My eleven-year-old son Timothy was abducted on March 16, 1977, in our hometown of Birmingham, Oakland County, Michigan. Tim was held captive for six days, sexually abused and then suffocated. His body was found in a roadside ditch in Livonia, Wayne County, Michigan on March 22, 1977. Tim was the last identified victim of the person or people who came to be known as the Oakland County Child Killer. The original Task Force formed to investigate his death and that of three other child victims terminated in December 1978. A new OCCK Task Force was formed in 2005 when new evidence was available. Except for occasional phone calls from the investigators asking me if I could identify certain individuals, no one from law enforcement advised me of the status of the investigation for more than 30 years.
In 2006 my children, Cathy and Chris received a tip on an unidentified suspect. Because of numerous complaints from other informants about the failure of Oakland County to investigate their leads, Cathy called the Livonia Police Department in July 2007 and talked to Detective Cory Williams. Cooperating with Detective Sergeant Garry Gray of the Michigan State Police, the investigators identified this suspect as Christopher Busch, the son of a General Motors Vice President. Busch was a four-time convicted pedophile who never spent a day in jail.
Jessica Cooper, the Oakland County Prosecutor, has not talked to me about this case. Thus far her silence has been supported by the legal system, specifically the courts in Oakland County and the Michigan Attorney Grievance Association. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and her staff have kept my family informed and have met with my family numerous times. My search for the truth began on March 1, 2010 when Donald Studt, the Police Chief in Birmingham, called to tell me Busch and his companions were no longer suspects. It is my current intention to write many chapters concerning my observations of the investigation and use this blog for publication.
Last year the King family was advised that the Michigan State Police, Oakland County and Wayne County were sharing information and otherwise cooperating in the OCCK case. Wayne County recently met with Chris and me to discuss the current state of the case. I will discuss this further in my summary. However I do wish to leave a history of my concerns over the 30 years of silence and governmental actions after 2007 when my family finally got involved.
I am concerned that solving the OCCK case murders has become a political problem rather than a criminal problem. After I finish this story, I welcome comments from readers of these posts.
February 10, 2016