and brought her to St. John School where he was employed. There, he sexually assaulted her, then put her in the trunk of his car while he drove near Jackson Community College. He then stabbed her to death and buried her body. Although her body has never been found, Jackson police did find blood evidence that corroborated his confession.
Jackson police did not expect Hugall to be released from prison until 2033, at which date he would have been 90 years old. They could not criminally charge him until Kelly was declared legally dead and a medical examiner had ruled her death a homicide. When that was taken care of this year, they charged him with felony murder in the death of Kelly Jean Harris. Hugall was arraigned Aug 27. “This arrest,” said one Jackson Cold Case detective, “demonstrates that time does not diminish our resolve.”
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Thank god they got this monster back where he belongs–behind bars. Evil personified.
There is no resolve in the OCCK investigation left to diminish. The detective at the MSP who is assigned to guard the file cabinets in this case never touches it except for the occasional phone call from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office. I dare him to show records of the time he has spent on this case. The OCP knows he’s not doing anything in this case and that he doesn’t know the file well enough to answer a single question about possible suspects or speak comprehensively to a tipster or a possible survivor. They know he is just the current roadblock in a long line of roadblocks.
How can there be any resolve if the state lab refuses to test any DNA other than the four hairs they have partial mtDNA results from 2009? How can there be any resolve if the FBI is foot dragging the alleged preparation of this evidence for further testing? How can there be resolve if, unlike plenty of other examples of transparent agencies around the country, the MSP will never update the community about the status of this testing? Are the samples so limited that they want to wait until better testing comes along? Why won’t they explain why none of the other evidence in this case will be retested using the most updated testing available? They clearly won’t do it. Tell us why. Is the partial Y-str evidence not being further tested or considered due to cross-contamination concerns? Why wasn’t further testing done on this sample as suggested by a third-party lab years ago? There must be an answer. Let’s hear it.
Your duty is to the dead in this case and you have failed miserably and completely. Resolve is not getting answers and sitting on them in order to conclude a book or a screenplay. Resolve is doing what is done in real cold case investigations and reporting to the families and the public if you can no longer do any more to discharge the solemn duty to give a voice to those who can no longer speak: Mark, Jill, Kristine and Tim. Resolve is making a plan like Jackson PD did and getting shit done.
There is literally no resolve in the OCCK left to diminish here, folks. We are all supposed to feel good simply that the killings stopped and detectives put in overtime and felt bad when there were no arrests. Hell, you wanted an arrest or answers?! Get real. Nothing to see here. Move along.