(WWJ) Five decades ago, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard says a series of abductions and murders “shattered the innocence” of Southeast Michigan. And today, his mission to solve the case remains as urgent as ever.<\/p>\n
Between February 1976 and March 1977, four children \u2014 12-year-old Mark Stebbins, 12-year-old Jill Robinson, 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich, and 11-year-old Timothy King \u2014 were kidnapped and murdered in a series of crimes that gripped the nation.<\/p>\n
All four kids were abducted within a mile of Woodward Avenue.<\/p>\n
Stebbins, Mihelich, and King were all killed by suffocation or smothering, investigators said, while Robinson was killed by a shotgun blast. A specific hair sample has been DNA-linked to both Stebbins and King, providing the strongest physical link between the first and last victim.<\/p>\n
The Oakland County Child Killer has never been identified, but that hasn’t stopped speculation. Documentaries, books and true crime podcasts have all examined the case \u2014 which remains officially unsolved today.<\/p>\n
Regarless of how much time has passed. Sheriff Bouchard \u2014 who worked the case as a young officer \u2014 insists it has never been moved to the “back burner”.<\/p>\n
In an interview with WWJ Newsradio 950’s Amanda Forrester<\/a>, Bouchard said the sheriff\u2019s office maintains a dedicated Cold Case Unit and a Special Investigation Unit that actively pursue new leads as they arise.<\/p>\n The sheriff met recently with these teams to review the evidence and explore how modern capabilities might be applied to decades-old materials.<\/p>\n “Technology has evolved and changed such that we can re-examine pieces of potential evidence that were taken at that time,” Bouchard said, noting that many forensic tools available today simply didn’t exist in the 1970s.<\/p>\n Bouchard believes there are now only two likely ways this mystery will be solved.<\/p>\n The first: Through technological breakthroughs. The sheriff pointed to the successful use of mitochondrial DNA and genetic genealogy in other cold cases, such as a long-unsolved homicide in Royal Oak Township and a decades-old rape case on a golf course. The hope is that re-testing original evidence with these refined methods will yield a match.<\/p>\n The second path, he said. relies on human conscience.<\/p>\n Bouchard hopes that someone who “knew or saw something” might finally step forward, either because they no longer wish to die with the secret or because they are no longer afraid of the perpetrator.<\/p>\n For Sheriff Bouchard, the mission is personal. He was a 20-year-old “brand new boot” police officer when he first worked on the case.<\/p>\n He recalled that his mentor\u2019s biggest regret was never being able to give the victims’ families closure \u2014 a goal Bouchard is determined to achieve.<\/p>\n “I will leave no stone unturned,” Bouchard said. “Those children deserve it, those families deserve it, and the community deserves it.”<\/p>\n Anyone with information, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is encouraged to contact the Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office or the Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP (800-773-2587).<\/p>\n As always, those who call the Crime Stoppers tip line will stay 100% anonymous, and will not be required to give your name, speak to police or to testify in court. The public can also submit anonymous tips online at\u00a0this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WWJ) Five decades ago, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard says a series of abductions and murders “shattered the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-180231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}