Checking near the body, the officers spotted something in the cold air return near where Daisy lay. Removing the object, they found a single black wingtip shoe. It didn’t match any of the shoes in the house. It was a bizarre find that seemed to have nothing to do with the crime scene.
The search for fibers and hairs began late in the afternoon and was, at best, a long and tedious process. Led by Donald Hannah, five troopers from the crime lab began the delicate and time-consuming task. They started with the victim herself. Checking Daisy’s body was a difficult procedure given the amount of time that had passed from her death and the amount of blood present. From behind her right ear, the investigators removed a small yellow cotton fiber. It was placed in a glass tube for future analysis.
Other yellow cotton fibers were recovered. One was lifted from the bloodstained bedspread, which had been adhered there by the drying blood of the victim. Even at a cursory glance, it appeared to be the same sort of cotton fiber as recovered from behind Daisy’s ear. Other fibers were recovered in the house as well, but the yellow ones stood out since one was found on Daisy’s body. Even to an untrained eye, these appeared to come from yellow cotton hunting or work gloves common to the time.
Samples of hair were recovered from the carpet and furniture as well. All of these were saved for future analysis. Two samples were taken from Daisy, from her head and pubic area. Floyd Zick was asked to provide the same samples for comparison.
Daisy’s blouse was examined carefully. In addition to being soaked in blood, it also had a small smudge of dirt or grease, a smear of medium red lipstick and spots of facial makeup. Numerous holes in the back and over the left breast came from the puncture wounds that had killed Daisy.
Daisy’s brown wool slacks revealed more. The zipper was pulled most of the way down but was bunched up with fabric. It appeared that someone had tried to pull it open so hard that it had jammed. The investigators could only speculate whether this was done by Daisy or her assailant and whether it prevented her attack from being a sexual assault as well. From her slacks, several small yellow fibers were recovered and carefully preserved.
Her bra, or what was left of it, was checked as well. The white bra was dark maroon from her blood. Eight punctures riddled the fabric, testimony to the violence unleashed on her. Her murderer had stabbed at her breasts, perhaps an indication of the nature of her killer.
From the master bedroom, several red flakes were discovered on the floor that drew the attention of Hannah’s investigating team. Closer observation showed that they were nails with polish on them. Daisy’s body was checked again, and she was found to have chipped nails on her right ring and middle finger. They checked under her fingernails for signs of skin but found none. The fact that the fingernails were found in the master bedroom seemed to confirm the investigators’ theory that a struggle took place there, in which Daisy broke two of her fingernails trying to fend off her attacker.
The team shifted to the garage since the killer had taken her car after her murder. Little was found except on the east garage door. On the outside door, a yellow fiber was discovered three-quarters of an inch above the knob.
Finding that fiber helped advance the investigators in trying to piece together what happened to Daisy. From the position of the fibers outside and inside, it was possible to surmise that these bright yellow fibers came from gloves worn by the killer. Such gloves were commonly worn by hunters and fishermen. They were also worn by some of the workers at Kellogg’s and Post Cereals for work in the factory. For now, it was simply a theory, but one that warranted further checking.
By law, Daisy’s body could not be removed until the Calhoun County Medical Examiner ruled her as dead. While it seemed like a formality, it was strictly adhered to. In 1963, the role of medical examiner was a part-time job, and it took several hours for Dr. Richard Bloch to finally arrive at the Zick home. In the 1960s, Calhoun County experienced roughly one murder a year. Most of these were second-degree murders, or crimes of passion. They were quick, vicious affairs but not on the scale of what had unfolded in the tiny Zick home. There was little that could have prepared Dr. Bloch for the brutality of the death that he was about to witness on Juno Street.
His examination only took seconds, and at 4:40 p.m., he ruled that Daisy was indeed dead. By then, rigor mortis had begun to set in, enhanced by the heat in the tiny home. Based on his observations, Bloch placed the time of death at around 11:00 a.m. The Farley Funeral Home of Battle Creek was contacted to come and take Daisy’s body away. Her autopsy was to be done at the funeral home that evening. It would be years before the local county hospitals were equipped to handle such cases.
After a long day of checking, the Zick home had not yielded much in the way of evidence for the investigators. Inspector Charles Cobb faced the next daunting task of checking Daisy’s car for evidence, followed by digging into her personal life. One thing was becoming clear, however: someone had come to 100 Juno Street with the single purpose of killing Daisy Zick.
Daisy’s autopsy at the Farley Funeral Home was performed by Dr. William Walters under the eyes of two of the investigators of the case. Like Dr. Bloch, Dr. Walters’s role as a medical examiner was a part-time job and rarely for a case as complicated as this one. Nevertheless, her clothes were carefully removed and turned over to the detectives, who kept them as evidence. It was clear that Daisy’s killer had resorted to unnecessary measures.
Trooper Ralph Kartheu was present, along with a stenographer, at the autopsy. By Kartheu’s account, it started out badly. Dr. Walters stated, “We are beginning the autopsy of a forty-three-year-old male—” before Kartheu cut him off, telling him that he was incorrect.
“Trooper, who are you to tell me anything about how to do an autopsy?”
“This is a female victim, doctor.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Walters replied.
“It does if we go to court. They can call into question the validity of your findings.” Walters begrudgingly corrected his error and continued.
She had fifteen puncture wounds surrounding her left breast. Eight of the wounds there were clustered closely together. There was a laceration on her left collarbone. Four slashing cuts were found on her upper left arm. Six additional puncture wounds were on the left side of her back, just to the right of her left armpit. The investigators felt that the wounds on her back had most likely been inflicted either when the killer had tied up her hands while she was facedown on the bed or when she had potentially tried to flee her assailant.
The slashing wounds on her arms showed that she attempted to fend off her attacker by blocking his stabs. Either the stabs or her resistance had led to the fracture of three of her ribs. For the detectives, these wounds revealed that Daisy did not go down without a fight. She had struggled with her assailant until he had been forced to tie her hands.
There was other damage she had endured. Her body showed signs of bruising behind her right ear. The blow there had been sufficient to cause hemorrhaging. It would have been strong enough to leave Daisy dazed, perhaps for a few minutes. The bruising indicated that she had been alive when the blow had been delivered, and it was perhaps from an early part of the struggle that took place at 100 Juno Street.
Detective Sergeant Dan Myre had brought the Spoilage knife that had been recovered in her kitchen. Dr. Walters looked at the blade and claimed that in his opinion, the blade had not been used to kill Daisy. The stubby blunt end of the blade did not seem to match the wounds that she received, which was why he initially justified ruling it out as the weapon used to kill her. At the same time, Dr. Walters did not offer any other description about the kind of knife that would have been used if it not the Spoilage knife.
Detective Conn and others on the investigative team remained unconvinced. While a direct thrusting of the blade could not duplicate the stab wounds that Daisy had, a thrust angled downward would have allowed its tiny point to duplicate the wounds. Given the sharp edge of the blade, it could easil
y have caused the injuries. Despite the medical examiner’s contrary finding, the investigators were sure they had the murder weapon and tagged it into evidence.
Daisy’s official cause of death was exsanguination—the scientific term for bleeding to death.
That afternoon, almost as an afterthought, the investigators called the Calhoun County prosecutor’s office. County prosecuting attorney Noble Moore was furious. A vicious murder had taken place in his county, and he was hearing about it only after the investigation was underway? This wasn’t the first time either. There had been a bank robbery in Teknosha, Michigan, and the state police post commander in Battle Creek, Joe Svoke, had failed to bring him in right away. To the rigid Moore, it was another deliberate slight on the part of the state police to disrespect his office. In his mind, the first thing they should have done was reach out to him.
Noble Moore was a World War II combat veteran and highly respected in the community. He was a brigadier general in the Michigan National Guard, and when he spoke, he had a booming, commanding voice that could shake a room. Even those that worked for him referred to him as “General Moore.” At the time of the crime, he had been working at the National Guard in Detroit and could not have been contacted anyway, but that detail didn’t seem to matter to the attorney. Moore sent some of the junior attorneys from his office to the scene immediately, while he arrived later in the day.
There was a reason for his bravado and bluster—Moore got results. During his seven years as prosecutor, he had overseen twenty-five murder trials, almost all with convictions.
Murders in Calhoun County were rare to begin with, and there was no formal protocol in cases such as Daisy Zick’s. Still, Moore was angered by this perceived slight, an attitude that would plague the case in the following days.
Detective Conn, Undersheriff Wayne Fitch and their investigators began to try piecing together what had happened at 100 Juno Street earlier that day. The investigators wanted to see if they could reassemble Daisy’s death in the hope that it might offer them some insight as to who had killed her.
The team surmised that Daisy was probably preparing to go meet her friend Audrey on the morning of her murder. Based on the smears of makeup on her blouse, they assumed she was most likely putting it on when she was drawn to the breezeway and found someone at the door.
The view of the Zick home from the DeFrance home on the day of the murder. Courtesy of the Michigan State Police.
An interview with neighbor Mrs. DeFrance seemed to point to a time and entry point for the murderer. The person at the walkway door was either someone who Daisy knew or who had tricked her into allowing him entry. From her bedroom, where she was likely getting dressed, there was a window that would have allowed her to see anyone at the exterior door. If the person had let himself in, she wouldn’t have been able to see her murderer since the door from the kitchen to the breezeway was solid and the Zicks kept this door locked. Daisy would have had to open the door for whoever was there, perhaps a hint that she knew who it was.
From the disarray of the rug, the investigators gathered there was some sort of confrontation in the kitchen. Daisy must have made a dash for the telephone at some point, probably to call for help. On a rotary phone before the era of 911, it was folly on her part. Even worse, she had turned her back to her murderer.
The attacker was most likely right-handed and struck her from behind, hitting her behind her right ear. Yet at the same time, the stabs to the back seemed to indicate a left-handed assailant. The blow was brutal and hard. Daisy was stunned and probably fled for the master bedroom. The thinking of the officers the day of the crime was that her killer first cut the telephone cord and then pursued her.
Daisy had either collapsed onto the bed facedown or been forced there by her killer. Either way, the imprint of her body on the bedspread seemed to support that she had been on the bed at some point. The broken fingernails in the bedroom indicated some sort of struggle there. At some point, the killer must have overpowered tiny Daisy because he would have had to open her closet to pull out her robe. For him to do this, Daisy must have been stunned or semiconscious, otherwise she would have taken the opportunity to flee. Tossing the robe aside, the murderer used the sash to tie Daisy’s arms behind her.
The severed phone line in the kitchen. Courtesy of the Michigan State Police.
With the victim subdued, the killer could now complete the job he had come to do. The killer first struck at her from behind, slashing at her with the knife and leaving spots of her blood in the bedroom. The areas where she was hit supported the theory of a right-handed assailant.
Daisy was tough though. Despite her injuries, she was able to break free and run, or more likely stagger, away, her arms tied behind her back. When she reached the guest bedroom, she tried to seek cover behind the hi-fi near the wall.
Her murderer would then have pulled the hi-fi out of the way to begin slashing at her, spattering the room and its occupants with blood. The vast majority of her wounds took place there, on the floor of the spare bedroom, as her killer savagely tore into her with the knife. Daisy died, slumping down, smearing blood on the wall as she collapsed. Her death would have been obvious, but whoever had killed her had kept stabbing and slashing at Daisy. It was pure overkill and indicated to most who investigated the crime that the killer was in a complete rage.
The murderer then straddled her body and, in a frenzy, stabbed at her chest.
If the Spoilage knife was the murder weapon as the police believed, the killer must have washed it off before inexplicably leaving it behind. He must have gotten into Daisy’s purse prior to leaving to steal her forty-five dollars and the keys to her car. It was a paltry amount of money for the brutality involved in the crime.
Whoever the perpetrator was had put in considerable time planning to kill Daisy. He had not driven to the home that day but, instead, must have either walked there in the drifting snow and stinging winter wind or been dropped off by someone else, a potential alternative. The walk would have made the killer’s thighs sting from the cold wind and feet ache from the crunching of the snow; the blowing snowfall would have stung at his face. It was a walk that would have taken considerable determination and purpose. Furthermore, Daisy did not work the typical nine-to-five day; she worked the afternoon shift. Her murderer must have known her routine to show up while she was still at home. The investigators felt that the brutality of the attack indicated that whoever it was had a grudge against her, one that spawned such a savage stabbing. Only the anger that drove them to murder would have propelled them onward.
Some officers offered alternate theories at this stage of the investigation. The theory that the killer had an accomplice who dropped him off at the Zick home is one that also happened to fit the physical evidence available, but, unfortunately, the idea did not get them any closer to locating the killer.
Gathering evidence quickly from a murder was important, and the Zick home was not the only source of physical clues. A team was sent to look over the 1959 white Pontiac Bonneville coupe. The hard-top car was still on Michigan Avenue, snow drifting around the wheels. A careful sweep was made of the vehicle. The investigators even noticed the mileage: 35,517, the last mile of which the killer had driven. The car was towed to the garage of the Battle Creek State Police Post, where it could be evaluated in a more careful manner.
The investigators broadened their inquiries from the Juno Street neighborhood to the people that Daisy was supposed to interact with that day. Audrey Heminger, Daisy’s coffee companion, was met at Kellogg’s by a police officer and taken to the Battle Creek State Police Post to give a statement. She had little to offer other than that Daisy had not showed up for their coffee date and she had reached out to Floyd. Audrey did not know anyone that wanted to harm her friend. Despite Audrey’s cooperation, Noble Moore was aggressive in his questioning of her, his tone downright abrasive. The rumors of Daisy’s affairs seemed to feed the prosecutor’s probing. Audrey did tell investigato
rs that Daisy was having an affair with Raymond Mercer at Kellogg’s but that she did not know more details. The prosecutor seemed to feel that she knew more than she was telling the officers. He made a note that she needed to be brought in again for further questioning.
All eyes initially turned to Daisy’s husband. Throughout the day, Floyd Zick had remained at his home as the investigators performed their delicate work. Detective Conn questioned him during that time. Did Daisy have any enemies? No, none that Floyd could think of. Daisy had been married before, but there didn’t seem to be any problems with her former husband. Her son from the previous marriage, James King, was out of town in New York, visiting his aunt. The police assured Floyd that James would be contacted by the end of the day to confirm where he was and let him know what had happened to his mother. When he heard the news, James immediately began the trip back to Battle Creek.
An investigator’s first instinct when faced with such a violent crime is to focus on the people closest to the victim and either rule them out or find evidence that implicates them. Detective Conn asked Floyd if he would be willing to submit to a polygraph test, if to do nothing more than to clear his name. Floyd agreed. There was nothing in his demeanor that pointed to him as the killer, but he was still considered a suspect.
Investigators held out hope that the Pontiac Bonneville could offer some clues or, better yet, that a witness had seen someone walking away from the car. On such a cold day, a person walking along the busiest road in this part of the county would have been something to take note of.
Murder in Battle Creek Page 5