Two days after the remains had been identified as those of Mary Fleszar, a young man claiming to be a friend of the Fleszar family arrived at the funeral home holding Fleszar's body prior to her scheduled burial. [162] Although Collins had claimed to police that he had been with his mother in the Detroit suburb of Center Line on the weekend of Schell's disappearance, police had never sought to verify his alibi.[24]. David Leik, had refused to divulge the blood type(s) of his family to defense attorneys. Nonetheless, the three appellate judges at this appeal hearing concluded thus: "In our view, improperly admitted testimony that is merely corroborative of properly admitted evidence is not the basis for holding the error reversible. Leik acknowledged that the evidence thus far gathered against his nephew was compelling, although in this first interview, he did not advise officers of the items missing from his household, or the paint marks he and his wife had found upon the floor of the family basement; however, the following morning, Leik scraped away some of the black paint which had been sprayed in his basement to reveal a stain which looked ominously like human blood and immediately returned to the police station to report his findings. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) On Monday, the 30th circuit court in Lansing heard from victims and inmates as they tried to determine new sentences for three murderers. 0:27. Interrogation tapes reveal connections between Jeffrey Willis and She was last seen alive outside a drive-in restaurant on Washtenaw Avenue two days before her body was discovered (although autopsy reports indicated Skelton had died between 24 and 36 hours before her body was discovered). Detective: Nursing home killers suffocated up to a dozen patients As Davis opened the door for his roommate to leave the apartment, he observed that the contents of this box included a woman's purple shoe, rolled-up jean-like material, and a burlap purse. Investigators determined the knife was consistent with the weapon used to stab Kalom. Devon Hoover was found wrapped in sheet after domestic incident [127], The prosecutors at Collins' trial, William Delhey and Booker Williams, opted to charge Collins only with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, with the state contending that she had been murdered by Collins in the basement of the Leik household. [157], The state of California postponed their requests to extradite Collins to face charges relating to Phillips' murder in June 1971. Despite repeatedly challenging the overturning of the 1981 decision to transfer him to a Canadian prison, a federal appellate court ruled in May 1988 that Chapman should remain incarcerated at Marquette Branch Prison. Davis said her family is heartbroken and struggling to deal with Andersons Furthermore, Collins' lawyers argued issues such as the admissibility of testimony relating to the microscopic analysis of hair samples presented at his trial, and the denial of defense motions to suppress prosecution witnesses testifying against their client. In a final address to the jury on August 14, Judge Conlin informed the panel they had two choices in the verdict they could render: Guilty of first-degree murder, or not guilty. After hearing six hours of testimony from nine prosecution witnesses, Judge Edward Deake ruled that probable cause had been established, and Collins was formally ordered to stand trial for Beineman's murder.[73]. "[93] before angrily walking out of her apartment. Although Collins emphatically protested his innocence and insisted the eyewitnesses' identification of him had been an error, he refused to return to the police station to take a polygraph test. [47] A handkerchief found stuffed in her mouth had likely been placed there to muffle her cries throughout her torture, and her murderer had placed her body in a location where rapid discovery was assured. When asked to formally identify the individual upon whose motorcycle she had observed waiting outside her shop,[84] Goshe pointed directly at John Norman Collins. Michigan murderers list | Murderpedia Joan Schell (20): June 30, 1968 3. About 40 years ago, between 1967 and 1969, the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor community at large were terrorized by a series of brutal murders. Police had noted (and would continue to note) common denominators in the physical characteristics of the victims, and the manner in which they died: all of the victims had been brunette Caucasians; each (excluding Mixer) had been the recipient of extensive violence inflicted with a blunt and/or bladed instrument prior to her murder; each of the victims' bodies had been found within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County; and each victim (excluding Mixer) had received knife wounds to the neck. Five months later, on January 4, 1992, he raped and killed 15 Michigan Albrecht had provided Monterey County investigators with an identikit which, in addition to her descriptions of the suspect's possessions, circumstances and status, bore a striking resemblance to John Norman Collins. The corpse was badly decomposed, although the pathologist who examined Fleszar's remains was able to determine she had been stabbed approximately 30 times in the chest and abdomen with a knife or other sharp object, that her feet had been severed just above the ankle, the thumb and sections of the fingers of one hand were missing, and that one forearm had been severed from her body (these severed appendages were never found). The circumstances surrounding this case prevented me from getting a fair trial. Her murderer had likely driven to the location to dispose of her body, before making rudimentary efforts to conceal the body with clumps of grass. No search warrant had been sought prior to Collins being questioned on this date, and his apartment would only be searched on July 30two days after Arnold Davis had observed Collins hurriedly remove a box of women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment. Kennard Christensen, testified as to the results of forensic tests conducted in the Leik family basement: the results of these tests confirmed evidence of bloodstains in four separate areas. [168] Collins had protested his innocence on this occasion, and insisted the eyewitnesses' identifications of him had been erroneous, although he refused to return to the police station to take a polygraph test. In a brief final argument on behalf of the prosecution, Booker Williams re-emphasized the physical and circumstantial evidence against Collins, before accusing the defense attorneys of attempting to sow doubt in, particularly, the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution. Prior to his passing sentence, Judge Conlin asked Collins if he wished to address the court before mandatory life sentencing was imposed. Maralynn Skelton (16): March 24, 1969 4. [43] These factors led police to publicly conclude the same perpetrator was responsible for at least three of the murders thus far committed. Photos, evidence in Michigan murders case against John Beineman's body was replaced with that of a tailor's mannequin, and the gully surrounding this mannequin monitored by undercover officers. [129], Formal witness testimony began on July 20, 1970. [145], On August 19, 1970, John Norman Collins was unanimously found guilty of the first-degree murder of Karen Sue Beineman. [166] In addition, prior to his returning to Michigan, Collins is known to have visited a California hospital to receive treatment for poison oak anaphylaxis.[166]. [132]), Also to testify at the trial on behalf of the prosecution was Marjorie Barnes, who testified on July 30 to having observed Collins leaving his uncle's home carrying a laundry box covered with a blanket on either July 24 or 25, 1969. [44], At 6:30a.m. on April 16, the body of a 13-year-old schoolgirl named Dawn Louise Basom was found beside a desolate road in Ypsilanti. [24] Blood spatterings and churned soil close to the crime scene indicated she had been beaten close to where her body was discovered, and that she may have attempted to escape her attacker. [40], Following the March 24 murder of Maralynn Skelton, police from the five separate jurisdictions where the murderer had abducted or disposed of the bodies of his victims formally combined resources in an effort to compare information and identify the perpetrator. Perkons testified as to his belief that the hair samples retrieved from Beineman's panties were of a "different origin" than the hair samples retrieved from the Leiks' basement,[140] whereas Golub stated that because he had found only one single fiber upon the victim's panties, the likelihood of her undergarments accumulating these hairs from a basement was extremely remote. [49] Sales of tear gas, knives, and security locks increased,[64] hitchhiking became a rarity among students, and the reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer increased to $42,000 (the equivalent of about $341,046 as of 2023[update]). [80], Upon retracing Beineman's movements on the day of her disappearance, police questioned the proprietor of the wig shop Beineman had visited immediately prior to her disappearance, Diana Joan Goshe. These two witnesses were followed by the individual who had found her body on July 26, and the medical examiner called to the crime scene, Dr. Craig Barlow. guilty of first-degree murder for six of the seven victims. Delhey also stated the prosecution's intent to prove that Collins had had sole access to his uncle's home and basement on the afternoon of Beineman's disappearance, and although he had made concerted efforts to remove physical evidence from the crime scene, blood samples recovered from this location were a match for the blood type of the victim. Initial reports had listed as many as eight possible victims. WebSoutheastern Michigan was terrorized by something it had never experienced before: a serial killer. She was reported missing by her roommate, Sherri Green, when she failed to return to her dormitory after curfew. In this cross-examination, Sheriff Harvey admitted to having driven Mrs. Goshe and her assistant to East Lansing to view the updated composite drawing of the suspect in Beineman's murder, and that he had shown photographs of various suspects, including Collins, to Goshe prior to her formally identifying Collins in a lineup. This psychologist had been adamant that Collins' trial should be held outside Washtenaw County, and this motion had likewise been reserved. These 10 Famous Murders In Michigan Will Never Be Forgotten [83], Although Goshe would initiallyand incorrectlydescribe the motorcycle as being possibly a Honda 350 model,[84] when police questioned Carol Wieczerca, a clerk in the store adjacent to the wig shop, Wieczerca was able to state that the model of the motorcycle was actually a Triumph. [152], At his 1972 appeal hearing, Collins' lawyers did succeed in securing the partial striking of the testimony of Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, the final prosecution witness at his trial, who had testified as to the odds of erroneous matching of the hairs found upon Karen Beineman's panties to those in the Leik family basement being "more than a million-to-one. Her body has never been found. A forensic examination of this trailer revealed it had been completely wiped of fingerprints. Hurkos accurately predicted that the murderer was a strongly built white male under 25 years of age, who had been born outside the United States, and who rode a motorcycle. She also recalled having observed a young man with short, side-parted dark hair, wearing a horizontal striped sweater, waiting on a blue motorcycle outside the shop as Beineman made her purchase. [21] Nonetheless, the inquiry into both murders remained active, and a reward then-totaling $7,800 for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrator of both homicides remained.[22]. Following her identification of a photograph of Collins, police further questioned the proprietor of the wig shop in which Beineman had last been seen alive, asking her to identify the man she had seen with Beineman in a police lineup. "[156], At the time of his 1970 conviction, a grand jury indictment against Collins remained outstanding in relation to the June 1969 murder of Roxie Ann Phillips in Monterey County, California. The serial killer fatally shot Ronald Felton, 60, the next month. [66], Despite recovering numerous stolen items from his apartment and being informed by Arnold Davis that Collins had been in the habit of committing burglaries with a former roommate of theirs named Andrew Manuel,[100] no incriminating evidence linking Collins to Beineman or any victim of the Michigan Murders was discovered, although officers were informed by Arnold Davis on this date of the incident two days earlier in which he (Davis) had observed Collins carrying a laundry box containing women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment and towards his car. [138], On August 8, Collins' attorneys introduced a renowned neutron analyst named Dr. Robert Jervis in an effort to discredit the earlier testimony of the forensic experts who had testified on behalf of the prosecution. [86] When questioned as to the source of these clippings, Leik (who had not been informed of the discovery of the hair clippings found upon Beineman's panties) informed investigators that his wife regularly cut their children's hair in this basement, and that she had done so shortly before the family had embarked upon their vacation. For example, in the case of Mary Fleszar, investigators discovered that at the time of her disappearance, Collins had worked part-time in the Eastern Michigan University administration unit, and that his office had been located directly opposite the hallway from the office where Fleszar had herself worked.
