The Snow Killings Read online

  Wherever Tim is, he is distressed about worrying me. He has always left notes or called to tell me where he is. He is impatient to return to rehearsing for his role as “Mike Teavee” in the upcoming production of “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” at Adams School. He is also eager to play on his basketball team and try out for Little League.

  There are no words to express how much we all miss Tim. We can hardly wait to see him, hug him, and hear his latest collection of jokes. It is my hope that Tim is not frightened or hungry and that his cold is not any worse.

  I appeal to all of you from the bottom of my heart—help bring him home to us very soon. Do whatever you can to help find him, and call the Birmingham police with any possible information that may be useful.

  We are overwhelmed at the outpouring of love and support from neighbors, friends and concerned persons. The magnificent efforts of the Birmingham police and their associates from all over Michigan are beyond any expectations. We are eagerly anticipating Tim’s safe arrival. Someone, please give him all our love until we can do that ourselves.38

  On Sunday, March 20, 1977, MSP Task Force Commander Robert Robertson and MSP Det. Sgt. Joseph Krease drove to the Bloomfield Hills home of psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Danto. Danto had been helpful in developing the profile of their suspect, and while somewhat of a media groupie, he was offering free assistance at a time when the investigation could ill afford to say no.

  Danto’s theory, however grandiose, was that the killer might be trying to communicate with him. Because he had some notoriety via his many interviews, Danto felt it might be more than a coincidence that Kristine Mihelich’s body was dumped on Bruce Lane. (Apparently, at the time, the Michigan Psychiatric Society listed only three psychiatrists having the first name of “Bruce.”)

  It was a stretch, but Danto suggested that the killer might have noted his quotes in the media saying that the killer picks up kids like “a squirrel picks up nuts in the wintertime.” After talking to Danto, Robertson sent four patrol cars to do surveillance on a lonely stretch of north-south blacktop called Squirrel Road in Bloomfield Hills, the neighborhood adjacent to Birmingham. The long night resulted in pulling over one vehicle: a slowly cruising, shiny new Buick sedan driven by Harold Carter Macauley. Seems Macauley had recently completed a mail-order course on how to become a private detective and was convinced that nabbing the child killer was going to be his first big break. When questioned, Macauley said he’d read between the lines in the Danto interviews too. He told officers: “I’m doing the same thing you are!”39

  * * *

  1. Tommy McIntrye, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, Wayne State University Press, 1988, 11.

  2. Robert De Wolfe, “Slain Girl’s Body Found on Highway,” Detroit Free Press, January 17, 1976, 3.

  3. Jim Schutze, “Only a Door Stood Between Baby-Sitter’s Killer, Police Say: Slayer Waited Inside House,” Detroit Free Press, January 21, 1976.

  4. Barbara Doerr and Pat Shellenbarger, “Autopsy Awaited in Slaying of Boy,” The Detroit News, February 20, 1976, 3A.

  5. Staff, The Detroit News, February 27, 1976, 10A.

  6. Barbara Doerr, “Slain Boy’s Dad Jailed on Nonsupport Charge,” The Detroit News, February 24, 1976. 1A.

  7. Bill Michelmore, “Alert Boy, 7, Helps Locate Suspect in Pal’s Abduction,” Detroit Free Press, March 17, 1976, 3A.

  8. Interview by author with Karol Self, August 27, 2018. Harbor Springs, MI. All quotes from Karol Self in this chapter are from my 2018 interview with her unless otherwise noted.

  9. Steve Kaufman and Jeff Laderman, “Royal Oak Girl Is Found Slain on I-75,” The Detroit News, December 27, 1976, 8A.

  10. Barbara Doerr, “Police Seek Information on Missing Suburban Girl,” The Detroit News, December 25, 1976, 3A.

  11. Barbara Doerr, “Police Hope to Retrace Slain Girl’s Movements,” The Detroit News, December 28, 1976, 4A.

  12. Ellen Grzech, “Runaway Girl Shotgunned; Body Found Off I-75 in Troy,” Detroit Free Press, December 27, 1976. 1A.

  13. John Michalak, “4SOC Killings Reflect ‘Violence of Our Lives,” The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak), December 27, 1976, 1A.

  14. Kaufman and Laderman, “Royal Oak.”

  15. Interview by author with Tom Robinson, March 28, 2018. Royal Oak, MI.

  16. Jesse Snyder, “Berkley Mother Makes Appeal for Return of Missing Daughter,” The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak), January 6, 1977. 1A.

  17. Joel J. Smith, “Killed or Missing: Five Children,” The Detroit News, January 7, 1977, 1B.

  18. “CBers form posse in search for Missing Berkley Girl, The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak), January 7, 1977 1A.

  19. “Pattengill Pamphlet Lists Eight Child Safety Tips,” The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak), January 7, 1977 1A.

  20. Claud H. Corrigan, “The Oakland County Special Task Force: Finding the Child-Killer in the Woodward Corridor” (Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) Police Technical Assistance Report, July 1977), 6–8.

  21. Joel Smith, Pat Murphy, Edward Chen, Peter R. Lochbiler (Headline is missing), January 22, 1977. The Detroit News, 1A.

  22. Corrigan, LEAA Police Technical Assistance Report,) July 1977, 7.

  23. Ellen Grzech, “Dead Girl Not Sexually Molested,” Detroit Free Press, January 24, 1977,1A.

  24. James A. McClear and John F. Newman, “Oakland Shroud of Secrecy,” The Detroit News, February 6, 1977, 3A.

  25. Corrigan, LEAA Police Technical Assistance Report,) July 1977, 7.

  26. Farmington Hills Police Department, “Narrative Report: Homicide, Victim: Janece (cq) Lee Vortman, suspect: Joseph Edward Krease,” Case No. 0110-91924177, September 19, 1991.

  27. McClear and Newman, “Oakland Shroud” The Detroit News, 3A.

  28. Tommy McIntrye, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: The Search for a Child Killer, Wayne State University Press, 1988, 81.

  29. Tommy McIntrye, Wolf, 82.

  30. McIntrye, Wolf, 105.

  31. Joel Smith and James McClear, “Dragnet,” The Detroit News, March 25, 1977, 6A.

  32. Joel J. Smith, “150 Detectives Press Kidnap Search,” The Detroit News, March 23, 1977, 3A.

  33. Smith, “150 Detectives,” 3A.

  34. Jane Briggs Bunting, “Man Who Saw Missing Boy is Sought,” Detroit Free Press, March 19, 1977, 1A.

  35. Bunting, “Man,” 3A.

  36. Jane Briggs Bunting, “King Boy Search Brings Many Tips of Other Attempts,” Detroit Free Press, March 22, 1977, 8A.

  37. McIntyre, Wolf, 154.

  38. Joel J. Smith and Michael Wowk, (No headline.) The Detroit News, March 20, 1977 A1.

  39. McIntyre, Wolf, 117.

  2

  The Body of a Young Boy

  On March 22, 1977, six days after Tim King had been abducted, two Detroiters, Daryl Wilkinson, 17, and Olaf Peterson, 21, were making a U-turn on Gill Road near Eight Mile in Livonia at around 11 p.m. As their headlights passed over a shallow ditch, they spotted something red sticking out of the snow. It was Tim’s red hockey jacket.1

  Immediately, the men drove to the closest home. Les Davis, a retired tool and die maker, answered the door. Davis told the youths to wait on the porch while he phoned Livonia police and then they walked to the road.

  “The police were here within three minutes of my call,” Davis would later tell a reporter. “I used my flashlight to show them where the boy was lying face down. We were all pretty well shook up…. I’m afraid I’ll see that kid for the rest of my life.”2

  Only a few feet away from his body, Tim’s skateboard had been tossed like a blatant taunt.

  Tim King�
�s orange skateboard was tossed a few feet away from his body (Michigan State Police).

  Because Gill Road was located in neighboring Wayne County, not Oakland County, investigators from both counties swarmed the scene. (Later, detectives would surmise the killer changed the drop-off location because of the immense pressure in Oakland County.) Emergency flashers and strobe lights lit up the night sky. Police radios crackled. Detectives pleaded with a rapacious media presence, about to burst through the cordoned-off area. Please, they begged, hold off any reporting until we have positive identification. That did not happen.

  Unable to sleep, Marion King sat on the couch in her living room with Cathy, joined by a couple of good friends who felt Marion should not be left alone. They were watching a small black and white TV that had been moved onto a coffee table in the living room for the purposes of distraction. Johnny Carson was on and everyone pretended to be watching. Just then, a banner headline scrolled at the bottom of the screen: “The body of a young boy has been found on the side of Gill Road in Livonia.” Barry, who had been trying to get some rest in the bedroom, heard the report on the radio.

  By the time police pulled up at the Kings’ house, it was close to 3 a.m. Barry and Marion sat on the couch holding hands. Birmingham Police Chief Jerry Tobin sat down next to them and told them what they already knew. Sometime later, Marion King, accompanied by Officer Don Studt, Birmingham Police Sergeant Jack Kalbfleisch, MSP Det. Joseph Krease, and the Kings’ parish priest, drove 15 miles on the expressway in silence to the Wayne County morgue.

  Despite a request from photographers to back off, Marion King was captured on film as she departed the Wayne County morgue after identifying her murdered son’s body (Detroit Free Press via Newspapers.com).

  Marion had insisted she be the one to identify her son. Barry knew his wife well enough not to argue. Gazing at a black and white television monitor, the image on the screen flickered, then came into focus. Her youngest child’s body was covered in a white sheet, except for his face, gray as concrete. Wayne County Medical Examiner Werner Spitz asked, for the record: “Mrs. King, is that Timothy King?”

  “Yes,” she said. “That’s my son, Tim.” Then she collapsed in tears.

  Tim’s autopsy showed a dilated anus and abrasions in the anal canal indicating “sex abuses on numerous occasions.” But no evidence of semen was found. He had scrapes at the margins of his mouth, scratches on the inner lining of his mouth and a bite mark on his tongue. His tongue was swollen, which is consistent with smothering. The left side of his forehead was badly bruised; it was later determined Tim’s head had been struck shortly after death, possibly when his body was dumped. Spitz said he did not believe Tim was smothered with a hand, observing that there would have been more trauma to his face, specifically his lips and mouth. He suggested a pillow might have been used while Tim was asleep, as there were no signs of a struggle. Like the other victims, the clothing and external surface of the body were clean.3

  “The body was extremely clean,” Spitz noted. “The fingernails and toenails were all extremely clean. I asked the mother about that, whether that was a normal condition for him and she indicated he wasn’t that type of a kid, ‘No.’ And, certainly, they were extremely clean.”4

  The family had a private viewing of Tim’s body at the funeral home. Tim was dressed in a light blue running suit, the one he and his mother would have gone out to buy together if he had gotten the chance to save more money. Despite the makeup, they could see Tim’s badly bruised forehead.

  Tim King’s casket was adorned with a floral arrangement in the shape of baseball and bat. During the funeral service, police officers surveilled the 400 mourners from the church balcony (Detroit Free Press via Newspapers.com).

  More than 600 people came to the funeral at Holy Name Church in Birmingham. A limousine picked the King family up at the house. Cathy’s mother had told her not to wear mascara and to bring tissues. When they arrived at the church, the throng of reporters and network television cameras felt like a physical assault. Plainclothes policemen surveilled the mourners from the balcony, eyes peeled for anyone suspicious.

  Tim’s body lay in a little white coffin, covered by a flower arrangement in the shape of a baseball bat and ball. The front pew was reserved for Tim’s hockey team, the boys all dressed in their red jackets, their heads dutifully bowed. As six family friends carried the casket to the front of the church, a violin played Bach’s “Be Thou with Them.”

  In his homily, the Rev. Robert Burke recalled a time when Tim was asked to draw a picture of God and he drew a picture of a baseball player. “When Tim was asked how he knew God was a baseball player, he replied: ‘How do you know he isn’t?’”

  “Now that is what I call knowing God,” the priest said.5

  The King family (left to right), Barry, Cathy, Mark (behind Cathy), Marion, and Chris leave Holy Name Catholic Church after Tim’s funeral mass (Detroit News).

  Two days later, with the community reeling from the kidnapping and murder of a fourth child in 13 months, Holy Name Church hosted a panel discussion for Oakland County residents called “Coping with a Community Crisis.” The panel, featuring a psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker and clergy, drew an overflow crowd in the gymnasium.

  Ruth Stebbins was there, her appearance marking the one-year anniversary of the discovery of Mark Stebbins’ body. Her voice choking with emotion at the podium, she made a brief public statement: “I owe the police department, the task force and all the CB’ers a big thank-you for their help.” Later, she told a newspaper reporter: “During the night when I can’t sleep—and that’s often–I think of all the unanswered questions. ‘Who was it? Where did it happen? Most of all, why?’ Since Mark’s death, each time they find another child, it brings it all back. It’s just like it’s happening all over again. I feel bitter. And my other son Michael, who is sixteen, is very bitter.”6

  Tom and Karol Robinson were discouraged by the pace and intensity of the investigation. “I know individual officers are sparing no effort on Jill’s case, but where the hell is the imaginative leadership?” Tom Robinson told the Detroit News. Police had interviewed him only once since his daughter’s death, and that was the day after her funeral, he said.

  I don’t know if politics are involved or what, but I’m tired of being left in a vacuum as to what’s happening. I’m at the point of making some noise. If some of these child murders are linked, as police say, why not concentrate on them with more equal emphasis? One child’s life certainly is as valuable as another.

  I certainly don’t begrudge what’s being done on any of the other cases, and I realize the immediate need to concentrate on the King case while the trail of the killer is still warm. However, I’d like to know where in the hell the coordination is in the investigation, the overview on all of the cases. Who knows which of the four cases will turn up the clue which will result in picking up the creep who is responsible for all of this?

  Karol Robinson said she felt angry about the negative press coverage. “There were bad connotations of Jill’s family life—her portrayal by police and the media as being a runaway,” the grieving mother said. “I never felt she was running away. I believe she was on her way to her father’s house. Just because we were divorced, it did not mean that Jill was loved any less by each of us.”

  Tom Robinson said: “We got the feeling that Jill had to die before anybody would pay any attention.”7

  In early 1977, Tom and Karol Robinson expressed concerns about the progress of the investigation and the way the press covered Jill’s disappearance (clipping from People magazine, December 1977, courtesy Tom and Marla Robinson).

  The couples’ pain and frustration couldn’t help but elevate the tension and fear felt by the entire community. Meetings about the child murders—how to respond, how to cope—were popping up in school cafeterias, township halls and library meeting spaces all over Oakland County. Panel
s of experts weighed in on strategies to keep children safe without scaring them to death. But there was nothing normal about four abductions and murders, particularly when the police seemed so stymied by lack of evidence.

  One cop said: “It’s like chasing your tail. You know it’s there, but you just can’t get to it.”

  Birmingham Police Chief Tobin insisted: “Somebody knows the identity of the killer. It’s not possible for a person to keep a victim for four or five days without the knowledge of someone else. It very well might simply be a mother’s reluctance to turn in her own son.”8

  Every parent knew: if a smart boy who had promised never to go with a stranger wound up dead, every child was at risk. And since, with each abduction, no one heard a scream, no one saw a struggle, it was likely each child went with their captor willingly. Thus, everyone was subject to scrutiny: the clergy, substitute teachers, little league coaches, police officers. No one could be trusted.

  Children were not allowed to walk to or from school. In the afternoons, long lines of parents’ cars jammed residential streets waiting for dismissal time. Never before had so many parents volunteered for recess duty to help watch over kids during the noon hour at school playgrounds. In a grim preemptive strike, one school district initiated a fingerprinting program of all elementary school-age students, should they be snatched.