By May 31st, police had honed in on Alton Coleman as the person responsible for the girl's disappearance.
That same night, Coleman borrowed the vehicle of a friend in Waukegan to supposedly go and pick up some things at the store. Only he never brought back the car, which was used to escape the authorities in pursuit of him.
Later, Vernita's mother, Juanita Wheat, would identify Coleman and Debra Brown through photographs. But on June 1, 1984, while Coleman was already on the run, Brown was interrogated by authorities. She was able to successfully convince them that she did not know of his whereabouts.
On June 19th, Vernita's badly decomposed remains were found in the bathroom of a vacant building in Waukegan—four blocks from the apartment of Coleman's grandmother. The autopsy report listed the cause of death as ligature strangulation.
After being indicted for the murder of Vernita Wheat, a federal warrant was issued for the capture of a killer, Alton Coleman.
* * *
Coleman and his accomplice Debra Brown made their way to Gary, Indiana, as they sought to stay one step ahead of the law and find new victims. The next two such people to cross their paths were Tamika Turks, seven years old, and her aunt, Annie Hilliard, who was nine. The two girls, on their way home from a candy store, were intercepted by Brown and Coleman. After being taken into the woods, they were raped and beaten, with both Coleman and Brown taking part in the sexual assaults and torture.
According to one article, the killers forced Annie to watch her niece being murdered with "Brown holding Tamika to the ground and covering her nose and mouth and Coleman jumping on her chest and face until her ribs fractured and punctured her vital organs."5
On June 19, 1984, the partially decomposed remains of Tamika Turks were found. As with Vernita Wheat, the official cause of death was ligature strangulation.
Though Tamika's aunt was raped and severely beaten till she passed out, Annie Hilliard managed to survive her ordeal. She went on to identify her attackers as Brown and Coleman in a photo lineup. Yet the mental and physical trauma she was made to endure has had a lasting impact. "She will get to screaming and crying like someone is hitting her on the back of the head," her mother, Mary Hilliard, was quoted as saying.6 And the economic costs left on the family were also felt. Hilliard indicated that Annie's injuries amounted to medical bills totaling $15,000, some of which their insurance did not cover.
* * *
The same day that Tamika Turks' body was discovered, Alton Coleman had turned his attention to twenty-five-year-old Donna Williams. She went missing, along with her car, after agreeing to drive to Boston with what seemed like a nice and trusting couple whom she had met in church.
On June 24th, Brown and Coleman forced their way inside a twenty-eight-year-old woman's car at knifepoint in Detroit, Michigan, insisting that she drive them to Toledo, Ohio. But the kidnapping victim, likely fearful for her life, decided she liked her chances better by crashing her vehicle into approaching traffic, where she managed to successfully escape her abductors. Warrants for Coleman and Brown were issued for the woman's kidnapping as well as robbery.
On June 27th, Donna Williams' abandoned vehicle was found in an alley in Detroit, Michigan. Inside was a forged identification card that had Debra Brown's photograph on it. Locals indicated that the car had been there since June 19th. There was no indication as to where Williams was, though the assumption was that she was no longer of this earth as a living being.
But Alton Coleman and Debra Brown were still very much alive and on the loose as serial killers. On June 28th, having stolen the crashed vehicle of their abductee, they drove to Dearborn Heights, Michigan. There, Brown and Coleman broke into the home of Palmer and Maggie Jones. The elderly couple was seriously beaten with a club and Palmer was handcuffed before the pair robbed them of a net total of $86 and stole their car.
On June 30th, Coleman and Brown continued their path of violence when they robbed two men in Detroit. Later, Brown and Coleman would add to their trail of violence and auto theft by beating and robbing a woman and her friend before stealing their 1975 Buick.
* * *
The elusive and deadly duo of Coleman and Brown had now committed serious crimes in several states and, as such, were being aggressively sought by the authorities in each of them. The fact that they had proven to be difficult to apprehend was frustrating to authorities, who believed they understood the way the killer pair was operating.
According to FBI Special Agent John Anthony, "We've come to the conclusion that Coleman and Brown are staying with people they meet. They spend a day or two with the people, get a little money gambling with them, and then assault and rob them and steal their car."7
Having made their way to Toledo, Ohio, Coleman and Brown hardly missed a beat in picking out victims at random, some unsuspecting that the facade of friendliness would prove deadly. This was the case for Virginia Temple, who had a number of children, including nine-year-old Rachelle, her eldest. On July 5, 1984, after lowering her guard to the killer couple by allowing them to stay overnight in her home, Temple paid the ultimate price for her kindness when she and Rachelle were brutally raped, beaten, and murdered by Coleman and Brown.
Virginia and Rachelle's bodies were crammed into garbage bags by their killers the next morning. Then Coleman and Brown moved on to locate new victims, as their murder spree seemed unrelenting.
In the meantime, relatives became concerned after not hearing from Virginia Temple. Arriving at her house, the youngest of Temple's children were found hungry, alone, and terrified, with no sign of Virginia or Rachelle.
Their corpses would later be located in a crawl space. As with other victims of the serial killers, the cause of death for Virginia and Rachelle was strangulation.
* * *
On the very day that Coleman and Brown disposed of their latest victims, Virginia and Rachelle Temple, they forced their way into the house of Toledo residents, Frank and Dorothy Duvendack. Once inside, they tied up the couple, using appliance cords and phone cords that they had cut. For some reason, the Duvendacks' lives were spared. However, they were still terrified, had been robbed, and had their car stolen by Brown and Coleman.
On the run, but still crafty and confident, Alton Coleman and Debra Brown arrived in Dayton, Ohio, where they ended up spending a few days with the Reverend Millard Gay and his wife, Kathryn. They actually attended a religious service with the unsuspecting couple on July 9th. The following day, the apparently unharmed Gays dropped off Brown and Coleman in Cincinnati's downtown area, where they once again stayed on the move and one step ahead of the law.
* * *
On July 11, 1984, the worst fears about Donna Williams were realized. Her badly decomposed remains were found in Detroit close to Wayne State University in an abandoned house about a half mile from the spot where her vehicle was located. In what was a familiar pattern of killing, the cause of her death was ligature strangulation.
Needless to say, the parents of Williams, Robert and Zenota Williams, were beyond despair knowing that their daughter had died in such a terrible way. They are still left with unanswered questions years later. "I will always wonder what, exactly, happened," Zenota Williams stated in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.8 Such haunting thoughts typically plague the loved ones of homicide victims who are often never able to come to terms with the tragedy.
* * *
As misfortune would have it, also on July 11th, fifteen-year-old Tonnie Storey of Cincinnati, Ohio, became Coleman and Brown's next victim. Having left home that day for a junior high school computer class, Storey was reported missing when she did not return home after school.
Eight days later, the bound, partially decomposed remains of Storey were located in an abandoned building on May Street. The autopsy determined her cause of death to be homicidal asphyxia.
A classmate of Tonnie Storey's would later testify to seeing Alton Coleman conversing with Storey the day she vanished. Coleman's fingerprint was found a
t the scene of the crime and a watch was discovered underneath Storey's body. The watch was later identified as belonging to Dorothy Duvendack, an earlier victim of Coleman and Brown who lived to talk about it.
* * *
On July 17, 1984, with the increasing number of rapes, robberies, and homicides across the Midwest attributed to Alton Coleman, though with a clearly willing accomplice, the FBI placed Coleman on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List as a "special addition." In the process, Coleman became only the tenth person to be named a special addition to the Top Ten List since the list's inception on March 14, 1950, joining infamous and "toughest guys"—or those thought to be a "particularly dangerous menace to society"—such as James Earl Ray (Martin Luther King's assassin), Ramzi Ahmed Yousef (mastermind behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center) and, more recently, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
In spite of being in such notorious company, Coleman and his partner in serial murder, Debra Brown, continued to leave a trail of victims in their wake.
On the morning of July 13, 1984, the pair brazenly rode bicycles into Norway, Ohio. They went to the home of Harry and Marlene Walters pretending to be interested in their travel trailer, which was for sale. After conning their way inside the couple's house, Coleman and Brown were quick to overpower them, inflicting terrible punishment before strangling them. Marlene Walters was hit as many as twenty-five times and her face and scalp were mutilated with a pair of vise grips. She died during the ordeal. Though her husband Harry was able to survive, he suffered brain damage from the vicious assault.
Harry Walters would later testify that after inviting Coleman and Brown into their home to talk about buying their trailer, Coleman lifted a wooden candlestick and smashed it hard against the back of his head as he sat on the couch, breaking the candlestick from the powerful blow. It pushed a mass of bone against the brain of the powerless victim.
According to the Walters' daughter, Sheri Walters, she arrived at the house after work at around 3:45 p.m., finding her mother deceased and her father clinging to life in the basement. Both parents had "ligatures around their throats and electrical cords tied around their bare feet. [Marlene's] hands were bound behind her back and [Harry's] hands were handcuffed behind his back."9 A blood-soaked sheet covered the head of Marlene Walters. The coroner reported that "the back of her skull was smashed to pieces," with portions of her skull and brain missing.10
Alton Coleman's fingerprints were found on pieces of a broken bottle in the living room and bloody footprints, left by two different types of shoes, were discovered in the victims' basement.
* * *
After what Coleman and Brown believed were two more dead victims to add to their ruthless, murderous crimes, they stole money and jewelry from the Walters home, took their red Plymouth Reliant, and fled the scene. The vehicle would be found in Lexington, Kentucky two days later. But the serial killer couple remained on the loose and as dangerous as ever.
They made their way to Williamsburg, Kentucky. On July 16, 1984, political-science college professor Oline Carmichael Jr., forty-five, was abducted by the fugitive killers as he walked to his car and forced into the trunk. Coleman and Brown drove the vehicle to Dayton, Ohio. The police discovered the abandoned car the next day with Carmichael in the trunk. He was shaken, but still alive.
Two other Dayton couples were intimidated, beaten, robbed, and/or had their car stolen by Coleman and Brown, who were getting desperate in their attempt to continue to evade the law.
* * *
Upon returning to the home of Reverend Millard Gay, the serial killer couple confronted Millard and his wife Kathryn with guns. This prompted Millard, who clearly recognized the fugitives that they had befriended, to ask angrily, "Why you want to do us like that, like this?"11
Coleman reportedly answered, "I'm not going to kill you, but we generally kill them where we go."12
This likely gave the Gays little comfort, but apparently they were not harmed physically. Brown and Coleman stole their car and drove it in the direction of Evanston, Illinois.
The next person they accosted was not so fortunate. Seventy-seven-year-old Eugene Scott was murdered by the serial killers in Indianapolis, Indiana, after which they stole his vehicle and headed toward their final destination of Evanston, before the reign of terror would finally come to a halt.
* * *
On July 20, 1984, in Evanston, Coleman and Brown were recognized by someone who was casually acquainted with Coleman. The wanted fugitives were on foot, crossing the street. The citizen drove to a nearby gas station to contact the authorities.
Having managed to dodge law enforcement through six states for fifty-three crime-filled days, including fourteen armed robberies, at least seven sexual assaults, three kidnappings, and eight murders, among other felonies, Alton Coleman and Debra Brown, no doubt believed this was just another stop along the way until they were ready to move on to other random targets of opportunity to commit violence.
Just before noon, the couple took a break from their crime spree to watch a pickup game, sitting in the bleachers at Mason Park, located on the city's West Side. Unbeknownst to them, undercover police officers had honed in on them and were ready to make their move, leaving nothing to chance in the killer duo escaping yet once again.
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown, apparently suspicious that something was going on, split up. Authorities were quick to surround Coleman as he tried to walk away. With a different, shorter haircut than the Jheri curls he had been photographed with, and no identification, Coleman, who was used to conning his way out of difficult situations, insisted, "You got the wrong man."13 He tried to bolster his argument by giving two aliases, to no avail.
In the meantime, other police arrested Brown before she could leave the park, finding a loaded gun in her handbag. She called herself "Denise Johnson."
Both suspects were taken into custody without incident and subsequently identified through their fingerprints at the Evanston Police Department.
During a strip search of Alton Coleman, a steak knife was found hidden between two pairs of sweat socks he wore. When arrested, Coleman and Brown were also in possession of a shopping bag that contained various tee shirts and caps that the couple apparently used to frequently change their appearance in an attempt to avoid detection.
Bail was set for Alton Coleman at $25 million and for Debra Brown at $20 million, assuring that there was no chance the serial murder suspects would be able to flee on bail to kill again.
* * *
Given the multiple states and many jurisdictions that Coleman and Brown had perpetrated their numerous offenses, more than fifty members of law enforcement from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin got together to decide the best plan for prosecuting the deadly serial offenders.
It was decided that Ohio, which had the death penalty, as opposed to Michigan, would try the suspects first. U.S. Attorney Dan Webb pointed out, "We are convinced that prosecution [in Ohio] can most quickly and most likely result in the swiftest imposition of the death penalty against Alton Coleman and Debra Brown."14
The case against the suspects was fairly strong, given the myriad of serious crimes they had committed in six states. Coleman, in particular, seemed to have no qualms about leaving his fingerprints behind at many of the crime scenes, allowing law enforcement to positively connect him with the crimes.
Though circumstantial evidence and witnesses were able to place Brown with Coleman and the victims, authorities still sought to obtain information about the crimes from Brown without the commanding presence of Coleman, or an attorney. The suspect was advised of her right to legal representation and she decided it was best to remain silent and speak to an attorney. In spite of this, Brown wound up confessing to local and federal authorities to the crimes and offering details that could be used against her and Coleman.
While on trial, Debra Brown's attorneys challenged her statements as a violation of Brown's Fifth Amendment right against se
lf-incrimination, given that her interrogation persisted even after her request to have an attorney. It was ruled that Brown's rights were violated by a detective in Evanston and therefore her confession was inadmissible. The same was not true for Brown's statements made to federal agents in Chicago, which would ultimately hold up in court and be used effectively against her.
* * *
In May 1985, Alton Coleman and Debra Brown were convicted in Ohio of aggravated murder in the death of Tonnie Storey, and in June 1985, the same for killing Marlene Walters, along with numerous other crimes of violence. Both Coleman and Brown were sentenced to death for these crimes.
During sentencing, Brown, whose attorneys had portrayed her as being in a "slave-master relationship" with the domineering Coleman, sent a note to the judge which reportedly said in reference to one of the victims, "I killed the bitch and I don't give a damn. I had fun out of it."15
In Indiana, the two convicted murderers had separate trials, but the same results in being found guilty of the rape and murder of young Tamika Turks and the attempted murder of her nine-year-old aunt, Annie. Again Coleman and Brown each received the death penalty. In addition, Coleman was given one hundred years and Brown forty years for kidnapping and child molestation.
Coleman went on to receive a death sentence as well in Illinois, becoming the only person in the United States at the time to be on death row in three states.
In January 1991, then Ohio Governor Richard Celeste commuted Debra Brown's death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after a staff report found her to be retarded with "childlike emotional development" and low IQ scores, as well as possessing a dependent personality, which made her vulnerable to Alton Coleman's influence.16 Brown is serving her time in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.
Terror in East Lansing: The Tale of MSU Serial Killer Donald Miller Page 3