This article speaks of a series of five murders and one disappearance in Oakland County, Michigan in the latter half of the 1970's. All the victim's were children.
http://www.unsolvedchildmurders.com/jillrobinson.htmMark Stebbins - February 15, 1976 ? Age 12 ? Murdered - was last seen alive around noon on when he left a pool tournament in Ferndale, Michigan at the Ferndale American Legion Hall to walk home so he wouldn't miss a television show. When Mark hadn't returned home by 11 pm, his mother grew worried and called the police to report him missing. Despite Mark's mother's insistence that he had been kidnapped, investigators believed Mark to have run away and because runaways were so common, his case was not taken seriously. Tragically on Fenruary 19, four days after his disappearance, a businessman found the boy's lifeless body in plain sight at a parking lot in Southfield about five miles away from Ferndale. Mark had been asphyxiated and was sexually assaulted after his death, but was fully clothed. He had ligature marks on his wrists and ankles, showing signs of bondage, and he had a laceration on his scalp. An autopsy determined he was kept alive for a few days since his body was determined to have been at the parking lot for less than 24 hours.
Mark was the first of a series of murders of children in cities located in Oakland County, Michigan called ?The Babysitter? murders.
Jill Robinson - December 22, 1976 ? Age 12 ? Murdered - was last seen alive by her mother during the evening of after she ran away from their home in Royal Oak, Michigan. Jill had become upset after she had an argument with her mother over making biscuits for dinner and stormed off to her room she packed some clothes and a blanket and took off on her bicycle before her mother could catch her. Her mother reported her missing and her case was handled as a runaway case and therefore not taken very seriously. Tragically, Jill's fully clothed body was found four days after she ran away placed in plain view along a snowy shoulder of interstate 75 just north of 16 Mile Road near Big Beaver Road in Troy, Michigan which is about six miles away from Royal Oak. Jill was lying on her back with a 16-gauge shotgun to her face. Investigators believe that since there was no sign of a struggle, that the killer may have panicked and shot her leaving her body where she died. An autopsy revealed that Jill had only been dead for a few hours by the time she was found and therefore would have been alive for the four days she was missing. Jill was the second victim of a series of murders of children in cities located in Oakland County, Michigan. Ten months prior to Jill's murder was the murder of 12-year-old Mark Stebbins of Ferndale, and followed by Jill's murder were the murders of 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich of Berkley and 11-year-old Timothy King of Birmingham, whose murders occurred within two months of each other. Kristin's murder happened less than a month after Jill's murder. The killer was dubbed "The Babysitter," because all four victims were kept alive after they were kidnapped and were taken care of - the children were fed and cleaned during their captivity. Authorities have been able to link "The Babysitter" to the murders of Mark, Jill, Kristine, and Timothy, but there may have been other victims. 13-year-old Jane Allen disappeared while hitchhiking from Royal Oak to Auburn Heights in August of 1976. Her body was found three days later in a Ohio river. There is also speculation the disappearance of 12-year-old Kimberly King of Warren. Kimberly disappeared on September 16, 1979 after she left a friend's house to use a phone across the street. She hasn't been seen since. The prime suspect in the Oakland child murders is a man named David Norberg. He is also a suspect in Kimberly's disappearance since she lived only two blocks away from David when she disappeared. He also happens to be a suspect in Jane Allen's murder. David died in a car accident in 1981. Doubt was cast, however, when a pubic hair found on 11-year-old victim Timothy King was compared to Norberg's DNA in 1999 after Norberg's body was exhumed. It proved to be negative. Although this does not rule Norberg out as a suspect, investigators were at a dead end. To make matters worse, DNA tests on five other suspects of the murders proved to be negative also. "The Babysitter" has still never been identified and all five murders including Jill's remain unsolved as well as the disappearance of Kimberly King.
Jane Allen - August 7, 1976 ? Age 13 ? Murdered - was last seen alive after she left her home in Royal Oak, Michigan so that she could hitchhike to see her boyfriend, whom she had been secretly dating, in Auburn Heights which is about ten miles from Royal Oak. She never made it to her boyfriend's house and when she did not return home hours later, her mother called to report her missing. Since she was believed to be a runaway, a search party was not launched and there was no sign of Jane. On August 10, three days after she went missing, Jane's decomposed body was found floating in the Miami River in Miamisburg, Ohio some 250 miles (400 km) away from Royal Oak. Her hands had been tied behind her back with strips of a torn white t-shirt and it was determined she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. There was no evidence of sexual assault and her body was fully clothed. A rumor had circulated that the teenager may have been seen in Miamisburg during her disappearance in the company of several members of a Dayton motorcycle gang, but this has not been confirmed. Another theory is that Jane may have been a victim of the Oakland County Child Killer who is believed to be responsible for the murders of four children who were kidnapped, held captive for days, and murdered around the time of Jane's murder.
Kristine Mihelich - January 2, 1977 ? Age 10 ? Murdered - was last seen alive by her mother around 3 pm after the little girl left her home in Berkley to go to a nearby 7-Eleven to buy a magazine for her room decorations. When Kristine still hadn't come home close to 6 pm, her mother became worried and went to look for her. A clerk at the 7-Eleven told Kristine's mother that Kristine was at the store and that she bought a magazine before the little girl went across the street to the bowling alley. When her mother found out that Kristine had left the bowling alley to go home, she became even more frantic and called the police to report her daughter missing. A massive search was launched for the little girl, but to no avail. Tragically, on January 21, nineteen days after Kristine's disappearance, a mailman driving by Bruce Lane discovered Kristine's frozen body found lying in a ditch on her back buried in snow with only her drawn up knees exposed about 6 feet off the road. Her body was clad in the same clothes she had on when she went missing. An autopsy determined that the little girl had been asphyxiated. Furthermore, it was determined that Kristine could have been dead for less than 24 hours - meaning that the little girl could have been kept alive for more than two weeks after her disappearance. When Kristine's body was found, footprints in plowed snow were found leading to Kristine's body, meaning that her body would have been placed there at least after the 17th of January since that was when the snow on Bruce Lane was plowed. Kristine was the third victim of a string of murders in Oakland County, Michigan.
Timothy King - March 16, 1977 ? Age 11 ? Murdered was last seen alive by his older sister around 8:15 pm in Livonia after she gave him some money to go to a nearby store. Their parents had gone out to dinner and Timothy's sister was on her way out with friends, so she left the door open so Timothy could get back in before Timothy took off on his skateboard. A clerk remembered seeing the little boy buy candy at the store, which was on Maple Road a few blocks from Timothy's home, and then leave out the back entrance which opened to a parking lot shared with a supermarket. He never returned home and his parents reported him missing after becoming worried when they returned home around 9:00 pm to an empty house and the door open. After the investigation into Timothy's disappearance began, a woman who was at the store Timothy was last seen at reported seeing a boy matching Timothy's description talking to a man in a car parked a few spaces away from where she was loading groceries into her car around 8:30 pm. She was able to provide enough information to create a composite sketch of the man, and describe the car ? a dark blue Gremlin with a white ?hockey stick? stripe on the side. A massive search was launched for the little boy and the sketch of his potential abductor was aired on the news, but there was still no sign of Timothy. Tragically, on March 22, almost a week after Timothy's disappearance, some teenagers found Timothy's body placed neatly in a ditch off Gill Road in Livonia, Michigan eleven miles away from Birmingham - his skateboard placed neatly beside him. Timothy's body was fully clothed and an autopsy indicated that he was strangled to death. There was also evidence Timothy had been sexually assaulted and that he had been dead only six to eight hours - meaning that Timothy was kept alive for six days before being murdered. Rope marks around his wrists and ankles suggested he had been tied up for long periods of time. Even more strangely, his clothes had been washed and ironed and Timothy's body was bathed. Timothy was the fourth victim of a string of murders in Oakland County, Michigan over a 13-month period.
Kimberly Alice King ? September 16, 1979 ? Age 13 ? Missing - She crossed the street to use the telephone and never returned. Non Family Abduction - DOB: Oct 21, 1966
White, Height: 5'5" (165 cm), Warren MI - Weight: 105 lbs (48 kg) Hair Color: Blonde, Eye Color: Blue Case Number: NCMC601787
http://missingkids.idribble.com/usa/michigan/Addition - non-linked Michigan Missing
On February 5, 1981 14 year old school girl Dean Marie Pyle Peters was last seen at school in Grand Rapids, MI. She was last seen wearing a brown ski jacket, a pink sweater, and blue jeans. She was 5'3" 110 lbs at the time with brown hair and brown eyes.
May 8, 1985, six year old Natasha Marie Shanes went missing or was abducted near her home between 1:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. She has pierced ears, a scar on her cheek and a strawberry mark on her neck. She is epileptic and developmentally disabled. She was 4' and 57lbs, blue eyes, blond hair.
On June 3, 1997 Shannon Dale Verhage was last seen in Cedar Springs, Michigan, with her mother. Her mother has since been found deceased. Shannon's whereabouts are unknown. She was last seen wearing a tricolored dress and a diaper. She was a toddler with blonde hair and blue eyes. I don't know if her mother's death is an unsolved Homicide.
Topic: Unsolved Murders - Michigan - 1970's (Read 2564 times)
