Another conversation with Dr. Kristen Mittelman of Othram Labs, Inc.

A reader sent another good interview with Dr. Mittelman about the work of Othram Labs to identify DNA in cold cases requiring advanced technologies.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-prosecutors/id1513765512?i=1000586222162

If the evidence in the OCCK case is not amenable to this type of testing, this should be explained to the public. If testing at the Michigan State lab or at Quantico over the years has extinguished the DNA in this case, tell the public. Quit with the arrogant secrecy when everyone knows there will never be an arrest in this case.

Why are we not entitled to an explanation of how all of the evidence in this case has been handled over the years? Why, when there are four sets of clothing, four autopsy kits, four cases’ worth of evidence, is there no support for having all of it tested by a lab like Othram? If due to storage failures over the decades, all of it is degraded and contaminated, why won’t someone explain why and more importantly, how it will never happen again?

How is the OCCK case so different from the many other cold cases of similar vintage that have been solved through the use of a lab like Othram? Authorities never made an arrest in this case. Does this immunize them from questions or a review of the case?

In the wake of the many DNA/genetic genealogy solves in cold cases around the world, authorities compound the suspicion by avoiding this fundamental question: Why are you unwilling or unable to use a lab like Othram to evaluate these cold cases?

Ignoring this obvious question compounds the many failures in this case.

Another reader sent this interesting link from GEDmatch about the genetic witness program:

Join the Genetic Witness Program

Finally, another reader informed me today that Det/Sgt Dave Robertson, who ran defense for the MSP on the OCCK case for quite a few years, died on November 21, 2022 at the age of 64.

Gilgo Beach killer hunt slowed by infighting between prosecutors and police

“The previously unreported infighting between prosecutors and detectives illustrates how official missteps fueled years of false turns and dysfunction as the infamous killing spree remained unsolved.”

Gilgo-Beach-Serial-Killings-8123Download

This is so tragic and maddening on so many levels, not the least of which is that suspect Rex Heuermann continued to contact sex workers while this clusterfuck of an investigation dragged on for over a decade, and he probably continued to kill.

Here are a few contrasts between the Gilgo Beach investigation and the OCCK investigation.

While the police and prosecutors clashed in the Gilgo Beach investigation, at least they interacted! L. Brooks Patterson and Richard Thompson washed their hands of the OCCK investigation, beginning to back down and skulk away soon after Kristine Mihelich’s body was found, and certainly after my brother was abducted and murdered. The various prosecutors over the years were actually involved in the Gilgo Beach case, even as it turned cold. (Can’t give a pass to the two prosecutors who helped cover up Police Chief James Burke’s beating a shackled suspect who stole Burke’s sex toys and porn from his truck during the height of the investigation, however.)

Heuermann’s arrest “came quickly” after a new district attorney took office last year. He assigned a task force from four law enforcement agencies, who conducted a comprehensive review of every item of evidence and information in this investigation. What must that be like?? What the literal fuck?

How much must Patterson and Thompson enjoyed the keystone cop action going on between the local Oakland County PDs and the Michigan State Police? Did the prosecutor ever step in and demand that all of the agencies share information (here’s looking at you, Oakland County Sheriff’s Department–then and now)? The history of the prosecutor’s office in the OCCK case is the definition of lack of leadership (and that’s the best that can be said of it). Patterson was all too happy to let this case twist in the wind at the MSP and his successors continued to look the other way. It defies legitimate explanation.

Patterson was never held to account. He and his chief deputy simply waited it out, knowing the killings were stopped, and then they moved on in their careers and their lives. When you damage so many people, is your own life damaged? Or do you just keep climbing to the top of the next dog pile? The four OCCK victims mattered not in the face of the reputations of these pigs.

Have you ever done something so terrible, so heinous, that for the rest of your unindicted, unexamined life you tell yourself and your version of a god that you will do right in the future, you will make up for this horrible error in judgment, this lapse in ethics, this criminality, every single day of your life? Or do you just give up after a time; fuck it, what’s done is done?

I wonder what that must be like. It might drive a man to heavy drink. Or radical and cruel religious views. Either way, it’s not enough. It’s sickening to even think about.

At the risk of engaging in a little OCCK case confirmation bias, check out these YouTube videos

First a forensic psychologist discusses the suspect charged in the Gilgo Beach serial murders. Very disturbing, but I thought of at least two suspects in the OCCK case as I watched.

Next consider this interview of a woman who went on a date with the Gilgo Beach/LISK (Long Island Serial Killer) suspect. Who says serial killers don’t discuss their crimes in restaurants? (Just the cops in the OCCK case.)

This next one is also a little unnerving for a variety of reasons. But as a reader pointed out, Epstein became a liability, as Chris Busch did in the OCCK case.

Speculation, but . . .

Thanks to a reader for the links.

Speculation like this could perhaps be put to rest if the evidence in the OCCK case would be evaluated BY A THIRD PARTY LAB, as has been done in other cold cases of similar age, in cases where state labs and the FBI tried and failed. Are they waiting for the 50th anniversary?