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

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shadowangel said:
Never assume that---Without probable cause for a warrant they would have searched nothing! Strong anecdotal evidence will rarely sway any judge, especially in a homicide case.
Agreed. I was assuming that if they had a warrant they would have searched it. Getting a warrant is a whole other matter.

Hoppy
 
I located the journalist's name in my files.:) I'm not going to publicly post her name here, but I will attempt to locate her. If any of you are interested in helping me locate her, pm me. Here goes...

Okay, I located her!:woohoo:

Fortunately she hasn't left her profession or state, so that made it a lot simpler. So don't pm me. :)

I will email her, see what happens, and let you know.

Hoppy
 
PonderingThings said:
Hoppy did you ever get a response or more info?
I haven't yet pursued it. Life is busy.

Hoppy
 
hoppyfrog said:
If you see any follow up to this, please post it.

Hoppy

Will do, Hoppy. This hits extremely close to home for me, location-wise.
 
The Oakland County (Michigan) "Babysitter" murders began 30 years ago. There have been a number of leads, suspects, and theories in the past. This is the latest one. Investigators have DNA and other evidence in several of the cases. It will be interesting to see if anything matches with what this guy says, or if he is just playing games and pretending to know something.

-------------------------------------------------
Convict Provides New Leads In 1970s Child Slayings
March 8, 2006
OAK PARK, Mich. -- Investigators are hoping information from a man convicted this week in a suburban Detroit murder case will lead them to the killer of four Oakland County children in the 1970s.

Richard Lawson, 60, who was found guilty Tuesday of a 1989 murder in Livonia, recently has given police information in the "Oakland County Child Killer" cases, State Police Detective Sgt. Garry Gray, who is leading the investigation, said Wednesday.

Gray called Lawson a "person of interest" whose information has led investigators to Detroit's Cass Avenue corridor, which he described as a skid row with rampant prostitution and *advertiser censored* at the time of the killings.

"We have some good, solid leads, good solid information. Lawson's a part of that process," said Gray, who would not provide more details.

Gray said Lawson has talked at length with investigators about the killings.

He said no break in the case is imminent. "We've got our hopes up. We've got things that I, of course, can't discuss," Gray said.

Lawson was found guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery in Wayne County Circuit Court in the death of Livonia businessman Exavor Giller, a cab company owner who was shot and killed outside his home. He will be sentenced March 21.

A message seeking comment from Lawson was left Wednesday with his social worker at the Wayne County Jail.

Former Detroit Police Chief Isaiah McKinnon said Lawson was a paid informant for police in the 1970s and gave officers information about child molesters.

The child deaths horrified the Detroit area starting in 1976, with parents keeping their children in sight at all times. All the children were abducted from business areas in suburban Oakland County.

Eleven-year-old Timothy King, 12-year-old Mark Stebbins, 12-year-old Jill Robinson and 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich were suffocated between February 1976 and March 1977. Their bodies were found after each went missing for periods ranging from three to 19 days. Two had been raped, and one also was shot in the face with a shotgun.

Through the years, a series of strong leads has developed, but so far none has resulted in an arrest....

Check link for photo of Lawson and links to previous stories.
Link:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/7854072/detail.html
 
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006604050423



The black trunk that Chip St. Clair found in his father's apartment years ago is filled with secrets.

In it are locks of brown hair and baby teeth, a birth certificate for St. Clair that appears to have been altered, newspaper clippings of Michigan's most-wanted criminals and photos of children that are supposed to be of St. Clair, but don't look like him.

The contents could be clues in one of Oakland County's most notorious unsolved cases -- or no more than family mementos.

Police will travel to an Indiana prison today to question St. Clair's father, Michael Grant, in connection with the deaths of four children -- ages 10, 11 and 12 -- three decades ago. They also plan to ask for a sample of Grant's DNA, to see whether it matches a hair found on one of the victims.

It is another twist in the decades-long mystery of the Oakland County child killings and in the harrowing relationship St. Clair has had with his father, much of which has been told in the Free Press and on television news programs.
Excellent article - lots more details at link.
 
Hi Folks

I am new here, but wanted to post this!

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/040506/loc_2006040504.shtml



Detectives set to question man in child killer case

Web-posted Apr 5, 2006


By KORIE WILKINS
Of The Oakland Press


OAK PARK - Michigan State Police detectives will travel to Indiana this week to interview a man in connection with the Oakland County Child Killer case.

Advertisement

A tip from an Oakland County man about his father, who is incarcerated for killing another child, led to the interview, planned for today, Detective Sgt. Garry Gray said.

Chip St. Clair said he's had suspicions that his father could be the Oakland County Child Killer for a few years. After talking about his life story at an event in Lansing a few years ago, a man who used to work for the probation department in Macomb County approached St. Clair about his father, Michael David Grant. The man said it sounded like someone who could be a serial killer.

St. Clair contacted the Michigan State Police with his suspicions several months ago.

"My entire life has been turned upside down," St. Clair said. "I don't know what to expect. I don't know who my father is anymore or what he's capable of."

St. Clair, who was mentally and physically abused by his father for years, now heads the Michigan chapter of Justice for Children, a Texasbased nonprofi t organization that has advocated for abused children for about 20 years.

After a fi ght with his father 1998, St. Clair learned his father was actually a convicted felon who walked away from a prison work camp in Indiana in 1973 and into the car of Leslie Weaver, St. Clair's biological mother. After Grant's arrest in Auburn Hills in 1998, he was sent back to prison but is expected to be released in 2007.

Grant was sentenced to 2-21 years for the stomping death of Scott Ingersoll, the 3-yearold son of his girlfriend, Vicki Ingersoll, in 1970. He never faced charges for his escape.

Gray said investigators will try to obtain a DNA sample from Grant that will be compared to a sample police have that could belong to the killer.

Grant could not be reached for comment. Weaver has remarried and also could not be reached for comment.

"We want to talk to him and find out about the who, what, where, when and why," Gray said. "I don't foresee any great revelations. But can I rule him out? No."


Web-posted Apr 5, 2006


Has this guy come up on the radar before??

Many thanks!
 
amandab said:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/9202297/detail.html

No shortage of creepy folks with this case...
Flippin unbelievable.....you never know what is going on in your neighbors house!
Quote from Article

"Inside the home, police found letters written to serial killers, child *advertiser censored*, 8 mm film dating back to the 1970s, computer files and a sex slave dungeon equipped with shackles and a jail-like door that locked from the outside, Local 4 reported."


I wonder what they will find when all this stuff is tested???? I imagine they would do that right?
 
As local TV news reported a break in the 30-year-old Oakland County child killer case Thursday night, few officials deeply involved in the case had their hopes up.

The latest potential clue, as reported Thursday by WDIV-TV (Channel 4), centers on Randall Raar, a 58-year-old Lincoln Park man arrested Wednesday on sex-crime charges. Raar, an ex-convict, was found guilty in 1984 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060512/NEWS03/605120483
 
Child killer link doubted

.... The latest potential clue, as reported Thursday by WDIV-TV (Channel 4), centers on Randall Raar, a 58-year-old Lincoln Park man arrested Wednesday on sex-crime charges. Raar, an ex-convict, was found guilty in 1984 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

An official close to the case who requested anonymity told the Free Press that Raar confessed to the child killings after he was arrested and is being questioned further about the deaths of the four children in the 1970s. But Rarr is one of many who have claimed some link to or knowledge of the killings.

WDIV reported that Michigan State Police discovered a sex-slave dungeon and child *advertiser censored* in Raar's basement.

"I just refuse to get excited," said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who was the county's prosecutor when four children were kidnapped and killed in 1976 and 1977. "I think after 30 years, law enforcement and the community both are desperate for a positive development and are eager to grasp at any potential clue that might unravel this crime."

But Thursday, investigators contacted by the Free Press, including some who have followed developments in the case for years, didn't know of any link to the 30-year-old slayings.

Deb Carley, Oakland County's chief deputy prosecutor, said she'd never heard of Raar. She referred questions to State Police Sgt. Garry Gray, who's been investigating the case. He declined to comment and referred questions to Detective Sgt. Ken Walker, who did not return phone calls Thursday.

Officials with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office also said they hadn't been notified of Raar's possible link to the case.

"It's another lead that has to be followed," Patterson said, "but I've been down that blind alley so many times."

Gray announced in April that he planned to interview a prisoner in Westville, Ind., about the inmate's possible knowledge of the killings. But Gray told the Free Press he postponed the interview because media interest had created "kind of a circus."

The killings claimed the lives of Timothy King, 11, of Birmingham; Kristine Mihelich, 10, of Berkley; Jill Robinson, 12, of Royal Oak, and Mark Stebbins, 12, of Ferndale. Two of the children were sexually assaulted.

At the time, all four killings were believed to have been committed by one man, dubbed the Oakland County child killer. But investigators have recently said they think there may have been more than one killer. ...
 
You know, it seems kind of odd to me. The case sits apparently dormant for thirty years, then suddenly suspects are popping out all over the place.
 
Just wondering if there have been any new developments in this case?
 
This was part of an email correspondence I rec'd from James Renner today, Author of the book on Amy Mihaljevic:


By the way, a suspect in the Oakland County child
murders from the 70's was arrested out here last week. I tried to find him while
researching the book on Amy, because of the weird similarities between the
Oakland County crimes and Amy's case. There's more info on my blog about all
this at www.amymihaljevic.blogspot.com
-James
 
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