She had made arrangements to meet Collins at her home on the evening of June 30, but Collins had never arrived. [147] In response, Collins rose from his chair and made the following speech:[148]. [88] Later that evening, Collins informed Davis he had simply decided to "get rid of" the box and its contents. Alex Murdaugh listens to testimony during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on Feb. 10, 2023, in Walterboro, South Carolina. The first documentary aired in 2014 and the second in 2016. Each item had been deliberately placed in this location, indicating that the murderer had returned to the scene of the crime and that the two homicides were definitely linked. When confronted with this finding, Collins reportedly denied any knowledge of the existence of this item and insisted it had never been in his room; he had apparently neglected to dispose of this item as he had the personal possessions of other victims two days prior to his arrest. [n 4], The defense contended that although the murder of Beineman was a "vicious, sadistic attack" which had degraded her body "almost beyond human comprehension,"[102] the prosecution's case that Collins was the perpetrator of the crime was a weak one at best. MOUNT PLEASANT, MI The 2012 murder of 24-year-old Rebekah Gay and the confessed murderer, a neighbor and pastor at a nearby church, will be featured on a television documentary set to air . [129], Formal witness testimony began on July 20, 1970. Dr. Jervis testified as to his belief that insufficient chemical samples had existed in the samples retrieved from the basement which the prosecution scientists had worked with to form their conclusions, and that to form a conclusive neutron activation analysis, at least ten components in a hair sample must be compared, whereas only five components had been used by the prosecution's forensics experts to determine their findings. The autopsies show that Seth's grandfather was shot. This vehicle had slowed to a stop before the driver had asked her, "Want a ride?" [106] Collins had later returned to Michigan alone in his vehicle; Manuel would later be located in Arizona following Collins' arrest. Between 1976 and 1977, the sleepy suburbs of Oakland County, Michigan, were invaded by a demonic presence. 6 The Murder Of Nevaeh Buchanan. This show has sparked tons of conspiracy theories and hypothesis as to Peterson's guilt, and how both of his wives really died. David picked up Brian at his home in St . Collins had returned to their shared apartment shortly thereafter and asked Davis to hide a knife for him. Videos Making a Murderer. Each testified on August 6. [50] She had been accompanied part of the way by a friend named Earl Kidd, who informed police he and Basom had parted company at a desolate road just five blocks from her home,[51] where Basom had begun walking alone alongside railroad tracks toward her home. One of the personal items missing from Fleszar's body was an Expo 67 Canadian silver dollar she is known to have worn around her neck; this item was discovered in Collins' dresser when police conducted a search of his room. In the case of victims Mary Fleszar and Joan Schell, investigators were able to establish he had been a neighbor of both women,[94] and that at the time of Fleszar's disappearance, Collins had actually worked in an office at the Eastern Michigan University located directly opposite the hallway from the office where Fleszar had herself worked. This former girlfriend was able to provide Mathewson with two recent photographs of Collins. John List appeared to be the perfect son, husband, and father. By July 23, 1969, panic is in the hot, muggy, southeast Michigan air. Although Collins burst into tears when informed the stains on the floor covered with paint had been varnish, he quickly regained his composure and continued to deny any knowledge of Karen Sue Beineman. In a brief final argument on behalf of the prosecution, Booker Williams re-emphasized the physical and circumstantial evidence against Collins, before accusing the defense attorneys of attempting to sow doubt in, particularly, the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution. [118] At this hearing, Collins' court-appointed attorney, Richard Ryan, challenged the validity of the physical evidence and the credibility of the circumstantial evidence before formally requesting the case against his client be dismissed and the evidence seized from his rooming house and vehicle suppressed upon the grounds Collins had not consented to a police search of his property. Following the state's closing argument, both Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell delivered separate closing arguments on behalf of the defense, describing Collins as a "young victim of circumstances" and dismissing much of the evidence presented as "fuzzy allegations," with Louisell being particularly scornful as to the testimony of Walter Holz, to whose conclusions, he asserted, the prosecution hinged its entire case. Stars Julia Drahos Laura Frizzo Mark Schwartzman See production, box office & company info [163], When Kalom's body was found, a distinctive boot print on her skirt was found to be a perfect match to a boot Collins had owned, and although Collins had evidently cleaned his car in an effort to destroy evidence prior to his arrest, investigators would find bloodstains in this vehicle and upon a raincoat he owned which were determined to match Kalom's blood type. The documentary shows the case from start to finish and features . The perpetrator, John Norman Chapman (then known as John Norman Collins) was arrested one week after the final murder. [96], The basement of Sgt. The following day, following a consultation with opposing counsels, Judge John Conlin allowed Davis to testify as to having observed Collins hurriedly remove a laundry box containing women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment and place this box in the trunk of his car two days prior to his arrest. Her roommate became concerned when she did not return that night and notified police the next day. The murder of Joan Schell, a 20 year old E.M.U. David Leik, had refused to divulge the blood type(s) of his family to defense attorneys. He did not die of COVID-19; prison officials did not release his cause . In this cross-examination, Sheriff Harvey admitted to having driven Mrs. Goshe and her assistant to East Lansing to view the updated composite drawing of the suspect in Beineman's murder, and that he had shown photographs of various suspects, including Collins, to Goshe prior to her formally identifying Collins in a lineup. On August 3, two Washtenaw County detectives traveled to Salinas Police Department to review information and determine whether a connection existed between Phillips' murder and those which Collins was suspected of committing in Michigan. [56] She had also been raped, although the pathologist was unable to determine whether this act had occurred before or after death. THE MICHIGAN MURDERS Never-before-published letters, interviews offer clues in infamous Michigan murders Eight women and girls were slain in the late 1960s. On August 18, investigators announced that all significant leads had been exhausted, and that the number of officers assigned to investigate the case had been reduced. It's just a little clearing in the forest in Onaway, Michigan, a few miles from the Canadian border, population slightly over 800. Prior to joining . Three years later, the West Michigan murders still unsolved, police in Ohio arrested Dillon, then 42, of Magnolia, Ohio, in the deaths of five men from 1989 to 1992 two hunters, two fishermen . [31] Investigators called to the crime scene noted a dramatic increase in the savagery exhibited against the victim, with one investigator describing the injuries inflicted upon the victim as being the worst he had seen in 30 years of police work. The perpetrator, John Norman Chapman (then known as John Norman Collins) was arrested one week after the final murder. Menu. [152], Between 1972 and 1976, Collins appealed his murder conviction on four further occasions; citing contentions that the Michigan Murders had received extensive media publicity in Washtenaw County, and that five separate motions for change of venue had been submitted by the defense counsel (two of which had been filed throughout the actual jury selection process) upon the grounds of pretrial publicity minimizing any chance of obtaining an unbiased jury in Washtenaw County. Anthony Guy Walker. The circumstantial evidence linking Collins to Schell's abduction and murder was stronger than that of any other Michigan victim linked to him, and police would formally announce this fact within days of his arrest. [124], The trial of John Norman Collins for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman began in the Washtenaw County Court Building on June 2, 1970. Kelly admitted to intentionally injecting Jason with a fatal overdose of heroin and then smothering him to death with a pillow. DePue assaulted his wife in front of their three children and then took her away. student, threw the community into panic. Famed documentary filmmaker Errol Morris takes true crime reenactments to the next level by casting Hollywood actors in Wormwood, his Netflix docuseries that examines the government's attempts to cover up CIA experiments with LSD in the 1950s. Her fully clothed body, covered with her own raincoat and with a copy of the novel Catch-22 placed by her side, was found the following morning atop a grave in Denton Cemetery in Van Buren Township. When asked to formally identify the individual upon whose motorcycle she had observed waiting outside her shop,[84] Goshe pointed directly at John Norman Collins. She was convicted in Michigan and sentenced to life in prison for Regan's murder in May 2016. Shortly before the body was discovered, the murderer had again returned to the body, which he had moved a further three feet.[13]. As he had explained this to Davis, Collins had been carrying a red handbag, which he claimed Schell had left in his car. Through interviewing acquaintances of Phillips, investigators established that she had been introduced to the individual she had referred to as "John from Michigan" through a 17-year-old friend named Nancy Ann Albrecht, who informed police she had herself become acquainted with Collins on June 29, and that she had mentioned her friend (Phillips) to Collins on this date. 7. Then, as abruptly as the deaths seem to start, they just stopped and no one has ever been prosecuted for the crimes. Meet the guy, have sex, go back home. Evidently, despite Collins' protestations of innocence and denials of even knowing Karen Sue Beineman, she had been in the basement of Collins' uncle at the time of, shortly before, or shortly after her murder.[68]. At BASEDPolitics, we've been reporting on the likely origins of COVID-19 stemming from a lab leak since last year when we first launched. Prior to his passing sentence, Judge Conlin asked Collins if he wished to address the court before mandatory life sentencing was imposed. The Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Collins and Schell had alighted from Davis's car together, and he (Davis) had not seen his roommate for almost three hours before Collins had returned to their apartment, alone, referring to Schell as a "bitch" and claiming he had "dropped her [Schell] off" in Ann Arbor after being unable to obtain the sexual encounter he had hoped to achieve with her. The Michigan Murders were a series of highly publicized killings of young women committed between 1967 and 1969 in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of Southeastern Michigan by an individual known as the Ypsilanti Ripper, the Michigan Murderer, and the Co-Ed Killer. CROWN POINT, IN On Wednesday, Kelly Cochran, 35, was convicted and sentenced to 65 years in prison after pleading guilty to the 2016 slaying of her husband, Jason Cochran, 37. [159] At the time of the announcement of this decision, preliminary legal maneuvers between Michigan and California authorities had been ongoing to extradite Collins to Monterey County to face trial for Phillips' murder.[160]. The victims were held captive before being killed, and forensic DNA testing has indirectly implicated two suspects . Serial's new true-crime podcast, The Coldest Case in Laramie, revisits a 1985 murder. Read Next: The 21 Best New True Crime Books 5. Kyle Rogers is the News Director for Gray Television's Local News Live. [120] Three weeks after the examination, at a meeting with the family in Judge Conlin's chambers, Ryan summarized its tentative conclusions and suggested a "diminished capacity" plea for an insanity defense. The physical and circumstantial evidence linking Collins to this particular murder was stronger than any of the six outstanding murders then linked to him in Michigan, and authorities in Monterey did file several motions to extradite Collins to California to stand trial for Phillips' murder in 1970 and 1971. In response to questions as to her personal character, Goshe further conceded she had previously lied under oath on two occasions (one instance of which was unrelated to the trial). [34], These injuries had been inflicted after the victim had been extensively beaten and tortured: her killer had placed a section of her own shirt into her trachea to muffle her screams as she received extensive blunt force trauma to the face, head and body,[34] including several deep lacerations believed to have been inflicted with a leather strap. [71] As had been the case with previous victims, her killer had placed a section of cloth in her throat to muffle her screams throughout her torture. You will be hooked from episode one. (Lake County Sheriff's Office) (WJBK) - A new documentary is shedding light on the victims of an alleged serial killer who authorities say injected her husband with a lethal dose of heroin and. David Leik and his wife, Sandra, following their testimony against Collins at his trial. [16] In addition, her throat had been slashed, and her miniskirt then tied around her neck. [114] No hard evidence would ever arise suggesting his involvement in any murders, and the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office would publicly announce on December 18 their satisfaction that Manuel had "no knowledge of the murders. On April 30, 1989, police responded to a quadruple murder in a Lakeville, Indiana home. She was later murdered by a gunshot to the back of her head. [153], His lawyers further argued that, at an evidentiary hearing in April 1970, shortly before jury selection had begun, Collins' indictment for the California murder of Roxie Ann Phillips had likewise received extensive media coverage in Washtenaw Countyfurther reducing the chances of potential jurors being unbiased. [152], At his 1972 appeal hearing, Collins' lawyers did succeed in securing the partial striking of the testimony of Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, the final prosecution witness at his trial, who had testified as to the odds of erroneous matching of the hairs found upon Karen Beineman's panties to those in the Leik family basement being "more than a million-to-one. Prosecutors said she used sex to lure Regan to her home, where her husband lay in wait to shoot him. [165] Moreover, a sweater found in Collins' closet was found to contain 22 pubic hairs which had not originated from Collins or any of the seven Michigan victims. [66], Despite recovering numerous stolen items from his apartment and being informed by Arnold Davis that Collins had been in the habit of committing burglaries with a former roommate of theirs named Andrew Manuel,[100] no incriminating evidence linking Collins to Beineman or any victim of the Michigan Murders was discovered, although officers were informed by Arnold Davis on this date of the incident two days earlier in which he (Davis) had observed Collins carrying a laundry box containing women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment and towards his car. The increase in frequency in which the killer was striking throughout the spring and summer of 1969coupled with the fact most victims had been connected to the University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University, suggesting the killer may be a fellow studentfurther compounded the concerns of female students. [121][122], In January 1970, Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell, partners at one of Detroit's highest-priced law firms, agreed to take over Collins' defense. They'd get their answer after a 911 call was unearthed from a witness who called to report seeing a carjacking outside a Quiznos Sub shop in Eastpointe, the same day Matt disappeared. [67] Although this information proved to be of little help throughout the actual manhunt, Hurkos also predicted that this individual would shortly strike one final time. Photo: Michigan Department of Corrections. 4) Juwan Knumar Deering. AMOS . [75], The 47th and final witness to appear for the prosecution at Collins' trial was a University of California chemistry professor named Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, who testified on August 5 as to his conclusions that the hair samples retrieved from Beineman's panties bore "a remarkable similarity" to those retrieved from the Leik household and that, upon statistical calculations he had begun the previous month, the odds of erroneous matching of the hair samples earlier testified to by Walter Holz were quite low. Although earlier attempts to enforce news blackouts as to the discovery of Basom and Kalom had proven unsuccessful,[60] on this occasion, police successfully ordered a news blackout relating to the discovery of this latest victim. An unexpected confession casts doubt on Steven's role in the murder case, but the new suspect gives conflicting accounts of what . Goshe recalled Beineman visiting her store to purchase a $20 headpiece in the early afternoon of July 23. Four of these witnesses were employees of a motorcycle sales firm which Collins had visited on the afternoon of Beineman's disappearance. By what name was Dead North (2018) officially released in Canada in English? A little Googling and up popped an intriguing case: Jeff Titus, a former Marine and police officer, imprisoned for nearly two decades for the murder of two hunters in Michigan that the original. It's been a little more than a year since attorney Alex Murdaugh called 911 to his family's home in Hampton County, South Carolina, to report that his wife, Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh, 52 . In the fall of 1987, a teenage boy's unexpected disappearance opened a community's eyes to a sadistic killer who was closer to home than anyone in the quiet town of Harrison, Michigan ever expected. Questioning of Leik's neighbors yielded additional circumstantial evidence: one neighbor, Marjorie Barnes, recalled having witnessed Collins leaving his uncle's home with a deluxe laundry detergent box prior to the Leik family returning from their vacation; another neighbor informed investigators she had heard the muffled screams of a young female emanating from the Leik household on the evening of Beineman's disappearance. [58], The victim was identified the following day[59] as a 21-year-old University of Michigan graduate student named Alice Elizabeth Kalom, who had disappeared shortly after midnight on the morning of June 8. Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery (2017) The trial of Casey Anthony shook the nation to its core. In September 1988, Chapman agreed to participate in a live interview conducted by the. [48], Investigators found no definite evidence Basom had been subjected to a sexual assault prior to her murder. | dG1fR01hTXN4TXg0UDA. When informed his request was impossible,[3] the young man had replied: "You mean you can't fix her up enough so I could just get one picture of her? [70], Three days after the disappearance of Beineman, her nude body was discovered face-down in a wooded gully alongside the Huron River parkway. Our verdict: Skye Borgman's 2017 documentary Abducted in Plain Sight was a true crime standout, stirring up conversation among viewers about its 12-year-old subject's kidnapping by her neighbor. The first witness to testify was the head of the Michigan Health Department's Crime Detective Laboratory, Walter Holz, who testified as to the human hair clippings found inside Karen Sue Beineman's panties being an exact match to those recovered from the basement of Sgt. The following year, he formally requested transfer to a Canadian prison, in the belief this would facilitate his prospects of eventual release. Clothed only in a white blouse and bra, which had been pushed around her neck, she had been repeatedly stabbed in the chest and genitals,[45] had received multiple slash wounds across the breasts, buttocks and stomach,[46] then strangled to death with a two-foot length electrical flex still knotted around her neck. The following evening, Davis observed Collins emerging from his bedroom carrying a box partially covered by a blanket. Furthermore, each victim had been found with an item of clothing tied around her neck, and each woman had been menstruating at the time of her death. Brenton Walker tells cops he went into a rage, and pleads guilty to the second-degree murder of Heather Young. The victim had received multiple slash and stab wounds to the body (including two stab wounds which had pierced her heart),[55] and a gunshot wound to the forehead before her neck had been cut through to the spine. where she spent some years as a teenager was a miserable place. I have two things to say: I think they [the jury] conscientiously tried to give me a fair trial. [24] Blood spatterings and churned soil close to the crime scene indicated she had been beaten close to where her body was discovered, and that she may have attempted to escape her attacker. [73] (The blunt instrument used to inflict these injuries to Beineman's skull and brain was never found. She was last seen by co-workers on August 11, 2000. "[156], At the time of his 1970 conviction, a grand jury indictment against Collins remained outstanding in relation to the June 1969 murder of Roxie Ann Phillips in Monterey County, California. In rebuttal to the testimony of Dr. Golub, the defense recalled Dr. Walter Holz on August 12 to testify as to the samples he had himself taken to Dr. Golub for identification; Dr. Holz affirmed that he had taken twenty magnified photographic slides of samples retrieved from Beineman's panties to Dr. Golub's laboratory for analysis, and that they had contained numerous man-made fibrous materials. Above, storm clouds over downtown Laramie, Wyo., on Aug. 13, 2022. Glass particles found within this basement were of a similar consistency to those found upon the soles of Basom's shoes. She had been raped, then stabbed 25 times with a knife estimated to have measured four inches in length. Although forensic experts would deduce later that morning that the stains covered by the black paint had actually been varnish stains, one of the investigators discovered numerous hair clippingsmany measuring less than three-eights of an inchbeside the family washing machine. [97], The hairs found upon Beineman's panties and those recovered from the basement of the Leik home were subjected to a detailed forensic neutron analysis[98] to determine whether they had sourced from the same individuals. Although neither eyewitness was certain, both believed this student to be John Norman Collins: a student at Eastern Michigan University majoring in elementary education,[20] who lived directly across the street from Schell at 619 Emmet,[23] and whose physical features bore a likeness to the composite drawing police had generated of the driver of the vehicle Schell had entered. The Pesce Family Murders - Billy Wadd's Awakening . [87] When Mathewson showed these photographs to both Goshe and her assistant, Patricia Spaulding, both women were adamant the man in the photographs was the same individual with whom Beineman had last been seen alive. On May 10, 2017, Kelly is sentenced to life in prison for Chris' murder, and on April 18, 2018, Kelly pleads guilty to first degree . Several of these wounds had punctured her lungs, liver and carotid artery, with one additional wound inflicted behind her left ear fracturing her skull. He was then sentenced to serve a term of life imprisonment with hard labor, in solitary confinement, at Southern Michigan Prison. In Girl in the Picture, the director adapted Matt Birkbeck's bestselling books Finding Sharon and A Beautiful Child . "[93] before angrily walking out of her apartment. Why America is obsessed with the Alex Murdaugh murder trial. If a person wants something, he alone is the deciding factor of whether or not to take it, regardless of what society thinks is right or wrong if a person holds a gun on somebodyit's up to him to decide whether to take the other's life or not. The first known victim linked to the Michigan Murderer was a 19-year-old Eastern Michigan University accounting student named Mary Terese Fleszar,[8] who was last seen alive on the evening of July 9, 1967, by a neighbor walking towards her Ypsilanti apartment. Delhey also stated the prosecution's intent to prove that Collins had had sole access to his uncle's home and basement on the afternoon of Beineman's disappearance, and although he had made concerted efforts to remove physical evidence from the crime scene, blood samples recovered from this location were a match for the blood type of the victim. Less than three hours later, Kolbe reported her roommate missing after failing to receive any contact. As for the Regan murder, Michigan prosecutors maintained she lured the 53-year-old to her . [26] The pathologist also stated that Mixer had not been sexually assaulted, that death had occurred at approximately 3a.m. on March 21, and that she had not been killed at the location where her body had been discovered. [17], The lack of blood beneath or near the corpse, plus the testimony of eyewitnesses, led investigators to determine Schell's body had lain in its present location for less than 24 hours. Michigan murders Documentary - YouTube 0:00 / 1:00:35 Michigan murders Documentary 29,117 views Mar 25, 2017 The Michigan Murders were a series of highly publicize .more .more 85. Questioned by police, Collins flatly denied even knowing Schell, and insisted he had spent the weekend of June 2930 with his mother at her house in the Detroit suburb of Center Line, and had not returned to Ypsilanti until the morning of July 1. [162] Nonetheless, the decision of the prosecution at his 1970 trial was to try Collins solely with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman. Erin Rebecca Taylor, age 24, of 1741 Wright Street, Marquette, Michigan, worked as a temporary secretary at the Upper Peninsula Medical Center in Marquette. He worked hard as an accountant at a nearby bank to provide for his family. [3], All the victims of the Michigan Murderer were young women between the ages of 13 and 21 who were abducted, raped, beaten and murderedtypically by stabbing or strangulationwith their bodies occasionally mutilated after death before being discarded within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County. Everyone from average citizens to celebrities like the Kardashians was invested in the case of Anthony, who was on trial for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.