MI MI - Barbara Brott, 18, & Mary Ann Hicks, 19, Grand Rapids, Sept 1972

Muskegon investigators want to know more about suspected serial killer
Sarah Sell, WZZM 8:13 p.m. EDT September 11, 2014

"He's a horrific guy, a monster", says Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler referring to 66-year old Rodney Halbower. He can't help but wonder what other crimes Halbower committed while he was living in Muskegon Heights. On Wednesday, Rodney's brother John, said Rodney was a bully. "Everybody in the neighborhood was terrorized by him. We all got together, tied him up, laid him in the road, and he got away, chased us with a butcher knife", says John Halbower.

[...]

One of the cold cases involves 18-year old Barbara Brott and 19-year old Mary Ann Hicks. In 1972, the women were last seen leaving the Canopy bar in Grand Rapids, which has since been torn down. Their bodies were found a month later, near Muskegon. "Some of the evidence that was recovered, we hope would render DNA, if and when it comes to that point, of making that comparison."

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Mary Ann Hicks' skeleton ID'd
Argus Press, Sept 3, 1972

Barbara Brott's skeleton ID'd
Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Sept 3, 1972

Delayed Justice

Rodney Halbower is a POI in the Gypsy Hill (California, 1976) murders.

I haven't heard anything more about Muskegon investigating Rodney. I hope they are because its his mo.

Mary Ann Hicks circa 1972


Barbara Brott circa 1972




Newspapers at the time reported that police suspected this double murder was related to another similar double murder.

Mary Ann (Cochran) Hicks, 19
circa 1972


Barbara Brott, 18
circa 1972

Circumstances:

Barbara Brott, 18, and her roomate Maryann Hicks, 19, both of 1022 Jeannette Ave. NW, Grand Rapids, MI, were murdered in 1972. Hicks was separated from her husband and had three children (aged 1, 2 and 3).

Maryann and Barbara were last seen on March 10, 1972, leaving the Canopy Bar in Grand Rapids. Their decomposed bodies were found in Muskegon County on July 25, 1972 in a wooded area off a two-track near White Lake Road, in Twin Lake, MI.

The time and cause of their deaths was not immediately determined.

Some police investigators at the time thought that their murders might be related to the murder of two young Chicago women found eight days earlier that same month in Galesburg, MI. They were found with hands bound in their car and strangled to death. They were: Linda Clark and Claudia Bidstrup, both 19 years old.

Another possibly connected murder was that of Patricia Howk, 28 of Augusta, Michigan who was found in in Kalamazoo in March 1971 also with her hands bound and strangled to death.

Another contemporary unsolved murder was that of Mrs. Barbara Larson, 25 who was bludgeoned to death with a bookend in November 1971 in her trailer home near Howard City, MI.

Mrs. Shelley Mills, 19 was stabbed to death in her Grand Rapids apartment on 15 September 1970. She was stabbed more than 20 times. Her murder also remains unsolved.

Going back a bit further in time, two unidentified black women were found in separate places in 1968 in the Grand Rapids area.


LINK:

Barbara Brott

Hi, I'm new here. Does anyone know more information specifically about Barbara Larson? I've been given information that could be helpful to this case, but I'm trying to compare my info with legit news articles from the time. This is the only article I can find on her. Thanks!

bessie said:

Rodney Halbower is a POI in the Gypsy Hill (California, 1976) murders.

Click to expand...

muskegonhometown said:

I haven't heard anything more about Muskegon investigating Rodney. I hope they are because its his mo.

Click to expand...

I am best friends with one of Maryann's granddaughters and from the information we have Rodney was still incarcerated at the time of her and Barbara's murder. I am currently trying to find out any extra information i can myself for the family as i am trying to find the killer to bring my best friend and her family some peace. Also the family of barbara.

I wonder if any of the mentioned cases could have been the work of Dennis Bowman, a western Michigan man who has been convicted of two separate murders.

He murdered Kathleen O'Brien Doyle in 1980 in Virginia Beach, VA. And he murdered his own daughter Aundria Bowman in Michigan.

Another potential suspect might be convicted serial killer Gary Addison Taylor. He was released from Ionia State Hospital (Michigan) for the Criminally Insane in early 1972, and is known to have murdered four women between that time and his arrest in Washington State in 1975. Investigator suspect that he may have killed up to 20 victims.