Jay Grossman

hometownlife.com

Growing up in southeast Michigan, Darlene McKenzie and Timmy King didn’t have much in common. Except for the fact they were murdered over 40 years ago, and their killers were never caught.

McKenzie’s body was found June 10, 1975, in the area of Interstate 696 east of Haggerty Road in Farmington Hills. An autopsy revealed she died of strangulation, but it wasn’t until December 2016 that investigators could positively identify the 15-year-old Detroit resident through new DNA samples.

Timmy King’s body was discovered March 22, 1977, dumped in a ditch off Gill Road in Livonia. The 11-year-old Birmingham boy is considered the fourth and final victim of the Oakland County Child Killer.

The two cold cases are in the spotlight for different reasons: this month marks the 40th anniversary of the final Oakland County Child Killer homicide, while Crime Stoppers of Michigan is trying to spark new interest into the McKenzie case by offering a $2,500 reward.

Farmington Hills Police Det. Chad Double said solving a cold case homicide is never an easy task.

“They take a lot longer, because we’re not getting in information like we would with a more recent case,” Double said. “And the reports might get passed on to different detectives, because of promotions and retirements, but that just means a new set of eyes. We definitely try and reach out to the families and let them know we’re not giving up.”

‘Drop … run and scream’

It was the evening of March 16, 1977, when Timmy King grabbed his skateboard and left his house to buy some candy at the local pharmacy on Maple Road.

A serial killer was on the loose, putting all of Oakland County on panic alert. Three children had already been kidnapped and murdered over a period of 11 months.

In each of the cases, the victims were held captive for a period of days before they were killed and their bodies dumped by the side of a road.

The first two children, Mark Stebbins of Ferndale and Jill Robinson of Royal Oak, were killed 10 months apart in 1976. The third victim, 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich, was abducted Jan. 2, 1977, after she was last seen at a 7-Eleven in Berkley. A mail carrier discovered her body 19 days later on a dead-end street in Franklin Village.

Barry King and his wife, Marion, were eating at Peabody’s Restaurant the night their youngest child was abducted.

“After the Mihelich murder, all my kids remember me telling Tim, ‘If anyone tries to pick you up, drop everything and run and scream,’” King said. “But even today, if someone stopped and talked to you, you probably wouldn’t run and scream. Especially if you were 11.”

He then shakes his head, almost as if he was trying to erase the memories.

“Part of the tragedy to me, is once Tim got into the car he knew what would happen,” he said. “That’s the worst part of it all.”

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Tim’s older brother, Christopher, had a babysitting job that evening in the neighborhood. His other brother and sister also ended up making plans, leaving him alone.

King said his son was a responsible sixth-grader who did well in school and had recently taken on his own newspaper route. It wouldn’t have been unusual to leave him alone at home for a short time.

“I’ve wrestled with that night in my mind over 100 times,” he said. “We didn’t do anything that evening that I wouldn’t do again.”

New leads

Farmington Hills investigators are more hopeful of solving the 42-year-old McKenzie homicide, now that police know the victim’s identity.

“Before, we had no clue who she was or where she came from,” Double said. “So this definitely sheds more light on the case … we’ll talk with her friends and see who she was hanging out with.”

Authorities know McKenzie left her house in Detroit following a family argument. They also suspect the murder may have occurred in Detroit and McKenzie’s body was left by the freeway in Farmington Hills.

McKenzie’s daughter, Carlita Ransom, 43, was an infant when her mom disappeared. She’s now speaking up about the case, hoping it might lead to a reliable tip.

“She’s the one who approached Detroit police about reopening the case,” Double said. “She wants to find closure.”

Farmington Hills police solved several cold cases in recent years, including a premeditated murder from 1993 and a botched supermarket robbery from 1979. A few years back, the department established a cold case team to help solve other past homicides.

Galvanizing moment

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard was a rookie police officer in Southfield Township when the serial killings took place. His former supervisor, Jerry Tobias, was one of the lead investigators in the OCCK case.

“It was probably one of the most galvanizing moments in my life,” Bouchard said of the four homicides. “I was very new to police work. I was a person who was raised in a loving family, and I was stunned by anyone who could hurt a child, let alone do this.”

He was on routine patrol the night Timmy King was abducted. Through a countywide search warrant, Bouchard and other officers were allowed to randomly pull over vehicles to search for the young boy.

“I was searching in the area of 13 Mile and Lahser,” Bouchard said. “The drivers were totally supportive – they knew what was going on. We thought it was possible the child might be moved.”

Bouchard also volunteered to work the phone lines and help process the thousands of tips pouring in to law enforcement. He can’t help but look back on the unsolved murders with a sense of frustration.

“I’m still incredibly sad the families haven’t had closure and justice was never obtained,” he said. “I think it will haunt anyone who had a connection to that case. I know when Jerry Tobias died, that was heavy on his heart.”

Bouchard said the case prompted him to pursue a career in law enforcement and to eventually enter the state legislature in the 1990s, where he drafted the state’s first sex offender registry act to help protect young victims of crime. He has served as Oakland County Sheriff since 1999.

40 years of pain

King, who just turned 86, still lives in the same house in Birmingham. The family moved there 42 years ago.

He was born in New Zealand, where his father met his mother while opening a factory for General Motors in the country’s capital of Wellington. They moved back to the U.S. when he was nine months old.

He served in the Navy during the early years of the Vietnam War, and his house is filled with photographs of military vessels. Cabinets are also filled with family photos, and there are portraits of Timmy around the house.

At the top of his list of possible suspects is Chris Busch, a convicted pedophile who committed suicide in 1978 at his family’s home in Bloomfield Township. Busch was supposedly cleared of the crimes after taking a polygraph test in February 1977. A month later, Timmy King was kidnapped.

King said other people looked at the Busch polygraph and don’t believe the results are conclusive. To this day, he’s not sure why authorities have dismissed Busch as a suspect.

“I was told the only way this case would get solved is through a deathbed confession,” King said. “At this point in my life, I doubt I’ll ever know the answers I’m seeking.”

jgrossman@hometownlife.com

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Twitter: @BhmEccentric