April 29, 2023 • 49 mins
(Part 1 of 2) Erik Stirling Cross was born on September 25 of 1966. Erik lived in Vicksburg, Michigan which is in Kalamazoo County with his parents and his younger sister Jackie Mitchell. According to Jackie, Eric was a great big brother. The two shared a love of music and both loved Led Zeppelin. Eric loved to hunt, fish and spend his time outdoors as many teenagers did in the 1980s. Jackie said her and Erik had a great childhood. They were loved by their parents and had a strong family unit. But life would change after Erik was viciously murdered in 1983.
On the June 25, 1983, Erik had plans to stay over with his friend Bill Cook. Erik’s dad planned on picking up the boys the next day and spending the Sunday at a boat show. It was something Erik looked forward to. However, unknown to Erik’s family, he was planning on attending a graduation party on that evening. There would also be alcohol at the party. Erik and Bill would both make it to the party. And the events at this party would lead to Erik’s brutal killing.
However, instead of staying overnight with Bill, Eric would become intoxicated and walking home alone. According to Erik’s sister, Erik didn’t stay with his friend Bill because he decided to spend time with his girlfriend and other people who would be involved in Erik’s death. Erik’s sister said that her brother’s friend abandoned him and left him alone.
Erik had left the party and was inebriated. Sometime before 2 a.m. Erik was seen walking past a gas station. There were also two carloads of teenagers from the party seen near Erik. Early that Sunday morning, Erik’s father went outside to get the newspaper. He would be shocked by what he found. Erik’s lifeless body was in the driveway.
He must have been confused. Why would Erik be dead in the driveway when he was supposed to be with his friend Bill waiting on a ride to the boat show?
According to Jackie Mitchell, everyone in town knew who killed her brother. She said it was no secret. She said that in late 2017, law enforcement issued a request to arrest five people and charge them with killing Erik. The five people named as being responsible for killing Erik are Amber Thomas Macik (Hull), Bill Cook, Tim Martin, Brian Spaulding Sr. and Brent Spaulding. Although law enforcement was prepared to arrest the five, they would receive some devastating news. The prosecutor’s office has since refused to prosecute the alleged killers. This is the first part of a 2-part story.
If you have listened to this story and would like to assist law enforcement or Jackie Mitchell, get justice for Erik, please contact the Silent Observer at (269) 343-2100, or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office at (269) 383-8748. All information submitted will remain confidential. And if you would like to know more about this case, you can also visit the Justice for Erik Stirling Cross Facebook page.
Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by purchasing a cup of $5 coffee every month. To help support the podcast, please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/catchmykiller. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please visit my websites www.catchmykiller.com or www.themarcabe.com where you can submit a case.
On the June 25, 1983, Erik had plans to stay over with his friend Bill Cook. Erik’s dad planned on picking up the boys the next day and spending the Sunday at a boat show. It was something Erik looked forward to. However, unknown to Erik’s family, he was planning on attending a graduation party on that evening. There would also be alcohol at the party. Erik and Bill would both make it to the party. And the events at this party would lead to Erik’s brutal killing.
However, instead of staying overnight with Bill, Eric would become intoxicated and walking home alone. According to Erik’s sister, Erik didn’t stay with his friend Bill because he decided to spend time with his girlfriend and other people who would be involved in Erik’s death. Erik’s sister said that her brother’s friend abandoned him and left him alone.
Erik had left the party and was inebriated. Sometime before 2 a.m. Erik was seen walking past a gas station. There were also two carloads of teenagers from the party seen near Erik. Early that Sunday morning, Erik’s father went outside to get the newspaper. He would be shocked by what he found. Erik’s lifeless body was in the driveway.
He must have been confused. Why would Erik be dead in the driveway when he was supposed to be with his friend Bill waiting on a ride to the boat show?
According to Jackie Mitchell, everyone in town knew who killed her brother. She said it was no secret. She said that in late 2017, law enforcement issued a request to arrest five people and charge them with killing Erik. The five people named as being responsible for killing Erik are Amber Thomas Macik (Hull), Bill Cook, Tim Martin, Brian Spaulding Sr. and Brent Spaulding. Although law enforcement was prepared to arrest the five, they would receive some devastating news. The prosecutor’s office has since refused to prosecute the alleged killers. This is the first part of a 2-part story.
If you have listened to this story and would like to assist law enforcement or Jackie Mitchell, get justice for Erik, please contact the Silent Observer at (269) 343-2100, or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office at (269) 383-8748. All information submitted will remain confidential. And if you would like to know more about this case, you can also visit the Justice for Erik Stirling Cross Facebook page.
Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by purchasing a cup of $5 coffee every month. To help support the podcast, please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/catchmykiller. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please visit my websites www.catchmykiller.com or www.themarcabe.com where you can submit a case.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hello, and welcome to the CatchMy Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly
newspaper column about true crimes and missingpeople for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With the column and podcast, myobjective has always been to bring attention
to cases that haven't received much mediaattention if annie. This week's story involves
(00:39):
a seventeen year old Michigan high schoolstudent named Eric Sterling Cross, who told
his parents that he was spending thenight with his friend Bill Cook. The
plan was for Eric's father to pickboth of the young men up the next
day and they were going to spendthe day at a boat show. Unfortunately,
June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty threewould be the final day that Eric's
(01:02):
parents and his younger sister Jackie wouldever see Eric alive. He would be
brutally murdered. What happened to Eric? Who would want to kill him?
Easy going and fun loving teenager,Eric Sterling Cross was born in Flint,
(01:23):
Michigan, on September twenty fifth,nineteen sixty six, to Ted and Mary
lou Cross. Eric lived in Vicksburg, Michigan, which is in Kalamazoo County
with his parents and his younger sister, Jackie Mitchell. According to Jackie,
Eric was a great big brother.The two shared a love for music,
(01:44):
and both of them loved led Zeppelin. Eric loved to hunt, fish and
spend his time outdoors, as manyteenagers did back in the eighties. Jackie
said that her and Eric had agreat childhood. They were loved by their
parents and had a strong family unit, but life would change after Eric was
viciously murdered in nineteen eighty three.On June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,
(02:07):
Eric had made plans to stay overnightwith his friend Bill Cook. Eric's
dad playing on picking up the boysand spending the next day at a boat
show. It was something that Erichad looked forward to. However, unknown
to Eric's family, he was planningon attending a graduation party that evening.
There would be alcohol at the partyand the events that this party would lead
(02:31):
to Eric's brutal killing. Instead ofstaying overnight with Bill, Eric walked home
alone. According to Eric's sister,he didn't stay with his friend Bill because
Bill decided to spend time with hisgirlfriend and the other people who would be
involved in Eric's death. Eric's sistersaid that her brother's friend abandoned him and
(02:53):
left him alone. After Eric leftthe party, he was ineviated. Some
time before two am, Eric wasseen walking past the gas station. There
were also two carloads of teenagers fromthe party seen near Eric as he walked
home. According to Jackie, shesaid that there was some false information about
what happened next. She said thatmedia sources have claimed that Eric's father heard
(03:16):
him return home, assumed that hewas home, and then went back to
sleep. Jackie stated that this isnot true. She said that her father
did not hear anything and he neversuspected that Eric was home because he had
told his parents that he was spendingthe night with his friend Bill, so
there was no reason for him tosuspect that Eric had arrived home. As
(03:40):
far as he knew, he didn'texpect to see Eric until the next day,
when he was supposed to pick himup at his friend Bill's home.
Jackie has said that it's important toknow the truth because people had accused Eric's
father that being negligent by leaving hisson outside to die. Had he known
Eric had returned home, he wouldhave gone to the door and let his
(04:01):
sign in. Jackie wanted me tostress this for this episode because she said
that her father was a caring andloving man and he died knowing that people
blamed him for Eric's death, whichwas not true. Early that Sunday morning,
Eric's father went outside to get thenewspaper. He would be shocked by
what he found. Eric's lifeless bodywas in the driveway. He must have
(04:25):
been confused. Why would Eric bedead in the driveway when he was supposed
to be with his friend Bill waitingon a ride to the boat show.
It was assumed that Eric had walkedhome, got hit by a car,
and then died. Upon further examinationfrom the medical examiner, the explanation for
Eric's death would be far more horrific. Based on evidence. There was ripped
(04:48):
pieces of clothing at the scene,blood, and evidence of rope burns on
Eric's body. It also appeared thatsomeone had beaten him. Based on Eric's
wound, someone had tied him toa car and dragged his body through the
streets before finally running him over.Rumors began to spread that there were several
(05:08):
witnesses and people began talking. Eventually, the story came out that a teenager
named Brent Spaulding, who had bulliedEric in school, had followed Eric home
and found him lying next to atree. Most likely, he had fallen
asleep and never made it into hishouse. According to witness statements, Spaulding
tied a rope around Eric and thenattached the other end of the rope to
(05:30):
his car. He then dragged Ericto his death. However, after dragging
Eric through the streets, Spaulding realizedthat Eric wasn't dead. He then decided
to run Eric's body over to makeit appear like a hit and run.
Although there have been witnesses who saidSpaulding confessed and other witnesses who have shared
this information with law enforcement, Spauldinghas never been arrested. According to Jackie
(05:55):
Mitchell, everyone in town knew whokilled her brother. She said it was
secret. She said that in latetwenty seventeen, law enforcement put out a
warrant to arrest five people and thencharge them with killing Eric. The five
people named as being responsible for killingEric are Amber Thomas, Bill Cook,
Tim Martin, Brian Spaulding Senior,and Brent Spaulding. Although law enforcement was
(06:19):
prepared to arrest these five individuals theywould receive some devastating news. The prosecutor's
office has since refused to prosecute thealleged killers. This is the first part
of a two part story, andnow on with the story of Eric cross
is told by his sister, JackieMitchell. Eric Jerlane Crust is my brother,
(06:46):
and he was born in September twentyfifth, nineteen sixty six in Flint,
Michigan. And after I was born, I should say, he actually
lived with my parents when he wasquite in Hamtrammick, which is in the
Detroit area. But then the riotsthat happened in Detroit in the late sixties
(07:08):
where they were like bringing up thetown and so on, made my parents
moved back up to Grand Blank,which is closer to where my dad went
to college at General Waters Institute.So then I was going there up in
Grand Blank when they lived at GrandBlank in nineteen seventy and then we moved
(07:29):
up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is a marvelous place and was
a wonderful place to be a child. Eric and I and my parents Mary
Lewinted Crossed lived at the end ofthe dirt road up there in Escanaba and
with state forests act up to ourproperties. As are some of the best
(07:54):
memories I have of growing up withEric is the two of us just like
this was back in the seventies,people who were not so worried about letting
their children run around then just whenoutside and ran through the state course and
we had our golden lab Misty whoran around with us climbing the tree.
That really, Eric was just avery outdoorsy person and that's what he enjoyed
(08:18):
the most throughout his life, withbeing outside. So then when we moved
back down to Graham Plank, whichwas due to a job situation from my
dad, that was a fair difficulttransition for both of us, but I
think even more for him because hewas a little older than me and just
look like we moved into this subdivisionthat was kind of hoty toy It wasn't
(08:39):
even the most toyty tili of GrandPlank, but it was very horty choice
for us, you know, havingcome from being having a very rustic light
to them living with neighbors right nextto and all up in your business and
everything. So that was very difficultfor both of us. But we lived
there for a while, and thenthe last move that we made the family
(09:01):
was over to Vicksburg, which iswhere Eric was ultimately dirt. So we
moved there in nineteen two in September. Eric was sixteen and I was twelve,
And I don't know. I don'tthink that was as bad as a
transition for him as going when wemoved him, because Vicksburg was like more
(09:24):
of a country town. I thinkit was worse for me because the schools
were so bad compared to what Iwas used to, but like for him
because he was not as academically outedas I was more of an outdoorsy type
than I came on, type ofperson knew like to fix things, like
to play with his dogs, youknow, helped my dad with think.
My dad and Erquois hunting fishing alot. So for him, he liked
(09:48):
moving back to the country, whichwe did in Fixburg. But then I
was not aware that he was beingbullied in school. He's in the high
school and I was in the juniorhigh and so we weren't in the same
school. But other people have toldme. After he was murdered, it
came out that he had been bulliedat school, like being a new person
(10:09):
coming I think in the middle ofhigh school is probably difficult transition in a
lot of ways. But he likedthe real aspect of apika a motorbike,
which I can remember looking out mywindow at seeing him ride his motorbike through
the corn field when there weren't anycorn in them, because I could see
a layout in the distance ride hismotorbike. He's friends the Chapman these twin
(10:31):
boys, Chapman brothers lived across thefeet, so he ride his motorbike over
to visit them. And that's justwhat he enjoyed doing, and he had
a lot of opportunities to do thatin Vicksburgh, although I personally regretted moving
there because he was murdered less thana year if we moved there, So
I always thought of that as amistake or a bad place because of what
(10:54):
ended up happening to him. We'llgo ahead and take a quick break in
one way return we'll hear more aboutJackie's thoughts on life in Vicksburg after the
family relocated to the city where Ericwould eventually be killed in So it sounds
(11:28):
to me like he really didn't havea lot of friends in school and his
thing was just being home and huntingand doing things with his dad and riding
his dirt bite And he was probablyhappiest when he was at home and not
so much in school. Does thatsound about right? I think that's right.
Yeah. So he wasn't really intomath and that kind of thing.
(11:50):
He wasn't really into the academic subjectsin Vicksburg that they had autoshop, the
wood shop kind of thing. Hewas doing that, which he really annoyed.
And because we were so new,he did have friends at school,
but this crowd ended up getting himinto trouble. He had only started hanging
out with them toward the end ofhis life to hanging out with this very
bad family who was wealthy and ahorrible, horrible family that had a history
(12:18):
of abuse and secrecy in their family, that were an established family from that
area that had a lot of moneyand construction. That was one of your
typical kind of generational degradation type situations. Like when I started listening to the
coverage of this Alex Murdoch trial andthe Carolinas, it totally reminded me of
(12:39):
this family. They're almost exactly thething. Like they started out with the
grandfather who built the wealth and theempire and had all kinds of connections in
and I was talking about the murderer'sfamily out all kinds of connection of the
community, was well respected. Andthen his son, who the father of
the killer, who ended up kindof beginning the downfall of his family by
(13:03):
just acting it was a complete disregardof people around him, and raising a
murderer by not only abusing his children, but just encouraging them their bad behavior
and just to be selfish and dowhatever they felt like doing the matter,
and don't disregard to anyone around them. And then of course the third generation,
(13:26):
very similar to the Murdoch family,just ends up being complete waste rolls,
you know, just addicts, alcoholicdrug addicts who just don't even have
any semblance of order civilization anymore.The very similar situation. The only difference
is, of course, in thecase of this recent Murdoch trial, they
(13:48):
actually were brought to justice, whereasEric killer has not been brought to justice.
Now, when you moved out toVicksburg and Eric was going to school,
was he a senior. No,When we moved there, he was
a sophomore. He was preparing togo into his junior year. Actually,
it's interesting because that I know thatI recalled this from when I was young.
(14:09):
I used to ride my bike tothe cemetery. If it's his crave
and someone had put a T shirton his grave. I'm sure one of
his classmates that said juniors do itbetter, which I thought was a very
nice touch. Of course, henever actually got to be junior, but
the rest of his class did.Now, what were Eric's goals in life?
(14:30):
What did he want to do afterhe left high school? Tell me
about his goals and his plans forthe future. Back then, in the
early eighties, we were not goingaround like they do today, like you
must know what you're going to do, you must start exploring careers immediately.
I mean, we talked about it, but I don't ever remember him saying
(14:50):
I'm definitely going to be this thingor that thing. I don't know.
I don't even remember him saying thathe wanted to be anything in particular.
He was just enjoying his life.He like music a lot, I mean,
besides his outdoor pursuits, he wantedto learn to play the guitar.
Unfortunately, he never got a chanceto do that. Since his life was
robbed from him, but he wantedto play the guitar. He wanted slowly
(15:13):
electric guitar. That my parents toldhim they would be willing to get him
an acrustic guitar if he would takelessons to learn the acoustic tar first,
and then he could then electric guitarto death about of course, that never
came to fruition. That was justto play abound the time that he was
killed. I can relate because Iwas a freshman in high school in nineteen
(15:33):
eighty three. Oh okay, soyou were from that same era that you
understay what I'm talking about. Yeah, right, So when you said that
Eric was just living in the momentand not thinking about his future, I
thought, well, that was meand my best friend back in the day.
We were the same when I wasa freshman in high school. If
you would have asked me what Iwanted to do with my life after I
(15:54):
graduated from high school, I wouldhave had absolutely no clue. Did go
to the military, but my parentshelped me decide that because my dad was
a veteran. But I do knowwhat you're talking about, because back in
those days, me and my buddies, we never discussed what we wanted to
do after high school. We werejust so busy in the eighties, listening
(16:15):
to music and keeping up with whatpeople were wearing and watching sports on TV.
We were just so busy, likeyou said, just living in the
moment. We never thought about ourfutures. Yeah, right to. And
it's a lot different today. Kidstoday, it's like when our thirteen fourteen
years old, they're pushed into whatare you gonna do after you get out
(16:36):
of high school? You need tostart thinking about your future. But back
when I was growing up in theeighties, it just wasn't like that.
It sounds like your brother and youlive the same type of life that my
brothers and I lived. I meanwe went outside, stayed outside all day,
only came in to use the bathroomor eat, and then come in
when the street lights came on.Me and my brothers just would go riding
(16:59):
bikes and just day outside all day. But that was the thing to do.
We never saw our parents until itwas time to come in. We
spent the whole day outside with ourfriends playing you know, baseball, football.
We just hung out and talked.There was no technology, so staying
outside was the thing. To do. If your parents punish you, they
made you stay inside, and thatwas a terrible punishment back in those days.
(17:23):
Today you couldn't pay a kid togo outside and play. It's like,
when I look outside today, youdon't see any kids outside. But
when I grew up, if youlooked outside, everyone was outside different times,
right, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, so life
is really different. And you knowwhat else I find interesting. Whenever I
(17:45):
post stories on my Facebook page ormy cash My Killer Facebook page, I'll
post stories from old cases that happenedback in the eighties or before, if
someone was killed, or someone sellinggirls Scout cookies got abducted. I can
often tell how old somebody is justby seeing their comments, you know,
(18:07):
because you'll see statements like, well, how could you let an eight or
nine year old go out and sellcookies and collect money? And I'm thinking,
when I grew up in the eighties, I did go out and collect
money and sell things door to door. I had a newspaper route when I
was a kid. I delivered papers, I knocked on doors, I collected
money. I got up at fiveo'clock in the morning when I was a
(18:29):
kid to deliver newspapers, and thenwhen I got home from school, I
had an afternoon route, so thenI would deliver papers after I got home
from school. And I also soldcandy and cookies for my school when I
was a kid as well, andI often went alone. Now today it's
a different story. I wouldn't sendone of my young kids out today to
(18:52):
do what I did back in theeighties. But it really was a different
time, and people today have adifficult time understanding the kind of things that
we did in the past. Thingsthat were acceptable, like riding in cars
without seatbelts, or riding in theback of a pickup truck with no seatbelt,
(19:14):
or anything like I said, thoseare things that you wouldn't do today,
but you know, thirty forty yearsago, it's what we did and
it was acceptable, right, Yes, because the reasons are or is there
more crime or is it just publicstyfe more or whatever it is, people
do walk around in fear a lotmore. And I feel like that example
(19:34):
that you just cave it is oneof the things that keeps me, you
know. I try to avoid commentfictions on various YouTube videos and so on
about Eric because people will blame myparents, not only is it actually inaccurate,
but it's just they're judging them fromthe strength of mind of today,
(19:56):
which is completely different than how itwas back then for sure. Right,
So tell me about your last momentswith Eric. When did you last see
him, and tell me about yourconversation with him the last time you saw
him alive? Yeah, okay,it was his stummer. It was June
twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,and it was a Saturday, and this
(20:18):
was the first time he was goingto go out. He had just been
grounded for a month because he hada fender bender. He'd only just recently
gotten his license and then he hada fender bender where he was reaching over
to change the station on the radioand not paying attention and we ended the
car in front of him. Soanyway, yeah, so I can remember.
He seemed really happy, like hewas whistling getting ready to go,
(20:42):
and he had this very nice eightiesfathered hairdo. He was in the bathroom
Homie's hair. The door was opened, and then my room was like right
next to it. So the radiowas playing. It was the song The
Look of Love by ABC. Wow. ABC, that's an old band.
I remember them. I haven't heardanyone mention them in a long time.
(21:04):
Yeah, And so I was gettingready and I don't remember exactly what we
were talking about. I remember themusic, and then I think I just
said about to him because he wasgoing out the door because he was supposed
to spend the night at his friend'shouse, and what he told my parents
he was doing with spending the nightat a friend house. Then my dad
(21:26):
was going to pick him and hisfriend Bill up in the morning to go
to a boat show in Detroit.He was going to have to get up
really early to drive over there,and it was like a big deal.
It's like an exciting excursion they weregoing to do. So Hays, I
forget to say it later because you'rethe first person I've talked to about Eric's
case in terms of a public statementsince two twenty But in January twenty twenties,
(21:51):
when this thing happened with the AttorneyGeneral of Michigan, Korea had a
meeting with their representative and I justbasically quit the case. But one of
the things I really want to getout there is that it wasn't like my
parents were letting him go to thisdrinking party, which is what he was
doing without telling them. It wasthe senior graduation party where the parents were
(22:14):
charging three dollars get in and theparents were serving alcohols open. Anyway,
my parents had no idea who wasgoing to this thing, and they didn't
know he was out wandering around thestreets or whatever. They thought he was
spending night with his fun at hishut. So even though there's this thing
that's gotten out there, I thinkit's from the Crime Watch Daily episode that
my dad heard him trying to getin or something like that, or heard
(22:37):
in Randlan door. And when Ilooked at the police report, that is
not accurate to like I've read theactual police report, it's not accurate to
what it says. The police detectivewho said that was not reading enough the
police pots. That is not accurate. And my parents did not think he
was coming home. My dad wasgoing to pick him up at Bill's house
in the morning. So that hasgotten out there, and I do not
(23:00):
like that at all. That's whatsome of these ridiculous comments are about.
It doesn't even matter. I mean, even if my dad did hear that,
that doesn't mean it's my dad's fault. He died with murder, But
it didn't. That didn't happen anyway, complete lie. I should say misrepresentation
of the truth, because I don'tthink the detect purposely set it wrong.
(23:22):
But it is unfair to think thatmy dad just left him out there to
get murdered. That is not whathappened. So anyway, I just want
to make sure that I put thaton the records. Okay, I was
going to ask you about that becauseI did reading several of the articles that
your dad had heard him trying toget in, but he didn't get out
(23:44):
of bed and just ignored it.But you're telling me that's not true.
Okay, Yeah, well he didn't. He wasn't even planning to come back.
Well, it wasn't an expecting Ericto come home because he was supposed
to pick him up the next dayfor the boats. So there really wouldn't
be any reason for your dad toexpect Eric to be trying to get into
(24:07):
the house exactly. Yeah, butI do want to say that I forgive
them. I know why people dothis. They try to distance themselves because
they want to think nothing my badis ever going to happen to my family.
They haven't really had anything bad happenedyou can tell or they wouldn't be
making these judgments, and so Iforgive them, Like I know that was
(24:29):
like you think, if you doa biding right, it won't happen to
you. But the thing if itis, you know what, Like we
were saying before, do we needto keep the child locked in the room
at all time? Never come outthen? Because there is danger in the
world. So it's always a balancebetween the child has some freedom responsibility,
like you having people out, that'samazing that you did that. Like a
(24:49):
lot of children today, like theywonder why they don't have job skills or
don't not responsibility when they graduate itbecause they never were allowed to sail or
take any risks. You can't justthrow them out there, right. So
another reason why I like to speakto people who actually knew the victim is
because I find that in a lotof cases, when I talk to people,
(25:14):
they'll tell me that certain things thathave been released in the media aren't
true. And that's also what I'velearned about listening to a lot of different
podcasts. They don't actually speak toanybody that knew anything about the case personally
or any of the victims. Whenthey do their research. They just go
by whatever they find online or whateverthey find in the newspaper, so they
(25:37):
really don't know if the information thatthey're sharing is actually true. So whenever
I get a chance, I liketo ask for clarification. So Eric actually
lied to your parents because he didn'ttell them he was going to a party
with drinking involved. Had he donethat, I'm sure your parents would not
have allowed that to happen. Sohe said he was going to stay with
(26:00):
his friend, but he was actuallygoing to a party. Yeah, he
went to the friend's house and theywere planning to go back to Bill's house.
They just didn't actually ever make itback there, but they went to
the party from the house where hewas spending the night. So yeah,
(26:21):
he did go spend the night there. And I think their plan originally,
which went haywire, of course,was to get back to Bill's because my
dad was supposed to pick them upthere in the morning to go to this
boat show. They were excited aboutgo to the boat show. They did
want to go, and they bothmade it to the party. Correct,
They both went to the party.Yeah, yeah, his friend. I
mean I tell you that his friendwho he spent the night with was the
(26:45):
girl. I'm sorry, the friend'sgirlfriend was the sister of the killer,
so she was also in the carand she has since died of cancer,
but she That is kind of thelink of how he Eric even got mixed
up with this horrible crowd of peopleand this family from hell. Okay,
(27:07):
and from what I understand, oneof the people that was familiar with what
happened to your brother died of cancer, that's right. Yeah. And of
all the people who were involved murderingEric, which was a group of five
teenagers, and then the cover upassisted by the parents, so all of
them were in this conspiracy to murderand then lie about Eric's death, which
(27:33):
when the sheriff did later request warrants, he included one of the parents in
the warrants they requested, which Iwas very happy because to me, that
father is he might not have beenthere when Eric was killed, but he
helped throw it up and he producedthe murderer. And not every parent whose
child murders someone is responsible. Thisperson was directly responsible because if he did
(27:59):
let his son get punished the sunwas like teen years old, this would
have been way better off than now. We ended up like he not only
tried to destroy our family, hedestroyed his own son by not letting him
take responsibility. And the reason whyhe didn't want to let the son take
responsibility wasn't protecting the sun. Itwas because he knew if that went to
(28:22):
trial that all of his crimes wouldcome out, because they explained that to
us when they were trying to bringit to trial. So he covered up
the murder to save himself, andin this process destroyed his own son and
my father as well. Okay,And based on what I've seen about this
case, your brother god intoxicated andthen he stumbled home. Tell me if
(28:45):
that's true, and which happened afterhe arrived at the party, tell me
about that night. Okay, Well, this was not a random event as
it sometimes portrayed, because this personwho ended up confessing to multi people that
he murdered my brother has told where, when, why, how he did
(29:08):
it? Was a bully who waswitness used to push Eric into the pop
machine, call him all kinds ofnames, call him gay, call him
this, call him that the otherthing was constantly targeting Eric car asking him.
This was the culmination of constant bullyingand harassment that started at the school
(29:29):
continuing on to this party. Butalso the other thing that happened was extremely
unfortunate in this case. One ofthe many things was that they tried to
at first put out that they thoughtwas a hidden run when it wasn't.
It was a purposeful, premeditated actof murder. But anyway, so in
(29:52):
terms of going back to your questionabout the party, there are several credible
witnesses who did see Eric walking downthe st read alone from the party,
and this one of them was theneeds girl just happened to be home just
looking out the window or whatever,like, people who had no reason to
lie about who were just staying whatthey saw, even though he was supposed
to be with Bill. But Billhad gone off with this other crowd,
(30:15):
the bully and the bully sister whowas Bill's girlfriend. I mean, basically,
even though he denies it, theway I read the police report and
the eye wiscounts is Bill just abandonedEric, you know what I'm saying.
But however it happened, they endedup. There's also otherwise eyewitnesses that saw
(30:36):
the two cars which were i'll justcall them the bully. You said,
you don't want me to name thesepeople if they have been named as persons,
I mean, if anyone wants tolook it up, it's they've been
named it as persons of interest.Well, you can go ahead and name
them. That's fine. I meantheir names are all over the internet that
these five individuals are people of interest. And I saw the warrant online and
(30:57):
I saw their names. So it'scalled acknowledge that these five individuals were involved
with killing your brother or they knewsomething about it. So you can mention
their names. Yeah, yeah,right down the warrant. Yeah. And
so WMT, which is our localKalamazoo News three TV channel, was the
(31:18):
first one to publicly name Brent Spauldingas a person of interest, along with
his father, Brian Spaulding, andthen the other people who they were seeking
Warren Son, which was Tim Martin, Amber Thomas, and Bill Cook.
The so called friend. I mean, I've been calling him a friend only
because he was a friend, Iguess, you know, at least he
(31:41):
claimed to be so. Anyway,the cars that were driven by the suspects
were seen at the corner store,which was only like four doors down from
our So the part that happened thatpoint is hard to say, because maybe
they just saw him walking by.Maybe they we're waiting for him. We
(32:01):
don't really know. But however ithappened, they got a hold of them,
they tied him up, he hadrope burns him. In the Autopian
so On, Jackie shared an importantpart of Eric's story with me. She
said that a young man named BillSnyder went to the police and gave them
details about her brother's murder. Hetold the Forties that Brent Spalding had confessed
(32:27):
to him that he had indeed killedEric. Also, Bill Snyder isn't the
same Bill that Eric was supposed tobe staying with on the evening of his
death. Bill Cook was the friendEric was supposed to spend the night with.
Jackie considers Bill Snyder a true herobecause he was asked not to go
to the police or share any informationabout what Spalding had told him. But
(32:52):
Bill decided that it was the rightthing to do to go to the police
and tell them what really happened toEric, and he had no motivation to
lie about anything as Spaulding was oneof his friends, and Jackie felt that
it was brave of Bill to goto the police. We'll go ahead and
take a momentary break, and whenwe come back, we'll listen to Jackie's
(33:15):
thoughts on Bill Snyder telling law enforcementwhat really happened to Eric on the day
that he was killed. I'll justtell you what Brent Spaulding said to his
(33:43):
friend Bill Snyder when he confessed.Bill Snyder went in and took a lie
detector test at the count of ZooCounty Sheriff's department in December of nineteen eighty
three. And so even though BrianSpaulding, the father of Brent, had
gone to Snyder's house, I'll justcall him Snyder's so we don't get confused.
(34:05):
Thea Bill, who's the false friend? He had the father, Brian
Spolting, gone Snyder's house and triedto stop him from going to the police
to tell them the confession when Brentconfessed to murdering my brother. But Bill
Snyder Wrent, anyway, wonderful herothe story, Bill Snyder, wonderful young
(34:28):
man to have done that, youknow, being pressured by this wealthy father
of your friend. Don't go tellIt'll be bad for Brent. Blah blah
blah. Anyway, So what Brentsaid to Bill Snyder is Eric was laying
down by the tree in front ofhis house, So this is me talking.
According to this confession, Eric hadmade it past the store, but
(34:49):
they must have seen him them foundthen they tried to get in the house.
But that whole thing, I don'tlike it at all. It's all
speculation. They never find his youknow, whether his abusers and bullies and
killers took it from him, possiblyso he couldn't get in his house.
His house, he was never found. So he was apparently trying to get
home since his pause brand cook hadabandoned him and Eric had to fend for
(35:15):
himself, so he couldn't get inbecause he didn't have a key. So
he's laying down by the tree.Apparently. Brent said he came up.
He was laying down by the tree. Brent said, I tied one end
of the rope around Eric's waist,and I tied the other end around the
bumper of my car, and Idrove around the block. So he dragged
(35:39):
him to his death. This iswhat Brent Faulving told Bill Snyder in December
of nineteen eighty three. They draggedmy brother to his desk a block.
You know, it's a country blockthere. You know, every street's like
a mile. That's what he said, is around the block. But anyway,
but then that wasn't good enough forhim, because these are the different
(36:00):
accounts that have come from the braveyoung people who did decide to tell the
truth, because some of them wentto the Spalding house and saw them when
they were trying to decide how tocover up the crime and what to do.
I witnessed accounts from those brave youngpeople, which is acceptable in the
(36:21):
court of law obviously as evidence ifyou say this person said this and made
this confession of how they killed Eric, how they covered it up. All
of those people I want to commendbecause even many of them were afraid,
obviously for their light. Even thefalse friend, Bill Cook said in his
Lye detector test, which he failed, he was afraid something would happened to
(36:44):
him if he told what he knew. But Bill Snyder, who told this
confession about the rope, he passedhis Lye detector test. He's the only
one I saw that did pass hislight Detecker. But anyway, those people
who were willing to come to longand no one there was a killer,
they had come to their person,and then the prosecutor of Kalamazoo County refuses
(37:06):
to go out and issue the wardsto share, basting the issue to catch
a killer and bring him to justice, when all distans are saying, the
guys told multiple people who did it. We have people who were there,
and you still won't get out ofyour fancy car that you run around Kalamazoo
(37:27):
and on the salary we're paying youand just go and bother to catch the
guy who everybody in town, everybodyin the county knowed it. It's absurd.
So anyway they put him in thetrunk. They were probably wronk and
probably on drunk. Who knows whatthey did. But other people came to
(37:47):
the house to other wonderful young peoplewho knew the Spauldings were there when they
were at the house trying to getrid of the evidence, clean out the
trunk and so on. Because theycame up with this stant to bring him
back to our house, run overhim a bunch of times to try to
make it look like a hit andrun. So this was their wonderful plant
(38:13):
was to leaven in the road likea piece of trash, knowing that his
parents come out there and find himso that, you know, so TB
looked like an accident. The onlyreason they pretended to go along with their
stant because it was obvious that wasnot what had happened. They knew there
was about the rope burns. Theyknew he was just like outrageously, you
(38:36):
know, more than you would haveif you just got hit by car,
because stract or for probably miles.And then they knew that all the tire
tracks and the car injuries were postmortem. They could tell he was already
dead before they started running him over. Plus there was a neighbor who heard
them screaming, you know, thegirls screaming who in the car? He
saw us when after they dropped hisbody off and ran it over in the
(39:00):
morning, So that was what theydecided to do, these youth. And
then when the Spaulding parent wherever theywere vacation or somewhere overnight, they weren't
there, they decided to start coveringit up and going around and telling witnesses
not to talk. And all theparents involved with these killers decided to help
(39:22):
cover up the murder and up therethat false had lost their child who you
know, at first didn't know orwhat happened or anything. Of course,
right away, wasn't long before everybodyin the whole town knew, and they
still did nothing. And then thesestill people were at the school I had
to go to school with and beon the cross country team with the brother
(39:45):
of the killer, who was supposedlyalso in the car. But I was
a child, I'm like, oh, I guess this is how it happens.
They just don't kill people and nobodydoes anything and everybody knows who it
is. To me, that wasjust norm like I thought, I mean,
when people were shocked. Later,I'm like, oh, okay,
so this isn't normal that you're tellingme, Like normally people do get arrested
(40:06):
when they commit murder. I wastold the story was they put Brent in
a mental hospital so that he wouldn'tget arrested, And it's true, that
is what happened. The last lineon the nineteen eighty three police report before
they reopened it as a coal caseis Brent's currently is at Pine Rest Mental
Hospital. Case remains open pending furtherinvestigation. I mean, that is what
(40:30):
happened. I kind of thought laterthat must just have been a myth,
like people don't get away with murderjust by checking themselves into a mental hospital.
But it worked for him. Well, yes, and he's still not
locked up. I did see hislittle video clip of him coming out of
jail and a reporter was interviewing himasking him if he had anything to do
(40:51):
with Ris murder. Of course hedenied it. So I did see that
clip. Yep. I've learned alot in the last thirteen years, and
we started pursuing justice on Facebook.I thought they had a conscience. We
met with Bill Cook to try toget information. I called the Amber on
the phone. I used to imagineBrent would concess one day. I thought
(41:14):
people. I didn't realize how manypeople. I don't know. They objected
statistics, But there's a lot ofpeople out there that if they can get
away with something, they don't care. And it's said to know that because
I used to imagine when I wasyounger, Oh, if I could just
talk to Amber, I'm a mother. Now she's a mother. She would
answer my questions that I asked her, like what were last moments? Like
(41:37):
did he have any last words?Was he in pain before he died?
You know things you want to know, But she wouldn't answer them. I
even asked her to meet with apriest and me off the record, no
law enforcement. Please just give mepeace about what happened to my brother so
I can stop thinking about it.Nope, not going to do that,
not going to help. You don'tcare. That's how these people are.
(42:00):
Yes, I saw that she's nowdeceased or someone in that group is deceased.
No, that is her friend,my Brett, who had died of
cancer. Matter. She is theonly one that I think had a conscience.
She was at the funeral chamber andMay Brett. They were friends.
They were in the car alleged obvious, he's true. Anyway, they were
(42:22):
in the car amber and my Brettcame to the funeral. I didn't know
who they were. I can rememberit as a twelve year old girl.
First of all, the organist startedplaying stairwid to Heaven You. Of course,
you probably maybe remember that song fromyour days back in high school led
Zeppelin. Yeah, that was oneof the ways Eric and I had bonded
over that because he was in directand roll music. I was more into
(42:43):
the clapcorn music. I was takingpiano lessons that kind of thing. But
I liked pop music. Too,But I had this piano book that was
greatest hit Stay East or whatever popularsongs today anyway, So I had stairwid
Heaven in it, and I wasjust like he had that record album,
and so he would play it onthe album. And so I remember playing
it to Gil Ericlexis song I'll learnedthis one, and he was like really
(43:07):
excited about it because he didn't payattention to what I was playing him the
piano half the time. But whenI played Scary to Heap and he was
raged that I could play that.So when my mom was planning the funeral
and I said, oh, well, we maybe you should have them placed
there. We'd haven't because you reallyliked that song. So I gave the
organist, Carlos Doublefield my piano bookand she played it out of there.
(43:28):
And when they started playing at asponge teenage there at the funeral, like
base, people started wailing and crying, and these two girls in particular were
whaling and crying. I'm like,oh my gosh, they must have really
liked Derek. I didn't even knowthem. Then later, when they were
lowering Eric's body into the ground,Amber and Neigbrett were there again like wailing
eye. I'm like, wow,I talk. We don't know these girls
(43:52):
that obviously care so much about him. But Maibrett, I know from some
of the little bit of statements Iread, or even though her parents they
tried to keep them from talking,they had them plead the fifth all these
different things, she had a conscience. I just know she did from things
that I've heard, so I'm surewas eating her up inside. And I
do believe that contributes to cancer.I mean, I do believe that was
(44:15):
a contribution to her death. Iknow I sound angry I'm saying that,
but it's like or whatever, that'syour life. I mean, if you
haven't even learned yet at your agethat you should try to make it right
and make amends. I mean,his son, Brent, who is sent
into hell of constant addiction, drugabuse, prison, drunk driving, all
(44:36):
the things he does, He's hadto go through the twelve step program a
bunch of times. It's like whatyou go through it and then you just
pretend like you haven't even gone paststep one. I mean, acknowledge there's
a higher power, make amends,find the people you've wronged. I mean,
how can you even go through thetwelve step program. If you can't
even acknowledge that you killed somebody,well, I'll tell you. I had
(44:57):
a conversation with my grandson about this, well about crime, because he watches
True Prime shows with me, andI told him that people will get away
in this life with earthly justice.They'll be able to avoid it, but
they don't get away with it inthe eyes of God. I said a
(45:19):
lot of times, when I seea crime, all I have to do
is take a look at the suspect'slife afterward and see how that person's life
unfolded. For instance, we talkedabout O. J. Simpson after he
was acquitted of killing his ex wife. Take a look at how his life
has gone afterward. He ended upgoing to prison for robbery, and you
(45:45):
don't see him in movies anymore commercials. He's become a pariah. So his
life really hasn't been that great sincehe got acquitted. So taking a look
at that situation, he may havegot away with justice, but in the
eyes of the creator, he's payingfor his sins. And also, after
(46:06):
watching that video of Spaldine coming outof jail, I guess that was back
in twenty fifteen he looked pretty badin that video, and I guess he's
not really been able to stay outof trouble, so it doesn't look like
he's getting away with much. Yeah, Yeah, I absolutely agree. Yeah,
And that concludes the first half ofEric's story. Be sure to listen
(46:30):
to the conclusion next week. Accordingto a Fox seventeen news story, they
shared a statement from the Michigan AttorneyGeneral's office about the status of Eric's case.
We know this is a heartbreaking decisionfor the Cross family. While there
is simply not enough evidence to criminallycharge any of the remaining suspects with the
(46:52):
death of Eric Cross, we canonly imagine the decades of pain and anguish
they have experienced, and we wishwe were able to make a different decision.
We did everything we could in thiscase, including reinterviewing witnesses, but
it is clear that we will neverknow the truth about the tragic circumstances that
(47:12):
led to the death of Eric Crossthat night more than thirty six years ago.
Unfortunately, this has been a crushingbelow to law enforcement and Eric's family.
If you have listened to this storyand would like to assist law enforcement
or Jackie Mitchell get justice, forEric. Please contact the Silent Observer at
two six nine three four three twoone zero zero or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's
(47:37):
Office at two six nine three eightthree eight seven four eight. And if
you would like to know more aboutthis case, you can also visit the
Justice for Eric Sterling cross Facebook page. I will be sure to provide this
information in the case story notes.And if you are a parent, law
(47:58):
enforcement official, friend, or relativessee and Justice for an Unsolved Thomas side
case, please visit my website andcomplete the contact form. You can also
contact me through Facebook. Thank youfor listening
Hello, and welcome to the CatchMy Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly
newspaper column about true crimes and missingpeople for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With the column and podcast, myobjective has always been to bring attention
to cases that haven't received much mediaattention if annie. This week's story involves
(00:39):
a seventeen year old Michigan high schoolstudent named Eric Sterling Cross, who told
his parents that he was spending thenight with his friend Bill Cook. The
plan was for Eric's father to pickboth of the young men up the next
day and they were going to spendthe day at a boat show. Unfortunately,
June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty threewould be the final day that Eric's
(01:02):
parents and his younger sister Jackie wouldever see Eric alive. He would be
brutally murdered. What happened to Eric? Who would want to kill him?
Easy going and fun loving teenager,Eric Sterling Cross was born in Flint,
(01:23):
Michigan, on September twenty fifth,nineteen sixty six, to Ted and Mary
lou Cross. Eric lived in Vicksburg, Michigan, which is in Kalamazoo County
with his parents and his younger sister, Jackie Mitchell. According to Jackie,
Eric was a great big brother.The two shared a love for music,
(01:44):
and both of them loved led Zeppelin. Eric loved to hunt, fish and
spend his time outdoors, as manyteenagers did back in the eighties. Jackie
said that her and Eric had agreat childhood. They were loved by their
parents and had a strong family unit, but life would change after Eric was
viciously murdered in nineteen eighty three.On June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,
(02:07):
Eric had made plans to stay overnightwith his friend Bill Cook. Eric's
dad playing on picking up the boysand spending the next day at a boat
show. It was something that Erichad looked forward to. However, unknown
to Eric's family, he was planningon attending a graduation party that evening.
There would be alcohol at the partyand the events that this party would lead
(02:31):
to Eric's brutal killing. Instead ofstaying overnight with Bill, Eric walked home
alone. According to Eric's sister,he didn't stay with his friend Bill because
Bill decided to spend time with hisgirlfriend and the other people who would be
involved in Eric's death. Eric's sistersaid that her brother's friend abandoned him and
(02:53):
left him alone. After Eric leftthe party, he was ineviated. Some
time before two am, Eric wasseen walking past the gas station. There
were also two carloads of teenagers fromthe party seen near Eric as he walked
home. According to Jackie, shesaid that there was some false information about
what happened next. She said thatmedia sources have claimed that Eric's father heard
(03:16):
him return home, assumed that hewas home, and then went back to
sleep. Jackie stated that this isnot true. She said that her father
did not hear anything and he neversuspected that Eric was home because he had
told his parents that he was spendingthe night with his friend Bill, so
there was no reason for him tosuspect that Eric had arrived home. As
(03:40):
far as he knew, he didn'texpect to see Eric until the next day,
when he was supposed to pick himup at his friend Bill's home.
Jackie has said that it's important toknow the truth because people had accused Eric's
father that being negligent by leaving hisson outside to die. Had he known
Eric had returned home, he wouldhave gone to the door and let his
(04:01):
sign in. Jackie wanted me tostress this for this episode because she said
that her father was a caring andloving man and he died knowing that people
blamed him for Eric's death, whichwas not true. Early that Sunday morning,
Eric's father went outside to get thenewspaper. He would be shocked by
what he found. Eric's lifeless bodywas in the driveway. He must have
(04:25):
been confused. Why would Eric bedead in the driveway when he was supposed
to be with his friend Bill waitingon a ride to the boat show.
It was assumed that Eric had walkedhome, got hit by a car,
and then died. Upon further examinationfrom the medical examiner, the explanation for
Eric's death would be far more horrific. Based on evidence. There was ripped
(04:48):
pieces of clothing at the scene,blood, and evidence of rope burns on
Eric's body. It also appeared thatsomeone had beaten him. Based on Eric's
wound, someone had tied him toa car and dragged his body through the
streets before finally running him over.Rumors began to spread that there were several
(05:08):
witnesses and people began talking. Eventually, the story came out that a teenager
named Brent Spaulding, who had bulliedEric in school, had followed Eric home
and found him lying next to atree. Most likely, he had fallen
asleep and never made it into hishouse. According to witness statements, Spaulding
tied a rope around Eric and thenattached the other end of the rope to
(05:30):
his car. He then dragged Ericto his death. However, after dragging
Eric through the streets, Spaulding realizedthat Eric wasn't dead. He then decided
to run Eric's body over to makeit appear like a hit and run.
Although there have been witnesses who saidSpaulding confessed and other witnesses who have shared
this information with law enforcement, Spauldinghas never been arrested. According to Jackie
(05:55):
Mitchell, everyone in town knew whokilled her brother. She said it was
secret. She said that in latetwenty seventeen, law enforcement put out a
warrant to arrest five people and thencharge them with killing Eric. The five
people named as being responsible for killingEric are Amber Thomas, Bill Cook,
Tim Martin, Brian Spaulding Senior,and Brent Spaulding. Although law enforcement was
(06:19):
prepared to arrest these five individuals theywould receive some devastating news. The prosecutor's
office has since refused to prosecute thealleged killers. This is the first part
of a two part story, andnow on with the story of Eric cross
is told by his sister, JackieMitchell. Eric Jerlane Crust is my brother,
(06:46):
and he was born in September twentyfifth, nineteen sixty six in Flint,
Michigan. And after I was born, I should say, he actually
lived with my parents when he wasquite in Hamtrammick, which is in the
Detroit area. But then the riotsthat happened in Detroit in the late sixties
(07:08):
where they were like bringing up thetown and so on, made my parents
moved back up to Grand Blank,which is closer to where my dad went
to college at General Waters Institute.So then I was going there up in
Grand Blank when they lived at GrandBlank in nineteen seventy and then we moved
(07:29):
up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is a marvelous place and was
a wonderful place to be a child. Eric and I and my parents Mary
Lewinted Crossed lived at the end ofthe dirt road up there in Escanaba and
with state forests act up to ourproperties. As are some of the best
(07:54):
memories I have of growing up withEric is the two of us just like
this was back in the seventies,people who were not so worried about letting
their children run around then just whenoutside and ran through the state course and
we had our golden lab Misty whoran around with us climbing the tree.
That really, Eric was just avery outdoorsy person and that's what he enjoyed
(08:18):
the most throughout his life, withbeing outside. So then when we moved
back down to Graham Plank, whichwas due to a job situation from my
dad, that was a fair difficulttransition for both of us, but I
think even more for him because hewas a little older than me and just
look like we moved into this subdivisionthat was kind of hoty toy It wasn't
(08:39):
even the most toyty tili of GrandPlank, but it was very horty choice
for us, you know, havingcome from being having a very rustic light
to them living with neighbors right nextto and all up in your business and
everything. So that was very difficultfor both of us. But we lived
there for a while, and thenthe last move that we made the family
(09:01):
was over to Vicksburg, which iswhere Eric was ultimately dirt. So we
moved there in nineteen two in September. Eric was sixteen and I was twelve,
And I don't know. I don'tthink that was as bad as a
transition for him as going when wemoved him, because Vicksburg was like more
(09:24):
of a country town. I thinkit was worse for me because the schools
were so bad compared to what Iwas used to, but like for him
because he was not as academically outedas I was more of an outdoorsy type
than I came on, type ofperson knew like to fix things, like
to play with his dogs, youknow, helped my dad with think.
My dad and Erquois hunting fishing alot. So for him, he liked
(09:48):
moving back to the country, whichwe did in Fixburg. But then I
was not aware that he was beingbullied in school. He's in the high
school and I was in the juniorhigh and so we weren't in the same
school. But other people have toldme. After he was murdered, it
came out that he had been bulliedat school, like being a new person
(10:09):
coming I think in the middle ofhigh school is probably difficult transition in a
lot of ways. But he likedthe real aspect of apika a motorbike,
which I can remember looking out mywindow at seeing him ride his motorbike through
the corn field when there weren't anycorn in them, because I could see
a layout in the distance ride hismotorbike. He's friends the Chapman these twin
(10:31):
boys, Chapman brothers lived across thefeet, so he ride his motorbike over
to visit them. And that's justwhat he enjoyed doing, and he had
a lot of opportunities to do thatin Vicksburgh, although I personally regretted moving
there because he was murdered less thana year if we moved there, So
I always thought of that as amistake or a bad place because of what
(10:54):
ended up happening to him. We'llgo ahead and take a quick break in
one way return we'll hear more aboutJackie's thoughts on life in Vicksburg after the
family relocated to the city where Ericwould eventually be killed in So it sounds
(11:28):
to me like he really didn't havea lot of friends in school and his
thing was just being home and huntingand doing things with his dad and riding
his dirt bite And he was probablyhappiest when he was at home and not
so much in school. Does thatsound about right? I think that's right.
Yeah. So he wasn't really intomath and that kind of thing.
(11:50):
He wasn't really into the academic subjectsin Vicksburg that they had autoshop, the
wood shop kind of thing. Hewas doing that, which he really annoyed.
And because we were so new,he did have friends at school,
but this crowd ended up getting himinto trouble. He had only started hanging
out with them toward the end ofhis life to hanging out with this very
bad family who was wealthy and ahorrible, horrible family that had a history
(12:18):
of abuse and secrecy in their family, that were an established family from that
area that had a lot of moneyand construction. That was one of your
typical kind of generational degradation type situations. Like when I started listening to the
coverage of this Alex Murdoch trial andthe Carolinas, it totally reminded me of
(12:39):
this family. They're almost exactly thething. Like they started out with the
grandfather who built the wealth and theempire and had all kinds of connections in
and I was talking about the murderer'sfamily out all kinds of connection of the
community, was well respected. Andthen his son, who the father of
the killer, who ended up kindof beginning the downfall of his family by
(13:03):
just acting it was a complete disregardof people around him, and raising a
murderer by not only abusing his children, but just encouraging them their bad behavior
and just to be selfish and dowhatever they felt like doing the matter,
and don't disregard to anyone around them. And then of course the third generation,
(13:26):
very similar to the Murdoch family,just ends up being complete waste rolls,
you know, just addicts, alcoholicdrug addicts who just don't even have
any semblance of order civilization anymore.The very similar situation. The only difference
is, of course, in thecase of this recent Murdoch trial, they
(13:48):
actually were brought to justice, whereasEric killer has not been brought to justice.
Now, when you moved out toVicksburg and Eric was going to school,
was he a senior. No,When we moved there, he was
a sophomore. He was preparing togo into his junior year. Actually,
it's interesting because that I know thatI recalled this from when I was young.
(14:09):
I used to ride my bike tothe cemetery. If it's his crave
and someone had put a T shirton his grave. I'm sure one of
his classmates that said juniors do itbetter, which I thought was a very
nice touch. Of course, henever actually got to be junior, but
the rest of his class did.Now, what were Eric's goals in life?
(14:30):
What did he want to do afterhe left high school? Tell me
about his goals and his plans forthe future. Back then, in the
early eighties, we were not goingaround like they do today, like you
must know what you're going to do, you must start exploring careers immediately.
I mean, we talked about it, but I don't ever remember him saying
(14:50):
I'm definitely going to be this thingor that thing. I don't know.
I don't even remember him saying thathe wanted to be anything in particular.
He was just enjoying his life.He like music a lot, I mean,
besides his outdoor pursuits, he wantedto learn to play the guitar.
Unfortunately, he never got a chanceto do that. Since his life was
robbed from him, but he wantedto play the guitar. He wanted slowly
(15:13):
electric guitar. That my parents toldhim they would be willing to get him
an acrustic guitar if he would takelessons to learn the acoustic tar first,
and then he could then electric guitarto death about of course, that never
came to fruition. That was justto play abound the time that he was
killed. I can relate because Iwas a freshman in high school in nineteen
(15:33):
eighty three. Oh okay, soyou were from that same era that you
understay what I'm talking about. Yeah, right, So when you said that
Eric was just living in the momentand not thinking about his future, I
thought, well, that was meand my best friend back in the day.
We were the same when I wasa freshman in high school. If
you would have asked me what Iwanted to do with my life after I
(15:54):
graduated from high school, I wouldhave had absolutely no clue. Did go
to the military, but my parentshelped me decide that because my dad was
a veteran. But I do knowwhat you're talking about, because back in
those days, me and my buddies, we never discussed what we wanted to
do after high school. We werejust so busy in the eighties, listening
(16:15):
to music and keeping up with whatpeople were wearing and watching sports on TV.
We were just so busy, likeyou said, just living in the
moment. We never thought about ourfutures. Yeah, right to. And
it's a lot different today. Kidstoday, it's like when our thirteen fourteen
years old, they're pushed into whatare you gonna do after you get out
(16:36):
of high school? You need tostart thinking about your future. But back
when I was growing up in theeighties, it just wasn't like that.
It sounds like your brother and youlive the same type of life that my
brothers and I lived. I meanwe went outside, stayed outside all day,
only came in to use the bathroomor eat, and then come in
when the street lights came on.Me and my brothers just would go riding
(16:59):
bikes and just day outside all day. But that was the thing to do.
We never saw our parents until itwas time to come in. We
spent the whole day outside with ourfriends playing you know, baseball, football.
We just hung out and talked.There was no technology, so staying
outside was the thing. To do. If your parents punish you, they
made you stay inside, and thatwas a terrible punishment back in those days.
(17:23):
Today you couldn't pay a kid togo outside and play. It's like,
when I look outside today, youdon't see any kids outside. But
when I grew up, if youlooked outside, everyone was outside different times,
right, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, so life
is really different. And you knowwhat else I find interesting. Whenever I
(17:45):
post stories on my Facebook page ormy cash My Killer Facebook page, I'll
post stories from old cases that happenedback in the eighties or before, if
someone was killed, or someone sellinggirls Scout cookies got abducted. I can
often tell how old somebody is justby seeing their comments, you know,
(18:07):
because you'll see statements like, well, how could you let an eight or
nine year old go out and sellcookies and collect money? And I'm thinking,
when I grew up in the eighties, I did go out and collect
money and sell things door to door. I had a newspaper route when I
was a kid. I delivered papers, I knocked on doors, I collected
money. I got up at fiveo'clock in the morning when I was a
(18:29):
kid to deliver newspapers, and thenwhen I got home from school, I
had an afternoon route, so thenI would deliver papers after I got home
from school. And I also soldcandy and cookies for my school when I
was a kid as well, andI often went alone. Now today it's
a different story. I wouldn't sendone of my young kids out today to
(18:52):
do what I did back in theeighties. But it really was a different
time, and people today have adifficult time understanding the kind of things that
we did in the past. Thingsthat were acceptable, like riding in cars
without seatbelts, or riding in theback of a pickup truck with no seatbelt,
(19:14):
or anything like I said, thoseare things that you wouldn't do today,
but you know, thirty forty yearsago, it's what we did and
it was acceptable, right, Yes, because the reasons are or is there
more crime or is it just publicstyfe more or whatever it is, people
do walk around in fear a lotmore. And I feel like that example
(19:34):
that you just cave it is oneof the things that keeps me, you
know. I try to avoid commentfictions on various YouTube videos and so on
about Eric because people will blame myparents, not only is it actually inaccurate,
but it's just they're judging them fromthe strength of mind of today,
(19:56):
which is completely different than how itwas back then for sure. Right,
So tell me about your last momentswith Eric. When did you last see
him, and tell me about yourconversation with him the last time you saw
him alive? Yeah, okay,it was his stummer. It was June
twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,and it was a Saturday, and this
(20:18):
was the first time he was goingto go out. He had just been
grounded for a month because he hada fender bender. He'd only just recently
gotten his license and then he hada fender bender where he was reaching over
to change the station on the radioand not paying attention and we ended the
car in front of him. Soanyway, yeah, so I can remember.
He seemed really happy, like hewas whistling getting ready to go,
(20:42):
and he had this very nice eightiesfathered hairdo. He was in the bathroom
Homie's hair. The door was opened, and then my room was like right
next to it. So the radiowas playing. It was the song The
Look of Love by ABC. Wow. ABC, that's an old band.
I remember them. I haven't heardanyone mention them in a long time.
(21:04):
Yeah, And so I was gettingready and I don't remember exactly what we
were talking about. I remember themusic, and then I think I just
said about to him because he wasgoing out the door because he was supposed
to spend the night at his friend'shouse, and what he told my parents
he was doing with spending the nightat a friend house. Then my dad
(21:26):
was going to pick him and hisfriend Bill up in the morning to go
to a boat show in Detroit.He was going to have to get up
really early to drive over there,and it was like a big deal.
It's like an exciting excursion they weregoing to do. So Hays, I
forget to say it later because you'rethe first person I've talked to about Eric's
case in terms of a public statementsince two twenty But in January twenty twenties,
(21:51):
when this thing happened with the AttorneyGeneral of Michigan, Korea had a
meeting with their representative and I justbasically quit the case. But one of
the things I really want to getout there is that it wasn't like my
parents were letting him go to thisdrinking party, which is what he was
doing without telling them. It wasthe senior graduation party where the parents were
(22:14):
charging three dollars get in and theparents were serving alcohols open. Anyway,
my parents had no idea who wasgoing to this thing, and they didn't
know he was out wandering around thestreets or whatever. They thought he was
spending night with his fun at hishut. So even though there's this thing
that's gotten out there, I thinkit's from the Crime Watch Daily episode that
my dad heard him trying to getin or something like that, or heard
(22:37):
in Randlan door. And when Ilooked at the police report, that is
not accurate to like I've read theactual police report, it's not accurate to
what it says. The police detectivewho said that was not reading enough the
police pots. That is not accurate. And my parents did not think he
was coming home. My dad wasgoing to pick him up at Bill's house
in the morning. So that hasgotten out there, and I do not
(23:00):
like that at all. That's whatsome of these ridiculous comments are about.
It doesn't even matter. I mean, even if my dad did hear that,
that doesn't mean it's my dad's fault. He died with murder, But
it didn't. That didn't happen anyway, complete lie. I should say misrepresentation
of the truth, because I don'tthink the detect purposely set it wrong.
(23:22):
But it is unfair to think thatmy dad just left him out there to
get murdered. That is not whathappened. So anyway, I just want
to make sure that I put thaton the records. Okay, I was
going to ask you about that becauseI did reading several of the articles that
your dad had heard him trying toget in, but he didn't get out
(23:44):
of bed and just ignored it.But you're telling me that's not true.
Okay, Yeah, well he didn't. He wasn't even planning to come back.
Well, it wasn't an expecting Ericto come home because he was supposed
to pick him up the next dayfor the boats. So there really wouldn't
be any reason for your dad toexpect Eric to be trying to get into
(24:07):
the house exactly. Yeah, butI do want to say that I forgive
them. I know why people dothis. They try to distance themselves because
they want to think nothing my badis ever going to happen to my family.
They haven't really had anything bad happenedyou can tell or they wouldn't be
making these judgments, and so Iforgive them, Like I know that was
(24:29):
like you think, if you doa biding right, it won't happen to
you. But the thing if itis, you know what, Like we
were saying before, do we needto keep the child locked in the room
at all time? Never come outthen? Because there is danger in the
world. So it's always a balancebetween the child has some freedom responsibility,
like you having people out, that'samazing that you did that. Like a
(24:49):
lot of children today, like theywonder why they don't have job skills or
don't not responsibility when they graduate itbecause they never were allowed to sail or
take any risks. You can't justthrow them out there, right. So
another reason why I like to speakto people who actually knew the victim is
because I find that in a lotof cases, when I talk to people,
(25:14):
they'll tell me that certain things thathave been released in the media aren't
true. And that's also what I'velearned about listening to a lot of different
podcasts. They don't actually speak toanybody that knew anything about the case personally
or any of the victims. Whenthey do their research. They just go
by whatever they find online or whateverthey find in the newspaper, so they
(25:37):
really don't know if the information thatthey're sharing is actually true. So whenever
I get a chance, I liketo ask for clarification. So Eric actually
lied to your parents because he didn'ttell them he was going to a party
with drinking involved. Had he donethat, I'm sure your parents would not
have allowed that to happen. Sohe said he was going to stay with
(26:00):
his friend, but he was actuallygoing to a party. Yeah, he
went to the friend's house and theywere planning to go back to Bill's house.
They just didn't actually ever make itback there, but they went to
the party from the house where hewas spending the night. So yeah,
(26:21):
he did go spend the night there. And I think their plan originally,
which went haywire, of course,was to get back to Bill's because my
dad was supposed to pick them upthere in the morning to go to this
boat show. They were excited aboutgo to the boat show. They did
want to go, and they bothmade it to the party. Correct,
They both went to the party.Yeah, yeah, his friend. I
mean I tell you that his friendwho he spent the night with was the
(26:45):
girl. I'm sorry, the friend'sgirlfriend was the sister of the killer,
so she was also in the carand she has since died of cancer,
but she That is kind of thelink of how he Eric even got mixed
up with this horrible crowd of peopleand this family from hell. Okay,
(27:07):
and from what I understand, oneof the people that was familiar with what
happened to your brother died of cancer, that's right. Yeah. And of
all the people who were involved murderingEric, which was a group of five
teenagers, and then the cover upassisted by the parents, so all of
them were in this conspiracy to murderand then lie about Eric's death, which
(27:33):
when the sheriff did later request warrants, he included one of the parents in
the warrants they requested, which Iwas very happy because to me, that
father is he might not have beenthere when Eric was killed, but he
helped throw it up and he producedthe murderer. And not every parent whose
child murders someone is responsible. Thisperson was directly responsible because if he did
(27:59):
let his son get punished the sunwas like teen years old, this would
have been way better off than now. We ended up like he not only
tried to destroy our family, hedestroyed his own son by not letting him
take responsibility. And the reason whyhe didn't want to let the son take
responsibility wasn't protecting the sun. Itwas because he knew if that went to
(28:22):
trial that all of his crimes wouldcome out, because they explained that to
us when they were trying to bringit to trial. So he covered up
the murder to save himself, andin this process destroyed his own son and
my father as well. Okay,And based on what I've seen about this
case, your brother god intoxicated andthen he stumbled home. Tell me if
(28:45):
that's true, and which happened afterhe arrived at the party, tell me
about that night. Okay, Well, this was not a random event as
it sometimes portrayed, because this personwho ended up confessing to multi people that
he murdered my brother has told where, when, why, how he did
(29:08):
it? Was a bully who waswitness used to push Eric into the pop
machine, call him all kinds ofnames, call him gay, call him
this, call him that the otherthing was constantly targeting Eric car asking him.
This was the culmination of constant bullyingand harassment that started at the school
(29:29):
continuing on to this party. Butalso the other thing that happened was extremely
unfortunate in this case. One ofthe many things was that they tried to
at first put out that they thoughtwas a hidden run when it wasn't.
It was a purposeful, premeditated actof murder. But anyway, so in
(29:52):
terms of going back to your questionabout the party, there are several credible
witnesses who did see Eric walking downthe st read alone from the party,
and this one of them was theneeds girl just happened to be home just
looking out the window or whatever,like, people who had no reason to
lie about who were just staying whatthey saw, even though he was supposed
to be with Bill. But Billhad gone off with this other crowd,
(30:15):
the bully and the bully sister whowas Bill's girlfriend. I mean, basically,
even though he denies it, theway I read the police report and
the eye wiscounts is Bill just abandonedEric, you know what I'm saying.
But however it happened, they endedup. There's also otherwise eyewitnesses that saw
(30:36):
the two cars which were i'll justcall them the bully. You said,
you don't want me to name thesepeople if they have been named as persons,
I mean, if anyone wants tolook it up, it's they've been
named it as persons of interest.Well, you can go ahead and name
them. That's fine. I meantheir names are all over the internet that
these five individuals are people of interest. And I saw the warrant online and
(30:57):
I saw their names. So it'scalled acknowledge that these five individuals were involved
with killing your brother or they knewsomething about it. So you can mention
their names. Yeah, yeah,right down the warrant. Yeah. And
so WMT, which is our localKalamazoo News three TV channel, was the
(31:18):
first one to publicly name Brent Spauldingas a person of interest, along with
his father, Brian Spaulding, andthen the other people who they were seeking
Warren Son, which was Tim Martin, Amber Thomas, and Bill Cook.
The so called friend. I mean, I've been calling him a friend only
because he was a friend, Iguess, you know, at least he
(31:41):
claimed to be so. Anyway,the cars that were driven by the suspects
were seen at the corner store,which was only like four doors down from
our So the part that happened thatpoint is hard to say, because maybe
they just saw him walking by.Maybe they we're waiting for him. We
(32:01):
don't really know. But however ithappened, they got a hold of them,
they tied him up, he hadrope burns him. In the Autopian
so On, Jackie shared an importantpart of Eric's story with me. She
said that a young man named BillSnyder went to the police and gave them
details about her brother's murder. Hetold the Forties that Brent Spalding had confessed
(32:27):
to him that he had indeed killedEric. Also, Bill Snyder isn't the
same Bill that Eric was supposed tobe staying with on the evening of his
death. Bill Cook was the friendEric was supposed to spend the night with.
Jackie considers Bill Snyder a true herobecause he was asked not to go
to the police or share any informationabout what Spalding had told him. But
(32:52):
Bill decided that it was the rightthing to do to go to the police
and tell them what really happened toEric, and he had no motivation to
lie about anything as Spaulding was oneof his friends, and Jackie felt that
it was brave of Bill to goto the police. We'll go ahead and
take a momentary break, and whenwe come back, we'll listen to Jackie's
(33:15):
thoughts on Bill Snyder telling law enforcementwhat really happened to Eric on the day
that he was killed. I'll justtell you what Brent Spaulding said to his
(33:43):
friend Bill Snyder when he confessed.Bill Snyder went in and took a lie
detector test at the count of ZooCounty Sheriff's department in December of nineteen eighty
three. And so even though BrianSpaulding, the father of Brent, had
gone to Snyder's house, I'll justcall him Snyder's so we don't get confused.
(34:05):
Thea Bill, who's the false friend? He had the father, Brian
Spolting, gone Snyder's house and triedto stop him from going to the police
to tell them the confession when Brentconfessed to murdering my brother. But Bill
Snyder Wrent, anyway, wonderful herothe story, Bill Snyder, wonderful young
(34:28):
man to have done that, youknow, being pressured by this wealthy father
of your friend. Don't go tellIt'll be bad for Brent. Blah blah
blah. Anyway, So what Brentsaid to Bill Snyder is Eric was laying
down by the tree in front ofhis house, So this is me talking.
According to this confession, Eric hadmade it past the store, but
(34:49):
they must have seen him them foundthen they tried to get in the house.
But that whole thing, I don'tlike it at all. It's all
speculation. They never find his youknow, whether his abusers and bullies and
killers took it from him, possiblyso he couldn't get in his house.
His house, he was never found. So he was apparently trying to get
home since his pause brand cook hadabandoned him and Eric had to fend for
(35:15):
himself, so he couldn't get inbecause he didn't have a key. So
he's laying down by the tree.Apparently. Brent said he came up.
He was laying down by the tree. Brent said, I tied one end
of the rope around Eric's waist,and I tied the other end around the
bumper of my car, and Idrove around the block. So he dragged
(35:39):
him to his death. This iswhat Brent Faulving told Bill Snyder in December
of nineteen eighty three. They draggedmy brother to his desk a block.
You know, it's a country blockthere. You know, every street's like
a mile. That's what he said, is around the block. But anyway,
but then that wasn't good enough forhim, because these are the different
(36:00):
accounts that have come from the braveyoung people who did decide to tell the
truth, because some of them wentto the Spalding house and saw them when
they were trying to decide how tocover up the crime and what to do.
I witnessed accounts from those brave youngpeople, which is acceptable in the
(36:21):
court of law obviously as evidence ifyou say this person said this and made
this confession of how they killed Eric, how they covered it up. All
of those people I want to commendbecause even many of them were afraid,
obviously for their light. Even thefalse friend, Bill Cook said in his
Lye detector test, which he failed, he was afraid something would happened to
(36:44):
him if he told what he knew. But Bill Snyder, who told this
confession about the rope, he passedhis Lye detector test. He's the only
one I saw that did pass hislight Detecker. But anyway, those people
who were willing to come to longand no one there was a killer,
they had come to their person,and then the prosecutor of Kalamazoo County refuses
(37:06):
to go out and issue the wardsto share, basting the issue to catch
a killer and bring him to justice, when all distans are saying, the
guys told multiple people who did it. We have people who were there,
and you still won't get out ofyour fancy car that you run around Kalamazoo
(37:27):
and on the salary we're paying youand just go and bother to catch the
guy who everybody in town, everybodyin the county knowed it. It's absurd.
So anyway they put him in thetrunk. They were probably wronk and
probably on drunk. Who knows whatthey did. But other people came to
(37:47):
the house to other wonderful young peoplewho knew the Spauldings were there when they
were at the house trying to getrid of the evidence, clean out the
trunk and so on. Because theycame up with this stant to bring him
back to our house, run overhim a bunch of times to try to
make it look like a hit andrun. So this was their wonderful plant
(38:13):
was to leaven in the road likea piece of trash, knowing that his
parents come out there and find himso that, you know, so TB
looked like an accident. The onlyreason they pretended to go along with their
stant because it was obvious that wasnot what had happened. They knew there
was about the rope burns. Theyknew he was just like outrageously, you
(38:36):
know, more than you would haveif you just got hit by car,
because stract or for probably miles.And then they knew that all the tire
tracks and the car injuries were postmortem. They could tell he was already
dead before they started running him over. Plus there was a neighbor who heard
them screaming, you know, thegirls screaming who in the car? He
saw us when after they dropped hisbody off and ran it over in the
(39:00):
morning, So that was what theydecided to do, these youth. And
then when the Spaulding parent wherever theywere vacation or somewhere overnight, they weren't
there, they decided to start coveringit up and going around and telling witnesses
not to talk. And all theparents involved with these killers decided to help
(39:22):
cover up the murder and up therethat false had lost their child who you
know, at first didn't know orwhat happened or anything. Of course,
right away, wasn't long before everybodyin the whole town knew, and they
still did nothing. And then thesestill people were at the school I had
to go to school with and beon the cross country team with the brother
(39:45):
of the killer, who was supposedlyalso in the car. But I was
a child, I'm like, oh, I guess this is how it happens.
They just don't kill people and nobodydoes anything and everybody knows who it
is. To me, that wasjust norm like I thought, I mean,
when people were shocked. Later,I'm like, oh, okay,
so this isn't normal that you're tellingme, Like normally people do get arrested
(40:06):
when they commit murder. I wastold the story was they put Brent in
a mental hospital so that he wouldn'tget arrested, And it's true, that
is what happened. The last lineon the nineteen eighty three police report before
they reopened it as a coal caseis Brent's currently is at Pine Rest Mental
Hospital. Case remains open pending furtherinvestigation. I mean, that is what
(40:30):
happened. I kind of thought laterthat must just have been a myth,
like people don't get away with murderjust by checking themselves into a mental hospital.
But it worked for him. Well, yes, and he's still not
locked up. I did see hislittle video clip of him coming out of
jail and a reporter was interviewing himasking him if he had anything to do
(40:51):
with Ris murder. Of course hedenied it. So I did see that
clip. Yep. I've learned alot in the last thirteen years, and
we started pursuing justice on Facebook.I thought they had a conscience. We
met with Bill Cook to try toget information. I called the Amber on
the phone. I used to imagineBrent would concess one day. I thought
(41:14):
people. I didn't realize how manypeople. I don't know. They objected
statistics, But there's a lot ofpeople out there that if they can get
away with something, they don't care. And it's said to know that because
I used to imagine when I wasyounger, Oh, if I could just
talk to Amber, I'm a mother. Now she's a mother. She would
answer my questions that I asked her, like what were last moments? Like
(41:37):
did he have any last words?Was he in pain before he died?
You know things you want to know, But she wouldn't answer them. I
even asked her to meet with apriest and me off the record, no
law enforcement. Please just give mepeace about what happened to my brother so
I can stop thinking about it.Nope, not going to do that,
not going to help. You don'tcare. That's how these people are.
(42:00):
Yes, I saw that she's nowdeceased or someone in that group is deceased.
No, that is her friend,my Brett, who had died of
cancer. Matter. She is theonly one that I think had a conscience.
She was at the funeral chamber andMay Brett. They were friends.
They were in the car alleged obvious, he's true. Anyway, they were
(42:22):
in the car amber and my Brettcame to the funeral. I didn't know
who they were. I can rememberit as a twelve year old girl.
First of all, the organist startedplaying stairwid to Heaven You. Of course,
you probably maybe remember that song fromyour days back in high school led
Zeppelin. Yeah, that was oneof the ways Eric and I had bonded
over that because he was in directand roll music. I was more into
(42:43):
the clapcorn music. I was takingpiano lessons that kind of thing. But
I liked pop music. Too,But I had this piano book that was
greatest hit Stay East or whatever popularsongs today anyway, So I had stairwid
Heaven in it, and I wasjust like he had that record album,
and so he would play it onthe album. And so I remember playing
it to Gil Ericlexis song I'll learnedthis one, and he was like really
(43:07):
excited about it because he didn't payattention to what I was playing him the
piano half the time. But whenI played Scary to Heap and he was
raged that I could play that.So when my mom was planning the funeral
and I said, oh, well, we maybe you should have them placed
there. We'd haven't because you reallyliked that song. So I gave the
organist, Carlos Doublefield my piano bookand she played it out of there.
(43:28):
And when they started playing at asponge teenage there at the funeral, like
base, people started wailing and crying, and these two girls in particular were
whaling and crying. I'm like,oh my gosh, they must have really
liked Derek. I didn't even knowthem. Then later, when they were
lowering Eric's body into the ground,Amber and Neigbrett were there again like wailing
eye. I'm like, wow,I talk. We don't know these girls
(43:52):
that obviously care so much about him. But Maibrett, I know from some
of the little bit of statements Iread, or even though her parents they
tried to keep them from talking,they had them plead the fifth all these
different things, she had a conscience. I just know she did from things
that I've heard, so I'm surewas eating her up inside. And I
do believe that contributes to cancer.I mean, I do believe that was
(44:15):
a contribution to her death. Iknow I sound angry I'm saying that,
but it's like or whatever, that'syour life. I mean, if you
haven't even learned yet at your agethat you should try to make it right
and make amends. I mean,his son, Brent, who is sent
into hell of constant addiction, drugabuse, prison, drunk driving, all
(44:36):
the things he does, He's hadto go through the twelve step program a
bunch of times. It's like whatyou go through it and then you just
pretend like you haven't even gone paststep one. I mean, acknowledge there's
a higher power, make amends,find the people you've wronged. I mean,
how can you even go through thetwelve step program. If you can't
even acknowledge that you killed somebody,well, I'll tell you. I had
(44:57):
a conversation with my grandson about this, well about crime, because he watches
True Prime shows with me, andI told him that people will get away
in this life with earthly justice.They'll be able to avoid it, but
they don't get away with it inthe eyes of God. I said a
(45:19):
lot of times, when I seea crime, all I have to do
is take a look at the suspect'slife afterward and see how that person's life
unfolded. For instance, we talkedabout O. J. Simpson after he
was acquitted of killing his ex wife. Take a look at how his life
has gone afterward. He ended upgoing to prison for robbery, and you
(45:45):
don't see him in movies anymore commercials. He's become a pariah. So his
life really hasn't been that great sincehe got acquitted. So taking a look
at that situation, he may havegot away with justice, but in the
eyes of the creator, he's payingfor his sins. And also, after
(46:06):
watching that video of Spaldine coming outof jail, I guess that was back
in twenty fifteen he looked pretty badin that video, and I guess he's
not really been able to stay outof trouble, so it doesn't look like
he's getting away with much. Yeah, Yeah, I absolutely agree. Yeah,
And that concludes the first half ofEric's story. Be sure to listen
(46:30):
to the conclusion next week. Accordingto a Fox seventeen news story, they
shared a statement from the Michigan AttorneyGeneral's office about the status of Eric's case.
We know this is a heartbreaking decisionfor the Cross family. While there
is simply not enough evidence to criminallycharge any of the remaining suspects with the
(46:52):
death of Eric Cross, we canonly imagine the decades of pain and anguish
they have experienced, and we wishwe were able to make a different decision.
We did everything we could in thiscase, including reinterviewing witnesses, but
it is clear that we will neverknow the truth about the tragic circumstances that
(47:12):
led to the death of Eric Crossthat night more than thirty six years ago.
Unfortunately, this has been a crushingbelow to law enforcement and Eric's family.
If you have listened to this storyand would like to assist law enforcement
or Jackie Mitchell get justice, forEric. Please contact the Silent Observer at
two six nine three four three twoone zero zero or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's
(47:37):
Office at two six nine three eightthree eight seven four eight. And if
you would like to know more aboutthis case, you can also visit the
Justice for Eric Sterling cross Facebook page. I will be sure to provide this
information in the case story notes.And if you are a parent, law
(47:58):
enforcement official, friend, or relativessee and Justice for an Unsolved Thomas side
case, please visit my website andcomplete the contact form. You can also
contact me through Facebook. Thank youfor listening
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