MI MI - Oakland County Child Killer, "The Babysitter Murders", 1976-77

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Richard

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Oakland County Michigan; "The Babysitter" 1976-77

One or more child-killers stalked Oakland County in Michigan during 1976-77. Authorities are certain of a connection in the deaths of four victims, the first being Mark Stebbins, 12, who was abducted in Ferndale while walking to his home on February 13, 1976. His body was found in a parking lot six days afterwards, his corpse meticulously cleaned. Stebbins had been sexually assaulted and smothered to death. On December 12, twelve-year-old Jill Robinson was abducted in Royal Oak and her body found in Troy. Though no sexual assault was evident and the girl had been killed by a shotgun blast, she had also been scrubbed clean before her disposal.

The next certain victim was Kristine Mihelich, 10, who vanished in Berkely on January 2, 1977, and her corpse located nineteen days later in Franklin Village. Like the others, her body had been cleaned after her killer suffocated her death. The last of the series seems to be Timothy King, 11, who went missing on March 11 in Birmingham and found dead in a ditch near Livonia with his body scoured clean, his nails manicured, and his clothes freshly washed and ironed. King was also sexually assaulted before his sad death. By this point the press had picked up on the odd signature of the killings, dubbing the unknown perpetrator "The Babysitter" due to his apparent post-mortem care of the victims.

Other killings that occurred in the aea at the same time have been tentatively linked to the series. Cynthia Cadieux, 16, was abducted and bludgeoned to death on January 15, 1976. Missing from Roseville she was discovered nude in Bloomfield Township the next day. Just five days after Cadieux's disappearance Sheila Shrock was raped and shot dead at her home in Birmingham. Jane Allen, 13, was murdered by carbon monoxide poisoning after accepting a ride in Royal Oak and was found in Miamisburg, Ohio, on August 11, 1976. The 1972 slaying of teenager Donna Serra in Ray Township has also been mentioned as possibly being connected to the string of murders.

Though the body count is disputable, there is one thing for certain. At least one serial killer plied his trade in the normally quiet communities of Oakland County, never to be identified. A long-standing suspect who was killed ina 1981 auto accident has since been cleard of involvement by DNA testing, leaving investigators with little hope of solving this baffling case.

Click here: Unsolved Serial Killings; Cold Cases
http://www.geocities.com/verbal_plainfield/coldcases/coldcases.html
 
Ooooooooh - Richard - thanks so much for posting this one!!!! I live in Oakland County, minutes from Troy, Royal Oak, and the other cities mentioned here, and this case has ALWAYS fascinated me......
 
Michigan certainly has had its share of serial killers. Norman John Collins was "The Co-ed Killer" back in the late 1960's.
Coral Watts and Henry Lee Lucas each got their start in Michigan.
Then there was that guy who had been in the Michigan State Band who murdered some women. His case was profiled on TV a few years back when he was up for parole.
And then there is the guy who was recently convicted of killing Nancy Ludwig (he Northwest stewardess) and another woman.
Ted Bundy spent a little time visiting Ann Arbor in 1977 after escaping from a Colorado jail. He moved on to Florida soon afterward, and I don't believe that he was ever linked to any murders in Michigan.
Ted Kaczinski (the Unibomber) attended Graduate School at the University of Michigan in the mid 1960's.
It makes a person wonder if some of the unsolved murders might have been committed by some of these guys.
 
Helen,
I looked through your links and websites. You provide some very interesting information. I may have missed something, however. What exactly became of your friend "John"? Did he suddenly move away, or is he still in the area?
What bothers me about his story is that supposedly these four known murders occurred in a relatively small space of time, then the killings suddenly stopped. That would usually indicate that the killer moved to another location, or that he was put in prison, or died. It would seem out of the "ordinary" for a serial killer to suddenly stop killing and simply sit back and talk about it in great detail.
I do not know who the 12 likely suspects are that your website refers to, but can imagine who a few might be, based on information now known about some of the serial killers caught over the past 28 years.
 
Richard,I do know where John is today,however because something has just come up in the OCCK case in the past two weeks...maybe I should hold off on telling you.Actually there are no dozen suspects...that was an error that was made by a Detroit TV producer...then picked up by that areas...newspaper media.I agree that most killings that stop...are for the reasons you stated...How ever John...is not your run of the mill Serial Killer...and I'm not really sure he has stopped...or that he ever did stop...I'm thinking now...that he may have just....changed his MO....I guess it may sound to some that John...was just bragging to me about the murders....but that wasn't the case....first he talked to me in the third person...then he made a Freudian slip...and I persued it.Richard,when john killed the 4 children,now known as the Oakland County Child Killer victims....he had already been practicing...for a few years...when he perfected his craft...that is when he designed his MO....his motive...was not to kill the children...like in being EVIL...he told me...at the time....he felt he was saving the children-from life as he knew it....and making a statement to the world...he said he had no other way of doing it...what ever his reasoning...the children still ended up dead.
 
What you describe about John talking in the third person is not uncommon for criminals, especially serial killers. Those who agree to "help" the police often will speak as if they knew the killer or know what he was thinking. Ted Bundy did this, speaking like a psycologist analyzing a subject, while all the time telling in an oblique way what he, himself had done.
Does John travel much in his work or leisure? I am wondering - if he is the killer of the Oakland County Children - whether or not he might be killing in other jurisdictions now, or if he traveled around in the past to other states.
 
Yes John Traveled a lot,right after Tim's Murder he went to Fla....then moved to Atlanta GA...then he started to go to Europe...back and forth....always returning to GA....When I met him In Alpena Mi....He said he had come to be near his daughter....but a Lt.on the Alpena Police Dept....told me he thought...John had come there to hide...I have to agree with that....as who would ever think ,you could find-The Oakland County Child Killer...In little old Alpena.When he left Alpena...after the polygraphs...he went back to Ga...Gainsville...then stared his trips once again to Europe....Not much of this is work related...as John has really not worked a lot....but he has tried a few self employed businesses...he had just started a phone card business...and second passport sales....it was at that shoebox office...behind a drawer...on a ledge...that I found a 1970's Manicure set...in a fold over brochade case...it was his souvenir...he had manicured the children...after he bath and killed them.....Richard,I tried to post some documents...the other day...but they would'nt post....what did i do wrong?...or can we not do this?
 
I am not certain what you did to try to post documents. Are these attatchments that you are trying to send, or are they documents which appear on another website? I don't know how this website is set up for photos, attatchments and such. I would like to know, as I have photos of a suspect drawing in another case.
I initially had a hard time posting links to other websites, but learned a trick to that. Instead of just hitting the "insert in mail" button, I would also line amplify the http address line and include it in an e-mail to be "sent later" I also can copy text from that other website and include it in the "send-later e-mail". When I get what I want, I simply hit Control C on the entire text of my e-mail and copy it onto one of these message forms.
Hope this helps.
 
Richard...I tried again,but it wouldn't take....it said a plug-in was not working...then the nexts time it said...my pc was to low on system to complete??I'm hope to take care of the pc issue...and try to post the INFO-again
 
I don't think you can post attachments, but if the document is at a URL, then you can link to it. If it is an image (as in a scanned documents), people could see it on line if their User Controls have "Show Images" checked, or could click on the URL to see the docs.
 
Thanks...as you have noticed...LOL...I know very little about Pc's....I have a friend who is going to help me out with this...well at least that is what he said...so I hope to Post the Info...very soon....Thank you both for helping me.:slap:
 
This is gruesome, so proceed with caution.

http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2005/02/22/news/local_regional/news02.txt

Old murder case revived

By Steve Zucker News-Review staff writer
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 3:11 PM EST
and The Associated Press

When the Michigan State Police and a host of other police agencies announced last week that they are blowing the dust off of four 30-year-old unsolved murder files from Oakland County, one Northern Michigan resident took more than a passing interest.

Petoskey resident Deb Jarvis, who works in the News-Review's circulation department, is the mother of one of the four children who were abducted and slain in Oakland County between February 1976 and March 1977.

The bodies of two boys and two girls were found suffocated after they were missing for a period ranging from three to 19 days. Two had been raped and one was also shot in the face with a shotgun.

The victims included 11-year-old Timothy King, 12-year-old Mark Stebbins, 12-year-old Jill Robinson and Jarvis' daughter, 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich.
 
Old murder case revived

By Steve Zucker News-Review staff writer
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 3:11 PM EST

The Associated Press

When the Michigan State Police and a host of other police agencies announced last week that they are blowing the dust off of four 30-year-old unsolved murder files from Oakland County, one Northern Michigan resident took more than a passing interest.
Petoskey resident Deb Jarvis, who works in the News-Review's circulation department, is the mother of one of the four children who were abducted and slain in Oakland County between February 1976 and March 1977...

Link:
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2005/02/22/news/local_regional/news02.txt
 
I remember reading somewhere that before Timothy King's body was found, his mom went on TV and said she would feed him a chicken dinner, his favorite food, if he was returned to her. And the Babysitter fed Timothy a chicken dinner before he died. That man must have some twisted sense of humor.

I'm inclined to believe the Babysitter is dead or otherwise physically unable to kill any more children, but the Green River Killer and BTK went dormant...
 
meggilyweggily said:
...I'm inclined to believe the Babysitter is dead or otherwise physically unable to kill any more children, but the Green River Killer and BTK went dormant...
A serial killer going "dormant" for a period of time - that is going for a spell without aparently killing - seems to be a feature or trait that is common in most serial killers. There are a number of reasons for this. Often it is because the killer is incarcerated for other crimes, like burglary or theft. Sometimes he goes through a change in lifestyle, like getting married or moving to another locality and getting involved in a new job. Other times he might be under psychiatric care and medication. Or he might be under other influences and stresses which bring out his evil character.

Another factor which might make a killer appear to go dormant could be that he changes his modus operandi (MO). In the case of Michigan's "Oakland County Babysitter", he actually killed in different ways, but other factors linked his killings together. In searching for possible links to other unsolved child murders, one would have to consider those other factors, rather than the manner of death itself.

In the past, crimes in one location might suddenly stop, and because murders or disappearances were only being investigated locally, it would appear that the killer had gone "dormant" - when in actuality, he might have simply moved to another state. This was the case with Ted Bundy, moving from Washington to Utah. Meanwhile, other killings of his in Idaho and Colorado, were not immediately recognized, because they were outside of his "area".

A series of killings in one locality can often be tied together quickly, but individual killings are often unsolved because of either the killer moving often, or because of a changing MO.
 
There has been some suggestion that the disappearance of Kimberly King is linked to the Babysitter. She was about the same age and disappeared in about the same place at about the same time as the others. (She had the same surname as his last confirmed victim, Timothy King, but I don't think they were related.)

But she was never found. If the Babysitter killed her, he would have had to change his MO -- hiding her body well instead of dumping it along the road in plain view. Of course, it's smarter to hide the body, you're less likely to be caught that way. Unless they find the Babysitter though, who knows if Kimberly's case will ever be solved.
 
meggilyweggily said:
There has been some suggestion that the disappearance of Kimberly King is linked to the Babysitter. She was about the same age and disappeared in about the same place at about the same time as the others. (She had the same surname as his last confirmed victim, Timothy King, but I don't think they were related.)

But she was never found. If the Babysitter killed her, he would have had to change his MO -- hiding her body well instead of dumping it along the road in plain view. Of course, it's smarter to hide the body, you're less likely to be caught that way. Unless they find the Babysitter though, who knows if Kimberly's case will ever be solved.
Kimberly disappeared from Warren, Michigan in 1979. This was two years after the killings generally attributed to the "Babysitter". It is quite possible that he was responsible for her abduction as well, but unfortunately there is no physical evidence that connects him at this time. There is a thread for Kimberly on this board.

Link to Kimberly Alice King poster:
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=601787&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US
 
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