I remember this case back from 1979 and I always thought it was weird. I always think of Jane Snow whenever I pull over at a highway rest stop. I read that Snow's sister believes that John McGawley did it. He is, to this day, the only suspect they ever had. He wasn't a law-abiding person. He was already wanted for check fraud or something in Rhode Island or Delaware or someplace like that at the time of this incident. He had scratches on his hands that he said was the result of a bar fight and he was walking because he had a fight with his wife. But, otoh, he never got in any kind of big trouble.
I think whoever did this knew the area pretty well. I don't know if McGawley did. When the cops arrested him, he was in Pontiac. Moreover, the cops found him pretty easily because he got a ride from a state trooper or at least a cop as he was walking down I-75 not far from the Loon Lake rest stop and the cop dropped him off at his stated destination. I presume Pontiac was his home. We would have to assume that McGawley was in the rest stop when Snow arrived, hid in the women's restroom and murdered her for reasons known only to himself. Then he left the rest stop without being seen by the two Snow boys, went across the highway and started walking until a cop picked him up. He must have still had the knife on him since the cops scoured the area and never found it.
If McGawley was looking for someone to kill, the rest stop might have been a good spot but, since he was on foot, it was also a bad spot to get away from. Why go walking down I-75 in plain sight? The cop had not heard about the murder yet but he said there was nothing unusual about McGawley. After stabbing someone 22 times he was remarkably free of bloodstains. I think if McGawley did it, he would have been charged and convicted. The very fact that there was no evidence to tie him to the murder was because he had nothing to do with it. You don't kill someone on foot out in the middle of a wide open area where it's hard to hide.
Whoever killed Jane Snow was familiar with the area, likely cased it out on numerous occasions and finally found a situation that he felt he could take advantage of. Although there were no cars at the rest stop when Snow arrived, he could have hidden a dirt bike somewhere close to the rest stop and then walked the rest of the way. He would have had this meticulously planned and likely ran "drills" a few times before the real thing to make sure he could get away without being seen or heard. Being without any kind of getaway vehicle would be too risky. If you murder someone, you have to be able to get out quick.
Why did he do it? Like many psychopaths, he wanted to simply kill someone. He didn't have the time to rape Snow and she wasn't robbed. The boys saw nothing and heard nothing. How do you stab someone 22 times without them screaming? First, you surprise them from behind, grab the mouth and simultaneously begin stabbing repeatedly and viciously so that they are overcome before they can scream. Then he got out without being seen. He had to have practiced getting in and out. I keep saying "he" because the killer is almost certainly a male because he overpowered Snow very quickly and a woman would have had a more difficult time of it. I think he was young, maybe mid-teens because he seems sexually inexperienced.
Running across I-75 seems completely unlikely to me. The boys, I think, would have seen that. There's woods behind the rest stop. I would wager he ran there to where his transportation was hidden.
This is Loon Lake and the rest stop is visible. At least I suppose that is the rest stop where the incident occurred. It's the only one in the area. Notice how wooded it is behind the rest stop going towards the lake. The killer would have likely gone there rather than across the highway.
The rest stop itself. Looks like pretty much every highway rest stop in the state of Michigan. I don't know how much it might have changed since 1979 but isn't it far more likely that the killer ran into those woods in the background rather than across the highway and risk being seen? Who would walk along the highway and get into a police car after having butchered someone 20 minutes to a half-hour before and still carrying the weapon and not knowing if the cop who is stopping for him has gotten word of the murder yet? I don't think it could have been McGawley. But that leaves the question of who it was and has he killed since and where?
I read on Reddit where someone compared the case to the Lil Miss murder although I see no resemblance at all. Besides, that person was caught--Dale Wayne Eaton--who, to my knowledge, was never in Michigan. People here mention the Blind River murders and there is more of a resemblance. It took place in a rest stop and in the general vicinity where Snow was murdered--Michigan and Ontario region. I do believe that Ronald Glenn West is the Blind River Killer. But the Snow murder is different. West seemed to enjoy killing with guns. His signature. Snow was, of course, stabbed to death. And this was 9 years after a double murder that West confessed to in which he repeatedly shot both victims so it seems unlikely that West changed MO just to murder Jane Snow.
What I wonder about is whether the killer cut himself while stabbing Snow. Often when a knife-killer is stabbing away in a frenzy, they often hit a bone and their hand slides up the handle and over the blade causing a distinctive slash--often severe. McGawley had small cuts on his hands but that's not really consistent with the type of wound caused by stabbing someone which would be a deep slice across the insides of the fingers when the hand slid over the blade after it hits a bone. It's probably too late to check for the presence of the killer's blood but did anyone notice someone after the murder with a sliced up hand?
Where did the killer live? In all likelihood Gaylord. I doubt he still lives there now. Well, it's been 39 years now. I'd really like to see it get solved but the likelihood diminishes with each passing year.
