Renkoski cold case: 'Someone out there' does know

There are many tips and leads into the disappearance — and likely murder — of an Okemos woman last seen 26 years ago on the shoulder of a Livingston County expressway.

While none of those estimated 1,200 tips have led to a suspect, a three-member cold case team investigating the disappearance of Paige Marie Renkoski remains optimistic that her case can be solved. The team plans to use ground-penetrating radar to search undisclosed locations in Livingston County in their ongoing effort to find the missing 30-year-old woman.

"We believe there's someone out there who does know," Mike Frayer, a member of the Livingston County Sheriff's Department Cold Case Team that is re-examining the Renkoski case files, said in a recent interview with the Livingston Daily.

"It's time for them to do the right thing and it's time to come forth and tell what they know," he said. "This family and this young lady deserve justice."

Renkoski was last seen May 24, 1990, on westbound Interstate 96, about one-quarter of a mile east of the Fowlerville exit or mile marker 129, talking to a man standing next to a maroon-colored minivan. Her car, which belonged to her mother's employer, was found hours later, still running, lights on and her shoes and purse inside.

Frayer, a retired police chief from Westland, and his cold case team members, William Lenaghan and Joe Morrow, say they have no doubt the 5-foot-, 7-inch tall, 125-pound blond-haired woman is dead, but investigators have been unable to answer what happened to her as well as where, when and why.

"That's the great mystery," Frayer said. "If we can find her, I think the dominoes will start falling. … Most of these cases, if you can find where, you've got a good shot of finding who did it."

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From friendly visit to vanished

The cold case team has created a timeline of Renkoski's whereabouts that day in an effort to narrow the time frame she went missing.

Based on witness accounts, Renkoski drove her mother to Detroit Metro airport around 11:30 a.m.

She then went to visit a friend in Canton where they went to a park before returning to the friend's home.

Renkoski was seen around 2:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. at a now defunct party store located at Ford Road, west of Interstate 275 in Canton where she purchased a beer, which was found in the car. The clerk there has a vivid memory of Renkoski because she wore a distinctive multi-colored, loose-fitting flowered pants and distinctive necklace, the latter of which the clerk asked Renkoski about, Frayer said.

Various witnesses reported seeing Renkoski driving west on I-96, including one woman who claimed she might have seen the missing woman at a rest stop kiosk. However, Frayer and Morrow are quick to point out the witness has Alzheimer's today and they have not been able to confirm her report.

A couple long-haul semi drivers reported seeing an attractive blond fitting Renkoski's description as they drove alongside or passed her vehicle on I-96.

"From their description, we believe they saw her," Morrow said.

The first motorist known to notice Renkoski told the original investigators that he saw the 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais on the side of the road "several times" that day as he traveled back and forth to Lansing, but what he remembers today is "different" than what investigators have been able to confirm, Morrow said.

"After 20-plus years, we're getting variances" in people's stories, he noted.

The majority of the reports, the cold case team agreed, has placed Renkoski's appearance on the shoulder of I-96 in Livingston County between 3:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. when she was possibly seen with a man in a burgundy or maroon-colored minivan.

Some reports indicated the second vehicle was parked in front of Renkoski's while the majority reported seeing the second vehicle behind Renkoski's car. Those witnesses report that Renkoski and an unidentified male were seen standing and talking in between the two vehicles.

Morrow said throughout the years they've had people describe at least five different vehicles, including one that was seen "further west" than Renkoski's car. Investigators believe people are confusing broken down cars over the years with Renkoski's scene that day, he said.

The other vehicles included a white pickup truck, red cargo van and a blue truck that had an emblem. The majority, however, clearly described a burgundy or maroon minivan stopped by Renkoski's car.

There also have been reports of Renkoski driving fast on I-96 and "a vehicle that tried to catch up with her," Frayer said.

At least one witness reported seeing a man holding Renkoski's elbow and guiding her.

Retired Detective Lt. Todd Luzod of the Livingston County Sheriff's Department said in previous interviews that witnesses indicated that Renkoski was talking to a man and gesturing with her hands up in the air while the man put a hand on her shoulder.

Today, Luzod, who has been retired for five years, says he believes the case is solvable as long as evidence is preserved. He still listens for reports of skeletal remains being found and "every time I see that I wonder if it's Renkoski."

Throughout the years, witnesses' descriptions have been put to paper by a police sketch artist. One sketch from 1999 shows a small guy while nearly 800 tips later, a taller guy is described.

Eighty percent or more of the tips received indicated the man near Renkoski was black, but some have reported a Hispanic man as well.

The cold case team believes Renkoski vanished around 4 o'clock in the afternoon May 24, 1990.

The evidence, the theories

Today's investigators are quick to note that the original investigators did what they could with the information they had available. However, there were setbacks from the beginning.

First, Frayer said, the spot where investigators found the 1986 silver Calais Renkoski was driving was not processed as a crime scene because at the time, it was merely considered an abandoned car and had been tagged as such by an officer.

"They towed it," he said. "We've got a general idea of where the exact scene was, but we're not exactly sure. They didn't photograph the scene or do a crime scene sketch because, at the time, it was an abandoned car and that's how it was treated. … It wasn't until later they knew what they had."

Luzod, who worked on an earlier task force assigned to the case, said an officer responding to the calls about an abandoned car turned it off, locked it up and tagged it as abandoned because it was initially believed the car had broken down and the driver walked to the Fowlerville exit, which was about one-quarter mile west of the car, for help.

Frayer said a witness returned to the area to help investigators identify the general location of the car, which was a company-owned car belonging to Renkoski's mother.

Police found several fingerprints on the car, but they have yet to find a match through the law enforcement databases. They also have palm prints, but again, have found no match.

"We do have a pretty good set of palm prints that could be left like someone is leaning on the car and we have some witnesses who said they might have seen someone actually doing that," Frayer said. "That's one of our better pieces of physical evidence. The problem then is some places didn't take palm prints when someone was arrested."

A witness reported seeing Renkoski near the car in the 3 o'clock hour and officers responded to the scene after 6 p.m. upon learning Renkoski was missing and the car hadn't been abandoned.

Investigators also found Renkoski's shoes lying on the floor near the driver's seat and her purse with her wallet and money inside was in the car as were personal items, including papers.

"People driving without their shoes is not uncommon, but a woman leaving a car and leaving her shoes?" Frayer said. "On a gravel shoulder of a road? That's unusual and it's painful, too."

Frayer and Morrow said investigators have three working theories — Was it someone she knew? Was it a staged accident? Did someone impersonate an officer to get her to stop?

Frayer said a huge question for investigators is why Renkoski stopped on the shoulder of a busy interstate when within sight is the Fowlerville exit where help could be found if needed.

"The odds are long that she'd be driving along I-96 at 70 mph and see someone she knew who had evil intentions," Frayer acknowledged. "That doesn't seem so. It's also a long shot to follow her from Okemos to the airport, to a girlfriend's and back to Lansing."

Frayer said a staged accident "has some validity," but the physical evidence does not support that theory entirely. He said there was some damage to the front-end, but nothing "overly glaring."

Also, Frayer noted, when someone stages an accident it's typically to get money and although Renkoski had a "significant amount of money in an investment account," it had not been touched.

He said it is possible that Renkoski would have stopped if another motorist flashed a police badge or gave any indication he was an officer and needed her to stop because her father had law enforcement experience and she most likely would have respected the badge.

In May 2002, the Associated Press reported that police "identified two suspects" in connection with Renkoski's disappearance. One of those suspects was in prison at the time while the other, 17 at the time the Okemos woman went missing, "flunked a polygraph exam," according to reports quoting then-investigator Luzod.

"There have been some persons of interests we've developed in years past and I think half of them are dead," Frayer said. "One was shot and one died in prison and we haven't ruled them out. The fingerprints were not able to rule them out."

Search continues

In August 1990, a United Press International report speculated that a body found floating 500 feet north of the Kewaunee harbor in Wisconsin was Renkoski, but that turned out to be untrue.

Investigators continue to look for Renkoski.

In summer 2011, the local cold case team used a fairly precisely drawn map from 1999 and ground penetrating radar (GPR) from PM Environmental Inc. to search three Livingston County areas, including a Handy Township pond that a bank teller told one of the investigators she recalled seeing boots in the area 20 years earlier and property in Conway and Cohoctah townships.

A search at the pond found bones that turned out to be animal and a dive team found nothing in the pond, which had been receding in recent years.

Investigators dug four holes in one spot in the 7700 block of Sober Road in Conway Township where cadaver dogs indicated a possible presence of human remains, but that also was unsuccessful.

Frayer, Lenaghan and Morrow, however, said they are not giving up and their search for Renkoski continues.

"Cold cases are very challenging," Frayer said. "It's a challenge and we believe in justice. I do it particularly for Paige's family who has carried the burden for 25 years.

"The more information we gather the closer it brings us to a resolution," he added. "There's people out there who know."

Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Lisa Roose-Church at 517-552-2846 or lrchurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaRooseChurch.

About Paige Renkoski

Born: Feb. 2, 1960, in Lansing, Michigan

Height, weight: 5-foot, 6-inch tall; 125 pounds

Hair, eyes: Blond hair and blue eyes.

Scars/marks: Long surgical scar on inside of right arm; surgical scar on right leg from knee replacement; two surgical screws in her left knee.

Last seen wearing: White silk shirt, multi-colored loose fitting pants, long beaded necklace.

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