Michigan Child Murders 1976 & 77

There were four children murdered in Michigan in 1976 & 77 that have yet been unsolved. Here is information about the kids and I will include a psychological profile of the killer in a secondary post. If anyone has information regarding these murders please contact the Michigan State Police.

Mark Stebbins,
Jill Robinson,
Kristine Mihelich,
Timothy King

What was the Oakland County Child Killer's-Family secret???
The Oakland County Child Killer was a serial killer responsible for the murders of four or more children in Oakland County, Michigan , United States in 1976 and 1977. The killer was also nicknamed The Babysitter, as all four victims had been recently bathed. During a 13-month period, four children were abducted and murdered with their bodies left in various locations within the county. The children were each held from four to 19 days before being killed. Their deaths triggered a murder investigation which at the time was the largest in U.S. history. The murders are still unsolved.
Fear and near-mass hysteria swept southeastern Michigan, as young people were inundated with information on "stranger danger", and parents clogged streets around schools dropping off and picking up their children. The few who did walk ,walked in groups and under the watchful eyes of parents in "safe houses", where children could go if they felt uncomfortable. Children even avoided using a playground directly behind the Birmingham police station. One incident in Livonia involved a tow-truck driver who assaulted a man he had seen asking two boys on the street for directions. He turned out to be an Ohio tire salesman who had gotten lost with no knowledge of the slayings. The Detroit News offered a $100,000 reward for the killer's apprehension.

Mark Stebbins , 12, of Ferndale , was last seen leaving an American Legion Hall on Sunday afternoon, February 15, 1976. He had told his mother he was going home to watch a movie on television. He never got there. His body was found just before noon on February 19, neatly laid out in a snowbank in the parking lot of an office building at Ten Mile Road and Greenfield in Southfield (some reports claim Oak Park ; Greenfield is the boundary between the two cities). He had been strangled and sexually assaulted with an object. Rope marks were seen on his wrists. He was fully clothed in the outfit he was wearing when last seen alive. Taken from Ferndale and deposited at the Oakland & Southfield boarder known as Addison Heights. Ten Mile Road and Greenfield in Southfield (some reports claim Oak Park ; Greenfield is the boundary between the two cities). American Legion Hall 1741 Livernois St., Ferndale, MI. This child was taken from the parking lot of 1741 Livernois St. Ferndale, and his body was deposited 5.52 miles away or a 13 minute drive time resting at the intersection of Ten Mile Road and Greenfield. The route indicates a left hand turn out of the parking lot traveling on W 9 Mile Rd crossing Rosewood St. then Coolidge Hwy. then turning right onto Greenfield to the intersection of 10 Mile Road. Taken from South of US 696 and deposited North of US 696.

Jill Robinson , 12, of Royal Oak , packed a backpack and ran away from her home on Wednesday, December 22, 1976 following an argument with her mother over dinner preparations. The day after her disappearance, her bicycle was found behind a hobby store on Main Street in that city. Her body was found on the morning of December 26, along the side of Interstate 75 near Big Beaver Road in Troy . She was killed by a single shotgun blast to the face. She was fully clothed and still wearing her backpack. The body was placed within sight of the Troy police station, once again, laid out neatly in the snow. Taken from Royal Oak and deposited in Troy. Interstate 75 near Big Beaver Road in Troy . Her bicycle was found behind a hobby store on Main Street in Royal Oak. The distance between abduction site and deposit site is 10.66 miles or a 20 minute drive time. Go North on Main St. to Mile Rd. turn left to Woodward Ave. then right and again north on Woodward Ave. to N. Adams Rd. north to Quarton Rd. then right to Big Beaver Rd.

Kristine Mihelich , 10, was last seen Sunday, January 2, 1977 at 3 p.m. at a 7-Eleven store on Twelve Mile Road at Oakshire in Berkley , purchasing a magazine. A mail carrier spotted her fully clothed body 19 days later on the side of a rural road in Franklin Village . She had been smothered. The body was laid within view of nearby homes, eyes closed and arms folded across the chest, once again in the snow. Taken from Berkley and deposited in Franklin Village. Taken from a 7-Eleven store on Twelve Mile Road at Oakshire in Berkley. Trip distance: 144.30 miles Time: 2 hrs 24 mins. Following Interstate & State Hwy. Routes.

Timothy King, 11 , borrowed 30 cents from his older sister and left his home in Birmingham , skateboard in hand, to buy candy at a drugstore on nearby Maple Road (Mills Pharmacy 1740 W Maple Rd, Birmingham, MI. established 1946) on Wednesday, March 16, 1977, at about 8:30 p.m. He left the store by the rear entrance, which opened to a parking lot shared with a supermarket, and vanished. An intensive search was executed that covered the entire metropolitan Detroit area, and there was widespread media coverage, already heavy with coverage of the previous three slayings. In an emotional television appeal, Timothy's father, Barry, begged the abductor to release his son unharmed. In a letter printed in the Detroit News , Miriam King wrote that she hoped Timothy could come home soon so she could serve him his favorite meal, Kentucky Fried Chicken s In the late evening hours of March 22, 1977, two teenagers in a car spotted his body in a shallow ditch alongside Gill Road, about 300 feet south of Eight Mile Road in Livonia , just across the county line in Wayne County .

His prized skateboard was placed next to his body. His clothing had been neatly pressed and washed. He had been suffocated and sexually assaulted with an object. The post-mortem showed that Timothy had eaten fried chicken before he was slain. Taken from Birmingham and deposited Eight Mile Road just across the county line in Wayne County. Gill Road, about 300 feet south of Eight Mile Road in Livonia. Trip distance: 22.38 miles Time: 33 mins. Birmingham - KFC - Kentucky Fried Chicken - 33900 Woodward Ave, Birmingham, MI, 48009. 2.5 to 3 miles from the boy's home.Note: Suffocation is normally a mechanism of death employed by females or "care givers."

Investigation:

After the discovery of Kristine Mihelich's body, authorities quickly realized they were dealing with three cases and evidence that were closely similar. Reports were released publicly of the possibility a serial killer was operating in the Oakland County area. The Michigan State Police led a group of law-enforcement officials from 13 communities in the formation of a task force , devoted solely to the investigation.

Soon after Timothy King was abducted, a composite drawing of the suspected kidnapper and his vehicle was released. A woman claimed she had seen a boy with a skateboard talking to a man in a parking lot of the drugstore that Timothy had told his parents he was going to ride his skateboard to. The vehicle was reportedly a blue AMC Gremlin with a white side stripe. Authorities would eventually question every Gremlin owner in Oakland County.

Investigators put together a profile of the killer based on witnesses' descriptions of the man seen talking to Timothy King the night he disappeared - a white male with a dark complexion, 25 to 35 years old with shaggy hair and sideburns. Authorities believed that the killer had a job that gave him freedom of movement and may have appeared to be someone that a child might trust, such as a police officer, clergyman or a doctor. He was also believed to be familiar with the area and had the ability to keep children for long periods of time without rousing neighbors' suspicions.

Psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Danto who worked with the task force received a letter several weeks after Timothy King's body was found from a man named "Allen", who claimed that he was the killer's roommate and even helped look after the victims. "Allen" said his roommate had been traumatized by killing children in Vietnam and was taking revenge out on more affluent citizens. Soon after, the psychiatrist got a phone call from "Allen", who offered to provide photographic evidence in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Under police surveillance, the psychiatrist arranged to meet "Allen" at a gay bar near Detroit's exclusive Palmer Woods neighborhood. "Allen" did not show, and was never heard from again. The task force checked out over 18,000 tips, but was unable to make much headway in the investigation. The task force disbanded in December 1978. The killer never struck again.

Suspects
Theodore Lamborgine

Police in Parma Heights, Ohio arrested Ted Lamborgine , a retired auto worker believed to have been involved in a child porn ring in the 1970s.
Lamborgine may also be a "person of interest" in the unsolved abduction/murder of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic , in Bay Village, Ohio , in 1989.Like the children from Oakland County, Amy was abducted in a business district, and seemed to go willingly with her kidnapper. Also like the children from Oakland County, Amy's body was discovered in a field just a few feet from a country road, as if it had been put there to be easily found.

On March 27, 2007, investigators told television station WXYZ that Lamborgine was considered the top suspect in this case. Lamborgine pleaded guilty to 15 sex-related counts involving young boys rather than accept a plea bargain that would have required him to take a polygraph test on the Oakland County child killings. Lamborgine also rejected an offer of a reduced sentence in exchange for a polygraph on the case.

In October 2007, the family of Mark Stebbins filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lamborgine seeking $25,000. The lawsuit alleges Lamborgine, who lived in Metro Detroit in the late 1970s, abducted Stebbins and held him captive in a Royal Oak house for four days in February 1976 before smothering him to death during a sex assault.
Lamborgine has never been formally linked, let alone charged in the death of Stebbins, the first of four children who were abducted and slain between February 1976 and March 1977. Attorney David A. Binkley seeks compensation, including funeral costs, for Stebbins' brother, Michael, but stressed money is secondary.

Mark StebbinsFerndale, MI 12-years-oldHeld captive 4 daysTwelve-year-old Mark Stebbins was last seen at the Ferndale American Legion Hall just after noon on Sunday, February 15, 1976. He was homeward bound to watch a movie on television. The 4’8, 100 pound boy had reddish-blonde hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a blue hooded parka, blue jeans, red sweatshirt, and black rubber boots. His mother reported him missing when he hadn’t come home by 11 p.m. Four days later, on February 19, Mark’s lifeless body was found in Southfield, MI , by a businessman who was walking through the parking lot of a local shopping mall. One witness reported that when he walked his dog in the same area at 9:30 a.m., Mark’s body was not present at the location.

Cause of death was rule to be asphyxia due to smothering. Mark had sustained two lacerations on the back left side of his scalp, had discoloration on his wrists and ankles indicating he had been bound with rope (or similar type material), and had been sexually assaulted. Jill RobinsonRoyal Oak, MI 12-years-oldHeld captive 4 daysAfter having an argument with her mother, 12-year-old Jill Robinson of Royal Oak packed her denim backpack with some clothes and a blue and green plaid blanket and left home on her bicycle the evening of Wednesday, December 22, 1976. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a shirt, a bright orange winter jacket, snow boots, and a blue knit cap with a yellow design on its border. Jill’s body was found the day after Christmas placed along a snowy shoulder of Interstate 75 just north of 16 Mile Road, near Big Beaver, in Troy, MI.

She had been placed on her back in plain sight of any possible passersby. Blood spatter evidence indicated that Jill had received a blast to the head from a 12-gauge shotgun as her body lay in the snow. She had not been sexually molested. Her bicycle was found the next day (December 27) by a neighborhood boy behind a Royal Oak business. It is uncertain if it was left there by Jill on the 22nd, or placed there by her killer sometime later. Kristine MihelichBerkley, MI 10-years-oldHeld captive 19 daysKristine Mihelich left home Sunday, January 02, 1977, at approximately 3 p.m. headed to the 7-11 Store on 12 Mile Road in Berkley. When the 10-year-old wasn’t home by 6 p.m. her mother reported her missing. The clerk at the store remembered a girl matching Kristine’s description buying a teen movie magazine. Though Detroit area television and radio stations broadcast details of Kristine’s disappearance, and while investigators chased many tips from the public for two weeks, it appeared as though Kristine had vanished into thin air. However, on January 21, 1977, at approximately 11:45 a.m., a mail carrier found Kristine’s discarded body near 13 Mile Road. It had been placed in plain sight in a snow-filled ditch alongside a dead-end road in Franklin Village, MI . Upon examination, it was determined that Kristine’s body had been at the site less than 24 hours. Just like Mark Stebbins, Kristine had been smothered. Authorities believe Kristine had been redressed by her killer, as her blouse had been tied in the front, and not in the back the way she normally did it. Likewise, her pants were tucked into her boots, which was also something that was out of character for Kristine.The autopsy physician did not find evidence of sexual molestation.

Timothy KingBirmingham, MI. 11-years-oldHeld captive 6 daysEleven-year-old Timothy King was last seen by his older sister the evening of Wednesday, March 16, 1977, as he left his Birmingham home. The sister was on her way out with friends, but gave Tim some money to spend on candy at a nearby store on Maple Road. When he left, he asked her to leave the door ajar so he could get back into the house. At approximately 9:00 his parents returned home, to find the door still ajar and the house empty. A saleswoman at the store he was headed towards reported seeing a boy matching his description the night Timothy disappeared.

Another witness reportedly saw Tim at approximately 8:30 p.m. that same night while she was loading groceries into her car. She described a small boy talking to a man standing by a car a few parking spots away. The boy was wearing a red jacket with emblems on it - which seemed to resemble Tim’s Birmingham Hockey Association jacket. The witness provided enough information to create a composite sketch of the man, and describe the car -- a dark blue Gremlin with a white "hockey stick" stripe on the side.Timothy’s body was discovered, fully dressed, six days after his disappearance on March 22, 1977, in a Livonia ditch off of Gill Road. He had been smothered to death 6 to 8 hours before his body was found; and had been placed in the ditch approximately 3 hours before discovery. He had been sexually assaulted and smothered. Autopsy results indicated that he had eaten a meal that included ‘fowl’ about an hour before he died. When found, Timothy’s body was very clean, including his fingernails and toenails (which were usually dirty), and his wrists had marks as though he had been bound for a period of time. The boy was fed his favorite meal, Kentucky Fried Chicken. The killer watched the newscast of his mother pleading for his safe return where she stated what his favorite meal was.


News Article ©
By TRACY WARD
Of The Daily Oakland Press
He never found the killer, never solved the mystery surrounding the monster who silently, one by one, stole children off the streets.
Now, his son will try. Nearly 30 years after Robert Robertson led the original Oakland County Child Killer Task Force, his son, Detective Sgt. David Robertson, is joining the investigation into the unsolved 1976-77 slayings.

Michigan State Police announced Friday that they are renewing their efforts to solve the case, buoyed recently by new tips. They declined comment on those tips. "Good luck. He just said, 'Good luck,' " said Robertson, 46, of Westland, of his father's reaction that a second generation would be tackling the Child Killer murders. "He just wants somebody to solve it. He doesn't care who."

Four children were killed over 13 months in 1976-77, disappearing from streets that were supposed to be safe. As their families waited and hoped, the killer, dubbed "the Baby-sitter," toyed with them for days, keeping them alive, feeding them, bathing them, before he killed them, leaving their small bodies in the snow along roads and parking lots.
The slayings terrorized Oakland County. Streets were quiet as children were kept inside or escorted to schools. School counselors advised kids on staying safe. Warnings appeared on everything from T-shirts to restaurant place mats.

The victims were:
Mark Stebbins, 12, who was abducted while walking near his Ferndale home on Feb. 15, 1976. His body was found four days later - 29 years ago Friday - in the parking lot of a strip mall in Oak Park. The seventh-grader, smothered, had been sexually abused and rope marks were found on his ankles and wrists.

Jill Robinson, 12, who left her Royal Oak home Dec. 22, 1976, in a huff after an argument with her mother. Jill didn't want to bake biscuits for dinner. Her body was found the day after Christmas along Interstate 75 near Big Beaver Road in Troy. She was shot in the head at close range.
Kristine Mihelich, 10, was abducted near her Berkley home on Jan. 2, 1977, after buying a magazine at a nearby store. Nineteen days later, her body was found by a mail carrier who spotted her small hand sticking up through the snow on Bruce Lane, near 13 Mile and Telegraph roads in the village of Franklin. Like Stebbins, she was suffocated.
n Timothy King, 11, was kidnapped from a grocery store parking lot near his home in Birmingham on March 16, 1977. He was found March 22, just south of the Oakland County line in Livonia. He had been suffocated and, like Stebbins, abused.

Timothy King, 11 , borrowed 30 cents from his older sister and left his home in Birmingham , skateboard in hand, to buy candy at a drugstore on nearby Maple Road on Wednesday, March 16, 1977, at about 8:30 p.m. He left the store by the rear entrance, which opened to a parking lot shared with a supermarket, and vanished.

An intensive search was executed that covered the entire metropolitan Detroit area, and there was widespread media coverage, already heavy with coverage of the previous three slayings. In an emotional television appeal, Timothy's father, Barry, begged the abductor to release his son unharmed. In a letter printed in the Detroit News , Miriam King wrote that she hoped Timothy could come home soon so she could serve him his favorite meal, Kentucky Fried Chicken s In the late evening hours of March 22, 1977, two teenagers in a car spotted his body in a shallow ditch alongside Gill Road, about 300 feet south of Eight Mile Road in Livonia , just across the county line in Wayne County . His prized skateboard was placed next to his body. His clothing had been neatly pressed and washed. He had been suffocated and sexually assaulted with an object. The post-mortem showed that Timothy had eaten fried chicken before he was slain.

David Robertson's partner, Detective Sgt. Garry Gray, officially assigned the Michigan State Police investigation, says he happened to read an e-mail from a victim's father. It strengthened his resolve.
"(It said) 'I can't go on any longer, it's just too painful. The police have given up,' " Gray said.

"We haven't given up. We have not given up." Barry King, father of Timmy King, was at a police news conference Friday. He declined comment, but was not the author of the e-mail, Gray said.

The original Oakland County Child Killer Task Force at one point included more than 300 law enforcement personnel from dozens of agencies, with headquarters in a vacant Beverly Hills elementary school.
The task force was disbanded a few years later, but police departments continued to receive reports and tips, even decades after the slayings.
Last week, all of the yellowing files and nearly 100,000 tips collected were moved to the state police's Metro North post in Oak Park. Photos of an old blue Gremlin, once believed to be the killer's car, and old composite photos of suspects, hang on the walls there now.

Theories abound - on the Internet a man named "John" is identified as the killer. Others suggest it was a priest or a man posing as a police officer. Another points at a Troy engineering student.
In 1999, the body of autoworker David Norberg was exhumed from a Wyoming grave so his DNA could be compared with that of a hair found on one of the children's bodies. It wasn't a match.

Gray is hoping all of the old files can be collected in a centralized computer database similar to those used by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, ensuring the search for the killer continues.
In the last three decades, life has moved on for everyone involved. Detectives have retired. Robert Robertson, 71, a great-grandfather, is a snowbird now who spends his winters in Florida and summers in Greenville, Mich.

Life didn't stop for the victim's families, either. Some of them, like Ruth Stebbins - Mark Stebbins' mother - have died, never seeing justice done.
Some detectives have never given up, like Berkley police Detective Sgt. Ray Anger. At 64, he could have retired 10 years ago. One of the reasons he stays is the Oakland County Child Killer case.

He took the original missing child report from the Mihelich family.
He knew the Stebbins' family, too. On the day before she died, Anger made Ruth Stebbins a promise: "I can't promise you I'll ever solve it, but I'll never stop trying."

There are others - Ferndale Detective George Hartley, Oakland County Sheriff's Deputies Jim Ahern and Clay Jansen, a patrol officer when the children were killed, plus officers from Birmingham and Franklin. Joining their ranks now will be David Robertson. Like his father before him, he'll be searching for answers.

Robertson's dad, who retired in 1984 and served as an undersheriff in western Michigan, could not be interviewed. But he believed the killer was either dead or institutionalized, and was quoted at one time, saying, "I'm convinced he is not among us today."

His son said his father was not haunted by the case or the fact the killer was never caught. Instead, his dad finds comfort that the deluge of tips over the years helped solve dozens of other unrelated cases, Robertson said. The task force served as a model for other efforts, including the Atlanta Child Killer Task Force in the early 1980s.

His father, who received a commendation for his work with the Oakland County Child Killer Task Force, was also instrumental in the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
He sees his father's work in old files, paperwork filled with familiar handwriting.

"RHR, that's how he signed everything," said Robertson, one of three brothers who work in law enforcement, including his twin brother, John, an Oakland County Sheriff's detective in Oxford.
Robertson says his dad, adamant about separating home and work life, never talked much about the case. But there were days he was gone by dawn, and home too late. His son hopes the answer will be found.
"To say we can't solve it? We can't do that," Robertson said.
"Somebody out there knows," said Anger. "Somebody out there knows."