The Oakland County Child Killer

The case of the Oakland County Child Killer is named after a state in Michigan where the kidnapping and murder of four children, between the ages of 10 and 12 years-old, took place panicking parents. The details were baffling. The two male victims showed signs of sexual assault whilst the two females did not. Three out of the four victims were killed through asphyxiation; the other was killed by a shotgun blast to the head. Before being discovered, it appeared that each of the victim’s bodies had been scrubbed clean and they were all neatly dressed.

During a Sunday in February 1976, Mark Stebbins, aged 12, and his older brother attended the American Legion Hall to play pool. Situated about a mile from their home in Ferndale, Michigan, the veteran organisation was a safe place which they often spent time at. After a while, Mark decided that he wanted to go home, but when he didn’t arrive his mother panicked and reported him missing to the police. At first, it was not a case which would usually get widespread media recognition. That was until his body was discovered in an abandoned parking lot four days later.

Despite Mark’s body not being discovered bound, there were definite signs of rope burn on both his wrists and ankles. It also appeared that he had been suffocated, or strangled, at least a day prior to his body being found in the abandoned parking lot. The Ferndale Police Chief told reporters that the boy’s body had likely been kept in a car’s trunk before being ditched. Not only had the body been scrubbed clean, the young boy’s fingernails had also been scrapped by his killer. During the following months, the case slipped from headlines but the police continued to investigate.

The second victim was found on Boxing Day of 1976 by a motorist in Troy, Michigan. This time it was the body of 12-year-old Jill Robinson, who had left home four days prior following a row with her mother. On the surface, the two cases seemed separate with no definitive links. Unlike Mark, Jill had died from a shotgun blast to the head rather then asphyxiation. However, both victim’s parents were divorced and they were both described to be rather solitary. It also appeared that both victims had been kidnapped and held for days and they had both been fed and water before being killed. Like Mark, Jill’s body had also been ditched on a day that it had snowed, possibly in an attempt to obscure any vital evidence.

A week later, on the 2nd January 1977, another child was reported missing. Kristine Mihelich, a 10-year-old child from Berkley, Michican, went missing from outside a shop just four blocks from her home in broad daylight. Due to Jill’s body being discovered so recently, there was a higher urgency to find Kristine. The entire neighbourhood was searched for witnesses and clues but nothing was found.

Fears were realised when Kristine’s body was discovered on 22nd January 1977, 19 days after she went missing. As with the previous two victims, Kristine’s body was also discovered lying in snow. Jerry Wozny discovered a hand sticking through snow during his mail round and claimed that it appeared as though someone had shovelled snow onto of the body as though someone was trying to stop it being discovered.

Less than two months later, on the 16th March 1977, an 11-year-old boy went missing in Birmingham, Michigan. Tim King had left his house around 8.15pm to go and buy sweets from a local drugstore, just three blocks away. After buying the sweets, Tim left through the drugstores rear door which led to a darkened parking lot and never returned home.

Tim’s body was found by two teenagers on the evening of 22nd March, a week later, in a shallow ditch along side Gill Road in Livonia, Michigan, with his skateboard beside him. This killing marked a change in the pattern as Livonia was part of Wayne County rather than Oakland County, where they other victim’s bodies were dumped. However, there were still similarities between this killing and the three previous. Tim has also been kept alive much of the time he was kidnapped, as it was believed that he was killed, by suffocation, only an hour before the body was ditched.

Related articled from Tales of Luminol