The Babysitter/Snow Killer

[sdreid]

I remember this case being in the news back in the 1970s. It involved the murders of up to nine kids in the environs of Detroit from 1972-79. The 1979 potential victim, 12-year-old Kimberly King, was never found. There were four core murders with common traits that occurred in 1976 and 1977. The only other potential victim outside those two years was 16-year-old Donna Serra from 1972. There were several suspects but no charges have been brought. A man, possibly the killer, had communicated with a psychiatrist both by telephone and letter. The murderer often left his prey in snow after abducting and slaying them, thus the alternative name.

[sdreid]

In the core murders, two boys and two girls, ages 10-12, were abducted, apparently kept alive for some days then killed and left outdoors. These victims had all been ritually cleaned before they were left. Three had been suffocated. One was shot, possibly because an attempted suffocation was unsuccessful.

[sdreid]

The first, 1976 murder, only considered a possible, was Cynthia Cadieux, 16. She was abducted on January 15, raped, beaten to death and left by a snow covered road. There was a tie to a later core murder however.

Another maybe was Sheila Shrock, 14, who was raped and shot to death in her home on January 20. She was found when police were investigating an attack on John McAullifie in the same neighborhood. He'd been terrorized in his home but survived. John gave a description but without result.

[sdreid]

The first core murder happened when Mark Stebbins, 12, was abducted while walking home during the afternoon of February 13. On the 19th, Mark's body was found in a snowy parking lot. He had been sexually assaulted and suffocated after being kept alive for about four days then ritually cleaned before being left.

On August 8, 13-year old Jane Allen was picked up walking along a roadway. Her body was found three days later in Ohio. She'd died from carbon monoxide poisoning. There were enough differences in Jane's case to only make her one of the possibles.

[sdreid]

On December 22, the next to vanish was 12-year-old Jill Robinson. She was found scrubbed clean and laid out dead on a snow bank on the 26th. This time, the killer had shotgunned his victim perhaps because she'd regained consciousness after the murderer thought he'd suffocated her. Jill was not sexually assaulted, something the killer was prone to reserve for his male victims.

[sdreid]

The next to disappear was 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich on January 2 of 1977. Her remains were discovered on the 21st near where Cynthia Cadieux had been found. Like Stebbins and Robinson, she was laid out in what was described as a funeral position. Kristine had been smothered and washed again. As was the pattern with the female core victims, she was not raped.

[sdreid]

The last of the core four finally came on March 16 when 11-year-old Timothy King was taken. His mother promised him a chicken dinner when he came home while pleading for his release in a TV interview. Timothy was found in a roadside ditch on the 23rd. The autopsy showed that he'd been fed a chicken dinner before he was sexually assaulted and suffocated. His killer had washed as well as manicured him after his death then cleaned and pressed Tim's clothes. Has this heartless maniac finished?

[sdreid]

Unless Kimberly King was a victim, it appears that he is finished, here at least. Timothy King was last seen with a scraggly light haired man driving a blue Gremlin. Was he scared off because this description came too close? There was also the description by the only possible surviving victim, John McAulliffie, but was this actually the killer?

What's next? It's contact with the killer, maybe.

[cappuccina]

They have some new leads in these cases...

http://www.wxyz.com/mostpopular/story/CATALLO-New-Leads-in-Child-Killer-Case/9e6OuYyEXECBJelnkP1Huw.cspx

http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:EVfDLKRzhv8J:www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/02/22/news/local_news/doc4b80a35d9c8d8139257227.txt+chris+busch+%26+greg+greene&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[sdreid]

Thanks Caps. I've seen this guy mentioned but I'm not sure what real evidence they have against him. We'll have to wait and see. A lot of promising candidates have come and gone.

I don't know of any DNA in the case of the core murders. The two were sexually assaulted but the first was with an object and in the case of the second, the medical examiner said that they "detected no proof that the killer was a male."

[sdreid]

Shortly after, a Detroit psychiatrist began receiving phone calls and letters from a man claiming to have knowledge of the case. He gave his name as Allen and said that he was the roommate of the killer. The question was and is, was Allen telling the truth, a crank or the killer himself?

Allen claimed the slayings were to bring home the horrors of the Vietnam War to the well-to-do slackers who had their sons safely sheltered away in college while poor, working class and rural families were being forced to send their sons off to die. He claimed that he and his roommate were veterans of that conflict.

[sdreid]

Allen finally agreed to meet with the doctor but didn't show up.

The case went cold after that.

[sdreid]

The two were sexually assaulted but the first was with an object and in the case of the second, the medical examiner said that they "detected no proof that the killer was a male."

That statement has always puzzled me a bit. I guess he was saying that there was no semen in a subtle way but it sort of sounds like he's saying that the killer could be a woman. There is no evidence that it was a woman, as I'm aware, unless you count the lack of semen. The two people who saw the person who was likely the killer said he was a male.

[sdreid]

By the way, the Babysitter name came from the killer's apparent practice of keeping the children alive for a few days before murdering them.

[cappuccina]

....not only keeping them alive, but feeding them meals, bathing them, etc....ugh............this man was a true demon.......