“Now, a lot of stuff happened before I came on board,” she conceded. “But when I started, I did everything I could to have everybody working together as a team. And if people don’t want to work together, they can go find something else to do because we’ve got a case to solve. …My lane is the investigative lane. Politics is not part of my lane.
“The bottom line is we’ve got four dead children and if we don’t share information with each other, we are not going to get anywhere. We don’t have time to do anything but focus on following the evidence. And the way I see it, it doesn’t matter how much evidence I have on someone, if I don’t have enough evidence to convict, I still have a child killer out there.”3
While Powell was able to foster good working relationships with detectives from the various agencies on the Task Force, political machinations at the top still operated at full throttle. In mid–July 2011, word leaked that not one but two grand juries had been convened on the OCCK case. The two prosecutors in neighboring counties, both smart, gritty and full of contempt for each other, had engaged in a virtual showdown: dueling grand juries on the same case and all at taxpayer expense. The NBC local affiliate first reported that Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper’s grand jury was focusing on several cold cases, among them the OCCK murders. Two days later, the ABC affiliate reported that Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy had also convened her own grand jury on the OCCK case.4
Emails from Cathy Broad and Chris King tried to piece together the puzzle.
“Saw the news reports on 4 and 7 last night,” wrote Chris. “It’s tough to see that Oakland County and Wayne County are not sharing information and resources. Shameful.”
Cathy wondered who leaked the information that Wayne County had impaneled its own grand jury. “Clearly it was someone who wanted that info made public after the O.C. grand jury info came out,” she wrote.
Frankly, I am relieved the W.C. [grand jury] is a one-man. The O.C. grand jury may or may not figure out that they can ask the prosecutor to fill in gaps or ask additional questions. They may just buy whatever dog and pony show Paul Walton puts together for them. And while I’d like to think that the majority of the grand jurors would be bright, curious people, Planet Oakland County is a lot different than Planet Wayne County. People in O.C., especially younger people who didn’t live through any of this, are going to go along with whatever conclusion the [Oakland County prosecutor] has decided would work best. … That’s how these things can work—the prosecutor is in charge and can direct all of the evidence in such a way that only one answer is possible. Or, in this case, throw so much shit up on the wall that the only conclusion is “we can’t reach a conclusion.”
“As for WC, the grand jury was a smart, smart move. Those fuckers at the MSP shut them out, so they can get info from people via the [grand jury] process. Also, once Cooper screwed them over by not cooperating, this was the smartest way for them to get a return on their substantial investment in this case. I bet WC paid more money out than OC and the MSP combined.
“Dad still thinks he can sit down with the MSP and the OCP and get on the same page somehow. I’m sure after 35 years of believing [Law Enforcement] was doing its level best to solve these crimes and was in no way concerned about anything other than those dead kids, it is an almost impossible task to wrap his head around the mis- and malfeasance. He has done an amazing job of connecting the dots, but a very big part of him still wants to trust all of LE. Not me. Never again.”5
For his part, Barry King was dismayed. “If Jessica Cooper does have living individuals who may be involved in the OCCK case, does she have a public or professional responsibility to confer with Kym Worthy on this subject?” he wrote in one of his many memos. “If Jessica Cooper has some reason to believe that Chris Busch was not involved, shouldn’t she bring this to the attention of the Wayne County Prosecutor? Why are the two county governments paying public funds to chase opposite results? Why do Kym Worthy and Robert Moran return my phone calls while Jessica Cooper refuses to speak with us?”6
In late June 2011, Barry King was served with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in Oakland County. It is a crime in Michigan to disclose the existence of a grand jury after being served with a subpoena to appear. As an attorney, Barry King was well aware of this fact. When he received his subpoena, the only people King told were David Binkley, his attorney in the Michigan State Police case, and Lisa Milton, his attorney in the Oakland County prosecutor’s case—no one else, not his children, not his wife.
On July 19, Binkley received a call from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office requesting that his client appear the following morning before Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Martha Anderson. King and Binkley both assumed this was for a pretrial interview. “I was not surprised because I would not call a witness if I had not interviewed him or her,” Barry King reflected. Both were in for a shock.
On the morning of July 20, they reported to the court clerk of Judge Anderson. The two waited in the jury room for about 20 minutes and were called into the judge’s chambers. Seated opposite Anderson’s desk were Jessica Cooper and Paul Walton. Perfunctory introductions were made, then Walton proceeded to tell Anderson that Barry King was a criminal. The prosecutor said he had determined that Barry King was responsible for telling the media about the existence of the Oakland County grand jury.
It is difficult to overstate the level of animus required to accuse an aggrieved father of a murdered child of a crime, but the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office had just raised the bar. As an attorney, Barry King was now subject to the forfeiture of his law license, as well as severe penalties and costs including jail time. What’s more, his accuser was the very officer entrusted to bring justice for his son’s murder.
“That’s preposterous!” King told the judge. “I never even told anyone that I had been subpoenaed. I would never, ever do something like that. Why would I do such a thing?”
Walton told the judge that Barry’s close relationship with the media, in particular with WDIV-TV’s Kevin Dietz—who broke the story on the Oakland County grand jury—led to Dietz being tipped off.
Barry King insisted nothing could be further than the truth.
As soon as he arrived home, King contacted Dietz. Dietz sent an email assuring King he had three independent sources on the grand jury leak, and none of came from him. King asked Dietz to type an letter/affidavit attesting to this fact. It read: “July 20, 2011. To whom it may concern: This note will confirm that Barry King was not the source of my information on the Oakland County Grand Jury proceedings. I will swear to this under oath if need be.”7
The next morning Barry King drove downtown to the WDIV-TV studios and picked up the letter. He then delivered signed copies to Cooper, Walton and Judge Anderson.
Binkley later advised King that in his conversations with Walton, Walton gave no facts supporting his allegation. Apparently, he just assumed it.
In a final effort “to resolve our difficulties” Barry sent an email to Walton on July 27, 2011, saying this was a private letter sent without the knowledge of his family or his attorneys. Barry asked for a meeting to mend fences and clear up any miscommunication. As with his previous requests to the office of the Oakland County prosecutor, there was no reply.
On October 26, 2012, Jessica Cooper invited me for a lengthy interview with her and Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton. She wanted to discuss the case at length, clear up some public misconceptions. Over the phone, she was informal and friendly. “Why don’t you come on down to the office,” she said. “So long as you can look past my jeans since it’s casual Friday, we’ll have a nice, long talk.”8
Cooper’s office is located on the top floor of the Oakland County administrative complex, a sprawling development that houses several courts, the jail, the medical examiner’s office, the county commissioners’ offices and the prosecutor’s office.
Short in stature
with a pitch-black bob framing big, dark brown eyes, upon greeting, her manner is warm but affected; there is a sense that pleasantries could turn sharp.
Cooper seemed dwarfed by her desk, which was as large as a conference table. Paul Walton entered the room like a man in a hurry, shiny-faced and well-manicured. Walton sat at a small table behind me but facing his boss, occasionally leaving the room with his cell phone to take a call.
Cooper began the meeting by countering Barry King’s claims that her office was in violation of the Michigan Crime Victims Right’s Act, which grants victims the right to confer with prosecutors. “I think you need to know that my heart goes out to him,” she said. “I don’t think any of us can comprehend what is like to lose a child. … In May of 2010, he filed the FOIA lawsuit. Once the lawsuit is filed, I can’t talk to him outside the presence of his attorney. I’m prohibited by the code of ethics. I can’t talk to him. But we have sent representatives.”
She then presented me with a three-page timeline listing “twenty-seven times we have met with Mr. King” over a three-year period. The list included a dozen court proceedings on the FOIA cases where Barry King, representing himself, and Paul Walton appeared before a judge. It also listed five phone calls in which “Prosecutor Cooper declined to discuss the on-going aspects of the investigation with Mr. King at this time,” several filing dates for lawsuits, dates of newspaper articles in which King was quoted, and dates of letters and memos written by King to Cooper’s office. In all, there was only a meeting—on July 21, 2011—which put Prosecutor Cooper, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Walton, Assistant Prosecutor John Pietrofesa, Barry King, and his attorney, David Binkley, in the same room together. Cooper characterized the meeting: “I told him what I could tell him and I didn’t tell him anything I couldn’t tell him.”
Cooper said that when Det. Williams first presented his case on Busch to her in March 2009, she said it “appeared very conclusionary.” She also blamed Williams for a series of leaks and had concluded that Vince Gunnels’ involvement in the crimes was based on a “convoluted theory.”
Both Cooper and Walton conceded that there was nothing in the file to explain why Busch was given a plea deal four times over.
“There is nothing in the files to justify it,” Cooper said. “He was a stone-cold pedophile. He had four cases pending. He was given probation in each of those cases. Now, what I know is: if in this day and age there was a deal like that, it would have had to be because of something extraordinary, like the feds came in and said he’s going to be a witness. There would be no reason anybody would do that.”
Walton said he spent in “excess of two hundred hours of work,” detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the OCCK investigation. He said he drove to Ann Arbor to question Richard Thompson, the former Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney who had written “NO DEALS” all over Busch’s file. He said Thompson had no recollection of ever approving a plea deal to Busch. “The end result was [Thompson] said: ‘I’m really sorry. I can’t answer the question as to why Mr. Busch was given a deal.’ We’ve got a confession. We’ve got a witness. There is no rhyme. There is no reason.”
Thompson also said that when plea deals were given, a written memorandum or other documentation explaining the plea deal would be included in the file, but there was nothing of the kind in the Busch file. Also, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Leonard “Lenny” Gilman, who eventually signed off on Busch’s plea, deal died in 1985. (Gilman was highly regarded, known to be Oakland County’s top trial lawyer, and went on to become a U.S. attorney. He died suddenly at age 43.)
While both Cooper and Walton agreed that evidence at Busch’s suicide scene—the drawing, the ropes, the use of a .22 caliber rifle—raised many questions about Busch’s death being a suicide, they stopped short of saying it connected him to the crimes. “He had a .40 BAC,” Walton said. “It was a long gun that went right between the eyes and he had one arm underneath a pillow. That’s quite a feat.”
Of the drawing on the wall, Cooper said: “We have no idea who drew it or who put it there. It could have been the person who shot him.” Concerning the ropes in the closet that appeared in photographs to be stained, possibly with blood, Walton said he contacted the MSP forensic scientist who examined the ropes in 1978. “We were able to locate this person outside of Chicago. We presented Mr. King’s concern and he said: ‘Well, I was at the recovery of Timothy King’s body. I knew the importance of these ropes. I looked for trace evidence. I looked for the presence of blood. There was none.’”
Pointing to the white dog hair that had been found on all four child victims (Busch had owned a white terrier) Walton said those hairs were not from the same animal.
“There hasn’t been any consistency in animal hairs other than it is white animal hair, period,” said Walton. “They are not from the same dog. Or cat. Or whatever. They are all different.”
In addition, Cooper and Walton said that not only are the children not connected by the same white dog hairs, the carpet fibers believed to have been on all four victims are not necessarily from the same carpet. They are merely similar in color.
“The scientists are telling me it means exactly that. It’s in the same optical plane. It’s in the same color scheme,” said Walton.
Concerning the shotgun shell found in Busch’s room and long thought to be from the same type of firearm that was used to kill Jill Robinson, the prosecutors said the shell could not be matched with the caliber used to kill Jill Robinson.
“They even took it to NASA to try and see if they could get an identification of the caliber and there was no way in which they could do that,” said Cooper.
(In court records, Walton summed it up: “Unfortunately, despite a thorough review of the evidence surrounding Mr. Busch’s death, we were unable to uncover any other evidence supporting the possibility that Mr. Busch’s death was not a suicide.”9)
The prosecutors said the DNA evidence that connected James Vincent Gunnels with a hair on Kristine Mihelich’s shirt was not convincing. “Vince Gunnels is a non-starter,” Walton said. “We had investigators coming and saying we have DNA matches in this case. And I said, wait, wait, wait. This is not a DNA match to Christopher Busch. It’s like seven degrees to Kevin Bacon at this point. It’s removed. It’s to Gunnels and it’s mitochondrial. We don’t even call mitochondrial to DNA a match. We call it a profile consistency.”
Cooper said that Det. Williams was asked to leave the Task Force because he was “not a team player” and would not “cooperate.” She believed that Williams had unduly influenced Barry King, so much so, that Williams was the reason King was convinced Christopher Busch was involved in the killing of his son. “Cory did this to Mr. King,” she said.
Walton described the Wasser-Coffey conversation that led to the discovery of the Busch evidence as nothing more than a “classic he-said, she-said,” whose statements “contradict each other.” As such, they are “not admissible evidence” and “are, at best, impeachable.”
Cooper said Barry King’s statements were “inconsistent, over and over again,” and that his letters “are rambling.”
“I feel so bad for him,” she said. “I feel bad because I don’t know at any given time what he’s grieving. … My concern with Mr. King is that there are some things he understands and some things he doesn’t understand so I feel very sad for him. … I think he’s having some problems and that’s not my field of expertise.”
Finally, when asked to weigh whether the prosecutors felt Busch was involved or not involved in the Oakland County Child Killings, Cooper said: “We don’t have any scientific evidence to say that he was.”
Regarding Kym Worthy, her fellow prosecutor in Wayne County, Cooper would say only: “Timothy King’s body was found 60 yards within Wayne County jurisdiction. … If the case were to be tried, it would have to be tried here. I will not say anything of any negative nature about someone who is my ally
. The problem that we had, frankly, is the person who was her investigator. He had been the whole show and then when he came into a much larger task force, he wouldn’t cooperate.”
Perhaps no one would be more pleased with Cooper’s dismissal of the Busch evidence than James Vincent Gunnels. But Kristine Mihelich’s family was not in any way persuaded. “We’re not saying that Vince Gunnels is a suspect in terms of being a serial killer,” said Kristine Mihelich’s sister, Erica McAvoy. “But the DNA has created a triangle between Chris Busch, Vince Gunnels and Kristine Mihelich. It puts them all in the same vicinity.
“I truly believe that if they were going to give Gunnels an ultimatum and if they were to call his bluff and tell him he’s going to be arrested for conspiracy to murder or that he was an accomplice, I think he would figure out that he’d better start talking.
“It’s blatantly obvious that when he makes a comment like—he wasn’t there when it happened. Well what was it?—he’s just not being pushed hard enough. Look we’ve been kept in the dark for 35 years. It’s very hard to accept that—as minimal as this match might be—we have a person who has the luxury of walking the streets that we know potentially could have participated in the murder of my sister.
“I have a hard time not wanting to literally become unglued.”10
Eight years later, not much has changed. In a February 2020 interview with a local newspaper, Barry King was still pressing his cause. “I just want to know why nobody will talk to me and why Jessica Cooper has lied not only to me but to the court,” King said. The article continued:
King is convinced his son died while entrapped in a child abuse and pedophile ring that moved children through Detroit’s Cass Corridor and North Fox Island. King suspects that money has kept the prosecutors and investigators from sharing as much information as he thinks they should. King is even less impressed with Cooper, who declined to comment for this story.
The Snow Killings Page 35