The Oakland County Child Killer – The Investigation

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.

You can read more about the case surrounding the Oakland County Child Killer over on last week’s article, by clicking here. This article describes the investigation and the suspects that brought to light by DNA evidence.

Due to the number of witness, that finally came forward, the police were able to create a sketch of the suspect. The image that emerged belonged to a white man, with dark hair, a prominent nose, think lips and bushy muttonchops that ran down both cheeks. The psychologists, working on the case, suspected that the man would have been between 20 to 35 years-old, well educated, working in a white-collar job and who was possibly seeing a psychiatrist. People working within medical and legal positions were urged to come forward with any information they may have by the Birmingham Police Chief.

Due to the suspicion that the culprit may be being protected by someone close to his, the victims’ family members were blocked of asking any questions by investigators. Detectives believed that the culprit may react badly to the parents emotional pleas so many of them agreed to keep their grief private and their tone positive during news conferences. The family members of the fourth victim, Tim King, felt that they hadn’t received much cooperation from the authorities and subsequently sued the county prosecutor’s office with the hope that it would release more evidence on the case. It took until 2012 for 6,000 pages of case documents to be released.

The lack of official information over the years led to the creation of rumours over the identity of the Oakland County Child Killer. There were only a few names that were publicly tied to the investigation. One of the first names was David Norberg, an autoworker who drove a car similar to the one sighted near where Tim was abducted. Although he was not convicted, Norberg had be suspected of murdering two teenage girls during the late 1970s. When Norberg died, during a car crash, a silver cross was found in his car, which had the name “Kristine” inscribed on it. This was the same name as the third victim, Kristine Mihelich, and her aunt had claimed that it was identical to the one she wore shortly before her death.

The body of Norberg was exhumed by police in 1999 in an attempt to match his DNA to evidence of the case. There was nothing found that could tie him to the murders. Due to him being a heavy drinker, some investigators believe it would be near impossible for him to lure weary children into his car. This led to him being largely dismissed as a suspect.

Christopher Busch, a convicted paedophile, was top of the suspect list for the King family and Erica McAvoy, Kristine’s half sister. Bush lived in the area at the time. He was questioned shortly after Tim’s death and only confessed to being a convicted paedophile. Bush was the son of a wealthy auto executive and drove a car similar to the car sighted at one of the abductions. Investigators wanted to keep him in jail but he was later released as part of a plea deal. A few months later, in November 1978, Busch committed suicide in his home. It was later reported that a drawing resembling Mark Stebbins death was discovered pinned to the wall at Busch’s home.

A 56-year-old man, James Gunnels, had been connected to Kristine’s death through DNA evidence. Investigators revealed, in 2012, that there had been a strand of hair found on Kristine’s body. It was a mitochondrial match for that of Gunnel’s, meaning that it could come from him or someone on his mother’s side of the family. Gunnel was no more than 16 when the crimes were committed and had been a victim of rape by Busch.

During 2012, Arch Sloan was named a suspect through a tenuous DNA test. Sloan was already behind bars serving a life sentence for rape of a 10-year-old boy in 1983. A hair found in Sloan’s car was a match to the hair found at both Mark and Tim’s crime scene. Although this was not a match to Sloan, investigators did believe that it could belong to an acquaintance.

The King and Mihelich families were convinced that Busch was the culprit, but the Stebbins’ family believed it to be Theodore Lamborgine; a man who was in prison for life on assault convictions. The family hired a lawyer, David A. Binkley, to represent them during the wrongful death lawsuit they filed against Lamborgine in an attempt to reveal more information. It was claimed that the family believe he had not acted alone, pointing toward Lamborgine’s refusal to take a polygraph test despite the offer of a reduced sentence if he answered questions about the Oakland County murders. The case was dismissed in 2008 but the judge had left room for it to be continued if more evidence was found.

Despite the number of suspects and DNA ties, the Oakland County Child Killer has never been caught and the case remains unsolved.

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