MI MI - Karen Oatley, 14, deaf, Lansing, 5 Aug 1979

ToddK

New Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
3
I grew up in Lansing Michigan. Around July of 74 or 75, our young neighbor, a deaf and mute 11-12 year old girl named Karen Oatley was murdered. Her body was found in the woods behind Garner Junior High School, less then 1/2 mile from her house. The police questioned all the neighborhood boys to no avail. This murder went cold and now I can't find a single item about it. Was it solved? My mother and I went to her funeral but I was young and don't know or don't recall any more details. I am hoping someone here can fill in the blanks. Thanks,
Todd.
 
I have not been able to find any information about the death of Karen Oatley. It is possible that the case is one in the Jurisdiction of Lansing City Police or the Ingham County Sheriff.

Here is a link to the Michigan State Police Official Website Cold Case section. Perhaps someone there could provide some answers...

Michigan State Police Official Website

LINK:

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1589_31786_32000---,00.html
 
Google her name in the news archives and there are a few articles regarding the murder.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=3362,8955379&dq=karen+oatley&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=5442,1770155&dq=karen+oatley&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=5581,8815376&dq=karen+oatley&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=2988,9388541&dq=karen+oatley&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=3333,3253179&dq=karen+oatley&hl=en

I don't have enough time today to dig any deeper than the first few articles, but one of the articles says they gave a man a polygraph regarding the case. I didn't see anything off hand that said the murder was solved.
 
Snufamonbobball, Thanks for the links. They were helpful. Here are a few facts that I was able to pull out of one of the articles:

Karen Lynn Oatley, age 14, was abducted and murdered in Lansing, Michigan on Sunday, 5 August 1979.

Her body was found in woods near her home on the City's south side.

The first link you list has an article about another girl who was abducted and still missing as of its writing. The article mentions that there were three abductions in three days in Michigan, Karen's being one of them. Not certain if any of those abductions/murders were ever solved.
 
I grew up in Lansing Michigan. Around July of 74 or 75, our young neighbor, a deaf and mute 11-12 year old girl named Karen Oatley was murdered. Her body was found in the woods behind Garner Junior High School, less then 1/2 mile from her house. The police questioned all the neighborhood boys to no avail. This murder went cold and now I can't find a single item about it. Was it solved? My mother and I went to her funeral but I was young and don't know or don't recall any more details. I am hoping someone here can fill in the blanks. Thanks,
Todd.



Todd, my name is Lorie Miller, I was Lorie Peterson, lived on Washington Ave. and was a neighbor and very good friend of Karen's. You can contact me and I will tell you what I know, maybe. Are you still in Michigan? I'm now living in Texas. BTW she was not a deaf mute, she was born deaf but thru the years she began hearing without the help of hearing aids.
 
To those who have been wondering about Karen Oately who was murdered back in the 70's, I too have been wondering if that crime was ever solved. My mother was a teacher at Gardner Junior High when this happened therefore I too was aware and upset about this case. Earlier this year I contacted a Sergeant with the Lansing Police Department he told me that this crime was never solved. A number of months later I called the sergeant again and there were some new leads in the case! Of course he could not share any details of an open investigation but as I haven't talked to him in awhile I will call him again to see if it has been solved.
 
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/interactive/article/20140608/NEWS01/306080048/Unsolved-Cold-cases-haunt-families-police-Lansing-ramps-up-efforts-solve-old-homicides

On a warm summer evening in 1979, Karen Oatley went for a ride on her 10-speed bike. The 14-year-old, who was born almost deaf and wore a hearing aid, never came home. Her body was found a day later in a wooded area near what was then Gardner Junior High School. It was only a few blocks from her house. She had been strangled and her throat was slashed.

Nearly 35 years later, her parents, Lee and Sandra Oatley, still don’t know who killed her. Or why. The case is one of 63 unsolved homicides in Lansing between 1963 and 2012, according to police records. A case is typically designated “cold” after one year if no charges are filed...

Last year, at the urging of Mayor Virg Bernero, the department assigned a detective to handle cold cases. It’s the first time the department has done that. The goal, said Police Chief Mike Yankowksi, is to “bring peace to the families and friends of those tragically killed.”
 
The case is still open/unsolved.

Lansing State Journal

[FONT=&amp]Nearly 35 years later, her parents, Lee and Sandra Oatley, still don't know who killed her. Or why. The case is one of 63 unsolved homicides in Lansing between 1963 and 2012, according to police records. A case is typically designated "cold" after one year if no charges are filed.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]The not knowing, Lee Oatley said, is "like having a bamboo shoot under your fingernails."[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]"You live with it every single day," Oatley said in a telephone interview from Ft. Myers, Fla., where he and his wife now live. "There's always something that will come up during the course of a day that will remind you of it."[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]"Of course we pray a lot," he added. A resolution is "one of the first things we pray for."[/FONT]
 
One of the most heartbreaking as well as frustrating things about these old cases like this one is that there's so little information to be found. Even if you are "on site" so to speak, there's still so little information. What information can be found is often confusing and conflicting, to top it off.

Thank you for remembering her, thinking about her, and bringing her up and not letting her memory pass away.
 
Snufamonbobball, Thanks for the links. They were helpful. Here are a few facts that I was able to pull out of one of the articles:

Karen Lynn Oatley, age 14, was abducted and murdered in Lansing, Michigan on Sunday, 5 August 1979.

Her body was found in woods near her home on the City's south side.

The first link you list has an article about another girl who was abducted and still missing as of its writing. The article mentions that there were three abductions in three days in Michigan, Karen's being one of them. Not certain if any of those abductions/murders were ever solved.

Hi. I just want to let some people know that there is not much information on my aunt's case. We don't know who did it and nothing new has been learned since. I hope maybe one day a miracle will happen and my grandparents will have some closure.
Thanks.
 
I live in Lansing and this story saddened me to learn it was never solved?

Does anyone know the following:


1.Was there sexual assault?

2. Why was her abduction initially considered a possible run-away? As in was there issues inside the family?
3. Why was she outside that day and who was she with?
4. Was the bicycle ever reviewed for evidence?
5. Did she have a boyfriend or a crush on someone?

6. Had she been bullied?
7. Why were only boys interviewed? What girls were interviewed (articles indicated boys)
8. I am a little confused on how she died, but if there was an object used was that object found? I ask because recent psychological research on strangulation indicates there is a 75% chance of familiar relationships, however most of the investigative information is related to outside the family? *My sincerest apology for the pain that question may impose on the family members. (http://eknygos.lsmuni.lt/springer/605/73-87.pdf)
9. What family members were at the home that weekend?
10.Were there any suspects?

11.The association from the report inferred that she vanished while riding her bike? Was the area were her body was found, a hang out area for other kids?

Thank you,
 

Karen Oatley age 14
Murdered 5 August 1979
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...9ADBF5099C2AE9FE76AA842DF&FORM=IQFRBA&PC=LCTS
th

-------------------------------------------
Cold-Case Murders in Lansing Set For New Special Detective

A new cold-case detective is shedding fresh light on unsolved murders in Lansing, Michigan dating back to the 1960s.

From the Lansing State Journal:

"On a warm summer evening in 1979, Karen Oatley went for a ride on her 10-speed bike.

The 14-year-old, who was born almost deaf and wore a hearing aid, never came home. Her body was found a day later in a wooded area near what was then Gardner Junior High School. It was only a few blocks from her house. She had been strangled and her throat was slashed.

LINK:

Cold-Case Murders in Lansing Set For New Special Detective
 
635568435818439079-LSJBrd-06-08-2014-LSJ-1-A001-2014-06-07-IMG-Karen-Oatley.jpg-1-1-0S7IEER6-L429269810-IMG-Karen-Oatley.jpg-1-1-0S7IEER6.jpg


Karen Oatley, 14, murdered 5 August 1979

Aug. 6, 1979: Karen Oatley, 14. Body found in a wooded area near what was then Gardner Junior High School. She had been strangled and her throat was slashed.

Nearly 35 years later, her parents, Lee and Sandra Oatley, still don't know who killed her. Or why. The case is one of 63 unsolved homicides in Lansing between 1963 and 2012, according to police records. A case is typically designated "cold" after one year if no charges are filed.

The not knowing, Lee Oatley said, is "like having a bamboo shoot under your fingernails."

"You live with it every single day," Oatley said in a telephone interview from Ft. Myers, Fla., where he and his wife now live. "There's always something that will come up during the course of a day that will remind you of it."...

… Lee Oatley used to meet regularly with one of the detectives who worked on his daughter's case.

But since he and his wife and children left Lansing in the early 1980s, he has not been contacted by police. He has lived in Alabama, California and now Florida.

Oatley, a onetime engineering technician for the Michigan Department of Transportation, left for another job.

But his daughter's senseless killing haunted him.

Lansing, he said, became a place he wished he'd never lived.

"When I drove down the street," he said, "everyone I looked at, I wondered if they were person that killed my daughter."

It has been more than 30 years of not knowing. And hoping, he said, for "a miracle."

"Of course we pray a lot," he added. A resolution is "one of the first things we pray for." ...

 
I was 9 years old when Karen was murdered. Her body was found in an area that all of the neighborhood kids played in. There were so many kids from the McCourt St/Redman St/Village Dr area that played there. Especially in the summer. That whole area was wooded back then and we loved playing there. Also cut through there to go to Kmart. I don't remember anyone being interviewed after she was found. A friend of ours in the neighborhood told us that she was murdered, but other than my memory of helicopters flying back and forth over the area, I don't recall the police asking my family or anyone else in the neighborhood if they knew or saw anything. As far as I can remember, the investigation was focused more on the street that she lived on.
 
Hello. I grew up in Lansing and this case has always disturbed me. I was very young when it happened and it scared me then and still bothers me now that it was never solved.

I came across a podcast, recorded in March of this year the other day in which several unsolved Lansing murders are discussed, this being one of them.

By and large, it's a re-cap of what has already been compiled here but it's the first time I have heard any information about suspects considered aside from neighborhood boys and someone having been given a polygraph test. Per the podcast, they suspected two local men (one of whom was a sex offender) as well as the serial killer Carl Eugene Watts. Watts died in prison in 2007 and had been arrested after an an attempted murder in Texas in 1982 (and he confessed to 12 murders there) but had spent much of his life in Michigan until around 1981. He would never admit to any murders in Michigan because the state would not offer him immunity, unlike Texas. Check out his wiki entry for more information on him. Sadly, if it was him, the truth will probably never be officially known. If you check out his m.o. he targeted white women, killed them via strangulation, stabbing or bludgeoning and rarely sexually assaulted them. This apparently was a reason that dots were not connected on him for so long.

Anyhow, I don't have any idea where they came across this information or how well it's been validated but here is the podcast. I thought I'd share it here as I'd not seen this info anywhere before. The part about Karen's case is around the 25 minute mark. 09- Girl Power
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
69
Guests online
778
Total visitors
847

Forum statistics

Threads
589,922
Messages
17,927,695
Members
228,002
Latest member
zipperoni
Back
Top