April 7, 2025 • 64 mins
A children's roller skating party becomes the unlikely setting for a high-stakes undercover operation as police close in on Jeffrey Gorton, a seemingly ordinary family man they believe responsible for two of Michigan's most brutal unsolved murders.
Investigators suspect a predator of unimaginable savagery behind his façade of normalcy—a devoted husband, father of two, church member, and eager school volunteer. For over fifteen years, two horrific cases had haunted Michigan law enforcement: the 1986 murder of Margaret Eby, a prominent Flint university provost and musician found nearly decapitated in her home, and a 1991 case involving a flight attendant in Romulus who suffered a similarly brutal fate.
Advances in DNA technology had connected these crimes through preserved evidence, but police needed a fresh sample from their suspect to confirm their theory. Enter Mike San Andre, a scrappy undercover narcotics officer with silver hoop earrings and a shaved head, looking entirely out of place among elementary school families. His mission: to collect anything with Gorton's DNA—a napkin, cup, cigarette butt—anything that might finally close cases that had remained open for over a decade.
The episode follows this tense surveillance operation and the meticulous forensic work that followed while delving into the shocking details of the cold cases and their victims' stories. We witness the collision of scientific advancement with old-fashioned police work as investigators struggle with minute amounts of DNA and the pressure of knowing a potential predator remains free in the community.
Could a half-empty Mountain Dew cup and some twisted napkins finally bring closure to cases that had baffled police for generations? Join us for this riveting exploration of how the most minor pieces of evidence can sometimes break the most significant cases.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and todaywe're starting a new case, the
case of Jeffrey Gorton.
Let's begin.
It had been a very snowyFebruary of 2002 in mid-Michigan
.
Snow was piled up in the wallsalong the Gortons driveway in
(00:25):
Vienna, north of Flint.
It was barely 6 pm, but it hadlong since been pitch black when
the Gortons, jeffrey, brendaand their two kids, wally, age
10, and Jenny, 7, loaded intothe station wagon and slowly
eased out onto the busy two-lanehighway to Scholar Road that
(00:46):
ran in front of the house.
It was February 7, the firstThursday of the month, which
meant it was their kids'elementary school's monthly
roller rink party at Skateland.
A couple of miles away in NorthDordt Highway in the small city
of Mount Morris, jeff was toobusy to go in the fall and
(01:08):
spring, putting in long hours inhis parents' lawn sprinkler
installation and maintenancebusiness, but in the winter he
was happy to go.
He liked doing things withBrenda and the kids.
He had volunteered at theirschool's fun fair each year when
the school rooms masqueraded asa carnival.
(01:28):
He had decorated the classrooms.
He would pitch in whateverneeded to be done, same as he
had volunteered in the school'shaunted house each Halloween,
hanging lights and whatnot.
He volunteered functions attheir Baptist church too, which
(01:50):
he attended each Sunday, and wasactive in Boy Scouts.
Jeff loved holidays.
He liked more than spendinghours decorating his house and
grounds in the theme of theseason decorating his house and
grounds and the theme of theseason, not just the usual
(02:12):
Halloween and Christmas, butothers too Thanksgiving, easter,
fourth of July.
Brenda took pride in herhusband's interest in holiday
decorating.
Now they drove the three or fourmiles to the rink and as usual
the place was jammed and loudMusic playing, kids laughing and
screaming.
Everyone knew everyone.
The kids would skate till theywere hungry.
(02:34):
They'd grab a slice of pizzaand a soda pop in the adjacent
grill room and skate some moreadjacent grill room and skate
some more.
Some of the parents skated too.
Or they would sit up in thebleachers or chat over some food
in the grill or step out for asmoke.
Jeff was a bit of a flirt.
Always had been.
(02:56):
Brenda didn't mind, as Jeff, asusual, circulated chatting up
the other moms, circulatedchatting up the other moms.
They didn't seem to mind either.
Again, everyone knew everyone.
Well, this Thursday, not quiteOne guy stood out like a swollen
thumb.
Everyone knew everyone, but noone knew him.
(03:18):
He was very stocky,broad-shouldered, big-bellied,
had his head shaved, wore bighooped silver earrings and
grungy blue jeans and a flannelshirt.
He looked like he belonged in abiker bar, not at an elementary
school function.
There was another stranger inthe rink too, but the bald guy
(03:41):
was the one they noticed.
But the bald guy was the onethey noticed.
And Brenda, months later, wouldsay we see a stranger walking
around.
You don't know how many times Iwanted to say to him who you
were with or who you're herewith.
You do all these good functions.
(04:02):
You know everyone.
We thought there was going to bea child snatching.
I will never forget him.
I will never forget what thatman looked like, end quote.
There was going to be asnatching, all right, but not
the kind.
Brenda feared it wouldn't be akid.
(04:24):
But if it went the way thestranger hoped, it would be
worse than anything she everimagined.
He wasn't there looking for kids.
His name was Mike C Andre andhe would have fit right in at a
biker bar.
(04:44):
In fact he fit right in atbiker bars all the time.
He was an undercover narcoticscop from the hardscrabble
blue-collar downriver Detroitsuburb of Romulus, whose chief
downtown attraction is a toplessjoint known as the Landing
(05:06):
Strip and whose major employerand taxpayer is the Metropolitan
Detroit Airport, which sitssmack dab in the middle of the
city's 36 square miles.
There are a lot of felonsserving time in Michigan prisons
who got the shock of theirlives when they found out San
(05:28):
Andre wasn't who he appeared tobe this night.
San Andre wasn't interested inkids and he wasn't interested in
drugs.
He was there to keep an eye onJeff Gordon.
He wanted to watch him to seeif he ate or drank something.
He wanted to see if he suckedout of a straw, put a cup to his
(05:54):
lip, wiped his face with anapkin, used a fork or a knife,
went outside to puff on acigarette and tossed the butt to
the ground.
Sanandro wanted to keep an eyeout for any of that stuff and
snatch it if he could and get itto the Michigan State Police
(06:15):
Crime Lab in Lansing.
They needed to see if Gorton'sDNA matched semen the state
police scientist had kept frozenfor more than 15 years in one
Flint case and nearly 11 yearsin a Romulus case.
Both crimes had involved almostunspeakable savagery, slow
(06:39):
torture ending in the neardecapitation of victims who were
raped and murdered.
Both cases likely involvednecrophilia too.
Not counting Jimmy Hoffa, theywere the two highest profile
unsolved murder cases inMichigan in the last 50 years.
(06:59):
And this was the guy who did it, if he was responsible and
something with his DNA on itneeded statching.
St Andrew wanted to be the onewho snatched it, his adrenaline
barely under control.
Sure, he was working the caseof a lifetime.
(07:20):
St Andrew watched and waited andfollowed Gordon around as he
chatted up.
The wives, went in the rink towatch the kids.
And then here it comes,returned to the food area, got
in line and picked up some pizzaGood old, messy pizza.
He watched Gordon chow down.
(07:44):
He watched the sauce greaseaccumulate on Gordon's lips and
the corner of his mouth.
He watched Gordon wipe hismouth, eat some more, then wipe
it again.
Gordon went through one napkina second.
He did Sanandra a favor bytwisting his used napkins into
(08:06):
strings so there would be nomistaking which were his.
San André watched Gordon drinkhis pop.
He watched and watched and thenhe snatched.
He snatched Mike.
San Andre gave up his dreams ofplaying hockey and decided to
(08:33):
become a cop.
After graduation from TrentonHigh in 1979, he paid his own
way to the Metro Detroit PoliceAcademy, then got a job
patrolling the area here inClinton Metro Parks that ring
Detroit, pretty much the bottomrung of Floyd Forsman.
In 1984, he applied for a jobin Romulus and to his surprise,
(08:57):
snyder his old boss when he wasa paper boy now a cop in Romulus
too was the one who'd show upat his house to interview him.
Snyder remembered him as ahard-working, reliable kid on
his paper route and hired him.
In 1989, sinandra was assignedto a DEA task force at
(09:19):
Metropolitan Airport, workingundercover to ferret out drugs
smugglers and people illegallycarrying large sums of money.
With its proximity to Canada,metro was a major transit point
for couriers.
Mostly San Andres worked tipsfrom airline personnel evolving
(09:40):
out of overhead conversations oreducated hunches.
Usually San Andres had noprobable cause.
When he approached a suspectcoming off a plane, the tips
would never have stood up incourt.
But there's no law againstasking people if they were
submitted to a search and no lawagainst them being stupid
(10:00):
enough to agree.
All they have to say was nope,and they would have been able to
keep on going.
San Andres was amazed by howmany say okay instead, and
within minutes you would findpounds of cocaine or bags of pot
or bundles of cash in suitcases, in some instances more than a
(10:22):
million dollars.
When the 1991 case of a murderflight attendant met headlines
for weeks in the Detroit papersand in the If it Bleeds it Leads
department dominated local TVnews night after night.
Sanandro had been one of theguys who worked the airport hard
(10:43):
.
Armed with composite sketchesmade by eyewitnesses, he spent
many hours scanning faces,looking for a traveler returning
to the scene of the crime or,more likely, some airline
employee who had used theuniform to avoid raising the
suspicions of his victim.
His surveillance at the airportwas futile.
(11:07):
Nearly a decade later, in 2000,he was assigned to Romulus
Special Investigations Unit,which mostly did undercover
narcotics work, but now, at thebehest of the Michigan State
Police, he was taking a breakfrom drugs and up in the Flint
area trying to catch the sameperp he had been looking for in
(11:31):
1991.
Michigan State Police that asuspect had finally emerged and
Romulus' help was needed forround-the-clock surveillance.
Within 20 minutes, snyder andhis partner Gordy Melaniak went
(11:56):
underway to the state policepost on Corona Road just west of
the city of Flint.
Just west of the city of Flint.
Four other Romulus cops andAndre Greg Brandemille, jeff
Linak and Mike Ondesko wouldlater join them.
After getting briefed,accompanied by State Police
Sergeant Mark Reeves, melianak,andre Brandemille and Linak went
(12:23):
out to relieve state trooperswho had been watching the Gorton
house all day.
Instead of the tedium that acrew of state police had
suffered through all day, cold,nothing happening, time dragging
by less than half an hour intotheir shift out came the Gorton
family piling into a blue 1993Pontiac station wagon and
(12:48):
heading out, driving separatecars scattered around the area
one by one.
The police pulled in behindGorton Soon.
They were at the rink, saidAndrea and blandil.
So kids and parents line up atthe door and worry they wouldn't
fit in.
But there was nothing to do forit.
(13:10):
St Andrea went in first, paying$5 admission.
Where are your kids, asked theattendant, expecting to be
collecting more money.
They're already in, he said.
Blandemil waited a few minutesand then followed him inside.
Brandemill, the son of a cop,spent four years in army
(13:30):
intelligence in Germany beforejoining the Romulus police in
1987.
He was an evidence tech for thedepartment at the time of the
1991 murder but ironically wasnot called to the scene.
Snyder, the detective in chargeof the crime scene knew the
case was going to be a big oneand no disrespect to his own
(13:51):
people but, wanting the besthelp he could get, had chosen to
call in a state police evidenceteam instead.
Brandemille was a member of SIUand inside the ring he and and
San Andre pretended they wereold friends who coincidentally
had run into each other.
And Brandon said hey, how areyou doing?
(14:13):
And San Andre spotted Gordon.
His kids and his wife wereputting on skates.
They went into the rink.
Gordon followed, taking a spotin the bleachers, san Andre on
an adrenaline rush and acting.
The cowboys sat behind Gordon,close enough to touch him.
He got out the next cell andcalled Snyder, who was back at
(14:38):
the Flint Post, and he said youwon't believe what's going on.
I'm sitting behind your bestfriend.
I could tap him on the shoulderIf it seemed a foolish thing to
do.
Well, st Andrew would admit tobeing brazen.
The ring was very loud Musicand the screams and hollering of
(15:08):
what seemed like hundreds ofkids covering up his
conversation.
Later San Andre would sayBrenda May was looking at me
like I don't believe you.
Gordon got up and left the rink.
San Andre must side out afterhim into the adjoining entryway
where Gordon circulated fromwoman to woman.
Sanandri was surprised by howeasily Gordon seemed to fit in.
(15:30):
The women knew him, they seemedto like him and he had an ease
with them.
That seemed odd for a suspectedserial killer whose brutality
had been so vivid in the crimescene photos, who had playfully
tortured his victims for quitesome time before trying to
decapitate them with a serratedknife, who had posed his victims
(15:55):
after death, who had taken thetime to clean up and in one case
had been so cool as to makeseveral trips to his car hauling
off the woman's belongings.
But although gordon seemed tooat ease with the women, he was
nervous, too fidgety, lookingover his shoulder.
(16:19):
Something Vandermeer said later, quote in our mind he doesn't
know anything.
He had gotten away with what hehad done all these years.
But it was odd that he wouldact so nervous.
He didn't know we were there.
(16:40):
Then we realized he would doneso much over the years he was
always nervous.
End quote.
Gordon circulated for 20 minutesand finally his kids came back
out.
They wanted to eat and theGordons went into the snack bar.
(17:01):
The room was filled with longtables.
St Andrew and Blatham Hill sattwo tables away from the Gordons
.
Jeff's wife and kids stayed atthe table and he got in line to
get food.
San Andre got in line behindhim.
Gordon picked up some styrofoamcups and ordered pizza and a
(17:24):
pitcher of Mountain Dew.
San Andre ordered two pops andtook his seat.
A spot opened up at the tablenext to the Gordons and the two
cups slid over.
Gordon wiped his greasy mouthwith a napkin, then twisted it
into a string First one, then asecond.
And Andre said to himself youknow what we got you.
(17:52):
The Gordons put their refuse ontheir trays and pushed them
aside.
In front of an empty seatSomeone came up, asked if the
Gordons were done, then pushedthe trays further down the table
to make room.
Andret said to his partnerwatch this, it was 7.25 pm.
(18:12):
His next move was bracing.
San Andre would counter thatwhat seems bracing really wasn't
that the bolder you are, themore invisible you can be, or so
he thought.
He walked over, tapped Gordonon the shoulder and said are you
(18:36):
done with your tray?
If you're done, I'll take it.
And Gordon nodded and saidAndrew, pick it up and walk to
the far end of the room whereBrandemille had gone Making sure
the Gordons were not looking.
Brandemille quickly opened up aManila evidence bag and sent
(18:56):
Andrea, dumped the tradecontents.
But they still didn't haveGordon's cup and they were
determined to get it.
Piece of chewing gum would benice too, or a cigarette butt.
A few minutes later the two kidswent back into the rink to
resume skating.
Gordon remained seated.
(19:18):
There were several cups overthe table and one right in front
of him.
San Andrea eyeballed it.
Gordon reached out, pouredMountain Dew into it from a
pitcher, took four or fiveswallows, set it down and got up
.
Zedendra walked over, picked upthe half-filled cup and set it
(19:40):
inside a large-sized cup so hewouldn't have to touch it any
more than necessary.
He noticed people looking athim.
It was like hey, if you want apop that bad, we'll buy you one.
Little did he know that Gordonhad looked back and seen him
grab the cop too, and he toldhis wife that guy just took my
(20:01):
pop.
And his wife was skeptic andshe said yeah right, jeff.
She was willing to believe thescruffy guy with the earrings
was a child snatcher, but whosteals someone's half-empty cup
of pop?
St Andrew passed the cup toBrandemille.
He went outside and gave theevidence back and the cup to
(20:23):
Maliniak, then returned to therink, hopefully to get more DNA
evidence.
Malianak went over to Reeves'car and gave the bag and cup to
him.
Reeves poured the pup out onthe ground, put the cup inside a
cup in another evidence bag,started his car and headed for
(20:44):
the Flint post.
The plan was he would give thisstuff to fellow state trooper,
hal Settle, who would drive itwest on I-69 to the small town
of Perry.
Jeff Nye, a chemist and DNAspecialist at the crime lab in
(21:04):
Lansing, lived in Perry.
He had been alerted that a teamwas going to try to get
something with Gordon's DNA.
When and if they did, theywould call Nye, no matter what
the time, and he would meetsomeone in the parking lot of a
Burger King at exit 105 to Perryand then take the evidence to
(21:28):
the lab to be analyzed.
And then take the evidence tothe lab to be analyzed.
St Andrew and Brenda Mill goton the next stealth to Snyder
and said we got him, we got him.
And then they talked to eachother about the same thought
that they have independently hadMonths later.
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St Andrew said quote it waskind of sad we were looking at
his kids beautiful kids, twobeautiful little children and
we're thinking you know what, ifthis goes right, this is going
to be the last night you wereever going to end with your
father.
We thought about it beingparents thinking the things
(22:13):
these kids are going to have togo through, they're going to pay
for it.
His wife is going to pay for it.
End quote, if it went right.
Hal Settle grew up in northernMichigan, in West Branch, which
(22:35):
is a town that is surrounded byforests and lakes, and he had
been with the state police sincegetting out of high school.
In 1976, when he was 21, hejoined the academy and became a
full-fledged trooper In June of2000, he was assigned to a new
(22:55):
cold case Violent Crimes TaskForce in Flint and was one of
four troopers assigned to aseries of 10 prostitute murders.
As it turned out, there were atleast two serial murderers
killing the prostitutes.
There were at least two serialmurderers killing the
prostitutes.
(23:15):
Settle helped take 450 DNAswaps on the case with one of
them.
And Settle helped take 450 DNAswaps on one case and with one
of them, finally leading to thearrest and conviction of Keith
Cummings for murdering two womenand leaving them in abandoned
(23:43):
houses.
So he was convicted for that.
Two weeks after Cummings' arrest, zetto was assigned to the
unsolved 1986 murder of a Flintwoman and, to everyone's
surprise, a DNA test using newtechnology had linked it to a
(24:04):
1991 case in Romulus.
So Sato spent hundreds of hoursgoing through all files,
re-interviewing witnesses,taking DNA swabs, tracking down
(24:25):
people who had been interviewed.
But should have been way backwhen.
And on February 6, 2001, a longoverdue FBI report that the
cold case squad had requestedcame back with startling news.
A partial print found at theFlint homicide scene A very
(24:47):
partial print, one long thoughtto be impossible to work with
had come back with a positiveidentification.
Not only that, but the guy itidentified still lived in the
Flint area.
A print at a scene is hardlyevidence of murder.
Most crime scenes containhundreds of prints of innocent
(25:11):
people, but this had been abloody print those you don't
find too many of.
Zero was part of thesurveillance team quickly
assembled the afternoon ofFebruary 6th.
The next morning, michiganState Police team out of Lansing
took over the surveillanceduties for the day.
(25:33):
Shift Settled and other membersof the cold case squad Greg
Kilbourne, mike Larson andDennis Diggs scrambled to amass
as much data on the suspect,jeff Gordon, as they could
Employment history, knownaddresses checking out his time
spent in Florida running downhis military record.
(25:56):
The time flew by Zetto startedearly in the morning and the
next thing I knew this is Zettosaying this.
He said I got a call at thepost that they had a styrofoam
cup he had been drinking fromand a couple of napkins.
About 8.10 pm Reeves arrived atthe post, handed the evidence
(26:21):
to Zetto and off he went.
He said quote, I had a littleCorsica, a state-issue rattle
trap, and I pushed that thingall the way there end.
Quote.
A 40-mile drive to Perry tookless than half an hour, as
planned.
He met with Nye at the BurgerKing and his adrenaline was
(26:48):
pumping.
His adrenaline was pumping andhe had worked already 36 out of
the last 44 hours and was stillgoing strong.
Knight was a former entrepreneurturned happy civilian state
employee.
He has two master's degree insoil science and toxicology and
(27:09):
had worked for seven years atthe Michigan Biotechnology
Institute in Lansing, anincubator trying to spin
Michigan State Universityresearch into for-profit
companies.
This job involved a lot ofspending, very little profit.
Most of the companies therestruggled to find real products
to sell to real markets andsuffered through a kind of
(27:31):
hand-to-mouth existence,surviving, if they did, on a
series of small research grantsfrom different federal agencies.
Tired of the insecurity neverknowing if the next grant would
be awarded in time to meetpayroll, nye had left the world
of entrepreneurship for the nicepay and benefits that accrued
to civilian employees at theState Police Crime Lab, which
(27:54):
moved into a newstate-of-the-art facility in
1999.
Nye was in the biology unit atthe lab, analyzing semen, blood
and footwear impressions.
He worked crime sceneinvestigations too.
Nye had already played a crucialrole in the reopened
investigation into the Flinthomicide of 1986.
(28:15):
Semen and blood samples hadbeen collected at the time, but
technology had taken quantumleaps since then.
Something called PCR forpolymerase chain reaction had
drastically reduced the amountof DNA needed to identify a
suspect, and a computerizedsystem called CODIS allowed DNA
(28:38):
samples to be matched both toknown individuals and to
unsolved cases where the DNA hadbeen typed but not linked to a
known perpetrator.
Nye, as part of his ongoingwork updating store evidence,
had run the samples from theFlint case through a PCR and
(28:59):
entered the results into theCODIS system.
Codis couldn't link the DNA toa known individual but did link
it to another unsolved case.
But did link it to anotherunsolved case, that of the rape
and murder of the flightattendant in Romulus in 1991.
Linking those two profile caseshad put the AMSP cold case
(29:27):
investigation on a front burnerand quieted criticisms from
Flint police politicians andprosecutors that the state was
meddling in the city's business.
So when Nye had been calledabout two in the afternoon to
ask if he could conduct a rushtest on Gordon's DNA if evidence
could be gathered, he said hewould be happy to.
Any time of the day or night.
(29:50):
Just give him a call, he willshortcut all chain of command
issues.
At 8.10 pm Knight got his calland about 9 pm he was meeting
Settle and the Burger King.
By 9.15, he was at the lab.
He opened up the large manilaenvelope.
(30:13):
A styrofoam cup was wedgedinside a larger Pepsi cup.
He could see the Mountain Dewresidue on the sides.
There were two soil napkins,twisted piece of salt evident it
wasn't a good start.
Napkins have pores, so isstyrofoams.
(30:34):
Liquids don't leak through itbut they don't absorb into it
because it acts as a sponge soit's tough to work with.
He would have preferredsomething glass or ceramic, a
metal plus a plastic fork,perhaps.
(30:55):
Knight took cuttings from thenapkins and wiped the rim of the
cup with the sterile swab.
He put the cuttings and thecotton swab tip in two tubes,
then added a liquid solution,something called a proteinase K
enzyme, which breaks open cells,chews up everything but DNA.
(31:17):
He then washed off the cellulardebris and what was left was
some yet-to-be-determined amountof DNA in clear liquid.
He got nothing off the napkins,despite the presence of sauce
that had been on gordon's faceand lips.
He got just the tiniest of bitsfrom the cup.
(31:38):
He eyeballed the dewdrop'sspeck of liquid.
Guess it would be about 15-20microliters.
Dna would only be a smallfraction of that.
In the old days of somethingcalled RFLP testing of DNA
samples, which produced bands ofdifferent widths to be compared
(31:59):
with other samples to see ifthe bands line up, you needed at
least 300 nanograms of DNA.
Now you normally need at leastone nanogram preferably more if
you can, a nanogram being just abillionth of a gram, or one one
(32:22):
billionth of one twenty-eighthof an ounce an incomprehensibly
small amount, and Knight figuredhe had 0.5 nanograms at best.
So Knight was crestfallenbecause it means he didn't have
enough, so he would go throughthe motions, run the sample,
(32:44):
through his equipment to see ifhe could still get a match to
the semen samples on hand.
But it was doubtful, highlydoubtful.
About midnight he called GregKilbourne and he said Greg, we
don't have enough DNA.
I'm going to run the testanyway, but it doesn't look like
(33:05):
we have enough, sorry.
Kilburn called Snyder, who wasback home for the night, and he
said no go.
Snyder called Malinak andBrandemille and said Andre, at
their homes.
The bad news weighed heavily onthem and they went to bed.
(33:26):
We'll be right back.
We are going to go a little bitback before all this happened,
before the DNA testing, andtrying to connect Jeffrey Gorton
(33:48):
to these potential cold cases.
Florida Florida has long been aplace for second chances People
(34:17):
sick of winter, sick of theirlives, sick of their spouses,
sick of their jobs, strip malls,shopping centers, amusement
parks and freeways to satisfythe needs of the millions of
lives that headed there to startanew.
Marie Galeano was one of them.
A native of Asbury Park, newJersey, the place made famous by
(34:39):
Bruce Springsteen, she wasmarried at 21, divorced at 29,
stuck in a rut as a paralegal at32, and more than ready and
eager for something different.
In 1982, when her best friend,donna Smith, phoned and
convinced her to move to Orlandoand join her in her new life.
Marie was a tiny thing, girlishlooking but pretty short
(35:06):
fashion model, thin, dark brownhair.
She was lively spirited, ananimated talker by nature who
regained her animation with themove.
Florida energized her, got herback to being herself.
After the marriage had gonesour and the inevitable
post-divorce funk.
(35:26):
She was fun to be around andshe and Donna fit right in with
the mostly single crowd at theirGrove Park apartments on Curry
Road.
With her new life came a newcar, a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit, a
present to herself for startingher new life.
It was the first major purchaseshe made after divorcing her
(35:48):
husband, and she called it mypride and joy.
Marie had tired of what shetermed the dirtbags she dealt
with in New Jersey in her roleas a paralegal.
For a public defender, a newlife meant just that, and though
she had gone to school to be aparalegal and was good at it, it
(36:09):
had been time to end thatchapter in her life too.
In Orlando she had found a jobas a sales clerk in cosmetics at
Burdine's in the Fashion SquareMall, one of the seemingly
endless series of malls that wasbuilt up in the 1970s and 80s
on the highways, spoken out fromthe central city as Disney
(36:32):
World and Epcot and the othertheme parks open and lure tens
of thousands of workers andmillions of visitors.
She liked meeting new peopleall day.
She liked selling them things.
It was April 29, a Friday night,a big night as usual for many
of her new friends in theapartment complex.
(36:53):
For her, though, it wassupposed to be just a routine
night.
Stop on the way home for a fewgroceries, kick back from a week
on her feet, get a bite to eat,go to bed.
Donna likely would like to beout on a date or partying, maybe
down the hall from their secondfloor apartment with some of
(37:15):
the other Friday night partiers,and maybe of somewhere else in
the town.
Bird jeans closed at 9 pm andMarie headed out to her rabbit
around 9.30.
It was warm, clear night.
She stopped at the Albertsons,around the block from her
apartment complex, for bread andmilk and a few other staples,
(37:37):
set her single brown bag in theback of her car and headed home.
A car followed her out of thelot, whether it had been
following her from Burdine's orjust started at the grocery
store, she will never know.
Her apartment building had twoentrances.
She pulled into the first one.
The other car drove past, thenentered the driveway on the far
(38:01):
side of the building and pullinto the large parking lot out
back, still unnoticed.
It was 10 pm.
The lot was pretty well litwith mercury vapor lights.
It wasn't one of those lots youfelt you have to scurry out of.
Marie got out and as she walkedbehind her car she noticed off
(38:23):
to the right a man heading herway.
She immediately thought guywalking his dog.
She turned to face the rear ofthe car, put in the key, opened
the hatchback and lifted thebrown bag.
And as she did, hersubconscious mind flashed a
warning.
She wouldn't necessarily haveseen a dog, given the cars in
(38:44):
the lot, but something about theway the man was walking meant
no dog.
A jolt of fear hit her as shestrained up the bag still in her
arms, she turned to the left.
By then, given his rate ofspeed, he would have been past
her 10 yards, 20 yards somewhereto her left and receding.
(39:06):
But the man wasn't walking andhe wasn't past her.
He was standing right there hisface, filling her vision of
food from hers In a slashermovie.
It would have been one of thosemoments when the audience jumped
.
A tight shot of a woman in acar.
(39:27):
Woman turns Man's head, enters,shot from left.
Audience gasp in mass.
Marie screamed as the manreached down, lifted her skirt,
grabbed her lower legs andflipped her over backwards.
She landed on her left wristand butt groceries flying
(39:49):
through the air and scatteringacross the pavement.
He wrapped her ankles andlifted and she went flat on her
back.
She screamed one long screamand he held her tightly by each
ankle and dragged her toward thenearby dumpster.
(40:13):
After a nationwide search andreview of several finalist
officials at the Flint Campus ofthe University of Michigan
announced in the spring of 1981that they have chosen Margaret
Ebby to fill the post of Provostand Vice Chancellor for
(40:33):
Academic Affairs, the secondhighest administrative position
at the university.
A picture of every greetedreaders of the Flint Journal at
the right side of a story thatspread across the entire top of
page six.
It showed a woman withsparkling eyes, dark bangs
swooping down over her forehead,a huge smile and dimples.
(40:56):
The headline would be just herfirst of many.
Abby had been serving as deanof the College of Humanities and
Fine Arts at the University ofNorthern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
But she wasn't just an academic.
She was also a talentedmusician who had given
harpsichord, organ and pianorecitals throughout the Midwest,
(41:18):
and she was also named a fullprofessor of music with tenure
at the Flint campus.
It would be a triumphant returnto her home state for Abby, a
Detroit native who got her PhDin musicology from the
University of Michigan's maincampus in Ann Harbor after many
(41:39):
years of part-time studies whileraising her four children.
Years of part-time studieswhile raising her four children.
After getting her doctorate in1971, abby headed the humanities
department at the University ofMichigan's Dearborn campus in
suburban Detroit, where shefounded the school's music
history and applied musicdepartments.
In 1977, she joined the facultyat Northern Iowa as a music
(42:04):
professor and dean of humanitiesand fine arts.
Even before her arrival inFlint, eager to show that she
would be an active booster ofthe arts and culture, she became
a sponsor of the FlintInstitute of Arts.
Upon her arrival, ebi provedherself to be energetic, even
vivacious, a supercharged dynamowho said she played music for
(42:28):
her soul, swarmed the schoolpool on her lunch hour instead
of eating and walk to work everyday.
She was a widow, nearing 50,but didn't act or look it.
She was trim and attractive andseemed younger, a product of
her times, the 60s, the pill,the sexual revolution, and now
(42:51):
single.
She was happy and willing tocatch the eye of men she came
into contact with.
On August 2nd, the journey ranits next story about her, a
lengthy feature that quoted pastcolleagues as praising her for
her talent, friendliness andconscientiousness.
It feels like I have come home,she said a flint.
(43:14):
As provost she had been giventhe mission of bringing more
discipline and accountability toa growing faculty in 23
departments, a faculty that wasperceived by some as generally
lax and soft.
But she told the paper quote Idon't intend to just storm in
making changes right and left,nor do I intend to sit alone in
(43:37):
judgment of the quality ofeducation.
That would take colossalignorance.
It is inconceivable for oneperson to have all the necessary
knowledge in all the differentprogram areas to make that kind
of judgment end.
Quote Ebi soon began enlistingsupport in a project that at
(43:59):
first seemed like tilting atwindmills in the
factory-dominated city of FlintIn Iowa, she had begun planning
a 300th birthday bash festivalfor JS Beck, who had been born
on March 21, 1685.
(44:21):
Now she would still put on afestival, but she would do it in
Michigan instead.
Slowly she got others in hergrowing social and civic circle
to commit time and money.
Evie recruited a cadre of 25Flint boosters to help organize
the festival, which was to beginin January of 1985.
(44:42):
It reached its zenith on March21st and then taper off with a
variety of events through June1st Margaret Abbey's Crazy Dream
a festival to put Flint in thefront aisle seat for John
Sebastian Bach's 300th birthdayparty.
(45:03):
Moving to the real world thisweek, as the group planning the
event received word of a $20,800grant.
We read a story in the FlintJournal on August 25, 1983.
The grant had come fromNational Endowment for the
Humanities in Washington DC forthe full amount requested by
(45:25):
Evie in her role as president ofthe Flint Commission Cultural
Festivals Inc.
The festival ended up a roaringsuccess Four months of
jam-packed culture in a townmore known for its six-pack
approach to recreation.
The 40-event festival did theunheard of.
It raised $48,000, more inrevenue than projections call
(45:50):
for.
In April Gutz von Balmer, theAmerican consul general from
West Germany, awarded Evie withthe German-American Friendship
Medal.
Today the festival concluded onSaturday, june 1st with an
evening of music and fireworkson the Flint River.
The journal named Evie iswinner of the week.
(46:13):
But not everyone was enamoredwith Evie.
She had been brought in to whipthe faculty into shape and
those getting whipped didn'tmuch appreciate it, and those
getting whipped didn't muchappreciate it.
Abby could drive others todistraction, whether it was
faculty at the Flint campus orworkers on the festival
committee.
She likes perfection, accordingto Margaret Strobel, who was
(46:38):
hired to work for the festivalin January of 1984, told a
journal reporter she doesn'thesitate to ask you to do
something over if it's not right.
I have had to do that.
I think it would drive otherpeople, but when I have done a
job over again I could see thatshe was right.
She's the most stimulatingfemale I have ever worked with.
(47:02):
She has lots of ideas and sheknows what to do with her ideas.
She can do things at the spurof the moment.
She doesn't have to hide behindan organizational chart.
But universities are allorganizational charts,
hierarchies, picking orders.
There are also internex signbattlegrounds with raging eagles
(47:27):
, dirty fighters.
As her festival approach, as itwas held, as she triumphed in
the media, some of hercolleagues sharpened their
knives, a metaphor that policewould soon think might have
crossed the boundary into theworld of literal action.
Ebi was again in the journal onMarch 17 of 1986 to a story
(47:56):
that detailed a successful B&Eevening with Schubert organized
by Ebi at the University ofMichigan Flint Theater.
Shoeboard organized by Abby atthe University of Michigan Flint
Theater.
The next story to the journaland the journal on Abby,
accompanied by pictures of herin the back festival t-shirt and
the house she rented on anestate not far from campus and
(48:23):
Bold Headlines, ran on November10, 1986.
By then the woman, who could dono wrong in her career, had run
afoul of her enemies.
Carping and complaints had ledto her losing her post as
provost roast.
(48:49):
She could be silly, charmingand engaging with her friends,
but hyper-demanding, caustic andverbally abusive with those she
worked with.
Smart enough to negotiatetenure before she left Iowa, she
still held the single title ofmusic professor.
But despite the loss of herpro-Rose position, life was
still good.
She was doing good work, shehad a lot of friends, she was a
(49:13):
lay minister at the FirstPresbyterian Church downtown,
she was close to her childrenand she had a dream place to
live a two-story gatehouse onthe biggest estate in town that
was a steal at $375 a monthincluding utilities and which
was just a walk from campus.
(49:34):
Evie constantly entertained onthe grounds of the estate,
hosting parties that includedgifted students, corporate
bigwigs, academics,intellectuals and artists.
She held annual Yule Logparties and arranged croquette
matches and long bowlingtournaments and any manner of
(49:56):
cocktail parties and barbecues.
It was the fall of 1986, andMark Eby, who was a civilian
employee of the US Army TankCommand, had been on assignment
in Germany for a year.
His wife, cindy, was there withhim, and one project he had
(50:16):
decided on before he left hometo sort of keep in touch with
his tight-knit family and was toorganize and catalog the 36
years of family photos thattrace out the history of the
Ebbies from the time of hismother's marriage to his dad in
1950.
He put the last photo in thefirst book.
(50:37):
It told the first nine years ofa family's tale.
It also chronicled the paralleltales of the burgeoning baby
boomer era and of the growth ofthe American suburb.
There was another tale too,hidden behind the shots of young
babies growing children, newhouses, new cars.
It was the story of a typicalyoung American housewife, doing
(51:01):
the not so cynical or so typical, I should say going to college
part-time first for herbachelor's, then her master's,
then her PhD.
A woman who wouldn't harnessher ambitions or her mind just
because she had married at age18 and started a family.
Margaret Fink was the second offive children whose mother was
(51:26):
a strict, gut-fearing Germanimmigrant.
Her younger sister, ruth, wouldlater spend most of her adult
life as a missionary in Brazil.
Margaret quit Wheaton Collegein Illinois to get married to
Stuart Eby and delay herbachelor's till she was 23.
She was a woman determined togo places, figuratively and
(51:50):
literally, a woman who wouldmake her mark, a woman who, like
many others of her generationor the one to follow, would
ultimately explore a sexualitybeyond the limits of her
conservative upbringing.
We'll be right back.
Let's go now to 1986.
(52:14):
Tony Trombley met the boogeymanin the summer of 1986.
He was just back in the areafrom Florida and his brother and
sister-in-law lived next doorto the house where Tony rented a
room from her cousin in a housein Flint.
He was quiet, smart and enjoyedtalking to her.
(52:36):
Pretty soon he was stopping byevery day to chat.
Nothing romantic, just friendlyconversation.
One day Tony came home to findhe had been there.
He had gotten in somehow andleft a bouquet of flowers and a
note for her.
She looked around.
Nothing was as she or hercousin had left it.
(52:59):
He had completely cleaned thehouse.
It was spotless.
He had also washed the laundry,folding it and putting it away
before he left.
Tony freaked out.
She confronted him later andtold him to stay away from her,
and she got a padlock for herbedroom door.
One day she came home to findthe padlock broken off.
(53:23):
She soon moved out.
She came home to find thepadlock broken off.
She soon moved out, and thatwas the last she heard of him
for more than 15 years.
In 1986, margaret Eri's calendarwas always busy.
It would have been busy justwith demands at school.
(53:44):
She was also a director of theclassical radio station WFBE,
and she had a wide circle offriends running the gamut, from
lovers to artists, to fellowchurchgoers to musicians she
played with in various ensembles.
(54:04):
At 55, she showed no sign ofslowing down, whether it was her
schedule or her naturalhigh-energy metabolism.
Abby still had the petitefigure of a schoolgirl.
She was 5 feet 1 inch tall andweighed 123 pounds.
The only concession to age washer dyed brown hair, which she
(54:28):
wore in a loose perm that wasthen fashionable.
The weekend of Friday November7th through Sunday November 9th
was typical.
At 4 pm Friday she was supposedto meet with a woman friend but
got out of that engagement soshe could accept an offer to
(54:49):
attend a dinner party at thehome of Richard and Mary Newman
in nearby Clio.
The Newmans were fellow membersof First Presbyterian Church, a
grand old stone edifice on SSaginaw Street in downtown Flint
.
Also attending were John Hyde,an assistant principal at the
(55:09):
Ottawa County Vocational Center,southern Smith, a teacher at
the Flint Academy who sang withAbby at the church, and William
Reneker, the church's chieforganist and choir director.
Saturday she had to go down toDetroit to pick up her
three-year-old granddaughter,jessie.
(55:30):
That was off the DetroitInstitute of Art with her, and
then that night to a concert atHill Auditorium on the
University of Michigan's AnnArbor campus.
Sunday she had a 2 pm concertto attend in Flint.
Sunday she had a 2 pm concertto attend in Flint, and at 4 pm
Hyde and Smith were stopping bythe two-story, two-door
(55:50):
gatehouse she rented on the Mottestate.
Evie had some geraniums sheprized and Hyde was going to
transplant them to hisgreenhouse before a killer frost
did them.
In this time of year a frostwas overdue.
Friday's dinner was a quietaffair.
(56:10):
The night before at choirpractice, all four of the guests
had agreed to meet at Ebby's at6.15 and make the short drive
to Clio in one car.
Ebby brought a cold seafoodsalad.
Abby told everyone she wasupset at having recently
(56:31):
received a letter from anattorney for the Mott estate
saying that she might soon haveto leave her beloved gatehouse
home, that the estate planned tohire a full-time gardener and
his contract might require thatthe estate provide him a place
to live.
At one point Nevy asked thegroup if anyone thought it was
possible for someone to have afull social life and still be
(56:53):
lonely, and Smith would laterrecount quote.
I wonder if it was a questionof a professor to stimulate
conversation or if she wastalking about herself.
End quote.
At 11 pm the four headed back toFlint At the gatehouse.
(57:14):
All three men got out of thecar and walked every to the
front door of the gatehouse, buther key wouldn't work the lock,
and she said this lock isschizophrenic Sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't.
The four then walked to a sidedoor where Abby used the same
(57:38):
key to get inside.
Before she closed the door sheturned and gave all three men
quick, friendly pecks on thecheek.
Good night, sunday afternoon.
Hyde, a meticulous type, noticedwhen he pulled into Ebby's
driveway in his beard regal thathe was eight minutes late.
(57:58):
Ebby's cherry was in thedriveway.
He went up to the front doorthe schizophrenic one from
Friday night.
This time it was a few inchesajar.
He pulled it shut and thenknocked loudly with the big
brass knocker.
When there was no response hewent back to his car, got out a
(58:22):
windshield scraper and used thatto pry the geraniums loose from
the pots.
He then returned to his carwith the plants.
Smith arrived a few minuteslater in his Honda Accord.
He and Hyde were planning todrive to the city of Holland on
the western side of the state.
Later that evening the two menwent up to the door and clanked
(58:45):
the knocker again.
Still no answer.
They then opened the door andcautiously stepped in.
It was dusk outside and the dimlight inside the house added to
a sinister ambience.
Smith thought they were out ofline for walking in, but Hyde
prevailed.
Avery's purse and keys werevisible on the dining room table
(59:06):
.
They call out no response.
Smith and Hyde talk about whatthey should do.
That is seem odd.
The door would be open and herpurse and keys there, but she
wouldn't have heard them by now.
Of course, after a long weekendshe could have been taking a
(59:28):
nap.
I said so he would go upstairsand take a peek.
He walked up the stairs.
As he reached the top he couldsee her through the open bedroom
door, see her as he looked intoa scene of unspeakable carnage
and depravity.
She was lying on her stomach,her right arm on the floor, her
(59:51):
left arm bent behind her.
There was a small puddle ofcongealed blood under her right
hand, in a huge pool of it nextto her head.
On the mattress.
Her head had been nearlysevered from her torso.
She had been tied up and raped.
(01:00:12):
She had been stabbed repeatedly.
I thought he was going to throwup, but the feeling passed and
he stumbled downstairs.
He said Margaret's up there andthere's a lot of blood.
So Smith dialed 911.
The dispatcher wanted a housenumber.
(01:00:35):
They didn't know it.
Hyde went out to look andcouldn't find one.
It was the gatehouse at thefront of the Mott estate, for
God's sake.
The dispatcher didn't seem tobe able to work around the lack
of an address.
They didn't need an address,damn it, they needed to get
there.
Hysterical Smith laterremembered thinking they needed
(01:00:57):
to hurry up because he had along drive to make and needed to
get going.
Of course he would go innowhere.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and todaywe're starting a new case, the
case of Jeffrey Gorton.
Let's begin.
It had been a very snowyFebruary of 2002 in mid-Michigan
.
Snow was piled up in the wallsalong the Gortons driveway in
(00:25):
Vienna, north of Flint.
It was barely 6 pm, but it hadlong since been pitch black when
the Gortons, jeffrey, brendaand their two kids, wally, age
10, and Jenny, 7, loaded intothe station wagon and slowly
eased out onto the busy two-lanehighway to Scholar Road that
(00:46):
ran in front of the house.
It was February 7, the firstThursday of the month, which
meant it was their kids'elementary school's monthly
roller rink party at Skateland.
A couple of miles away in NorthDordt Highway in the small city
of Mount Morris, jeff was toobusy to go in the fall and
(01:08):
spring, putting in long hours inhis parents' lawn sprinkler
installation and maintenancebusiness, but in the winter he
was happy to go.
He liked doing things withBrenda and the kids.
He had volunteered at theirschool's fun fair each year when
the school rooms masqueraded asa carnival.
(01:28):
He had decorated the classrooms.
He would pitch in whateverneeded to be done, same as he
had volunteered in the school'shaunted house each Halloween,
hanging lights and whatnot.
He volunteered functions attheir Baptist church too, which
(01:50):
he attended each Sunday, and wasactive in Boy Scouts.
Jeff loved holidays.
He liked more than spendinghours decorating his house and
grounds in the theme of theseason decorating his house and
grounds and the theme of theseason, not just the usual
(02:12):
Halloween and Christmas, butothers too Thanksgiving, easter,
fourth of July.
Brenda took pride in herhusband's interest in holiday
decorating.
Now they drove the three or fourmiles to the rink and as usual
the place was jammed and loudMusic playing, kids laughing and
screaming.
Everyone knew everyone.
The kids would skate till theywere hungry.
(02:34):
They'd grab a slice of pizzaand a soda pop in the adjacent
grill room and skate some moreadjacent grill room and skate
some more.
Some of the parents skated too.
Or they would sit up in thebleachers or chat over some food
in the grill or step out for asmoke.
Jeff was a bit of a flirt.
Always had been.
(02:56):
Brenda didn't mind, as Jeff, asusual, circulated chatting up
the other moms, circulatedchatting up the other moms.
They didn't seem to mind either.
Again, everyone knew everyone.
Well, this Thursday, not quiteOne guy stood out like a swollen
thumb.
Everyone knew everyone, but noone knew him.
(03:18):
He was very stocky,broad-shouldered, big-bellied,
had his head shaved, wore bighooped silver earrings and
grungy blue jeans and a flannelshirt.
He looked like he belonged in abiker bar, not at an elementary
school function.
There was another stranger inthe rink too, but the bald guy
(03:41):
was the one they noticed.
But the bald guy was the onethey noticed.
And Brenda, months later, wouldsay we see a stranger walking
around.
You don't know how many times Iwanted to say to him who you
were with or who you're herewith.
You do all these good functions.
(04:02):
You know everyone.
We thought there was going to bea child snatching.
I will never forget him.
I will never forget what thatman looked like, end quote.
There was going to be asnatching, all right, but not
the kind.
Brenda feared it wouldn't be akid.
(04:24):
But if it went the way thestranger hoped, it would be
worse than anything she everimagined.
He wasn't there looking for kids.
His name was Mike C Andre andhe would have fit right in at a
biker bar.
(04:44):
In fact he fit right in atbiker bars all the time.
He was an undercover narcoticscop from the hardscrabble
blue-collar downriver Detroitsuburb of Romulus, whose chief
downtown attraction is a toplessjoint known as the Landing
(05:06):
Strip and whose major employerand taxpayer is the Metropolitan
Detroit Airport, which sitssmack dab in the middle of the
city's 36 square miles.
There are a lot of felonsserving time in Michigan prisons
who got the shock of theirlives when they found out San
(05:28):
Andre wasn't who he appeared tobe this night.
San Andre wasn't interested inkids and he wasn't interested in
drugs.
He was there to keep an eye onJeff Gordon.
He wanted to watch him to seeif he ate or drank something.
He wanted to see if he suckedout of a straw, put a cup to his
(05:54):
lip, wiped his face with anapkin, used a fork or a knife,
went outside to puff on acigarette and tossed the butt to
the ground.
Sanandro wanted to keep an eyeout for any of that stuff and
snatch it if he could and get itto the Michigan State Police
(06:15):
Crime Lab in Lansing.
They needed to see if Gorton'sDNA matched semen the state
police scientist had kept frozenfor more than 15 years in one
Flint case and nearly 11 yearsin a Romulus case.
Both crimes had involved almostunspeakable savagery, slow
(06:39):
torture ending in the neardecapitation of victims who were
raped and murdered.
Both cases likely involvednecrophilia too.
Not counting Jimmy Hoffa, theywere the two highest profile
unsolved murder cases inMichigan in the last 50 years.
(06:59):
And this was the guy who did it, if he was responsible and
something with his DNA on itneeded statching.
St Andrew wanted to be the onewho snatched it, his adrenaline
barely under control.
Sure, he was working the caseof a lifetime.
(07:20):
St Andrew watched and waited andfollowed Gordon around as he
chatted up.
The wives, went in the rink towatch the kids.
And then here it comes,returned to the food area, got
in line and picked up some pizzaGood old, messy pizza.
He watched Gordon chow down.
(07:44):
He watched the sauce greaseaccumulate on Gordon's lips and
the corner of his mouth.
He watched Gordon wipe hismouth, eat some more, then wipe
it again.
Gordon went through one napkina second.
He did Sanandra a favor bytwisting his used napkins into
(08:06):
strings so there would be nomistaking which were his.
San André watched Gordon drinkhis pop.
He watched and watched and thenhe snatched.
He snatched Mike.
San Andre gave up his dreams ofplaying hockey and decided to
(08:33):
become a cop.
After graduation from TrentonHigh in 1979, he paid his own
way to the Metro Detroit PoliceAcademy, then got a job
patrolling the area here inClinton Metro Parks that ring
Detroit, pretty much the bottomrung of Floyd Forsman.
In 1984, he applied for a jobin Romulus and to his surprise,
(08:57):
snyder his old boss when he wasa paper boy now a cop in Romulus
too was the one who'd show upat his house to interview him.
Snyder remembered him as ahard-working, reliable kid on
his paper route and hired him.
In 1989, sinandra was assignedto a DEA task force at
(09:19):
Metropolitan Airport, workingundercover to ferret out drugs
smugglers and people illegallycarrying large sums of money.
With its proximity to Canada,metro was a major transit point
for couriers.
Mostly San Andres worked tipsfrom airline personnel evolving
(09:40):
out of overhead conversations oreducated hunches.
Usually San Andres had noprobable cause.
When he approached a suspectcoming off a plane, the tips
would never have stood up incourt.
But there's no law againstasking people if they were
submitted to a search and no lawagainst them being stupid
(10:00):
enough to agree.
All they have to say was nope,and they would have been able to
keep on going.
San Andres was amazed by howmany say okay instead, and
within minutes you would findpounds of cocaine or bags of pot
or bundles of cash in suitcases, in some instances more than a
(10:22):
million dollars.
When the 1991 case of a murderflight attendant met headlines
for weeks in the Detroit papersand in the If it Bleeds it Leads
department dominated local TVnews night after night.
Sanandro had been one of theguys who worked the airport hard
(10:43):
.
Armed with composite sketchesmade by eyewitnesses, he spent
many hours scanning faces,looking for a traveler returning
to the scene of the crime or,more likely, some airline
employee who had used theuniform to avoid raising the
suspicions of his victim.
His surveillance at the airportwas futile.
(11:07):
Nearly a decade later, in 2000,he was assigned to Romulus
Special Investigations Unit,which mostly did undercover
narcotics work, but now, at thebehest of the Michigan State
Police, he was taking a breakfrom drugs and up in the Flint
area trying to catch the sameperp he had been looking for in
(11:31):
1991.
Michigan State Police that asuspect had finally emerged and
Romulus' help was needed forround-the-clock surveillance.
Within 20 minutes, snyder andhis partner Gordy Melaniak went
(11:56):
underway to the state policepost on Corona Road just west of
the city of Flint.
Just west of the city of Flint.
Four other Romulus cops andAndre Greg Brandemille, jeff
Linak and Mike Ondesko wouldlater join them.
After getting briefed,accompanied by State Police
Sergeant Mark Reeves, melianak,andre Brandemille and Linak went
(12:23):
out to relieve state trooperswho had been watching the Gorton
house all day.
Instead of the tedium that acrew of state police had
suffered through all day, cold,nothing happening, time dragging
by less than half an hour intotheir shift out came the Gorton
family piling into a blue 1993Pontiac station wagon and
(12:48):
heading out, driving separatecars scattered around the area
one by one.
The police pulled in behindGorton Soon.
They were at the rink, saidAndrea and blandil.
So kids and parents line up atthe door and worry they wouldn't
fit in.
But there was nothing to do forit.
(13:10):
St Andrea went in first, paying$5 admission.
Where are your kids, asked theattendant, expecting to be
collecting more money.
They're already in, he said.
Blandemil waited a few minutesand then followed him inside.
Brandemill, the son of a cop,spent four years in army
(13:30):
intelligence in Germany beforejoining the Romulus police in
1987.
He was an evidence tech for thedepartment at the time of the
1991 murder but ironically wasnot called to the scene.
Snyder, the detective in chargeof the crime scene knew the
case was going to be a big oneand no disrespect to his own
(13:51):
people but, wanting the besthelp he could get, had chosen to
call in a state police evidenceteam instead.
Brandemille was a member of SIUand inside the ring he and and
San Andre pretended they wereold friends who coincidentally
had run into each other.
And Brandon said hey, how areyou doing?
(14:13):
And San Andre spotted Gordon.
His kids and his wife wereputting on skates.
They went into the rink.
Gordon followed, taking a spotin the bleachers, san Andre on
an adrenaline rush and acting.
The cowboys sat behind Gordon,close enough to touch him.
He got out the next cell andcalled Snyder, who was back at
(14:38):
the Flint Post, and he said youwon't believe what's going on.
I'm sitting behind your bestfriend.
I could tap him on the shoulderIf it seemed a foolish thing to
do.
Well, st Andrew would admit tobeing brazen.
The ring was very loud Musicand the screams and hollering of
(15:08):
what seemed like hundreds ofkids covering up his
conversation.
Later San Andre would sayBrenda May was looking at me
like I don't believe you.
Gordon got up and left the rink.
San Andre must side out afterhim into the adjoining entryway
where Gordon circulated fromwoman to woman.
Sanandri was surprised by howeasily Gordon seemed to fit in.
(15:30):
The women knew him, they seemedto like him and he had an ease
with them.
That seemed odd for a suspectedserial killer whose brutality
had been so vivid in the crimescene photos, who had playfully
tortured his victims for quitesome time before trying to
decapitate them with a serratedknife, who had posed his victims
(15:55):
after death, who had taken thetime to clean up and in one case
had been so cool as to makeseveral trips to his car hauling
off the woman's belongings.
But although gordon seemed tooat ease with the women, he was
nervous, too fidgety, lookingover his shoulder.
(16:19):
Something Vandermeer said later, quote in our mind he doesn't
know anything.
He had gotten away with what hehad done all these years.
But it was odd that he wouldact so nervous.
He didn't know we were there.
(16:40):
Then we realized he would doneso much over the years he was
always nervous.
End quote.
Gordon circulated for 20 minutesand finally his kids came back
out.
They wanted to eat and theGordons went into the snack bar.
(17:01):
The room was filled with longtables.
St Andrew and Blatham Hill sattwo tables away from the Gordons
.
Jeff's wife and kids stayed atthe table and he got in line to
get food.
San Andre got in line behindhim.
Gordon picked up some styrofoamcups and ordered pizza and a
(17:24):
pitcher of Mountain Dew.
San Andre ordered two pops andtook his seat.
A spot opened up at the tablenext to the Gordons and the two
cups slid over.
Gordon wiped his greasy mouthwith a napkin, then twisted it
into a string First one, then asecond.
And Andre said to himself youknow what we got you.
(17:52):
The Gordons put their refuse ontheir trays and pushed them
aside.
In front of an empty seatSomeone came up, asked if the
Gordons were done, then pushedthe trays further down the table
to make room.
Andret said to his partnerwatch this, it was 7.25 pm.
(18:12):
His next move was bracing.
San Andre would counter thatwhat seems bracing really wasn't
that the bolder you are, themore invisible you can be, or so
he thought.
He walked over, tapped Gordonon the shoulder and said are you
(18:36):
done with your tray?
If you're done, I'll take it.
And Gordon nodded and saidAndrew, pick it up and walk to
the far end of the room whereBrandemille had gone Making sure
the Gordons were not looking.
Brandemille quickly opened up aManila evidence bag and sent
(18:56):
Andrea, dumped the tradecontents.
But they still didn't haveGordon's cup and they were
determined to get it.
Piece of chewing gum would benice too, or a cigarette butt.
A few minutes later the two kidswent back into the rink to
resume skating.
Gordon remained seated.
(19:18):
There were several cups overthe table and one right in front
of him.
San Andrea eyeballed it.
Gordon reached out, pouredMountain Dew into it from a
pitcher, took four or fiveswallows, set it down and got up
.
Zedendra walked over, picked upthe half-filled cup and set it
(19:40):
inside a large-sized cup so hewouldn't have to touch it any
more than necessary.
He noticed people looking athim.
It was like hey, if you want apop that bad, we'll buy you one.
Little did he know that Gordonhad looked back and seen him
grab the cop too, and he toldhis wife that guy just took my
(20:01):
pop.
And his wife was skeptic andshe said yeah right, jeff.
She was willing to believe thescruffy guy with the earrings
was a child snatcher, but whosteals someone's half-empty cup
of pop?
St Andrew passed the cup toBrandemille.
He went outside and gave theevidence back and the cup to
(20:23):
Maliniak, then returned to therink, hopefully to get more DNA
evidence.
Malianak went over to Reeves'car and gave the bag and cup to
him.
Reeves poured the pup out onthe ground, put the cup inside a
cup in another evidence bag,started his car and headed for
(20:44):
the Flint post.
The plan was he would give thisstuff to fellow state trooper,
hal Settle, who would drive itwest on I-69 to the small town
of Perry.
Jeff Nye, a chemist and DNAspecialist at the crime lab in
(21:04):
Lansing, lived in Perry.
He had been alerted that a teamwas going to try to get
something with Gordon's DNA.
When and if they did, theywould call Nye, no matter what
the time, and he would meetsomeone in the parking lot of a
Burger King at exit 105 to Perryand then take the evidence to
(21:28):
the lab to be analyzed.
And then take the evidence tothe lab to be analyzed.
St Andrew and Brenda Mill goton the next stealth to Snyder
and said we got him, we got him.
And then they talked to eachother about the same thought
that they have independently hadMonths later.
(21:49):
St Andrew said quote it waskind of sad we were looking at
his kids beautiful kids, twobeautiful little children and
we're thinking you know what, ifthis goes right, this is going
to be the last night you wereever going to end with your
father.
We thought about it beingparents thinking the things
(22:13):
these kids are going to have togo through, they're going to pay
for it.
His wife is going to pay for it.
End quote, if it went right.
Hal Settle grew up in northernMichigan, in West Branch, which
(22:35):
is a town that is surrounded byforests and lakes, and he had
been with the state police sincegetting out of high school.
In 1976, when he was 21, hejoined the academy and became a
full-fledged trooper In June of2000, he was assigned to a new
(22:55):
cold case Violent Crimes TaskForce in Flint and was one of
four troopers assigned to aseries of 10 prostitute murders.
As it turned out, there were atleast two serial murderers
killing the prostitutes.
There were at least two serialmurderers killing the
prostitutes.
(23:15):
Settle helped take 450 DNAswaps on the case with one of
them.
And Settle helped take 450 DNAswaps on one case and with one
of them, finally leading to thearrest and conviction of Keith
Cummings for murdering two womenand leaving them in abandoned
(23:43):
houses.
So he was convicted for that.
Two weeks after Cummings' arrest, zetto was assigned to the
unsolved 1986 murder of a Flintwoman and, to everyone's
surprise, a DNA test using newtechnology had linked it to a
(24:04):
1991 case in Romulus.
So Sato spent hundreds of hoursgoing through all files,
re-interviewing witnesses,taking DNA swabs, tracking down
(24:25):
people who had been interviewed.
But should have been way backwhen.
And on February 6, 2001, a longoverdue FBI report that the
cold case squad had requestedcame back with startling news.
A partial print found at theFlint homicide scene A very
(24:47):
partial print, one long thoughtto be impossible to work with
had come back with a positiveidentification.
Not only that, but the guy itidentified still lived in the
Flint area.
A print at a scene is hardlyevidence of murder.
Most crime scenes containhundreds of prints of innocent
(25:11):
people, but this had been abloody print those you don't
find too many of.
Zero was part of thesurveillance team quickly
assembled the afternoon ofFebruary 6th.
The next morning, michiganState Police team out of Lansing
took over the surveillanceduties for the day.
(25:33):
Shift Settled and other membersof the cold case squad Greg
Kilbourne, mike Larson andDennis Diggs scrambled to amass
as much data on the suspect,jeff Gordon, as they could
Employment history, knownaddresses checking out his time
spent in Florida running downhis military record.
(25:56):
The time flew by Zetto startedearly in the morning and the
next thing I knew this is Zettosaying this.
He said I got a call at thepost that they had a styrofoam
cup he had been drinking fromand a couple of napkins.
About 8.10 pm Reeves arrived atthe post, handed the evidence
(26:21):
to Zetto and off he went.
He said quote, I had a littleCorsica, a state-issue rattle
trap, and I pushed that thingall the way there end.
Quote.
A 40-mile drive to Perry tookless than half an hour, as
planned.
He met with Nye at the BurgerKing and his adrenaline was
(26:48):
pumping.
His adrenaline was pumping andhe had worked already 36 out of
the last 44 hours and was stillgoing strong.
Knight was a former entrepreneurturned happy civilian state
employee.
He has two master's degree insoil science and toxicology and
(27:09):
had worked for seven years atthe Michigan Biotechnology
Institute in Lansing, anincubator trying to spin
Michigan State Universityresearch into for-profit
companies.
This job involved a lot ofspending, very little profit.
Most of the companies therestruggled to find real products
to sell to real markets andsuffered through a kind of
(27:31):
hand-to-mouth existence,surviving, if they did, on a
series of small research grantsfrom different federal agencies.
Tired of the insecurity neverknowing if the next grant would
be awarded in time to meetpayroll, nye had left the world
of entrepreneurship for the nicepay and benefits that accrued
to civilian employees at theState Police Crime Lab, which
(27:54):
moved into a newstate-of-the-art facility in
1999.
Nye was in the biology unit atthe lab, analyzing semen, blood
and footwear impressions.
He worked crime sceneinvestigations too.
Nye had already played a crucialrole in the reopened
investigation into the Flinthomicide of 1986.
(28:15):
Semen and blood samples hadbeen collected at the time, but
technology had taken quantumleaps since then.
Something called PCR forpolymerase chain reaction had
drastically reduced the amountof DNA needed to identify a
suspect, and a computerizedsystem called CODIS allowed DNA
(28:38):
samples to be matched both toknown individuals and to
unsolved cases where the DNA hadbeen typed but not linked to a
known perpetrator.
Nye, as part of his ongoingwork updating store evidence,
had run the samples from theFlint case through a PCR and
(28:59):
entered the results into theCODIS system.
Codis couldn't link the DNA toa known individual but did link
it to another unsolved case.
But did link it to anotherunsolved case, that of the rape
and murder of the flightattendant in Romulus in 1991.
Linking those two profile caseshad put the AMSP cold case
(29:27):
investigation on a front burnerand quieted criticisms from
Flint police politicians andprosecutors that the state was
meddling in the city's business.
So when Nye had been calledabout two in the afternoon to
ask if he could conduct a rushtest on Gordon's DNA if evidence
could be gathered, he said hewould be happy to.
Any time of the day or night.
(29:50):
Just give him a call, he willshortcut all chain of command
issues.
At 8.10 pm Knight got his calland about 9 pm he was meeting
Settle and the Burger King.
By 9.15, he was at the lab.
He opened up the large manilaenvelope.
(30:13):
A styrofoam cup was wedgedinside a larger Pepsi cup.
He could see the Mountain Dewresidue on the sides.
There were two soil napkins,twisted piece of salt evident it
wasn't a good start.
Napkins have pores, so isstyrofoams.
(30:34):
Liquids don't leak through itbut they don't absorb into it
because it acts as a sponge soit's tough to work with.
He would have preferredsomething glass or ceramic, a
metal plus a plastic fork,perhaps.
(30:55):
Knight took cuttings from thenapkins and wiped the rim of the
cup with the sterile swab.
He put the cuttings and thecotton swab tip in two tubes,
then added a liquid solution,something called a proteinase K
enzyme, which breaks open cells,chews up everything but DNA.
(31:17):
He then washed off the cellulardebris and what was left was
some yet-to-be-determined amountof DNA in clear liquid.
He got nothing off the napkins,despite the presence of sauce
that had been on gordon's faceand lips.
He got just the tiniest of bitsfrom the cup.
(31:38):
He eyeballed the dewdrop'sspeck of liquid.
Guess it would be about 15-20microliters.
Dna would only be a smallfraction of that.
In the old days of somethingcalled RFLP testing of DNA
samples, which produced bands ofdifferent widths to be compared
(31:59):
with other samples to see ifthe bands line up, you needed at
least 300 nanograms of DNA.
Now you normally need at leastone nanogram preferably more if
you can, a nanogram being just abillionth of a gram, or one one
(32:22):
billionth of one twenty-eighthof an ounce an incomprehensibly
small amount, and Knight figuredhe had 0.5 nanograms at best.
So Knight was crestfallenbecause it means he didn't have
enough, so he would go throughthe motions, run the sample,
(32:44):
through his equipment to see ifhe could still get a match to
the semen samples on hand.
But it was doubtful, highlydoubtful.
About midnight he called GregKilbourne and he said Greg, we
don't have enough DNA.
I'm going to run the testanyway, but it doesn't look like
(33:05):
we have enough, sorry.
Kilburn called Snyder, who wasback home for the night, and he
said no go.
Snyder called Malinak andBrandemille and said Andre, at
their homes.
The bad news weighed heavily onthem and they went to bed.
(33:26):
We'll be right back.
We are going to go a little bitback before all this happened,
before the DNA testing, andtrying to connect Jeffrey Gorton
(33:48):
to these potential cold cases.
Florida Florida has long been aplace for second chances People
(34:17):
sick of winter, sick of theirlives, sick of their spouses,
sick of their jobs, strip malls,shopping centers, amusement
parks and freeways to satisfythe needs of the millions of
lives that headed there to startanew.
Marie Galeano was one of them.
A native of Asbury Park, newJersey, the place made famous by
(34:39):
Bruce Springsteen, she wasmarried at 21, divorced at 29,
stuck in a rut as a paralegal at32, and more than ready and
eager for something different.
In 1982, when her best friend,donna Smith, phoned and
convinced her to move to Orlandoand join her in her new life.
Marie was a tiny thing, girlishlooking but pretty short
(35:06):
fashion model, thin, dark brownhair.
She was lively spirited, ananimated talker by nature who
regained her animation with themove.
Florida energized her, got herback to being herself.
After the marriage had gonesour and the inevitable
post-divorce funk.
(35:26):
She was fun to be around andshe and Donna fit right in with
the mostly single crowd at theirGrove Park apartments on Curry
Road.
With her new life came a newcar, a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit, a
present to herself for startingher new life.
It was the first major purchaseshe made after divorcing her
(35:48):
husband, and she called it mypride and joy.
Marie had tired of what shetermed the dirtbags she dealt
with in New Jersey in her roleas a paralegal.
For a public defender, a newlife meant just that, and though
she had gone to school to be aparalegal and was good at it, it
(36:09):
had been time to end thatchapter in her life too.
In Orlando she had found a jobas a sales clerk in cosmetics at
Burdine's in the Fashion SquareMall, one of the seemingly
endless series of malls that wasbuilt up in the 1970s and 80s
on the highways, spoken out fromthe central city as Disney
(36:32):
World and Epcot and the othertheme parks open and lure tens
of thousands of workers andmillions of visitors.
She liked meeting new peopleall day.
She liked selling them things.
It was April 29, a Friday night,a big night as usual for many
of her new friends in theapartment complex.
(36:53):
For her, though, it wassupposed to be just a routine
night.
Stop on the way home for a fewgroceries, kick back from a week
on her feet, get a bite to eat,go to bed.
Donna likely would like to beout on a date or partying, maybe
down the hall from their secondfloor apartment with some of
(37:15):
the other Friday night partiers,and maybe of somewhere else in
the town.
Bird jeans closed at 9 pm andMarie headed out to her rabbit
around 9.30.
It was warm, clear night.
She stopped at the Albertsons,around the block from her
apartment complex, for bread andmilk and a few other staples,
(37:37):
set her single brown bag in theback of her car and headed home.
A car followed her out of thelot, whether it had been
following her from Burdine's orjust started at the grocery
store, she will never know.
Her apartment building had twoentrances.
She pulled into the first one.
The other car drove past, thenentered the driveway on the far
(38:01):
side of the building and pullinto the large parking lot out
back, still unnoticed.
It was 10 pm.
The lot was pretty well litwith mercury vapor lights.
It wasn't one of those lots youfelt you have to scurry out of.
Marie got out and as she walkedbehind her car she noticed off
(38:23):
to the right a man heading herway.
She immediately thought guywalking his dog.
She turned to face the rear ofthe car, put in the key, opened
the hatchback and lifted thebrown bag.
And as she did, hersubconscious mind flashed a
warning.
She wouldn't necessarily haveseen a dog, given the cars in
(38:44):
the lot, but something about theway the man was walking meant
no dog.
A jolt of fear hit her as shestrained up the bag still in her
arms, she turned to the left.
By then, given his rate ofspeed, he would have been past
her 10 yards, 20 yards somewhereto her left and receding.
(39:06):
But the man wasn't walking andhe wasn't past her.
He was standing right there hisface, filling her vision of
food from hers In a slashermovie.
It would have been one of thosemoments when the audience jumped
.
A tight shot of a woman in acar.
(39:27):
Woman turns Man's head, enters,shot from left.
Audience gasp in mass.
Marie screamed as the manreached down, lifted her skirt,
grabbed her lower legs andflipped her over backwards.
She landed on her left wristand butt groceries flying
(39:49):
through the air and scatteringacross the pavement.
He wrapped her ankles andlifted and she went flat on her
back.
She screamed one long screamand he held her tightly by each
ankle and dragged her toward thenearby dumpster.
(40:13):
After a nationwide search andreview of several finalist
officials at the Flint Campus ofthe University of Michigan
announced in the spring of 1981that they have chosen Margaret
Ebby to fill the post of Provostand Vice Chancellor for
(40:33):
Academic Affairs, the secondhighest administrative position
at the university.
A picture of every greetedreaders of the Flint Journal at
the right side of a story thatspread across the entire top of
page six.
It showed a woman withsparkling eyes, dark bangs
swooping down over her forehead,a huge smile and dimples.
(40:56):
The headline would be just herfirst of many.
Abby had been serving as deanof the College of Humanities and
Fine Arts at the University ofNorthern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
But she wasn't just an academic.
She was also a talentedmusician who had given
harpsichord, organ and pianorecitals throughout the Midwest,
(41:18):
and she was also named a fullprofessor of music with tenure
at the Flint campus.
It would be a triumphant returnto her home state for Abby, a
Detroit native who got her PhDin musicology from the
University of Michigan's maincampus in Ann Harbor after many
(41:39):
years of part-time studies whileraising her four children.
Years of part-time studieswhile raising her four children.
After getting her doctorate in1971, abby headed the humanities
department at the University ofMichigan's Dearborn campus in
suburban Detroit, where shefounded the school's music
history and applied musicdepartments.
In 1977, she joined the facultyat Northern Iowa as a music
(42:04):
professor and dean of humanitiesand fine arts.
Even before her arrival inFlint, eager to show that she
would be an active booster ofthe arts and culture, she became
a sponsor of the FlintInstitute of Arts.
Upon her arrival, ebi provedherself to be energetic, even
vivacious, a supercharged dynamowho said she played music for
(42:28):
her soul, swarmed the schoolpool on her lunch hour instead
of eating and walk to work everyday.
She was a widow, nearing 50,but didn't act or look it.
She was trim and attractive andseemed younger, a product of
her times, the 60s, the pill,the sexual revolution, and now
(42:51):
single.
She was happy and willing tocatch the eye of men she came
into contact with.
On August 2nd, the journey ranits next story about her, a
lengthy feature that quoted pastcolleagues as praising her for
her talent, friendliness andconscientiousness.
It feels like I have come home,she said a flint.
(43:14):
As provost she had been giventhe mission of bringing more
discipline and accountability toa growing faculty in 23
departments, a faculty that wasperceived by some as generally
lax and soft.
But she told the paper quote Idon't intend to just storm in
making changes right and left,nor do I intend to sit alone in
(43:37):
judgment of the quality ofeducation.
That would take colossalignorance.
It is inconceivable for oneperson to have all the necessary
knowledge in all the differentprogram areas to make that kind
of judgment end.
Quote Ebi soon began enlistingsupport in a project that at
(43:59):
first seemed like tilting atwindmills in the
factory-dominated city of FlintIn Iowa, she had begun planning
a 300th birthday bash festivalfor JS Beck, who had been born
on March 21, 1685.
(44:21):
Now she would still put on afestival, but she would do it in
Michigan instead.
Slowly she got others in hergrowing social and civic circle
to commit time and money.
Evie recruited a cadre of 25Flint boosters to help organize
the festival, which was to beginin January of 1985.
(44:42):
It reached its zenith on March21st and then taper off with a
variety of events through June1st Margaret Abbey's Crazy Dream
a festival to put Flint in thefront aisle seat for John
Sebastian Bach's 300th birthdayparty.
(45:03):
Moving to the real world thisweek, as the group planning the
event received word of a $20,800grant.
We read a story in the FlintJournal on August 25, 1983.
The grant had come fromNational Endowment for the
Humanities in Washington DC forthe full amount requested by
(45:25):
Evie in her role as president ofthe Flint Commission Cultural
Festivals Inc.
The festival ended up a roaringsuccess Four months of
jam-packed culture in a townmore known for its six-pack
approach to recreation.
The 40-event festival did theunheard of.
It raised $48,000, more inrevenue than projections call
(45:50):
for.
In April Gutz von Balmer, theAmerican consul general from
West Germany, awarded Evie withthe German-American Friendship
Medal.
Today the festival concluded onSaturday, june 1st with an
evening of music and fireworkson the Flint River.
The journal named Evie iswinner of the week.
(46:13):
But not everyone was enamoredwith Evie.
She had been brought in to whipthe faculty into shape and
those getting whipped didn'tmuch appreciate it, and those
getting whipped didn't muchappreciate it.
Abby could drive others todistraction, whether it was
faculty at the Flint campus orworkers on the festival
committee.
She likes perfection, accordingto Margaret Strobel, who was
(46:38):
hired to work for the festivalin January of 1984, told a
journal reporter she doesn'thesitate to ask you to do
something over if it's not right.
I have had to do that.
I think it would drive otherpeople, but when I have done a
job over again I could see thatshe was right.
She's the most stimulatingfemale I have ever worked with.
(47:02):
She has lots of ideas and sheknows what to do with her ideas.
She can do things at the spurof the moment.
She doesn't have to hide behindan organizational chart.
But universities are allorganizational charts,
hierarchies, picking orders.
There are also internex signbattlegrounds with raging eagles
(47:27):
, dirty fighters.
As her festival approach, as itwas held, as she triumphed in
the media, some of hercolleagues sharpened their
knives, a metaphor that policewould soon think might have
crossed the boundary into theworld of literal action.
Ebi was again in the journal onMarch 17 of 1986 to a story
(47:56):
that detailed a successful B&Eevening with Schubert organized
by Ebi at the University ofMichigan Flint Theater.
Shoeboard organized by Abby atthe University of Michigan Flint
Theater.
The next story to the journaland the journal on Abby,
accompanied by pictures of herin the back festival t-shirt and
the house she rented on anestate not far from campus and
(48:23):
Bold Headlines, ran on November10, 1986.
By then the woman, who could dono wrong in her career, had run
afoul of her enemies.
Carping and complaints had ledto her losing her post as
provost roast.
(48:49):
She could be silly, charmingand engaging with her friends,
but hyper-demanding, caustic andverbally abusive with those she
worked with.
Smart enough to negotiatetenure before she left Iowa, she
still held the single title ofmusic professor.
But despite the loss of herpro-Rose position, life was
still good.
She was doing good work, shehad a lot of friends, she was a
(49:13):
lay minister at the FirstPresbyterian Church downtown,
she was close to her childrenand she had a dream place to
live a two-story gatehouse onthe biggest estate in town that
was a steal at $375 a monthincluding utilities and which
was just a walk from campus.
(49:34):
Evie constantly entertained onthe grounds of the estate,
hosting parties that includedgifted students, corporate
bigwigs, academics,intellectuals and artists.
She held annual Yule Logparties and arranged croquette
matches and long bowlingtournaments and any manner of
(49:56):
cocktail parties and barbecues.
It was the fall of 1986, andMark Eby, who was a civilian
employee of the US Army TankCommand, had been on assignment
in Germany for a year.
His wife, cindy, was there withhim, and one project he had
(50:16):
decided on before he left hometo sort of keep in touch with
his tight-knit family and was toorganize and catalog the 36
years of family photos thattrace out the history of the
Ebbies from the time of hismother's marriage to his dad in
1950.
He put the last photo in thefirst book.
(50:37):
It told the first nine years ofa family's tale.
It also chronicled the paralleltales of the burgeoning baby
boomer era and of the growth ofthe American suburb.
There was another tale too,hidden behind the shots of young
babies growing children, newhouses, new cars.
It was the story of a typicalyoung American housewife, doing
(51:01):
the not so cynical or so typical, I should say going to college
part-time first for herbachelor's, then her master's,
then her PhD.
A woman who wouldn't harnessher ambitions or her mind just
because she had married at age18 and started a family.
Margaret Fink was the second offive children whose mother was
(51:26):
a strict, gut-fearing Germanimmigrant.
Her younger sister, ruth, wouldlater spend most of her adult
life as a missionary in Brazil.
Margaret quit Wheaton Collegein Illinois to get married to
Stuart Eby and delay herbachelor's till she was 23.
She was a woman determined togo places, figuratively and
(51:50):
literally, a woman who wouldmake her mark, a woman who, like
many others of her generationor the one to follow, would
ultimately explore a sexualitybeyond the limits of her
conservative upbringing.
We'll be right back.
Let's go now to 1986.
(52:14):
Tony Trombley met the boogeymanin the summer of 1986.
He was just back in the areafrom Florida and his brother and
sister-in-law lived next doorto the house where Tony rented a
room from her cousin in a housein Flint.
He was quiet, smart and enjoyedtalking to her.
(52:36):
Pretty soon he was stopping byevery day to chat.
Nothing romantic, just friendlyconversation.
One day Tony came home to findhe had been there.
He had gotten in somehow andleft a bouquet of flowers and a
note for her.
She looked around.
Nothing was as she or hercousin had left it.
(52:59):
He had completely cleaned thehouse.
It was spotless.
He had also washed the laundry,folding it and putting it away
before he left.
Tony freaked out.
She confronted him later andtold him to stay away from her,
and she got a padlock for herbedroom door.
One day she came home to findthe padlock broken off.
(53:23):
She soon moved out.
She came home to find thepadlock broken off.
She soon moved out, and thatwas the last she heard of him
for more than 15 years.
In 1986, margaret Eri's calendarwas always busy.
It would have been busy justwith demands at school.
(53:44):
She was also a director of theclassical radio station WFBE,
and she had a wide circle offriends running the gamut, from
lovers to artists, to fellowchurchgoers to musicians she
played with in various ensembles.
(54:04):
At 55, she showed no sign ofslowing down, whether it was her
schedule or her naturalhigh-energy metabolism.
Abby still had the petitefigure of a schoolgirl.
She was 5 feet 1 inch tall andweighed 123 pounds.
The only concession to age washer dyed brown hair, which she
(54:28):
wore in a loose perm that wasthen fashionable.
The weekend of Friday November7th through Sunday November 9th
was typical.
At 4 pm Friday she was supposedto meet with a woman friend but
got out of that engagement soshe could accept an offer to
(54:49):
attend a dinner party at thehome of Richard and Mary Newman
in nearby Clio.
The Newmans were fellow membersof First Presbyterian Church, a
grand old stone edifice on SSaginaw Street in downtown Flint
.
Also attending were John Hyde,an assistant principal at the
(55:09):
Ottawa County Vocational Center,southern Smith, a teacher at
the Flint Academy who sang withAbby at the church, and William
Reneker, the church's chieforganist and choir director.
Saturday she had to go down toDetroit to pick up her
three-year-old granddaughter,jessie.
(55:30):
That was off the DetroitInstitute of Art with her, and
then that night to a concert atHill Auditorium on the
University of Michigan's AnnArbor campus.
Sunday she had a 2 pm concertto attend in Flint.
Sunday she had a 2 pm concertto attend in Flint, and at 4 pm
Hyde and Smith were stopping bythe two-story, two-door
(55:50):
gatehouse she rented on the Mottestate.
Evie had some geraniums sheprized and Hyde was going to
transplant them to hisgreenhouse before a killer frost
did them.
In this time of year a frostwas overdue.
Friday's dinner was a quietaffair.
(56:10):
The night before at choirpractice, all four of the guests
had agreed to meet at Ebby's at6.15 and make the short drive
to Clio in one car.
Ebby brought a cold seafoodsalad.
Abby told everyone she wasupset at having recently
(56:31):
received a letter from anattorney for the Mott estate
saying that she might soon haveto leave her beloved gatehouse
home, that the estate planned tohire a full-time gardener and
his contract might require thatthe estate provide him a place
to live.
At one point Nevy asked thegroup if anyone thought it was
possible for someone to have afull social life and still be
(56:53):
lonely, and Smith would laterrecount quote.
I wonder if it was a questionof a professor to stimulate
conversation or if she wastalking about herself.
End quote.
At 11 pm the four headed back toFlint At the gatehouse.
(57:14):
All three men got out of thecar and walked every to the
front door of the gatehouse, buther key wouldn't work the lock,
and she said this lock isschizophrenic Sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't.
The four then walked to a sidedoor where Abby used the same
(57:38):
key to get inside.
Before she closed the door sheturned and gave all three men
quick, friendly pecks on thecheek.
Good night, sunday afternoon.
Hyde, a meticulous type, noticedwhen he pulled into Ebby's
driveway in his beard regal thathe was eight minutes late.
(57:58):
Ebby's cherry was in thedriveway.
He went up to the front doorthe schizophrenic one from
Friday night.
This time it was a few inchesajar.
He pulled it shut and thenknocked loudly with the big
brass knocker.
When there was no response hewent back to his car, got out a
(58:22):
windshield scraper and used thatto pry the geraniums loose from
the pots.
He then returned to his carwith the plants.
Smith arrived a few minuteslater in his Honda Accord.
He and Hyde were planning todrive to the city of Holland on
the western side of the state.
Later that evening the two menwent up to the door and clanked
(58:45):
the knocker again.
Still no answer.
They then opened the door andcautiously stepped in.
It was dusk outside and the dimlight inside the house added to
a sinister ambience.
Smith thought they were out ofline for walking in, but Hyde
prevailed.
Avery's purse and keys werevisible on the dining room table
(59:06):
.
They call out no response.
Smith and Hyde talk about whatthey should do.
That is seem odd.
The door would be open and herpurse and keys there, but she
wouldn't have heard them by now.
Of course, after a long weekendshe could have been taking a
(59:28):
nap.
I said so he would go upstairsand take a peek.
He walked up the stairs.
As he reached the top he couldsee her through the open bedroom
door, see her as he looked intoa scene of unspeakable carnage
and depravity.
She was lying on her stomach,her right arm on the floor, her
(59:51):
left arm bent behind her.
There was a small puddle ofcongealed blood under her right
hand, in a huge pool of it nextto her head.
On the mattress.
Her head had been nearlysevered from her torso.
She had been tied up and raped.
(01:00:12):
She had been stabbed repeatedly.
I thought he was going to throwup, but the feeling passed and
he stumbled downstairs.
He said Margaret's up there andthere's a lot of blood.
So Smith dialed 911.
The dispatcher wanted a housenumber.
(01:00:35):
They didn't know it.
Hyde went out to look andcouldn't find one.
It was the gatehouse at thefront of the Mott estate, for
God's sake.
The dispatcher didn't seem tobe able to work around the lack
of an address.
They didn't need an address,damn it, they needed to get
there.
Hysterical Smith laterremembered thinking they needed
(01:00:57):
to hurry up because he had along drive to make and needed to
get going.
Of course he would go innowhere.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
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