Last night Fox2 Detroit aired a special about the unsolved OCCK case at the 50-year mark.
I thought the reporter, Jessica Dupnak, did a good job. Reporters are always at the mercy of who will appear on camera in this case, especially given all of the fuckery that has gone on over the years, the complete lack of transparency by the state police in this 50-year-old travesty, and monetization of involvement over the years by others which limits their involvement in these types of projects. So, I get it.
One of my brothers and I had originally agreed in December to go on camera for this special, but later reneged. More on that in a subsequent post.
Just a few points.
Ted Lamborgine, MDOC Prisoner Number 643240, is still very much alive and chilling at age 85 in the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee, Michigan.
Convicted pedophile Arch Sloan‘s hair and DNA were not found in his rape mobile, as prior OCP Jessica Cooper announced to the world and to him at a press conference. https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2012/07/20/legal-expert-weighs-in-on-latest-break-in-oakland-county-child-killer-case/. “Cooper said a hair found in a red 1966 Pontiac Bonneville owned by Archibald Edward Sloan has the same mitochondrial DNA profile as hair found on victims Mark Stebbins and Timothy King. Authorities said the hair samples found in Sloan’s car aren’t from the boys or from Sloan. Cooper said investigators are seeking tips about Sloan’s associates from the 1970s.”
That was 14 years ago. Both Lamborgine and Sloan turned down sweet deals in favor of rotting in prison rather than speaking honestly about the OCCK crimes.
I totally commend and am grateful to N. Fox Island survivor Bill Johnson for going on camera and explaining how incredibly heinous the crimes of Frank Shelden, Gerald Richards and Dyer Grossman were. I’m glad he didn’t find Richards, but I would have gladly joined him in the hunt for him and his “associates.” Let’s just say I understand the impulse.
The “collaborative effort” between the MSP and the OCSD is very, very recent. Like two weeks old. Don’t be fooled. More to say on that in a subsequent post.
Lt. Michael Shaw, spokesperson for the MSP with his brief written statement shown in this special, is full of shit. Every short sentence contained half-truths at best. This teflon agency must account for their handling of the OCCK case. They got handed a shit sandwich by Prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson, but two things can be true at once. A prosecutor can be corrupt and an investigating agency can suck at what they do. They hide behind antiquated and illegitimate “policies” keeping the public in the dark about what they do/don’t do. It makes the corruption stink move on to them.
Don’t be fooled, people.
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*The heinous crimes of Shelden, Richards, Grossman AND the numerous men who traveled to N. Fox Island during that 9-10 day period where young boys were “rewarded” for their hard work at school with a trip to “Uncle Frank’s.” as well as every criminal POS who viewed the photos or film taken on that island. Private planes arriving with monsters in suits posing as normal men in their every day life. The state and the feds participated in covering up these crimes. Sound familiar??
From Dr. David C. Hayes’ recent article in Michigan Advance:
“The victims of the Oakland County Child Killer, like the boys trafficked to North Fox Island, were caught in a system that treated them as disposable commodities. And as today’s headlines force us to reckon with how privilege permits predation, the story stands as a disturbing reminder that this pattern did not begin in the digital age of Jeffrey Epstein — it took flight on a small island in Lake Michigan more than half a century ago.”
https://michiganadvance.com/2026/02/20/before-epsteins-island-power-and-privilege-shielded-abuse-on-michigans-north-fox-island/
We watched the special last night. The portion on North Fox Island was quite interesting. Hopefully keeping this in the news will provide new information.
I’m on every post I see from Fox Detroit dropping the Jackals promo. It’s my mission to get that book in as many hands as possible. And discussion going. I hope you don’t mind the altruistic tenacity. Keep fighting the good fight Cathy!
Excellent, Anne. Thanks.
“Sloan at 84 is still in prison in Adrian, Michigan. In 2012, Sloan’s hair, his DNA, matched evidence found on two of this victims.”
What the fuck is the media doing making statements like this?
I’m guessing old Archie is asking the same question.
I get bummed seeing the pervading sentiment in the comments being along the lines of “I remember this! (insert personal anecdote)” and a thousand blue gremlin mentions—almost like a perverse form of nostalgia. I get that it was a cultural phenomenon that irrevocably changed what it meant to be a kid growing up in the supposedly safe suburbs. I just wish the public saw it as the very present-tense injustice that it is and not just some anomaly from the distant past.
That’s a big problem in this case. The media message was very controlled back in the day and that was by design. The Gremlin–jesus, Thompson and Hawkins knew Chris Busch was driving a blue Vega with a white hockey stripe and that he lived 2.5 miles from Tim’s abduction sight. Nobody takes a drive over to Morningview Terrace to see WTF is up; no, they pull over every blue Gremlin. The FOIA documents include a handwritten note that the old woman who described the vehicle said she THOUGHT it was a Gremlin. You know what’s great about a Gremlin, aside from it not being a Vega? It’s an AMC car–fuck AMC; GM is top dog! The question now is what has been done since the last press swing around in 2019 when Children of the Snow aired. What has been done, what has been learned since 2019 and how come you motherfuckers aren’t at least updating the public instead of talking about the “good old days”?
Still, the slow tide of time is gradually but surely bubbling Busch and his cronies up to the surface of the mainstream narrative. It’ll have to get to the point sooner or later that it’s only those who dispute the commonsense nature of their involvement (OC prosecutors/MSP) that look conspiratorial.
I haven’t posted in years, but do read here consistently. Following the cases since they first occurred. My opinions won’t be real popular, but what the hell, this is a complete disaster anyway.
I’m not a big believer in conspiracies, they almost always fall apart because people can’t keep their mouths shut, and frankly I don’t think that law enforcement would have been smart enough to pull off a conspiracy of this magnitude. I just think the perpetrator was smart and got away with his crimes.
I also think there were a lot of caring, dedicated law enforcement officers that gave it their best shot. So I can’t dismiss all of their work summarily.
Nonetheless, law enforcement failed. The facts are the facts. They made a lot of mistakes. But in investigations like this, where cases took decades to solve, that is always a factor.
Busch, Greene, Sloan, Lamborgine, Shelden, Richards and the like are evil, horrible people. Scum of the earth. But I don’t think any of them were the killer we are hunting. None of them fit IMHO. Now, is it conceivable they knew him, and he sometimes was among their twisted groups? Yeah that is possible, but I think that is a stretch, this guy is careful. And serials killers are a different breed, more loners than group guys.
The OCCK is/was a smart, cunning, outwardly presentable predator. If he’s found, the choruses of “no one would have ever expected him,” will be loud and continual. He’s quite good at disarming folks. This is why the kids seemingly went without any struggle (not a single report to my knowledge of a kid screaming or putting up a fight). To me that has always been the one point that is most telling. It says a ton about this guy. He’s slick – does that sound like Christopher Busch?
I think there is at least a 75% possibility that his name was submitted by someone early on, and is in the data. His outward persona notwithstanding, someone may have had a read on him (thinks he’s very odd), and sent his name to the tip line. But I’d bet he was quickly dismissed as “no chance this guy is our perp” and shelved. Quite common in cold cases.
I have no confidence this will be solved now. Not any more. It’s obvious there is not circumstantial evidence that would convict anyone. So the only way it’s solved is DNA or a verifiable confession and those seem unlikely now.
My profile if anyone knows this guy:
1) Very smart, but not arrogant, stoic and introverted but can be charming
2) Lived in Ferndale (or very close) as these guys always start close to home
3) Had a Pontiac Tempest or similar
4) Likely religious – maybe a youth leader – Wednesday and Sunday are not coincidences
5) Lived alone
6) Worked in a very detailed profession – engineering maybe – something very precise – very organized
7) He won’t have a detailed rap sheet, whatever he’s done he’s cleaned up
8) But he has been in legal trouble before, minor, something involving a child
9) He knows cops in his area, he has friends on the force and shows interest in cases
10) He is a sexual deviant, but it is completely hidden – Dennis Rader or Russell Williams type
11) White male, early 30s
12) His job is construction related – he has more time on his hands in the winter – travels for work in summer
13) May be involved in youth sports – community events where youth are prevalent
Everyone is entitled to their take. Is it possible though, that your criteria is a bit skewed by virtue of looking for a classic “serial killer” profile (which, I agree with you, fits a very different lone-wolf sort of pattern) instead of what this very well could have been: a ring of fucked-up child torturers on a relatively short-lived spree to answer the abrupt market demand for child pornography/snuff films that resulted from North Fox Island’s supply chain drying up?
Thoughts on why the program was so confident in the claim of Dyer Grossman still being alive?
Good question.
Not a bad report by Fox2. It was and continues to be a huge cover up. Bouchard and the Michigan State Police screwed up and they cant let the truth come out now, it would ruin their reputation. Disgusting!
I was surprised to see Lourn Doan being interviewed. Now he wants to talk? Or is he just enjoying some limelight on TV for a few days, just like Bouchard has done for his entire career. Doan has attended some of Marney’s book presentations on The Snow Killings in the past. So he definitely is still interested in recent happenings in this case. He was the main guy from the beginning, not Bouchard.
He could break the case wide open either by telling ALL that he knows, or by telling ALL he was not allowed to share. I believe he was about 29 years old when assigned to the case.