MI MI - Arthur Ream, Convicted Rapist/Murderer & Suspected Serial Killer

(WXYZ) - The man at the center of these allegations, Arthur Ream, has a lengthy criminal background.

The 7 Investigators have learned, the people who have interrogated him in the past say they’re not surprised he’s now under suspicion of being a serial killer.

As police search for answers and bodies in northern Macomb County, convicted predator Arthur Ream is back in the crosshairs of local detectives.

Ream was a key suspect from day one after 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki vanished from Eastpointe in 1986.

Ream wasn’t brought to justice until 2008, after a dedicated Eastpointe detective reached out the professional interviewers from the Illinois firm Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates.
“He developed some information about Art Ream who had a pretty significant background with some sexually deviant activities with younger girls,” said David Zulawski Tuesday.

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MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – Authorities are searching in Macomb Township for the remains of a 12-year-old girl last seen in 1979. Reports indicate they may find up to 7 bodies who have been missing over the years.

The search started Monday for the remains of Kimberly King, but Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told WJBK-TV that there could be others buried in the area.

“We have probable cause to believe that (Kimberly) is buried there,” Dwyer said. “We also believe that there’s maybe four to six other girls that have been reported missing that are buried there. We certainly are convinced we have the right area. It’s just a sad type of situation.”

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MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – Police say a suspect in the decades-old slaying of a 12-year-old Michigan girl boasted to fellow prisoners that he killed several other girls.

Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told reporters Wednesday that “the suspect in this case also did brag about murdering four to six people to inmates where he is being housed.”

Police have said detectives questioned 59-year-old Arthur Ream in prison about Kimberly King who was last seen in 1979.
The FBI and local agencies are excavating woods about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Detroit in Macomb Township, near where Ream led police in 2008 to the remains of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki.

Ream is serving life in prison for killing Zarzycki who disappeared in 1986.

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Now authorities are working in that same area in connection to three other cold cases that may be connected to Ream.

These are the cold cases that may be connected to Ream:

• The case of 12-year-old Kimberly King, from Warren, who disappeared in 1979
• The disappearance of Kellie Brownlee, from Novi, when she was 17 in 1982
• The case of Kim Larrow, who disappeared from Canton Township in 1981, when she was 15
• The case of Nadine O'Dell, from Inkster, when she was 16 in 1974
• The disappearance of Cynthia Coon, from Washtenaw County, when she was 13 in 1970

Police sources told Local 4 they are positive Ream is responsible for other crimes, but they aren't certain he's responsible for the disappearances of these girls.
On Monday, after gaining a search warrant, a team from the Warren Police Department, the Macomb County Sheriff's Office and the FBI returned to the site with the equipment necessary to do a major dig. They were back at it Tuesday and Wednesday marks day three.
Officials have not announced any findings.

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The man convicted of killing 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki 32 years ago is a suspect in the deaths of four to six others who may be buried in the same Macomb Township site where the teen’s body was found in 2008, authorities said Wednesday.



Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer said at a news conference that investigators believe the remains of Kimberly King of Warren, who disappeared at the age of 12 in September 1979, were disposed of in a 24-acre site where searchers began digging Monday.

Dwyer said Arthur Nelson Ream, 69, who is serving a life term for killing Cindy, is a “person of interest in the disappearance of Kimberly and other teenage girls.

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Police were initially directed to the site near 23 Mile and North Avenue in 2008 by Ream, who at that time was in prison for the rape of a 15-year-old girl. There, they found the remains of Cindy Zarzycki, who knew Ream’s son and had gone to meet the elder Ream at a Dairy Queen on Nine Mile in Eastpointe when she disappeared April 20, 1986.

Dwyer spoke at a news conference along with Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, FBI agent Matt Krupa, Kimberly’s sister Konnie Beyma and friend Annie Godbout, the last person known to see Kimberly alive.
“This brings a great deal of hope,” Beyma said. “It would mean a great deal to bring her remains home.”

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Dwyer said investigators began taking a fresh look at Kimberly’s disappearance last fall, interviewing Ream, getting information from his fellow prisoners and giving the suspect a lie-detector test, which he failed.


Dwyer said Ream bragged about committing multiple killings, but the police commissioner would not discuss what investigators learned from their interviews with him and others.

“Unfortunately for Konnie and Annie, he has not been cooperative about this,” Dwyer said.

“The person of interest, our suspect, is going to know you’re out here,” the commissioner said, addressing Beyma and Godbout. “Today is his birthday. I hope it’s his last birthday, frankly.

The interview with Ream, officials said, is tied to unsolved cases, including those of Kimberly and Kellie Brownlee, who was 17 when she was last seen at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi in 1982.

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Police interviewed Ream a few months ago after fellow prisoners said he boasted about killing four to six other people. He later failed a lie-detector test, Dwyer said.
Ream, who turned 69 on Wednesday, was sentenced in 1998 to 15 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct and taking indecent liberties with a child less than two years earlier.

Attorney R. Timothy Kohler, who was appointed by a judge to represent him in his 2008 murder trial, said his former client is "not a likable guy" and not healthy.
"He smoked excessively and was overweight. I didn't want to particularly hear his story, other than my sense that he was denying any allegation of intentionally murdering" Cindy.
"He claimed his innocence. He never told me that he did anything. Frankly, I don't think I was interested in knowing that," Kohler said.

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Even after leading police to her remains, Ream denied killing her. He told a police detective in 2008 that Cindy was with his son the day she died and claimed she fell from an open elevator at his carpet warehouse in Warren.

Her father hopes Ream tells police where other bodies might be found.

"I pray for him every day that his heart softens," Edward Zarzycki said Wednesday at the excavation site.

King's sister, Konnie Beyma, wants the same.

"Please just tell us where she is so we can move on," Beyma told reporters. "That's all. Let us take her and bury her next to my grandmother."

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Metro Detroit Pride said:

The other thing that stands out in all this...if it is indeed him who committed all these horrible acts...is how widespread he was. He was on the east side of Metro Detroit...Eastpointe and Warren are next door to each other, Macomb Twp 10-15 minutes up to the north...and then the west side of Metrot Detroit if he was involved with Kim Larrow (Canton), Kellie Brownlee (Novi), Nadine ODell (Inkster) and Cynthia Coon (Ann Arbor). Metro Detroit is huge and that’s a LOT of area to cover. Scary.

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Warren Police said suspected serial killer Arthur Ream bragged in prison about killing four to six people.

Now, investigators are digging on a wooded parcel of land in Macomb Township hoping to find them. It's a spot near where Ream buried 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki, whom he killed 1986.

“We do have, as you know, probable cause to believe that this is a grave site," Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer said Wednesday at a news conference near the search site. "No question about it, that Kimberly King and other young female victims who were murdered are buried here."

Kimberly was 12 when she vanished from Warren in September 1979.

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But is Ream really a serial killer or just another prisoner who embellishes his record?

Dwyer sounded confident that other bodies would be found, but wouldn't disclose all the information investigators have. He did say that detectives have interviewed Ream and fellow prisoners and that Ream failed a polygraph test. He also said that while searchers have yet to locate human remains, they did find something, but he wouldn't elaborate.

"What we have found makes us very cautiously optimistic that we're on the right track," Dwyer said.

The wooded area is in Macomb Township near the intersection of 23 Mile Road and North Avenue. After his 2008 conviction, Ream led investigators to an unmarked grave on the property, which was once owned by Ream's friends.

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• Cynthia Coon, 13, who disappeared from Ann Arbor in 1970
• Nadine O'Dell, 16, who disappeared in Inkster in 1974
• Kim Larrow, 15, who disappeared in Canton in 1981
• Kellie Brownlee, 17, who disappeared in Novi in 1982

Dwyer said Ream, who turned 69 on Wednesday, has not been cooperative with investigators including detectives who last spoke with him in prison in February. Through the media, Dwyer challenged Ream to help investigators by revealing information and to provide closure for families who have wondered for decades about the whereabouts of a missing family member.

“Come forward. Be a man about it,” the commissioner said. “It’s your birthday. Give us a gift. Give the families a gift.”

Godbout recalled that some people, including police officers several years ago, thought Kimberly had run away from home.
“She never, ever would have left her sisters, mother and grandparents worrying about her,” Godbout said. “Never in my mind did I ever believe she ran away –- not for one second.”

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Approximately two dozen law enforcers continued excavation efforts Wednesday hoping to find remains that officials suspect are buried in an area along the North Branch of the Clinton River, south of 23 Mile Road.

“They’re going to stay out here as long as it takes,” Dwyer said. “We have probable cause to believe this is a grave site, no question about it.”
Warren Mayor James Fouts offered condolences to the King family, saying the Warren girl was “robbed of a lifetime of experiences” but will never be forgotten.
“All of that was taken out by some monster,” Fouts said.

A task force composed of the FBI, the Warren Police Department, Michigan State Police and the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the investigation.
On Tuesday, Dwyer revealed for the first time that officials suspect four to six girls, whose whereabouts have been a mystery for decades, may be buried in the wooded area south of 23 Mile Road, west of North Avenue. Those girls include 15-year-old Kim Marie Larrow of Canton, missing since June 1981, and 17-year-old girl Kelly Brownlee, whose last known whereabouts were at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi in May 1982, Dwyer confirmed. The Warren police commissioner also described Ream as a “person of interest” in the disappearance decades ago of multiple girls and referred to Ream as a serial killer.

Ream has not been charged with any crimes involving those missing females.
The wooded area of the search is along the North Branch of the Clinton River, between 23 Mile and an unplanted crop field just north of The Park at Riverside residential subdivision, just west of North Avenue.

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Authorities called the investigation "a major effort" with a crew of around 30 people covering the 24 acres and said they'd be taking their time, systematically searching the area. Authorities said "no question about it" that young victims who were murdered are buried there and the search may last several days. Trees and bushes have been removed from the site so far and authorities called the terrain rough and muddy. They said they are "cautiously optimistic" that they are close to a discovery of human remains.

The FBI and Michigan State Police have also been involved in the investigation. The case was reopened last year after nearly four decades. King's family spoke out at the event and said they hope to bring her remains home as a result of the investigation.

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The elder sister of a 12-year-old girl who vanished in September of 1979 was always suspicious that Arthur Ream, who is now a suspected serial killer, might have been involved.

But it would have been impossible, Konnie Beyma says -- at least based on the timeline as she understood it for the last 38 years -- because he was in prison, she thought.
A couple days ago, that changed. It now appears Ream wasn't in prison after all, but instead free on parole.

Warren police believe, based on statements from multiple jailhouse informants who claim to have overheard Ream bragging about killing up to six other girls, that Beyma's sister, Kimberly A. King, is one of Ream's victims.

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According to dates listed on the Michigan Department of Corrections website, in August of 1975, Ream was sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison for that conviction. His discharge date is listed as February of 1980, nearly half a year after Kimberly vanished.

"What always made me believe he wasn't involved was because his release date from prison was listed as 1980, so I ruled him out," Beyma said Wednesday, May 9. "But I was always suspicious, because (along Gratiot Avenue) is where we believe Kim was that night ... and that is where he picked up Cindy, that's where I believe he owned a carpet store, so he was very familiar with the area ...

"I was always suspicious and wondered if he has something to do with it, but I always had to come back around to he was in prison at the time Kim came up missing. I didn't know until yesterday ... that he was out on parole."

Warren police say Ream was released from his 1975 conviction on parole in February of 1978.

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