Highlights from the Transcript found in the FOIA Response by the MSP (Nos. 01123-01188; a 67-page transcript)

Let me state up front that Larry Wasser’s name is redacted from this part of the FOIA response from the MSP.  At page 01129, someone missed redacting a “Larry,” but I knew as of July 2006, before the cops ever got involved in this, that Larry Wasser is the polygrapher who talked to Patrick Coffey about the OCCK case in July 2006.  And we tried for a year to find a way to get some information about what Wasser said without naming him directly or involving the cops early on, who, as you might have figured out by now, are not always that helpful in this case.  You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to put this together.  I didn’t slip in front of Pat Coffey, Mr. Wasser—you did.

I have to say I am getting sick of talking and thinking about this man.  It kind of makes my skin crawl and it gives me occasional bouts of the dry heaves.  And there are so many other important angles about this case and this investigation.  But, here are the highlights from the transcript of the interview of Larry Wasser by two detectives on November 30, 2007.  And lest you think I am picking on him, consider this.  He could have avoided all of this by being straight with the Livonia detective in August 2007 and staying under the radar.  I know he was in a horrible position when attorney Jane Burgess retained him to polygraph Chris Busch and things went the way they did.  But, circumstances being what they were (serial killer of children for god’s sake), and circumstances having changed dramatically in the intervening years about how the law views privileged communications by a potential serial killer, who by definition will kill again, this man could have certainly done the right thing in 2007.  But his ego wouldn’t let him.  No, he throws Patrick Coffey under the bus and accuses him of being a boldfaced liar.  He is that confident none of this shit is going to catch up with him.  Must be nice.

Wasser couldn’t risk undermining all those decades of defending what he did in the face of that Busch pre-polygraph interview—all the big polygraph organization titles, all the weighing in on legislation and ethical rules designed at some level to defend the position he took after having the misfortune to cross paths with Christopher Busch.  So, it is what it is.  Ego is a very powerful thing.  Almost as powerful as someone like H. Lee Busch and his money back in the day.  And even if it turns out that somehow Chris Busch had nothing to do with the OCCK crimes—that Wasser’s “feeling” that somehow Busch was involved in the OCCK crimes was just that—a feeling, Busch was still a monster whose parents’ money and influence allowed him to victimize many, many kids in his 27 years.  He was a prolific and unrepentant pedophile.  And yet, in the wake of these revelations, not one law enforcement agency asked anyone who may have been victimized by Busch to come forward when his mug shots were all over the news beginning in October 2009.  And there are other players—attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, judges, polygraphers, who have to carry a piece of this evil, too.  I think most of us know all too well that Karma can be a bitch.  These people just avoided it for more than three decades.  I sometimes ask what Karma my family carried to have this inflicted upon us.  No answers.  But surely the Karmic debt extends to these other players.

Larry Wasser was interviewed on November 30, 2007 at the MSP Metro North Post.  Based on his earlier representations to the Livonia detective, the task force looked at all the polygraph charts of exams given by Ralph Cabot of the MSP “from the years 1976 to 1980, including homicide polygraphs, with special emphasis on the OCCK.”  (FOIA Document 01111.)

Lo and behold, the detective finds two polygraphs involving the OCCK that were given by Cabot at the Flint Post location:  Christopher Brian Busch (deceased, “suicide” 1978) and Gregory Woodard Green (deceased, died in prison 1995), who happen to be “associates.” Those files are on the table so Wasser can take a gander at them and refresh his lagging recollection.  These two names were among the first 300 tips provided in this case after Mark Stebbins was murdered in February 1976.

The interview was recorded.  The redacted transcript was provided in response to my Dad’s FOIA lawsuit. This transcript makes me sick.  What a weasel. Even after cutting a deal where he will look at the files to try to shake the name loose from his brain and perhaps even offer more—if he can avoid testifying under oath—he back pedals.  “[T]he court order says that, just a name . . .”  (01126.)]

As he looks at Busch’s file—boy oh boy, name doesn’t ring a bell (the pedophile son of a GM CFO—seriously pal??), but gee whiz this stuff about this guy—if this is the right guy??—going to England and then coming back and staying with his parents [in Bloomfield Village, MI]—that sounds familiar.  “I’m telling you [the name] doesn’t mean anything.  I told you name, its facts, that what triggers things.”  (01127).

The facts are right there in the file, as the lead detective in the interview points out.  Wasser starts looking at it and says “I saw him 30 years ago, if this is the right guy, but I, boy went to England, oh, stayed with his parents maybe a day and went to, what is this, up to Sanford [MI] and what’s [two sentences redacted].  The detective interviewing Wasser points out some other facts—just like Wasser said, Ralph Cabot of the MSP conducted this polygraph at the Flint Post.  There are notes by Cabot and a Sgt. Doan of the Southfield MI PD who was working for the task force.  These notes state that Busch’s associate, Greg Green told Cabot that Busch discussed with Green fantasies like tying up some kid, sexual problems, [redacted].  Does that ring a bell with you buddy?  Response:  “Oh Jesus Christ.  No, England rings a bell, being in England.”  (01127.)

Here’s where it gets really distressing for me reading this transcript.  Wasser says “But here, something else.  Now I’m, you better, Cory you better not quote me.  I’d be really pissed at you, because you quote me and cut it out, Sanford or Hillman, is that up North.”  (01128.)

Wasser is clearly reading the file and thens says “Oh, got it, this thing here, but my thing is, between us, and I’d deny I’m telling you this, I’d check out this Sanford or Hillman because they have, see where or not his guys, I don’t know where this is.  Where is it?”  (01129.)  The detectives and Wasser then discuss the location—it’s around Atlanta, Michigan.  Wasser then asks “How long would it take to get from there back down to here.”  (Id.)  Wasser then explains “Something about north.  I don’t know, shit 30 years ago, if there was any evidence up there, it’s [redacted].

The detective brings things full circle for Wasser.  This file, Chris Busch’s file, matches what Wasser remembers:  polygraph by Cabot, in Flint; guy was in England and returned [just prior to Mark Stebbin’s abduction in February 1976] to spend a day or two at his parents’ house, and that he committed suicide.  Wasser agrees:  “It’s gotta be this guy.”  But “I, I’m , I’m, the name I’ll tell you right now, Busch, I would have never ever, that name would have never meant anything to me.”  (01130.) My notes in the margin from my first reading of this transcript say “Fucking liar!”

And that is the point where it becomes completely obvious what Wasser was doing.  He was preserving the ability to say “I never gave up the name.”  This was his premeditated approach to backtrack from what he uttered to Patrick Coffey in July 2006.  His back is against the wall and after all his years as a big wig in the polygraph community—years spent manipulating legislation so it protects the type of decision made by Busch’s attorney Jane Burgess and Wasser in the wake of the OCCK crimes—there is no way he is going to say he gave up a name.  Instead, the weasel sets it up so he can pick up the file, look at it, say this has gotta be the guy, but never say “yeah, it was Chris Busch.”  And it is so sickening that after this, FBI Agent Sean Callahan will argue with my brother Mark that we are all full of shit because Wasser never gave up Busch’s name.  This b.s. is repeated by the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office courtesy of APA Paul Walton and some reporters in the Detroit area eat this up.

Another detective asks Wasser if he has any old records, noting that “most polygraphers of your caliber and that, they keep all there stuff.  They keep boxes and boxes . . . .”  But oh no, Wasser has moved three times and has gotten ride of some of his files.  (01130.)  Never kept a log book, none of that nonsense.

As the interview progresses, Wasser and the detective refer to the 30 minute phone call he had with the main detective interviewing him the previous night.  They both agree that Wasser said that the media would make a big to do about all of this and he wanted to be kept out of it.  (01136.)

The detective then says:  “You haven’t told us anything yet.  How do we find, how do we solve a case with [just] a name?”  Wasser hems and haws.  Brass tack time—finally—what made you think this guy was involved in the OCCK cases and what did you ask him about taking any previous polygraphs?

“Okay.  And then, okay, I asked him did you ever take a polygraph, he said yes.  And I said who gave you the test.  He said Michigan State Police, Now, thinking, I said where’d you, oh no, then he said, I said what was it regarding.  He said that Oakland, those missing kids in Oakland County, something to that [e]ffect.  And I said well how’d you do.  [Redacted] it and I may have asked him because I don’t know why Flint sticks in my mind, because I knew the one that did all, most of the testing was Chester . . . (last name unclear)  . . . Chet and I were like this and, and he knows I’m gonna deny this, if this if this guy had told me I killed these kids, I would’ve very quietly spoke to Chester.  . . . And that would have been the end of it.”  (01136.)

So the detective says—right; but what made you think he could have been involved?  And—he must have mentioned something about up north or something to you, right?

Wasser:  “Boy, I don’t know, something sticks in my mind about north and I don’t, I can’t put my finger on it, but I do, I would check to see where, you know, if his parents had a place there. “  The detective affirms that Busch’s parents had a place up north.

The detective presses on and asks what it was that made Wasser think this guy might have been involved in the OCCK crimes.  Wasser:  “Boy, I don’t know I, you know, something sticks in my mind about north and I don’t, I can’t put my finger on it, but I do, I would check to see where, you know, if his parents had a place there.”  (01137.)  Yeah, Larry, I just told you they did.  The detective continues.

“Okay.  Something made you inquire with Jane Burgess after this polygraph.”

Wasser:  “No I didn’t.  I told her, I said Jane I don’t know if you know that your client had taken a previous polygraph Oakland County, ah, child, ah, mult [sic], you know, killings.  So she, I think she told me she didn’t know that.”  The detective then asks “Okay, but after than, you asked about a year later.  Wasser:  “I, I was approx., I can’t remember.  She called me about this other case and this thing always stuck in my mind.”  Why?  “Because he, there was something about this guy that was so strange.  I can’t put my finger on it.  He never made any admissions to me.  He, that, it was just strange about must [sic] him, you know.”

The detectives and Wasser then discuss the fact that something sticks in Wasser’s mind about this guy [Busch] being involved in a fondling case in a pool in Pontiac, Oakland County.  According to one of the detectives, Busch had CSCs pending in four different Michigan counties back in the day.  (01139.)

Wasser then goes on to say “Boy oh boy,” he’s so glad he saw these notes in Busch’s file because “Europe, not so much England, Europe really sticks in my mind.”  (Id.)

Wasser whines about all of the grief the detectives have put him through.  (01146.)  The main detective says “Time out, time out.  The first time I met you, what did I, what did I say to you?  . . .  I could’ve saved you thousands, thousands in attorney fees by doing this, doing what we’re doing right now.  I asked you to do this [sit down and talk about all of this.]”  (Id.)

After a bunch of b.s., the detective brings it back around and asks “What made you think he’s [Busch] is crazy, that’s what we are trying to get at.”  (01149.)  Wasser:  “I don’t know.  Maybe it was because he said something about other kids.  I can’t remember.”  (Id.)

More b.s.  Then, Wasser says:  “Listen, I told you [    ], and I’m gonna say it again if this guy had made an admission to me that he killed somebody involved in this case, I would have dropped a dime with Chester [MSP polygrapher]. “  (01153.)

And, again—Wasser:  “He, what I remember, what he, I asked him did you ever take a polygraph and I was stunned because I didn’t know that.  And sometimes attorneys will tell you I know my client has taken a previous polygraph, but I, see now in retrospect, after I talked to her, she didn’t even know he had taken a [previous] polygraph and I asked did you ever take a polygraph.  He said yes.  And I said who gave you the test.  He said the Michigan State Police.  I said for what reason.  He said dealing with the Oakland County missing children.  I said how’d you do on that test.”  (01154.)

Wasser again goes for the sympathy plea:  “Well you know I’ve been through a lot.”  (01157.)  Haven’t we all, pal?  And then:  “And I’m talking too much now.”  (01158.)

The Europe thing comes up again.  “And England, it’s not England, there’s something about coming, returning from Europe.”  The main detective points out that Busch’s father worked in Europe.  Wasser:  “I asked him, because we ask him what do you do for a living, okay.  I don’t even think this guy worked.  Let me see this.”  (01160.)  Discussion follows about Busch’s degree from Northwood Institute in hotel/restaurant management and his management position at the Scotsman Restaurant in Alma, MI.  (Id.)

The interview continues.  Wasser describes Busch as “kooky,” and reiterates that “I just have, I’ve always had a feeling that this guy was the guy.”  (01161.)  Wasser goes so far as to say that he mentioned this “kooky” guy to Tom McMann (?? Someone investigating the OCCK crimes), who tells Wasser to bring his kid to the Dearborn police to have Wasser’s kid (5 or 6 at the time) fingerprinted.  (01162.)  He says he did get his kid fingerprinted.

On the next page, Wasser indicates that he is “going over,” “going far beyond” what he said he would tell the cops and then he says “I’m gonna lose Feinberg for an attorney.”  (01163.)  James Feinberg, who shares office space with the husband and son of Jane Burgess, now deceased, who represented Busch back in the day.

Wasser then complains that this stuff about Busch “would be in the news media and it would be a black eye to the family that, if you guys come out and said a hundred percent, he did it.”  (01168.)  Like any of us give a rat’s ass about any black eye the sole-surviving first-degree relative of Chris Busch might incur?  A guy who has more money than god and has lived 36 years without any taint?  Busch’s parents lived until their early 90’s none-the-worse for the wear.  But they are dead now.  How many more people who are avoiding “black eyes” have to croak before justice is served?  Any one of those dead kids would have settled for a black eye instead of what happened to them.

And then, Wasser says:  “I know what you’re looking at and I’m telling you for the hundredth time, if somebody made an admission to me that they killed this, killed any of these kids, I would have told you.”  (01171.)

At page 01180—“He was living in Alma when they tested him.”  Again, Mr. Wasser; you can’t remember this guy’s name after 30 years but you remember he lived in Alma when they tested him?  Oh—“And something sticks in my mind about Birmingham.”  (01181.)  You don’t say.

The main detective notes that Ralph Cabot, who conducted the MSP polygraph on Busch concerning the OCCK case, noted that Busch told him he liked to tie up kids.  Wasser says “kooky” to him meant liking kids—no mention of tying anyone up.  “I think he, in fact, I think he may have been a little feminine.  Was this guy [Green] a homosexual?” A better question would have been, “Was Greg Green a pedophile?” because he most certainly was and he had a trail of victims that was bigger than Busch’s.

There is a fair amount of discussion about cremation and how much of the body is destroyed and if there is anything left to test after such a procedure.  Busch was cremated in short order after his expedited autopsy.  For the next few pages, Wasser asks repeatedly if Busch is buried.  Why?  “because the next step would be to go ahead and do the DNA . . . ”  (01187.)

The interview ends with a request that if Wasser remembers anything else that he please call the detectives.  Wasser:  “No.  There isn’t anything because I tore up everything.”  (01188.)  No follow-up question like–when did you “tear it up?” or “is it your practice to tear up files?”  The interview ends with Wasser’s plea to the main detective:  “[    ] can you, you need to keep my  name out.”  (01188.)

I need to find the page where Wasser tells the cops he talks to Jane Burgess down the road about this “kooky” freak and she tells him not to worry because he is dead.  Then I can cite the page number and give you a direct quote.  See why I have the dry heaves?

Corrections

This morning I was contacted by the witness I mentioned in my prior post.  She corrected my understanding of what she saw and I am going to go back in and edit my prior post.  For the record, this witness says she saw Christopher Busch with Tim at approximately 8:30 a.m. (not in the afternoon) on March 22, 1977 on the M-59 expressway westbound.  She was on her way to a 9 a.m. meeting.  She passed this car–which she says was a Gremlin, but she does not remember the color of the car.

Before discussing highlights from the transcript of the November 30, 2007 interview by two detectives of Larry Wasser, I wanted to post two links.

One is a 2001 article in Time Magazine about the evolution of privileged communications “in a world grown less tolerant of the powerful taking advantage of the powerless.”

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,170862,00.html

The second is a link to an article about an award a Detroit Free Press photographer won for his portfolio which included a video montage on the paper’s website that accompanied articles written by David Ashenfelter on June 17 and 18, 2012.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130303/NEWS06/130303007/Free-Press-photographers-take-top-honors-at-MPPA

 

Stones–Who has them and who doesn’t

In May 2011, one of my brothers, my Dad, Kristine Michelich’s sister and I spent most of a Saturday talking with and being interviewed by M. Williams Phelps, host of the Investigation Discovery Channel’s “Dark Minds.”  Phelps and his crew had spent a few days in Birmingham prior to this, interviewing police and the retired Wayne County Medical Examiner who conducted Tim’s autopsy.  The guy was a quick study and all of them agreed that only the surface could be scratched in this case in a one-hour show.

The show would not air for many months. When it did, it had the very effect so dreaded by the MSP detective who spoke to my Dad and brother six years ago—it shook loose some leads.  All presumed to be useless, I’m sure.  Given my experience with them and that of others who have contacted me over the past six years, any lead that went solely to the MSP will never be fully investigated. People reasonably assume that as family members we will have more power to get the police to take these leads seriously.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  The police liked us when we were compliant, grateful victims who were happy to hear that the police were still even bothering with this very old case.  When we started asking real questions and went to the media after getting completely stonewalled, it was war.  No more hand holding—we broke the rules by doubting them and talking about it.  I am talking open hostility from some agencies.  It is re-victimization in its purest form—by the very people who are supposed to protect society and solve crimes.  Oh, and by the way, they have governmental immunity and don’t have to tell anybody squat because this is, and by design always will be, an “open investigation.” And it’s a good thing, I guess, for those who dropped the ball, those who hid the weenie as it were, and any Dirty Harry Callahan Inspector 71’s from back in the day.  Everybody who is anybody wins, right?  Nobody else counts, least of all those four dead kids, who we can’t bring back anyway.

The OCCK abductions and murders were not the perfect crimes.   That’s what the police wanted the communities to think—this man/men were so diabolical and cunning that no agency would have been able to solve this crime no matter what.  Of course no one could foresee the advances in forensic science.  But evidence storage was pretty straightforward back then if you followed the rules.   I’m sure if the MSP had known that DNA would not just be three letters from the alphabet, they sure as hell would have saved those ligatures, filed evidence correctly  and done things differently in the most heinous unsolved crime in Michigan history.

The way this investigation has been locked down—for whatever reasons—is much closer to a perfect crime.  It has given investigators the ability to opine whenever asked that “oh man, the case will never be solved.”  Heard it a bunch of times myself from various cops.  Too bad, so sad, but thank god the killings stopped, right?  The MSP takes over the investigation—the FBI is/isn’t involved—if you don’t like it, go to the Michigan Attorney General—oh wait!!!  He can’t help because, guess what—he represents the MSP as part of his duties!  The Department of Justice?  Get real.

Some of the people who came forward after the Dark Minds episode aired were smart enough to contact both the police and my Dad or other family members.  Some of them were people who had gone early and often to the police, only to be dissed and dismissed time and again.  One woman saw the show, saw the side profile mug shot of Christopher Busch and was immediately shocked and sickened because a name was finally put on the face she had seen on March 22, 1977.  Christopher Busch.  Her story is further evidence of the fact that the MSP has either no intention or no ability to seriously follow up on leads in spite of the fact that they very publicly “rejuvenated” their OCCK task force in February 2005, as well as of the way this agency treats people who come forward with information and persist in expecting a response.

This is the story she told my Dad after seeing that show.  She has since told me the same story.  Her story has never changed.  Her tip to the Birmingham Police Department on the afternoon of March 22—hours before my brother’s body would be found, still warm, in a ditch in Livonia, MI—was not taken seriously.  When she went to the task force time and again, her information was cavalierly dismissed.  And, in the ultimate irony, she is now in the position of having a relative retaliated against because he is an employee of the MSP.  I hope he is taking detailed notes about the intimidation and threats, because that is a lawsuit waiting to happen.  I will say this—given what I know about what went on in 1976-1978 and beyond, the higher-food chain of the MSP is certainly consistent.

On the morning of Tuesday, March 22, 1977, this woman saw who she now knows to be Christopher Busch driving my brother Tim on Highway M59 in a Gremlin.  My brother’s photos had been all over the news.  She said she knew it was Tim King—that he was in the front bucket passenger seat and that Tim turned back and looked at her car—a bright yellow sports car coupe with black stripes and a sunroof.  She said she instantly knew it was Tim.  She said Tim turned back to look at her car and his chin tilted slightly upward and their eyes met.  She said he appeared serene and composed.  When she reached her destination at 14 mile and Dequindre for a 9 a.m. meeting, she immediately called the Birmingham PD and reported what she had seen to a male who answered the phone.

To be clear, this witness says she saw Busch with my brother in a Gremlin around 8:30 a.m.  She does not remember the color of the Gremlin, but is positive it was a Gremlin.

The tip apparently meant nothing to the cop who took the call.  While cops were crawling all over Oakland County, Busch was headed down M59 (this is very relevant) and reached his destination without any problem.  By 11 p.m. that evening, my brother’s body was found—still warm, in a ditch in Livonia, a few miles outside of Oakland County and into Wayne County.  Although it does no good to speculate, I believe Tim looked serene because this monster had said if he was just good and promised not to tell anyone anything, he would take Tim back home to Birmingham.  The toxicology report from his autopsy showed no drugs in his system.  He had been fed dinner before he was suffocated.  He was bathed right before or soon after he was murdered.

When this woman saw the Dark Minds episode, saw Chris Busch’s mug shots and was instantly returned to that awful morning on March 22, 1977, but now with a name to put to the face, she broke down in tears.  She contacted the state police, who not only sent her packing, but not so subtly threatened to ruin the career of a relative of hers in the MSP.  As I said, they are consistent.  If you want to get a phone call or an email from someone up the food chain at the MSP, be persistent about a tip in this case.  If it’s my Dad, they just lie to him and send him packing with “we are working very hard on this, Mr. King, with our limited resources.”  If it is someone they think they can bully and get away with it, they are much more base.   If they go after this employee any more than they already have because of a relative pursuing a tip she gave to police 36 years ago, I hope an employment attorney nails them to the wall.  As I have said, this agency and a few others spend far more time messing with people than they do investigating legitimate leads.

But this story gets better.  This woman has some stones.  After noting to me that there are so many “walking wounded” in Oakland County who were affected terribly by these crimes—something law enforcement continues to vastly underestimate–she read my blog and called Larry Wasser last week.  I ended one of my entries with my desire to speak face-to-face with Mr. Wasser and ask him to explain why he continues to maintain that Patrick Coffey lied about their conversation in Las Vegas in 2006.

A few days ago, this woman called Larry Wasser and this is how she described the call.  She introduced herself and said they had never met.  She told him she wanted to share that she saw Christopher Busch actually driving the [Gremlin] westbound on M59 with Timothy King sitting in the front passenger seat.  Wasser told her she should contact Jessica Cooper’s office (tell me she hasn’t spoken to this man many times since she has been in office while she will never speak directly to my Dad).  This woman told him she had called Cooper’s office and they had referred her to a tip line.  She then asked him for one more moment, because his voice was choking up and she felt he was responding nervously.  She said she wanted him to be aware that there was a blog written by Cathy Broad and he responded that he did not know that name.  The woman then said my name was Catherine King Broad, that I was Timothy King’s older sister, and gave him the blog information, spelling the site address.  She said she did not ask him one question about the case and that he seemed troubled and then nervous.

Now that takes some stones.  And troubled and nervous is how Wasser sounds as I reread the transcript of his interview with detectives in November 2007 after he and his attorney played games so that Wasser could avoid having to give Chris Busch’s name under oath and avoid having to lie about destroying the file related to this client.

This woman’s information about spotting Busch driving my brother on M59 in the hours before his murder is especially disturbing in view of what Wasser says in that interview.  I will outline it in the next entry.  But I can assure you that, like the way the Doug Wilson information about the 1973 blue-green LeMans with 222 in the license plate was treated, nobody put her information together with the disturbing stuff Wasser said about Busch’s access to places in Sanford/Hillman.  Wasser tells detectives:  “But here, something else.  Now I’m, you better, [ ] not quote me.  I’d be really pissed at you, because you quote me and cut it out–I would check this area out, Sanford or Hillman; is that up North?” (FOIA document 01128.)  Twice he asks the detectives how long it would take to come down to Oakland County from these more northern cities.  (01129.)

Wasser then goes on to say:  “Oh, got it, this thing here, but my thing is between us and I’d deny I’m telling you this,” I’d check out this Sanford or Hillman because they have, see whether or not this guys, I don’t know where this is.  Where is it?”  (Id.)  He then goes on to acknowledge that this “up north stuff” does ring a bell.  “Something about north.  I don’t know, shit, 30 years ago, if there was any evidence up there, it’s [rest of sentence redacted, which is ridiculous in view of their position that Busch is no longer a suspect.]”

Yes, Larry, you are right.  If there was any evidence up there, it’s long gone.  But the fact that nobody even thought of looking at Chris Busch’s places in Sanford and Hillman, not to mention the parents’ place at Ess Lake is just preposterous.  Especially when there was a tip called in to the task force on March 19, 1977, about Christopher Busch being up at Ess Lake with minor boys.  The caller knew Busch was on probation for CSC crimes against kids and was not supposed to be around anyone under age 18.  She begs police to go to the Ess Lake cottage and this is the week my brother is missing.  I’ve read the tip.  The file contains no indication that this tip was treated with any sense of urgency and reveals that the woman was contacted three days later, on March 22.  The day Tim was murdered.   No one went to that cottage in Ess Lake in response to that urgent call.

So let’s review this again—Wasser can’t remember the client’s name at issue (even though it is the son of a wealthy GM CFO), but he remembers that this man was polygraphed at the Flint MSP Post by a man named Ralph Cabot, who was not the regular examiner, that the man was represented by an attorney who is now deceased, that this guy offed himself,  he remembers something about the client and “up north” in Michigan, that the client had been in England then returned to stay home for a few days in 1976 just prior to Mark Stebbin’s abduction.  But no way in hell is he going to utter the name Chris Busch.  No, he wants to be able to just pick up the file and say “it’s gotta be this guy.”  Then he can say “I never gave up the name,” and this b.s. technicality can be repeated by FBI Agent Sean Callahan and the great mincer of words, Oakland County APA Paul Walton.  How about skipping the discussion about whether Wasser uttered the name Chris Busch when he in fact gave up Busch in a premeditated pantomime and take a look at why no one tossed any of those places Busch lived in and had access to back in the day in Sanford, Hillman–and Alma, where he lived for a few years after his parents bought him a restaurant to run, and Ess Lake.  It would take three decades to get a search warrant to search Busch’s parents’ house in affluent Bloomfield Village.  After this, by the time investigators get around to checking out the family cottage at Ess Lake, the cabin has been torn down following “storm damage” from a fallen branch and a new building occupies the space.  Remember when I asked why absolutely every angle of this case looks so, so bad?  Like I said, I couldn’t make this stuff up.