Thursday, January 10, 2008
Man charged in '86 murder
Detective says he kidnapped, molested teen Eastpointe girl, whose body hasn't been found
By Gordon Wilczynski
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
A man accused of killing a 13-year-old Eastpointe girl over 26 years ago was arraigned Wednesday.Arthur Nelson Ream of Roseville pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder.
Ream is being held in the Macomb County Jail without bond.Eastpointe police Detective Derek McLaughlin said Ream kidnapped Cindy Jocelyn Zarzycki on April 19, 1986, outside a Dairy Queen ice cream store on Nine Mile and Rausch, sexually molested her and killed her.
Police have not recovered Zarzycki's body.Macomb County assistant prosecutor Steve Kaplan said Ream, 57, killed the girl with premeditation. After he was caught and convicted of a previous criminal sex crime with a juvenile, he allegedly told a friend that he would never again leave a victim behind.
Judge Norene Redmond of the 38th District Court ordered that DNA be taken from Ream in the event the body is found. Detective McLaughlin said he believes Ream will tell authorities where he buried Zarzycki's body.
Ream told Redmond that he understands the charge. He also asked the judge to give him a court-appointed attorney.
When the judge refused to set a bond, Ream replied, "I wouldn't want no bond."
"Based on the seriousness of this crime and it being a life offense, I remand you to the Macomb County Jail without bond," said Redmond.
McLaughlin said Ream was serving a sex charge conviction in prison and was scheduled for possible release Dec. 27 when his parole status was revoked last month by the Michigan Department of Corrections, said Kaplan. He will remain in the Macomb County Jail until his preliminary exam at 1 p.m. Jan. 15, said Kaplan.
Kaplan said he believes the preliminary exam will be canceled and rescheduled to give the defense attorney more time to develop an argument on behalf of Ream.
Zarzycki's father, Edward Zarzycki, who now lives in Lexington, Mich., with his wife, Linda, said a conviction will give his family some closure but he would like to bury his daughter with his mother, father and a baby that died in 1971.
"He (Ream) got to bury his son when he died," said Zarzycki. "I would like that same opportunity."
Ream's son, Scott, died in a vehicle accident.
Detective McLaughlin said Cindy met Scott Ream at Macomb Mall and became friends. McLaughlin said Scott Ream was out of state when Cindy disappeared.
Ed Zarzycki said Cindy attended Forest Park Elementary School and Kelly Junior High School. He said she was very close to her grandmother, Frances Zarzycki.
She played right field and batted ninth for the co-ed softball team at St. Basil's Catholic Church."She got so good the next year that she batted third and played shortstop," said Zarzycki.
The night before she disappeared, Cindy was grounded by her father. She was supposed to come home at a certain time but missed it by two hours.
Her father was upset that she walked from Macomb Mall to Seven Mile and Kelly roads in Detroit before going home.Cindy told two girlfriends the night before she disappeared that she was going to meet Ream at the Dairy Queen to go to a surprise birthday party in Pontiac for Scott. There was no party, said McLaughlin. He said it was just Ream's way of getting her to get into his van.
"We have a multitude of pieces of circumstantial evidence," said Kaplan."But Ream had the opportunity to commit the crime and he was the last known person to see her. The evidence seems to indicate that she willingly went with him," Kaplan said.
Kaplan said he believes the body is somewhere in the Eastpointe-Roseville area. Ream owned a carpet business and operated out of a warehouse in Roseville.
McLaughlin said Ed Zarzycki was a good father and kept a strict household. He had custody of his three children.
Ream was convicted in 1974 of criminal sexual conduct and in 1987 in Warren of conspiracy to commit larceny. He also was convicted in Gladwin of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in 1996.
Eastpointe police also refuted a recent story in a local tabloid in which former Detroit News reporter Hawke Fracassa claims that a few years ago he spoke with Cindy Zarzycki while researching a story on missing children. McLaughlin said he spoke with a woman in the state of Washington with the same name as the missing Eastpointe girl but the woman is 58 years old and never lived in Michigan.
The woman told McLaughlin that she never talked to a reporter from Michigan.
Fracassa wrote that the woman said she was a runaway and it was none of his business why she left.
Fracassa said the woman told him that she didn't want to be found because her life now was just fine and she didn't want to upset things.
"The reporter was very irresponsible," said police Inspector John Calabrese. "If he spoke with the woman he should have called us.
"We have no record of Hawke Fracassa ever speaking with our detectives."Fracassa said he gave the information to police but doesn't know what - if anything - they did with it.
Source:
Macomb Daily : Man charged in '86 murder 01/10/08
LINK:
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/011008/loc_n1001.shtml
