The Oakland County Child Killer

Can we all agree that those who prey on children are the most vile creatures to exist? It’s one thing when we can find the perpetrator and give them their due punishment (though we can ask if any punishment is ever enough), but what about when we can’t find them? That is the case with the Oakland County Child Killer (OCCK), who has yet to be identified. 

It all started on February 15, 1976 when 12-year-old Mark Stebbins failed to return home from an American Legion Hall in Ferndale, Michigan. He had called his mother at around 1:30pm to let her know he was heading home. He never arrived, and at 11pm that night, his mother called the police. 

Mark was a 7th grade student at Lincoln Junior High school and stood at 4’7”, weighing only 100 pounds and had strawberry-blonde hair. Search efforts turned up nothing, and it wasn’t until businessman Mark Boetigheimer left work to go to a drug store inside the New Orleans mall in Southfield. There he spotted something that caught his eye in the northeast corner of the parking lot.

What first appeared to be a mannequin dressed in a blue jacket and jeans, turned out to be the body of Mark Stebbins. 

Mark had been strangled – his cause of death ruled to be asphyxiation. He had lacerations to the left and rear of his head. His body showed rope burns on his neck, wrists and ankles. Worse – he had been sexually assaulted with a foreign object. 

During their investigation, police questioned several people in the area. One told police that he had walked their dog around that parking lot earlier that day – around 9:30am. He had his dog on a 20 foot leash, and if a body had been there at the time, he would have seen it, or his dog at the very least would have. Boetigheimer found him at about 11:45am, leaving a 2-hour and 15-minute window for his body to have been dumped. 

A suspect was not identified.

On December 22, 1976, 12-year-old Jill Robinson had an argument with her mother. Her parents had recently divorced and she and her mother were known to “butt-heads”. This was no different – in fact, according to her mother, she had asked Jill to help make biscuits for dinner, and she refused. 

Her mother told her to leave until she became part of the family, and Jill made the decision to run away. She packed up clothes and a blanket, dressed in blue jeans, a shirt, and her orange winter coat with her blue knit cap and left her home in Royal Oak. 

Though she lived with her mother, she visited her father regularly, and around 11:30 that evening, he called the police. Jill was described as smart, but a loner, so when she was spotted at a hobby shop, just 4.5 blocks away from her home, it was no surprise that she hadn’t run to a friend. A couple more witnesses saw her in the Donut Depot the next morning sometime between 6am and 7am. Her bike was found the next day behind a local hobby store.

Jill’s body was found on the side of I-75, north of Big Beaver Road, in plain view of the Troy police station, on December 26. She was fully clothed and laying on her back with no bindings. She even had her backpack with her. A ring of dark red surrounded her head, and soon police discovered that she had actually been shot. The killer had transported her body to that location, then shot her at close range in the head with a shotgun. 

Autopsy showed that she had been taken care of for at least three days before her death. Her body had been washed, and unlike Mark, showed no signs of sexual abuse. 

Still no suspect. 

The killer didn’t wait so long this time, and on January 2, 1977, 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich was reported missing. She had gone to a local 7-Eleven store. She lived in Berkley and lived with her mother. She was a 5th-grade student at Pattengill Elementary School and was quiet and shy, and had few friends. 

With Kristine being the third child to go missing in such a short period of time in Oakland County, tensions began to rise. Her brothers kept asking, “when is she coming home?” In an interview on January 5, her mother said, “people keep talking about the Royal Oak girl (Jill Robinson) but I’m just not even going to think about that.” 

Nineteen days later, her family had answers. A mail carrier had found her body in a snowbank at the end of a dead end street in Franklin Village. “I saw a hand… It scared the hell out of me,” said Jerry Wozny, the mail carrier. 

Kristine’s body was fully clothed and lying on her back with her knees drawn up. There were no immediate signs of violence, and her body was so frozen that officials had to wait until the following day to perform the autopsy. Results indicated she had been smothered to death less than 24 hours prior to her discovery. Her killer had held her captive for 18 days.

A taskforce of 35 officers from 9 different departments was created to track down the killer. They were headquartered in Southfield and police Sgt. Joseph Krease was tasked with tracking down their killer.

By March 16, 1977, they had still not succeeded. 11-year-old Timothy King, an athletic and outgoing boy, left his home in Birmingham to travel three blocks to the pharmacy. His goal – to buy some candy. He left with his skateboard and football, but never returned home. 

His parents were out at dinner at a nearby restaurant. He had two older brothers who had been away at the time, and his older sister lent him the money for the candy before going out herself. He asked her to leave the door ajar so he could get back in easily upon his return. 

Timothy’s parents returned home around 9pm and found the door ajar, but nobody was home. They called his friends and searched the nearby area, but no one had seen him. 

Police went to the pharmacy where they questioned clerk Amy Walters. She had seen the boy. She sold him his candy, and watched him leave through a back door out to a dark parking lot around 8:30pm. “Whatever happened to Tim happened between the time he left the store and before he got home. It doesn’t look particularly good at this time,” said Police Chief Jerry Tobin. 

Timothy King disappeared on a Wednesday, and by Thursday 100 lawmen from Oakland County, volunteers, Oakland County Sheriff’s Investigators, the county helicopter, and the special Oakland County Task Force were scouring the area. 

“We love him very much. He had a basketball game Saturday and missed practice today (Thursday). He’s active in a school play. He’s an achiever and a participator. We just love Tim and want him to come home,” said his father. 

With the disappearance and murder of children, Timothy had actually told his mother the previous week that “he’d run away from them,” referring to strangers. 

A woman came forward, telling police that she had seen Timothy speaking to a man in the pharmacy parking lot. He and the man were about two car-lengths away from her, and she was able to describe the man.

He was between 25 and 35 years old, white, with dark brown hair cut in a shag style. He had muttonchop sideburns, a fair complexion and a husky build. His car was a late model blue AMC Gremlin with whitewall tires. The car had a white stripe on its side, which she described as a “hockey stick” stripe.

Police came to believe he was abducted by one or possibly two men, and they could possibly be involved in the other cases of murdered children in the area. At this time there were six – two others that were suspected of being related, and one later disproved to be related. “We suspect we’re dealing with a sophisticated, intelligent, educated man,” said Chief Tobin. He said the man was “the type of person a child would trust instinctively.” 

On March 23, 1977, Timothy King was found dead in a ditch on a dirt road in Livonia by a couple of teenagers. He wore the same clothes he had on when he left home, and even his skateboard was nearby – found about 15 feet from his body. 

As with the prior murders, Timothy had been taken care of. He had been fed his favorite meal – Kentucky Fried Chicken. He had been cleaned and groomed before he was ultimately suffocated. And just like Mark, he had been sexually assaulted. 

Jane Louise Allan may have also fallen victim to the Oakland County Child Killer. Her body was found in a river in Miamisburg, Ohio on August 11, 1976. She had been last seen hitchhiking along I-75 in Pontiac on August 7. She had died from carbon monoxide poisoning after having been kept in the trunk of a car. 

The Oakland County Task Force released the following suspect profile on March 16, 1977:

• Male
• 20-30 years old
• Above average education
• Above average intelligence
• Caucasian
• Ability and capacity to store child for at least 18 days
• Homosexual
• Plus mental problems
• Compulsively clean — fanatically so
• No substance abuse involving drugs or alcohol
• Different (stranger ranger)
• Work — schedule
• December-January, vacation off work
• Clean car, clean house
• Single dwelling — attached garage, cost above $30,000
• Prior contact with police
• Seeing psychiatrist
• White collar job, 9-5 schedule
• Area of southern Oakland County
• Wants bodies found

A flier was created and distributed.

The community needs your help. The Oakland County Special Task Force is looking for a person who has committed several child murders. You may have come in contact with this subject it is the Task Force’s feeling that he has the following profile:

He is:

• A male and may be living with another male
• Between 20 to 35 years
• Caucasian
• Has the capacity to store or keep his victim for at least 18 days
• He has kept the victim during the following periods of time:
• March 16, 1977 – March 23, 1977;
• January 2, 1977 – January 20, 1977;
• December 22, 1976 – December 26, 1976;
• February 15, 1976 – February 19, 1976;
• He has freedom of movement
• He has no problems with his sexual adjustment; he may have difficulty relating to members of the opposite sex and adults
• He relates to young people well
• He could be someone that may have some in contact with you.

“This is a composite drawing and description of the man thought to be involved in the recent abduction and murder of an 11-year-old youth in Birmingham.”

At the bottom of each flier was an action statement indicating what was to be done if anyone had any information about the subject:

“If you have any information, please notify your LocaI Police, Sheriff, or State Police Post or call collect, (313) 644-3400, Birmingham Police Department, 151 Martin Street, Birmingham, Michigan 48011.”

The task force received more than 18,000 tips, which resulted in about two dozen arrests on unrelated charges and the discovery of a multi-state child pornography ring which operated on North Fox Island in Lake Michigan. 

Just weeks after Timothy King’s murder, a letter was received by a psychiatrist working with the task force. The letter, written by an anonymous author (“Allen”), claimed to be a sadomasochist slave of the killer (“Frank”). He wrote that they had both served in the Vietnam War, and “Frank” was traumatized by having killed children. Allen expressed remorse in his letter, and claimed he was losing his sanity and was endangered and suicidal. He admitted to having accompanied “Frank” as he sought boys to kill. 

He told the psychiatrist to respond to his letter by printing the code words “weather bureau says trees to bloom in three weeks” in that Sunday’s edition of the Detroit Free Press, before he would provide photographic evidence in exchange for immunity from prosecution. 

The psychiatrist arranged to meet “Allen” at a bar, but “Allen” never showed up and was never heard from again. 

In 2005, an unidentified man given the alias “Jeff” came forward when he remembered an acquaintance he had in 1977. In an interview in 2010, he spoke to investigators regarding atypical observations and actions while driving and conversing with his acquaintance. One thing of note, the acquaintance spoke of details written in “Allen’s” letter. 

He gave a recorded interview to Oakland County Investigators and Prosecutor Jessica Cooper to present evidence. He claimed that he had tried to approach Cooper with his findings so he could convince her to place the case under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. She dismissed his suggestions, the department was already involved through the FBI and through resources such as the ViCAP database. 

Jeff wanted information regarding the “Allen” letter in order to confirm his suspicions, but since he did not provide any new evidence, his request was denied. According to Cooper, the interview was “a rambling statement outlining a theory that the Oakland County Child Killer abductions and murders were related to pagan holidays, the lunar calendar, and Wiccan rituals.”

Jeff did not quit there though. He began to correspond with Deborah Jarvis, Kristine Mihelich’s mother and other investigative journalists. He claimed that he was among a team of a dozen investigators involved with the case, and he could identify the perpetrator. When asked which law enforcement division he worked with, he refused to answer. 

Jeff claimed to have invested 10,000 hours into the investigation over the years, but would not release his findings as he doubted the competence of the Oakland County investigators. He also indicated that there may have been meddling by Cooper

Deborah Jarvis’s attorney, Paul Hughes, believed that Jeff’s investigation had uncovered the murderer, however he would not reveal his findings unless authorities divulged crucial information that would allow him to positively confirm the identity of his suspect. 

As of 2012 he had presented his findings to a select group of Detroit journalists on a call through Hughes’ cell phone. He was adamant the call not be recorded. In this call, he maintained that the killers were conducting Wiccan human sacrifice rituals coinciding with pagan celebrations or the lunar calendar. There was a total of approximately 11-16 victims, and claimed to have found a number of similarities among the cases – which were unlikely to be coincidental.

Hughes filed a lawsuit against the Oakland County authorities for $100 million, citing mishandling of the investigation. Further, it demanded the resignation of Jessica Cooper. The lawsuit alleged a cover-up conspiracy and obstruction. The case was dismissed in March 2012 for lack of evidence. 

Another suspect was Archibald Edward Sloan, a known child molester who had victimized young boys in his neighborhood. His car, a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville, was searched and hair samples taken. The hair matched that found on the bodies of Timothy King and Mark Stebbins, however the hair did not actually belong to Sloan. 

Forensic DNA tests conducted in 2012 showed that hair found on the seat of Sloan’s car and on the bodies of Mark Stebbins and Timothy King were a match and came from the same unknown man. This led police to believe Sloan had lent his car to the killer, and likely knew who he was. Sloan took a polygraph test, and failed.

A witness who claimed to have seen Timothy’s abduction said he had been taken by two men, one in his late 20’s, and the other strongly resembling serial killer John Wayne Gacy – who just happened to have been in Michigan around the same time. Unfortunately, his DNA did not match the DNA found on the victims’ bodies. 

Then police in Parma Heights, Ohio identified a new suspect, Ted Lamborgine. Lamborgine was a retired auto worker who had been involved in a child pornography ring in the 1970’s. On March 27, 2007, investigators named him their top suspect. 

Lamborgine pleaded guilty to 15 sex-related counts involving young boys, refusing to accept a plea bargain that would have required him to take a polygraph test regarding the Oakland County killings. While investigators did not believe he was the killer, they did believe he had valuable information that could help solve the case. He was offered a reduced sentence in exchange for a polygraph test, and again he rejected it.

Based on this information, the family of Mark Stebbins filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him in October 2007. They sought $25,000 and alleged that Lamborgine, who had lived in the Metro Detroit area in the late 1970’s, had abducted Mark and held him captive in a Royal Oak house for four days before smothering him to death during a sexual assault. 

To this date, Lamborgine has never been formally linked to the death of Mark Stebbins. 

Leads dried up and the case went cold until Timothy King’s father, Barry, and brother, Chris, went to police with a new suspect. They urged them to look into Chris Busch, the son of General Motors executive Harold Lee Busch. One important linking factor – he owned a blue Vega car which looked like the infamous blue Gremlin spotted at one of the abductions.

Busch had been in police custody shortly before Timothy’s abduction for his suspected involvement in child pornography. He allegedly committed suicide in November 1978, though the evidence is sketchy at best. Busch had taken a gunshot wound straight between his eyes, but there was no gunshot residue on him, and no blood spatter. 

A search of the room turned up four shell casings, and oddly his body was found wrapped neatly under his sheets. Investigators found bloodstained ligatures as well as a hand-drawn image pinned to the wall of a boy that closely resembled Mark Stebbins screaming. 

The shotgun shells found were compared to that used in the killing of Jill Robinson. However they did not get a match. “They even took it to NASA to try and see if they could get an identification of the caliber and there was no way in which they could do that,” said Cooper.

Investigators were unable to link Chris Busch to the murders, the DNA just didn’t match and there was no other evidence to indicate his involvement.

“There isn’t a piece of evidence that we can point to and say Mr. Bush killed Timothy King, Jill Robinson, Kristine Mihelich or Mark Stebbins,” said Paul Walton, chief assistant Oakland County prosecutor.

State Police have since released 3,400 pages of investigative records to Barry King, and upon researching the case records, the King family produced a documentary. The documentary, titled Decades of Deceit, condemned police and prosecutors for their alleged shoddy investigations and uncooperative communications. 

The documentary claimed police and prosecutors disregarded leads the family discovered in 2006. Funds received from the sale of the documentary were donated to the Tim King fund, which was created and designated to help abused children and support activities for Birmingham children.

And then there was James Vincent Gunnels, named the best lead for a time. His DNA happened to be a mitochondrial DNA match to a hair found on the body of Kristine Mihelich. However, Gunnels denied any involvement. 

“I’m not guilty. There it is there. But at the same time, I know how the state police twist words to their advantage,” Gunnels said. “My heart goes out to those families. It really really, really does. I don’t feel that they were served justice through any of this.”

After speaking to the press, he reached out directly to the King family. 

“When the request first came in, I was hesitant to go,” said Chris King. “I felt it would be too hard to be in the same room as a suspect in this case. It’s clearly theoretically possible that he somehow aided in (Kristine Mihelich’s) abduction, or killing.”

Police informed the family that Gunnels had failed a lie detector test, but were ultimately curious about what he might say to the family. “We weren’t sure what to expect,” Chris King said. “But we had just been told to ask open-ended questions, see what he says, listen to his story. Um, who knows. He might be able to shed some light on, or tell us something he hadn’t before.”

In the end, Barry King said that the story Gunnels had given them was believable, however it also contradicted previous stories he had told other people. One thing he maintained, was his lack of knowledge or involvement in the Oakland County Child Killings.

“I say right now I have no idea what that man did to anyone else,” Gunnels said.

Regarding his failed polygraph tests, Chris King said, “My questions for him were, you know it’s hard to understand you tried to cheat on one polygraph exam and failed a second polygraph exam,” he said. “So, if you had absolutely no involvement or knowledge of these crimes, why would you feel that you had to cheat in the first place and then why would you fail the second one? It doesn’t make sense.”

Gunnels told the Kings that he felt terrible. “I couldn’t imagine having that happen and not knowing all those years,” he said. “I really really couldn’t.”

In February 2019, the Investigation Discovery channel aired a two-part, four-hour documentary about the killings, “Children of Snow”.

Unfortunately, just as in this case, not all child killings are solved. Take a look at the unsolved Alphabet Murders from New York.

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