The End Of Reason
Explore the profound mysteries of human behavior with "The End Of Reason" podcast. Journey into the depths of crime and mystery, where logic crumbles in the face of the inexplicable. Unveil unsolved mysteries, delve into the minds of killers, and confront chilling conspiracies that challenge reason. Join us as we navigate the labyrinth of human darkness. And seek justice where reason ends.
The End Of Reason
A Community in Fear: The Oakland County Child Killer's Reign
What if an entire community's sense of safety is shattered by a single elusive predator? Join us as we unravel the sinister saga of the Oakland County child killer, a case that gripped Michigan in fear during the mid-1970s. In this episode, we recount the harrowing tales of 12-year-old Mark Stebbins, 12-year-old Jill Robinson, and 10-year-old Christine Mihelich, whose tragic fates sparked a wave of anxiety among parents. We also touch upon the lives of 16-year-old Cynthia Cadieux and 14-year-old Jane Allen, illustrating the widespread panic that plagued the local community and the extreme precautions that followed.
In our pursuit of answers, we dissect the profiles of key suspects, from James Vincent Gunnels—whose DNA linked him to one of the victims—to Theodore Lambergine and his unsettling ties to a child pornography ring. We ponder over mysterious figures like Bobby Moore and explore the bizarre occult theory introduced by a man named Jeff. Despite the case being reopened in 2012 with advanced DNA technology, the search for justice remains ongoing. Tune in to explore the intricate web of leads and theories, and ponder if resolution can ever be achieved for these innocent lives lost.
Before we begin today's episode, we want to provide a subject matter warning. This podcast delves into real-life crimes and their often graphic and disturbing details. Today's episode contains discussions of violence, murder and other sensitive topics that may not be suitable for all listeners. We understand that this content can be triggering or upsetting for some, and we urge you to consider your own well-being as you listen. With that said, let's proceed with today's case. Between 1976 and 1977, at least four children on the Oakland County area of Michigan were murdered. At the time, it was clear to the authorities that each of these killings were connected and so, like any good police force would do, they desperately began searching for the perpetrator. But while the killings would ultimately stop at this point, the true person behind them would never be brought to justice, leaving many people to still wonder to this day who exactly was the Oakland County child killer? Welcome to the End of Reason podcast.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to be looking at the still mysterious case of the person or persons officially responsible for the death of four kids in mid-1970 Michigan, and possibly even more than that. But before we get to attempting to ID the killer, we first have to go back to where it all started, because it was on February 15th 1976, that Mark Stebbins, a 12-year-old boy living in Ferndale, michigan, failed to return home from an American Legion hall. Of course, with this being unlike him, his mother quickly became worried, and so, at 11pm that night, she would contact the police to let them know her son was missing. That said, while the police did take this seriously, they were unable to come up with any answers at first. No, it wouldn't be until four days later, in fact, that some light was finally shed on the situation, when Mark Boetegeimer, a local businessman, stumbled upon the body of the youngster after leaving his office building at 11.45am that day. How did this happen? Well, as he would later describe it, on his way towards the drugstore he caught sight of what looked like a mannequin sitting in a parking lot across the street. Upon closer inspection of this, however, it became closer it was no mannequin. No, it was a body. But what makes this discovery all the more interesting is that at 9.30am, just a few hours prior, a local man had been walking his dog in the same area, with him later claiming that if there, a local man had been walking his dog in the same area, with him later claiming that if there had been a body there, his dog would have found it, so, knowing Mark must have been placed there.
Speaker 1:Within that two-hour period. Then, police were able to get to work on trying to find out what exactly had happened, and pretty quickly after this, they ascertained that the child had not only died as a result of strangulation, but that he had been sexually assaulted beforehand too. Unfortunately, though, a major error would also be made by the police here, as, rather than check his body for fingerprints, they would wash Mark first instead, removing any chance of getting a lead on his killer this way. Yes, it was a foolish mistake to make, but luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it they would get another chance to catch the killer when, on December 22nd of that same year, another body turned up, and this one would soon be identified as being Jill Robinson, a 12-year-old girl from nearby Royal Oak who, like Mark Stebbins, came from a broken home. Unlike Mark, though, she would have last been seen after running away from home following an argument with her mother a few days prior. And also unlike Mark, her death would be as a result of a shogun blast to the head, with there being no evidence of any sexual assault taking place either before or after. So, with this in mind, there really was no reason for the police to believe that the two crimes were connected at this point.
Speaker 1:That said, suspicions would begin getting raised about this when, only a few weeks later, yet another body turned up, and this time it would be an even younger child, christine Mihelich, someone who was only 10 years old at the time of her murder. As for what happened to her, well, another child of divorce, christine had gone missing on January 2nd 1977, after last being seen buying a magazine from a 7-Eleven store at 3pm in Berkeley. Following this, she would be missing for a full 19 days before her body was eventually discovered frozen in the snow in the nearby area by a postal service worker named Jerry Wozni. So, with Wozni immediately contacting the authorities, then, it wouldn't be long before they'd quarantine off the scene and start to come to the conclusion that they may have a bigger problem on their hands than was originally anticipated. Yes, with this being the fifth murder to occur in such a short space of time, it began looking more and more like there was a pattern here, especially as Christine had been suffocated, just like Mark Stebbins was and you heard us right, we did say fifth killing because, also in 1976, two other bodies had been found, with these being 16-year-old Cynthia Cadieux and 14-year-old Jane Allen. But we'll get to why we haven't focused on those yet a little bit later.
Speaker 1:For now we need to go back to the uproar this latest discovery caused within the local community, as, with parents now growing increasingly concerned about their children's safety, a mass panic took hold, and everyone suddenly decided they needed to accompany their kids home from school every day. In fact, when a friend of Christine's went missing from class at her elementary school not long after this, it would spark such a frenzy that all the adults in the area immediately began carrying out a frantic search. Luckily, though, this child would be found safe and well just 20 minutes later. But even if she was okay, it was clear by now that something had to be done about the situation, as it felt like only a matter of time before another murder would occur. And sadly, that murder would occur sooner rather than later, because on March 23rd 1977, the body of Timothy King, a 11-year-old boy, would be found not far from his home in Birmingham, also dead as a result of suffocation.
Speaker 1:Yes, this was the fourth and final canonical victim of the Oakland County child killer and, what's more, like the first victim, mark Stebbins, timothy would have been sexually assaulted before the killing took place, something which must have been hard for his parents to come to terms with, as they'd been searching for him ever since he disappeared a week before, on March 16th. In fact, so concerned had they been that, in the days leading up to Timothy's discovery, his father, barry, would even have taken to local TV so as to plead with whoever might have kidnapped his son. But while they could never get their son back, what this murder did do was finally force the police to kick things into second gear, as it now became apparent there was a serial killer at work, so realising they had to act before another body turned up. Then the Oakland City Sheriff's Office would started sharing information between the various departments across Michigan, with this soon leading to the formation of a task force dedicated solely to catching the killer. And following the formation of this task force, over 18,000 tips would come flooding into the Sheriff's Department from a variety of different sources, with each of these believing they had crucial information about who the killer or killers were.
Speaker 1:But while many of these tips would be tantalising, none would prove to be more exciting than the one given by the woman who told authorities that she had seen Timothy King talking to a man in the parking lot of a pharmacy not long before he disappeared. As to whom this man might be, well, she didn't know that exactly, but she was able to provide police with a detailed description of not only him, to provide police with a detailed description of not only him, but the car he was driving anyway. Yes, according to this unmanned source, the mystery man talking to Timothy on that fateful day was someone who she'd seen around that area before, someone who likely lived nearby, as he seemed familiar with the surroundings and in terms of what he looked like, well, he'd be described as a white male, between 25 and 35 years old, with a fair complexion, husky build, shaggy hair and sideburns to boot. As well as that, the car he was driving was said to be a blue AMC Gremlin with a white racing stripe on the side, a fairly common vehicle in that area, albeit usually without the stripe. So, armed with this new knowledge, the police would get to work on getting a composite sketch of this figure made up and, from there, getting it out there to the public so as to see if anyone knew who he was. On top of this, they also questioned everyone who was registered as owning a blue AMC Gremlin in the Oakland country area, in the hopes that this would lead them towards the killer's doorstep.
Speaker 1:But while at first this did at least give the authorities a direction in which to aim their investigation, in the end they soon realized it wasn't bringing about any results fast enough for their liking. After all, while four murders had now been attributed to the Oakland County child killer, there was every possibility that even more bodies were out there, and if more were to turn up, the cops wanted to be ahead of the game lest they suffer an even greater public outcry. Yes, we alluded to it earlier, but it's been speculated that there were at least two more victims in this case, as on January 15th 1976, victims in this case as on January 15th 1976, one month before the body of Mark Stebbins was found, 16-year-old Cynthia Cadieux would be found bludgeoned to death near her home in Bloomsville Township, and later on, in August of that same year, jane Allen, a 14-year-old girl from Royal Oak, would also be found dead in the trunk of an abandoned car after having been a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. Of course, while on the face of it it's easy to lump all these murders together as being the work of the same perpetrator, the reason police have been so hesitant to do so over the years is that the latter two victims don't really fit in with the same modus operandi as the others. No, it seems more likely that these were the work of a separate killer, something which is even scarier if you sit down and think about it for a second. But even if the Oakland County child killer was not responsible for the deaths of Cynthia Cadieux and Jane Allen, they still needed to be held accountable for the other four children who had died at their hands.
Speaker 1:And so, after the police attempt at catching them via investigating the Blue AMC Gremlin had led nowhere, and with them being burdened with the knowledge that this killer was still out there and that they could strike again at any time, the Oakland County Sheriff's Department desperately started trying to pin down some suspects through the development of a suspect profile. And what this profile eventually suggested was that, based on what they knew of the bodies and of the descriptions given to them by the women who say Timothy King talking to a man prior to his disappearance, they were looking for a Caucasian male in his 20s or 30s, someone who had above-average intelligence and was charming enough that he could lure kids in easily. On top of that, based on the fact that the children had evidently been housed, fed and cleaned for days prior to their deaths, it was determined the suspect had to have had access to a property big enough to keep them in for at least 18 days, as well as a regular job somewhere in Southern Oakland County which would allow him to come and go without leaving the kids alone for too long. But that wasn't all the police profile suggested, because it also said the killer was probably homosexual, likely suffering from some degree of mental health problems and, given the fact that he dumped the bodies so unceremoniously, he was hoping they would be found. So with this knowledge now in place and it being sent out to every department in the area, eight separate task forces would be set up from there, each with their own individual roles to play in the investigation, and pretty soon this would lead to a number of suspects and persons of interest falling under the attention of the task force. But while we know now that none of them would ever formally be charged with the killings, there remains a pretty good chance that among their numbers, the real murderer still hides. So let's go through each of these right now and see what the likelihood is of them being the Oakland County child killer.
Speaker 1:The first suspect investigated by the cops during this period would be Christopher Bush, a 26-year-old man who lived in Bloomfield Hills, and the reason he was a suspect was that, on the same year as the killings went down, gregory Green, a 27-year-old pedophile, would tell police that Bush had confessed to him that he was the one who killed Mark Stebbins. Needless to say, as soon as the authorities learned this, they rushed to arrest Bush, with it later coming to light that he had indeed been involved in a number of sex crimes with minors. That said, despite the fact that he did own a blue AMC Gremlin and had not only ropes found in his home but also a drawing of a boy who resembled his supposed victim, detectives were never able to show he was the one who killed Stebbins, and their chances of getting this confession would ultimately drop to zero when, just one year later, he took his own life while out on a plea deal. Still for years after, many members of his own family would come to believe that Christopher Bush was not only the killer of Mark Stebbins but of the other three canonical victims too, and, what's more, with many of these family members believing his suicide was staged and that he was actually murdered, there remained the possibility to them that he hadn't been working alone.
Speaker 1:But he wasn't the only major suspect. Police were able to link to the crimes at this time, of course, because at one point James Vincent Gunnels would be considered the most likely culprit. Why was this? Well, while police certainly had reason to suspect him at the time, years later his DNA would be found to be a match for a hair discovered on the body of Christine Mihelich, and with this being a mitochondrial DNA match, it meant that the hair had to have come from Gunnels himself, or at very least a male member of his family. That said, when eventually questioned by the police, he would maintain his innocence, claiming that he had no knowledge of the crimes, and, despite the fact that he had such evidence against him and that he failed two separate lie detector tests, he would never be formally charged with the crimes.
Speaker 1:Of course, he wasn't the only suspect they had, though, because back in the 70s there were several other leads they could still follow. Who were they? Well, one of the main ones was Theodore Lamborghini, a retired autoworker who was believed to be involved in an underground child pornography ring going on at the time. So if this was indeed his business, then it would give him plenty of motive to kidnap these children, as well as all the motive he needed to dispose of them afterwards, so they would not talk about what had happened. In fact, years later, when Lambergine would be charged with his involvement in this child pornography ring, the parents of Mark Stebbins would go as far as to file a lawsuit against him, blaming him for the death of their son. But unfortunately, in the end this would come to nothing, and it would also be the only formal criminal proceeding made against him in the case of the Oakland County child killer. That's not to say, many don't still believe he was the man behind the crimes, though, as with him later facing 19 counts of sexually assaulting children, there was certainly precedent for his willingness to commit such actions and, as it happens, he himself admits to having an involvement in the case, at least tangentially. That is yes.
Speaker 1:While being interviewed in 2006, theodore Lambergine would be asked directly if he was the man who killed four children in the late 1970s, and while he would deny this, he would claim he knew who the culprit was a man named Bobby Moore. Unfortunately, though, police would never be able to track down anyone in the local area by the name of Bobby Moore. But even with this lead failing to bear any fruit, there were still other suspects they were looking into at the time, one of the most prominent of which was a mystery figure named Frank. Why was this one so mysterious? Well, they would first come to the attention of the authorities after an anonymous letter was sent to a psychiatrist in town by another man going by the name of Alan, by another man going by the name of Alan, and, as Alan explained it, frank, friend and former military buddy of his, had committed the murders and had done so as a means of revenge on the more affluent citizens of Oakland County after he'd been forced to serve in Vietnam. So, upon feeling guilty about getting tied up in the whole thing when he accompanied Frank during one of his murders, alan would contact the police, with his logic being that he was seeking absolution by letting them know exactly what was going on. That said, he still wanted to make sure he was protected while he was spilling the beans, with this being the reason why he offered to meet with the psychiatrist and give him photographic evidence, but only in exchange for the police offering him diplomatic immunity.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, though, this lead would end up going nowhere too, because, after arranging to have the code words Weather Bureau says trees to bloom in three weeks printed in that Sunday's edition of the Detroit Free Press so as to indicate he was willing to meet up, the psychiatrist would never get to talk to Alan as he didn't show, and would never be heard from again after that. So that just leaves us with one more suspect then Archibald Edward Sloane. But what made this figure so interesting to police? Well, sloane was already a convicted child molester at the time the crimes occurred, and with one witness claiming to have seen Timothy King being abducted by two men, it immediately made him a person of interest, so much so that the police would even go as far as to search his car and place of residence. That said, nothing would come of the investigation into him either, and as time went on and any leads the police had began to dry up, it looked like this one was going to turn into a cold case.
Speaker 1:That was until 2005, at which point a man going by the alias of Jeff would contact police and state that he had an acquaintance back in 1977 who was into some strange things, such as occult rituals, and that he was worried he may have been involved in the murders. But while this was a tenuous connection at best, what made the authorities decide to take it more seriously was the fact that many of the topics Jeff's acquaintance had discussed with him matched up with what they'd already read in the Allen letter from years before. Unfortunately, though, once the police actually brought Jeff in to question him formally, they were met with a tale which they deemed to be far too rambling and unrealistic, one which involved pagan holidays, the lunar calendar and Wiccan rituals. On top of that, jeff would refuse to identify who his acquaintance was with him, instead demanding to see the Allen letter for himself so that he could confirm the two stories matched up. So, with it seeming increasingly likely this was a man, just someone looking to mess the police around, he wouldn't be questioned any further, and from there things truly would go cold, until 2012 at least, at which point, with new methods of solving the crime available to them, the police would reopen the case, and this time, using the same DNA matching technology which would cast James Vincent Gunnels in such a poor light, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office would be able to fully rule out at least one suspect, as a check on Christopher Bush DNA here proved to not be a match for anything found on any of the physical evidence the cops had. But while this turned out to be disappointing to the families of the victims, who were still looking for answers, what happened next would give them some renewed hope, as, after taking another look at hair found while searching the car of Archibald Edward Sloan, the authorities would be able to determine this matched hairs which were discovered on the bodies of Mark Stebbins and Timothy King.
Speaker 1:And while this doesn't necessarily mean that Sloan was the one who carried out the murders, it does imply he had some involvement in it, if nothing else. In fact, it suggests he either had the children in his car at one point or that he lent his car to the person who kidnapped them. Sadly, though, this was still not enough to bring any formal charges down on him for the crimes, and to this day, even with the case now being reopened, the police have been unable to bring down any charges on anyone else. But it's not all bad news, because there is still hope remaining. In fact, in 2013, an anonymous tip led to cops discovering a blue AMC Gremlin which had been buried in a farm in nearby Grand Blanc, and while the police have yet to directly like this car to the one which was reported years prior or to find out who the owner of it is, it's a lead they're continuing to chase down in the hopes that it will finally lead them to the killer.
Speaker 1:So that's where we stand today, then, with justice still not looking like it's coming anytime soon for the deaths of at least four children, but while this case remains as of yet unsolved, it's not like the police investigation led to nothing at all. No, in fact. While looking into Theodore Lamborghini, the authorities would be able to uncover the full extent of the child pornography ring that was going on right underneath their noses, and so, if nothing else, at least this has surely saved a number of children over the intervening years. But even with those positive results, the question will always remain Just who was the Oakland County child killer?
Speaker 1:Was it one of the suspects we know of? Was it someone different entirely? Or was it, as is entirely possible, the combined efforts of more than one person, perhaps people who were involved in the underground sex ring we now know was going on at that time. It's certainly a chilling prospect and sadly it's there. We're going to leave things for today because until we know more, that's where the story will have to end. For now, thank you for joining us on this journey through the shadows of humanity. On the End of Reason podcast. As we conclude today's episode, remember that the pursuit of truth never truly ends. Until next time, stay vigilant, stay curious and never let go of reason.