Tag Archives: #Michigan

71 Murder at Tody Lake

May, 1975, two cousins, Scott Hardy and Mark Mellendorf walk from Mellendorf’s home in Lapeer County Michigan to Tody Lake for some fishing.

When the boys don’t return home, their parents raise the alarm and searchers scour the woods for hours trying to find the young boys. The next morning, a tracking dog makes a horrific discovery on the southern end of the lake. Both boys are dead and there is a killer on the loose in this idyllic community.

Days later a second boy, Willie Walters, takes his fishing gear to Kearsley Creek, he too doesn’t return. His battered body is discovered the next morning.

These horrific crimes happened just a few miles north of the hunting grounds favored by the Oakland County Child Killer in 1976-1977.

John G. Schrah is serving life in prison at a facility in the upper peninsula.
Judge Baguley presided at the trial of Kenneth Nard.
Kenneth Nard has spent his entire adult life in prison.

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66 Murder at Eastern – The Death of Julia Niswender

In 2012, 23 year old Julia Niswender was chasing her dreams. A student at Eastern Michigan University, her goal was to work as a broadcast journalist.
 
One December evening, someone entered her off campus apartment and murdered her. Her death devastated her mother and twin sister, and the investigation into her murder would tear the family apart.

Julia Niswender

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60 Vincent Chin revisited

On June 19, 1982 Vincent Chin was attacked by two men wielding a baseball bat.  He would die four days later,  on his mother’s birthday.

The men who attacked him never spent a night in jail, they were given probation and a small fine. The Asian American community rose up and demanded justice for Vincent Chin. This was the birth of the Asian American Civil Rights Movement.

Vincent and his bride to be. He didn’t live to see his wedding day.

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additional reading:
NY Times Opinion 

NBC News 

54 Missing in Michigan – Chelsea Bruck

October 25, 2014. 22 year old Chelsea Bruck attends a huge outdoor halloween party/concert in a wooded area outside of Monroe, Michigan. Dressed as Poison Ivy in a long plum colored wig, and leaf trimmed green leotard the tall blonde spends the evening at the party with friends. After getting separated from her friends she is trying to find a ride home after 2:00 a.m.

Chelsea in street clothes and in costume the night she was murdered.

The person she accepts a ride from is someone from a nightmare. Chelsea is gone, vanished.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s department works the case hard, calling in assistance from dozens of agencies. In spring 2015 pieces of Chelsea’s costume are discovered in Flat Rock Michigan, but no sign of the missing woman. Weeks later her badly decomposed remains are located. In 2016, almost two years after she vanished an arrest is made. 27 year old Daniel Clay, a friend of one of her coworkers, is arrested after his DNA is found on Chelsea’s bloody costume.

Daniel denies murdering Chelsea, despite clear evidence that she received a brutal beating. In May 2017, a jury finds him guilty of murder and concealing her body. He was sentenced on July 13, 2017

The many arrests of Daniel Clay.

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53 Missing in Michigan #FindDani

On December 2, 2016 28 year old Danielle Stislicki left her job in Southfield and disappeared. Her family, community and law enforcement are working hard to #FindDani.

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Dani disappeared along with her coat, phone and keys.

Also, coverage of the Missing in Michigan event on May 6, 2017 and we revisit some old/cold cases covered previously on the podcast.


UPDATES: In 2018 Floyd Galloway, a security guard at Met-Life where Dani worked was named a person of interest in her case. In 2019, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged Galloway with Dani’s murder. He is awaiting trial and our lovely Danielle is still MISSING. #FindDani

51 Donald Eugene Miller

From New Years Eve 1976 through the summer of 1977 Donald Eugene Miller terrorized the college community of East Lansing and the surrounding communities. While he was never charged with murder, only manslaughter, he is responsible for the deaths of four women and assaults on two children.

Sue Young, the mother of his first victim wrote a book about her experiences. Lethal Friendship: A mother’s battle to put -and keep- a serial killer behind bars.


Miller’s first victim, his former fiancee Martha Sue Young.

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49 The Michigan Murders Part 2

Please listen to episode 48, part one first.

In 1969 John Norman Collins was arrested and charged with the murder of and 18 year old co-ed Karen Sue Beineman. California governor and future US president Ronald Reagan wanted Collins extradited from Michigan to California to stand trial for the murder of a 17 year old girl in his state.

Meanwhile, Collins, his family and his attorneys are fighting to keep him out of jail, or if they cannot, they want him extradited to Canada, the country of his birth, where he would have the possibility of parole.

Collins trial leads to the resolution of one murder, but there are six other bodies waiting for justice.

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Music by Luke Superior

Contact: host at already gone podcast dot com

The Michigan Murders

The summer of 1967 brought the first victim. A serial killer would terrorize the college community of University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.

By August of 1969 six women were dead, including a 13 year old girl. This is the story of John Norman Collins.

Some of Collins alleged victims

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Contact me: host at already gone podcast dot com

46 Women’s True Crime Broad Cast

The first broad cast of 2017 features the lovely and talented Amber Hunt of the Cincinnati Enquirer. You may know her as the voice behind Accused: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Andes.

Amber discusses the show, their process and what’s in store for season two. She also answers listener questions and speaks candidly about her time in Michigan.

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Contact me: host at already gone podcast dot com

Episode 45 The murder of Pauline Campbell

On a warm September night in 1951 the brutal murder of nurse Pauline Campbell stunned the community. The attack was one in an escalating series of assaults on nurses in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The identity of the killers would rock the community to it’s core.

A fascinating vintage crime in a college town.

Nurse Campbell in her uniform.

Link to photo of Walter DeDula

Girls crowded the courthouse to see William R. Morey III at his trial.

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42 The Good Hart Murders

June 25, 1968, the Robison family is 10 days in to a relaxing summer “Up North” at their wood and stone cottage on Lake Michigan.

That night a killer or killers fired on the house, wounding Richard Robison, they then entered the house and executed the entire family. Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone want the family dead? We still look for answers to a brutal mass murder.

Read Mardi Link’s Book When Evil Came to Good Hart for a deeper look at the case.

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The Robison Family – Shirley, Gary, Susie, Randy, Richard and Dick.

41 Lawrence DeLisle

The evening of August 3, 1989 Lawrence J. DeLisle was out driving around with his wife, Suzanne and their four children: 8-year-old Bryan, 4-year-old Kathryn, 2-year-old Melissa and 8-month-old Emily.

Lawrence lost control of the car and it flew off the road into the Detroit River. The car sank quickly. Lawrence and his wife swam to safety, but all four children drown. What appeared to be a tragic accident evolved into a horrifying story. Had Lawrence done the unthinkable? Had he intentionally driven the car into the murky waters of the Detroit River in an attempt to kill himself and his family?

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Thanks to Frank for suggesting this story.

This episode is cohosted and cowritten by Nate Hale of The Conspirators Podcast.

Music courtesy of Luke Superior.