By David Ashenfelter, Detroit Free Press –
DETROIT — He wants people to believe he has managed to accomplish what hundreds of state, local and federal investigators couldn’t: crack the Oakland County, Mich., child killer case from the 1970s.
But he won’t say who he is, what he does for a living or how it is that he supposedly solved the mystery.
He refers to himself only as Bob. And he speaks — to reporters, investigators, a lawyer and the mother of one victim — only by phone to protect his identity. He wants the U.S. Department of Justice to take the reins of the investigation, suggesting that local authorities have botched the probe or are covering up. But so far, he hasn’t given investigators any hard evidence to pursue.
Bob said he doesn’t have any confidence that Oakland and Wayne county grand juries that are supposedly investigating the case will ever charge anyone.
Though his claims have provided a ray of hope to one family, he is seen as a source of frustration among others who hope for eventual justice. Does he really know anything, or is he just tormenting families with claims he can’t back up?
Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, who said authorities talked with Bob on the phone in October 2012 and came away unimpressed, dismissed Bob as a crank and accused him of exploiting a grieving mother.
“Did he talk about the wiccans, pagan holidays and the lunar calendar?” Cooper asked after Bob conducted news media interviews Monday.
“We have a tape recording of the meeting, and you can listen to it if you want,” she said. “It will be an hour of your life that you will never get back.”
Bob’s news media day consisted of reporters being individually shuttled in and out of a downtown Detroit law office to interview Bob over a cellphone that sat on a table in a cluttered conference room.
Here’s what he told the Detroit Free Press:
At least five people were involved in the slayings, and at least four of them are still alive.
The culprits killed 11 to 16 more children than the four authorities previously credited to the Oakland County Child Killer.
All of the children were killed on pagan or satanic holidays.
He and his fellow investigators, about eight in all, have identified at least five factors that link the cases.
“The odds of finding that many cases that have that many similarities would be like hitting six different lottery grand prizes with the same numbers — the odds of that are beyond astronomical,” Bob said during the hourlong interview.
Bob wouldn’t identify the killers or provide a list of all of their victims because, he said, he doesn’t want to jeopardize a possible Justice Department investigation.
He was interviewed in the office of attorney Paul Hughes, who, two weeks ago, filed a $100 million federal lawsuit against Oakland County authorities and the Michigan State Police, claiming they stonewalled the families’ efforts to find out what investigators know.
Bob rebuffed a request from a radio reporter who wanted him to call his station to be interviewed with his voice electronically distorted.
Hughes and Deborah Jarvis of Petoskey have said they have never met Bob face-to-face and don’t know who he is. But Jarvis said she has had hundreds of phone conversations with him in the last two years.
Authorities have said that the killer or killers abducted and killed four children in 1976-77 in southern Oakland County.
They were Jarvis’ daughter, Kristine Mihelich, 10, of Berkley; Mark Stebbins, 12, of Ferndale; Jill Robinson, 12, of Royal Oak, and Timothy King, 11, of Birmingham. No one has been charged in the cases, although authorities have identified several possible suspects over the years.
Bob told the Free Press on Monday that he has tried over the years to get federal authorities to investigate the child killings, but was told that the request has to come from Oakland County authorities, including Cooper.
He said he discussed the case in an October 2010 meeting arranged by Associated Press reporter Corey Williams and former Detroit Police Chief Isaiah McKinnon.
Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton and Undersheriff Mike McCabe attended the meeting.
Bob said that during the gathering, he laid out his theories about the case and asked investigators whether they would provide a couple of minor pieces of information about it so he could tie up some loose ends on his inquiry.
He said they refused.
AP never published a story about the meeting and wouldn’t say why.
On Monday, McKinnon wouldn’t vouch for Bob’s credibility. He said he felt obligated as a former lawman to help arrange a meeting between Bob and Oakland County authorities.
“I did my duty,” he said.
McCabe said Monday that he recalls the meeting.
“We listened to him,” McCabe said. “We didn’t blow him off.”
When they asked him to identify the killer, McCabe said Bob refused. McCabe said he recalls that authorities gave Bob the information he was seeking in hopes that he would come forward.
But he never did.
“He has a moral and ethical obligation to come forward,” McCabe said. “If he doesn’t trust Wayne and Oakland county law enforcement, then turn it over to the FBI. The FBI has been involved in the task force for years.”
