Episode 175: Erik Cross (Part 2 of 2)

(Part 2 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 conclusion 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 [phone], or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office at [phone]. 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.

Episode Transcript

(00:14):
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 any. This week's story involves

(00:41):
a sixteen 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 boys up the next day
and they were going to spend theday at a boat show. Unfortunately,
June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty threewould be the final day that Eric's parents

(01:07):
and his younger sister Jackie would eversee Eric alive. He would be brutally
murdered. What happened to Eric?Who would want to kill him? Easy
going and fun loving teenager, EricSterling Cross was born in Flint, Michigan,
on September twenty fifth, nineteen sixtysix, to Ted and Mary lou

(01:30):
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. Thetwo shared a love for music, and
both of them loved led Zeppelin.Eric loved to hunt, fish and spend
his time outdoors, as many teenagersdid back in the eighties. Jackie said

(01:55):
that her and Eric had a greatchildhood. 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. OnJune twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,
Eric had made plans to stay overnightwith his friend Bill Cook. Eric's dad
playing on picking up the boys andspending the next day at a boat show.

(02:19):
It was something that Eric had lookedforward to. However, unknown to
Eric's family, he was planning onattending a graduation party that evening. There
would be alcohol at the party.Eric and Bill would both make it to
the party, and the events thatthis party would lead to Eric's brutal killing.
Instead of staying overnight with Bill,Eric walked home alone. According to

(02:43):
Eric's sister, he didn't stay withhis friend Bill because Bill decided to spend
time with his girlfriend and the otherpeople who would be involved in Eric's death.
Eric's sister said that her brother's friendabandoned him and left him alone after
Eric left the party he was ineven created sometime before two am, Eric
was seen walking past the gas station. There were also two carloads of teenagers

(03:07):
from the party seen near Eric ashe walked home. According to Jackie,
she said that there was some falseinformation about what happened next. She said
that media sources have claimed that Eric'sfather heard him return home, assumed that
he was home, and then wentback to sleep. Jackie stated that this
is not true. She said thather father did not hear anything and he

(03:31):
never suspected that Eric was home becausehe had told his parents that he was
spending the night with his friend Bill, so there was no reason for him
to suspect that Eric had arrived home. As far as he knew, he
didn't expect to see Eric until thenext day, when he was supposed to
pick him up at his friend Bill'shome. Jackie has said that it's important

(03:53):
to know the truth because people hadaccused Eric's father that being negligent by leaving
his son outside to die. Hadhe known Eric had returned home, he
would have gone to the door andlet his son in. Jackie wanted me
to stress this for this episode becauseshe said that her father was a caring
and loving man and he died knowingthat people blamed him for Eric's death,

(04:15):
which was not true. Early thatSunday morning, Eric's father went outside to
get the newspaper. He would beshocked by what he found. Eric's lifeless
body was in the driveway. Hemust have been confused. Why would Eric
be dead in the driveway when hewas supposed to be with his friend Bill
waiting on a ride to the boatshow. It was assumed that Eric had

(04:39):
walked home, got hit by acar, and then died. Upon further
examination from the medical examiner, theexplanation for Eric's death would be far more
horrific. Based on evidence. Therewas ripped pieces of clothing at the scene,
blood, and evidence of rope burnson Eric's body. It also appeared
that someone had beaten him. Basedon Eric's wounds, someone had tied him

(05:02):
to a car and dragged his bodythrough the streets before finally running him over.
Rumors began to spread that there wereseveral witnesses and people began talking.
Eventually, the story came out thata teenager named Brent Spaulding, who had
bullied Eric in school, had followedEric home and found him lying next to
a tree. Most likely, hehad fallen asleep and never made it into

(05:26):
his house. According to witness statements, Spaulding tied a rope around Eric and
then attached the other end of therope to his car. He then dragged
Eric to his death. However,after dragging Eric through the streets, Spaulding
realized that Eric wasn't dead. Hethen decided to run Eric's body over to
make it appear like a hit andrun. Although there have been witnesses who

(05:48):
said Spaulding confessed and other witnesses whohave shared this information with law enforcement,
Spaulding has never been arrested. Accordingto Jackie Mitchell, everyone in town knew
who killed her brother. She saidit was no secret. Jackie said that
in late twenty seventeen, law enforcementissued a warrant to arrest five people and

(06:11):
then charge them with killing Eric.The five people named being responsible for Eric's
death were Amber Thomas, Bill Cook, Tim Martin, Brian Swalving Senior,
and Brent Spalding. Although law enforcementwas prepared to arrest these five individuals.
Law enforcement in Eric's family would receivesome devastating news. The prosecutor's office has

(06:35):
refused to prosecute the alleged killers.I would also like to mention that I
erroneously stated that Eric was seventeen inthe first episode when he was murdered.
He was actually sixteen. And Iwould like to restate that the sheriff's department
requested the prosecutor to issue the warrantfor five arrests. However, the prosecutor

(06:58):
didn't approve the war and has refusedto prosecute anyone for Eric's homicide. And
this is how the case remains today, cold and unsolved. This is the
conclusion of a two part story,and now on with the story of Eric
Cross, as told by his sister, Jackie Mitchell Well. I truly believe

(07:20):
that no one gets away with beingevil. Even if you were to escape
earthly justice, you will face judgmentfrom a higher power. And I would
think that most people would agree withthat statement. It's hard to believe that
you can commit crimes, kill people, and be evil and never suffer any
consequences. At least that's what Ibelieve that's right. Yeah, and they

(07:44):
do. That's what my mom toldme when she was trying to talk me
out of getting involved in investigating ittoo much. Tim And twelve years ago,
she's that Jim Martin is a nonperson, Brent Spalding is a non
person. Let them destroy themselves.That's true. But I still want to
make sure they get to justice.But these days it's more like what you
said, Yeah, it'd be coolif they you know, it's not for

(08:07):
us. Any kind of trial orarrest would happen. It'd be to protect
the public what they claim they're doing. Yeah, arrest the care to protect
the public, not for us,like not going to do us. Say
for us, it's going to bebad for my mom eighty two years old
if she has to go to atrial. It'd be horrible. They have
to hear all this, hear themdo the stuff they do. Lying there

(08:28):
wouldn't be anything good for us atall. But you know, they fake
people who're talking about They think everybody'sfaking it. That's what I've come to
learn, Like they don't even understandthe concept of getting to the point in
your life where you try to becomea better in person, if you make
a mistake, you go and tryto say you're sorry. They think everybody's
faking it like they are. Theyreally don't know what it's like to even

(08:52):
live that way because they are basicallynot even alive. I agree with you
that I don't know what happens tothem after death. I don't even know
if they would exist, because it'slike they had to even have a soul
to start with this, Like they'realready in hell, you know what I
mean, They're just not living areal life. So to me, like,
yeah, I'm not going to sithere and say I mean, I'm
very disappointed that Eric didn't get tolive the life he was destined to live

(09:16):
and was supposed to live. Butalso Brent Smaalding didn't get to live the
life he was destined to live,I supposed to live, and he could
have had a chance to do that, like you said before, if he
had been brought to justice right away, if they cooperated in any way,
he could have probably not gotten thatbad of a sentence. He'd be well

(09:37):
over that by now and hopefully notrunning around the way he's now. He'd
be a better person, probably havelived something from it and maybe made the
amends that he had to make topay for these mistakes of his parents and
to actually redeem the family and breakthe generational cycle of abuse. He would
have had a chance to do that, but he chose to go the other

(09:58):
way and perpetuate the generational cycled abuseby never coming to terms with what he'd
done. It's very sad. Irealized that this case has gone unsolved for
nearly forty years and it is consideredcold as ice. But I do know
that there was some movement in twoseventeen on this case. Can you tell
me more about this and what happenedback in two seventeen. Well, actually,

(10:22):
nothing happened between nineteen eighty three andtwo thousand and one, except that
I did have some own conversation withBrian Spaulding's brother when I moved back to
Michigan around nineteen ninety nine two thousand. I just called him out to try
to get him to tell me,just like I did at Bamberg, what
were my brother's last moments? Likeyou were there in the car, what

(10:43):
can you remember about it? AllI want to know is how you know
it was? Because I would justsit there and imagine all kinds of things
trying to figure it out. Butin terms of official things, in two
thousand, Kalamazoo County had a coldcase team, which was like a new
thing that they'd established, and theylooked at Eric's case and they came and

(11:03):
interviewed me Detective Workama from the KalamusaCounty Sheriff Department, and they did some
news blitzes and we're investigating the case, reinterviewing witnesses, all that kind of
stuff. So that was like twothousand and two thousand and one, and
then at some point right in there, that cold case team got disbanded because
of budget cuts, so then itgot put on the shelf again. And

(11:26):
then in two thousand and ten,I did start with Facebook page that I
started for Eric because when Facebook wasnewer saw that brand had a Facebook page
and with the stale kind of stuffabout his life, I thought, huh,
that's really not fair that he's livinghis life and at Facebook page and
Eric never got to live a life. So I decided to start one just

(11:48):
with his name and picture, whichis still there today. Eric Sterling Cross
you can find on Facebook. Andso I did start antagonizing him, like
posting things about twelve steps like Iwas just talking about and so on.
But the thing that I found outat that time was that people in Vicksburg
just assumed that they'd been arrested andcharged. Like the young people were in

(12:09):
high school. Back then, everybodyknew who they were, and back then
everybody wasn't always instantly up on thenews, so they knew, oh,
these people killed Eric, must bethey want to jail. Two thousand and
ten was the first time, almostthirty years later that people found out Oh
no, actually they never arrested that. I can't remember how. Then the
Sheriff's department got involved again because theKalamazukazette did a front page story. Then

(12:33):
my parents' lawyer called me and said, I've still got the police report.
If you want to read it,you can come in, and he let
me make copies of it, whichhad like all kinds of information I'd never
seen before, which started us kindof like doing myself. And then other
people who are many people like MissyHatfield who are still involved with the Justice

(12:54):
Or Group today, started helping meinvestigate and do our own little amateur loosing
And we didn't even have to goand find them. At the time,
they were like writing to me onFacebook and saying, I heard this thing
and I get to that person.So anyway, that kind of reinvigorated the
case. And then the Sheriff's department, including Detective Madison was the main detective
at that time, Rich Madison,because Markama had retired. He took it

(13:18):
over and started reinterviewing people. Sothat was one little push and then the
next like major push came around twothousand, different went under Sheriff, Paul
Matches, he came to under sheriff. He started really pushing the case.
He's been like a real hero forEric as well, and Detective Madison to
a lot of work. He's retirednow it's detective Madison was there in nineteen

(13:41):
eighty three. I don't think hewas a detective then he was like a
person, like just a policeman.He walked up and down the street looking
for evidence and so on. Soanyway, he then later the detective was
signed to the case. And thenPaul Matches really he was like, so
we can get I've talked a lotof victims and families like you have.
If can get constant call about lawenforce, but you know what they mean,

(14:05):
because it's like, why didn't theydo this? Why don't they do
that? You know they say,oh, you watch the television shows,
you think it's always going to bethat way. He's like that kind of
person where he's putting his heart andsoul into it, like even he hired
still working on the case, likecomes to our events or justice work,
and so he really has his heartand soul into it. You can tell
he wants to do the right thing, like the kind of person you really

(14:26):
want to have on your side whodoes have a conscience, wants to get
justice for the community because he seesthe bigger picture where people like these government
figures. It's like, oh,well, you're approval rating and trust in
official dumb and government is plunging.But then you wonder, when you don't
arrest a murderer, what everybody inthe entire county knows who did it?

(14:48):
What are you guys actually doing?Why do we even have law enforce?
But if you can't do that,And then in twenty and fifteen, he
also helped with a media push,which is when crime watched dailies came out
here and they TV who came outand do this whole big thing. But
then he thought it's going to goto home. I think it was twenty
seventeen when they actually accrupted the warrants. I'm pretty sure they requested the five

(15:11):
open murdered warrants conspiracy to commit murderfor those fide people we said before,
and got, oh, it's finallyhappening this many years later, which at
that point was probably over thirty yearslater, and then the prosecutor just refused
to issue the warrants. We hadthe politicians involved, like pressuring them all

(15:33):
kinds of things, whatever reason,which there is rumors of corruption. I
know, we can't get into everydetail. Corruption bribery always comes up in
his case. In two seventeen,law enforcement officially named five people in a
warrant that they felt were responsible forbeing involved and Eric crosses homicide. The

(15:54):
family and their supporters were ecstatic inthinking that Eric would finally get justice.
Unfortunately, there would be a setback. The prosecutor's office refused to prosecute anyone
for Eric's death. We will takea short break in return with Jackie's thoughts
on the prosecutor not willing to prosecuteanyone for killing her only brother. Can

(16:30):
you share with me the five namesthat law enforcement wanted to arrest for killing
Eric. It's okay for you tomention the name since it is public knowledge.
Bryan Spaulding the father, Brent Spauldingthe son, Jim Martin, the
only adult who was there with allthose teenagers, who also was one of
the drivers of the cars they werein. Amber Thomas, the girlfriend of

(16:53):
Brent, and Bill Cook the falsefriend. Are these five people still alive
today? Yes? Yeah, okay, So the sheriff was ready to arrest
all five of these people, butthen the prosecutor refused to honor the warrant.
So tell me what is the reasonbehind the prosecutor's office not allowing these

(17:15):
people to be arrested for killing yourbrother? Absurd reasons, I mean,
just excuses. The sheriff's office wouldtell you, oh, they said they
need more, so they had usgo get this thing, that thing.
Than the sheriff went and got thisthing, that thing, the other thing,
and they still wouldn't do it.I mean, just delaying tactics,
excuses, no good reason. There'sdifferent possible theories. Some people think the

(17:40):
corruption that goes back so far,they don't want to expose how incompetent they
were back then. But the otherreason is the usual reason with an electric
elected prosecutor, which is a commonproblem, is where they want to say
when they go up for re election, Oh look at me, I've got
a ninety nine percent win rate.How did they do that? Only prosecute
cases that are on video or fora poor black kid on crack or whatever,

(18:03):
you know, where they know theycan win. I mean, they
knew he has a high powered defenseattorney, that they have the money to
pay a high powered defense attorney,and they don't want to go up against
them in this hard case that theymight not win, which is absurd.
I don't know anyone in real lifewho votes for someone because they have a
win rates just come kind of egoto saying that they have because they only

(18:27):
think of themselves. So any reasonthat they have is a bad reason.
They don't have any good reasons.There's men. It's Kalamazoo County, and
I've been told this by many people. It's not just our case. They
just don't prosecute cases that they shouldbe prosecuting because they go for the easy
win. In Saint Joseph County,this. Around the same time frame,

(18:49):
Doug Stewart was convicted of killing hiswife, Venus Stewart without a body,
and I watched the entire trial frombeginning to end because I was friends with
the victims' family who sent me theDVDs. Nowhere near the amount of evidence
that we have, nowhere near whatI've seen in Eric's case, and I
haven't even seen everything. So youhave some prosecutors who are willing to do

(19:12):
the right thing, and you knowthey're a killer. Arrest them, do
your best, present the case,see what happens. I mean, Paul
Matt just told me that at thetime. He's like, these guys keep
trying, waiting for the perfect case. It's like, okay, well you
wait long enough, everybody's going tobe dead and then you won't have to
do it at all. I mean, you sit there and think you only
have one try at it, somake to try, you know what I

(19:33):
mean. It's absurd the ways peoplework. So all these years later,
I truly think that this case shouldbe put in front of a grand jury.
Why not let them decide. I'msure there are plenty of other homicide
cases in your county. They aresuccessfully prosecuted or less evidence than what's in
this case. Yes, yes,Jackie Mitchell had told me that she has

(20:00):
been extremely frustrated with the prosecutor's officeand their unwillingness to take any action against
anyone for killing her brother nearly fortyyears later. There aren't going to be
very many opportunities for justice because noneof these suspects are getting any younger.
Why not bring them in front ofa grand jury and let the grand jury

(20:21):
decide what to do. History hasproven that there have been many people successfully
prosecuted with less evidence than what's inEric's case. There have even been convictions
in cases without a body. Wewill take a final break and conclude this
story with Jackie's closing thoughts. Well, maybe it is truly like what you

(20:52):
said. The prosecutor doesn't want toput much effort into the case. Is
your current prosecutor the same one onethat refused to prosecute this case back in
twenty seventeen, Well, sadly hegot re elected. I'm pretty sure he
ran un a post. After wehad the meeting with the Attorney general in
twenty twenty, I stopped paying attention. Basically, you'd have destimacy. He

(21:14):
field one of the people who actuallypay attention because I've so got so disgusted
with the system after that, LikeI vaguely remember hearing I'm pretty sure he
ran on a post and you know, which is very said. I know
that the Justice Rare Group was liketrying to get the word out and not
just done. There's other like yousaid, there's other victims families who are
in the same boat that we werein Kalamazoo County that tried to say this

(21:37):
prosecutor is not doing his job.People don't reelect him. Of course if
they have no one to run against. I mean, how much can you
do? Yeah, and what lawenforcement agency is handling this case? So
if anyone is listening and they wantto share a tip, who would they
need to contact. It's the KalamazooCounty Sheriff's Department. Yeah, the Kalamazoo

(21:57):
County Sheriff's Department. And then there'san anonymous kipline which is the Silent Observer,
Oh, Kalamazoo Silent Observer. Itsays two six nine three four three
two one zero zero, And theKalamazoo County sheriff Department is two six nine
three eight three eight seven for eight. Thank you for sharing that information.

(22:21):
Now, I would like to askyou to share a favorite memory with your
brother while he was still alive,something that you'll never forget about him.
Well, I think there's just onethat six in my mind, probably because
it happened so close to his death, because I remember thinking back on it,
like right afterward. Like we weredriving. We went out on the

(22:41):
weekend with my parents to a dinnerin the Amish Country, which is down
there south of where we lived.And when we were driving down there,
we saw this bird all crossing theroad and my dad avoided the turtle,
and then I remember my brother andI just looking in the rearview mirror to
make sure the turtle got across.We were really curned that he was going

(23:03):
to make it all the way across. We were just watching the blonging as
we could, because I think thatwas just emblematic of Eric, because he
just did love nature so much,and so did I. Like that is
that's why I told you some ofmy greatest memories when we were in that
particula, because just exploring nature andgetting out there. He loved being on
the water. Also, just likewhen we would go to German Island as

(23:26):
a child. That's another great memoryI have of him because my uncle he
lived on drenaline, so we wouldgo there and visit him every summer and
stay for a week in a cabinup there on Lake Huran and just going
to the beach with him and keeppingrocks. Most of the memories I think
of him have to do with thenature or being outdoors, because that is

(23:48):
another thing besides music that we reallyconnected on. It sounds I mean like
you really miss him a lot.I do. Yeah, yeah, I
do. Know. It's been fortyyears, and sometimes, like when I
talk to people in the media,I try not to get too emotional because
I don't want his killers to knowhow much they destroyed us, because I

(24:14):
think that type of evil that theirbehavior stems from wants to destroy beautiful and
good things. And I know thatmy family is a beautiful and good thing.
And even though they did do alot to hurt us, my mother
always wanted me to focus on mylittle children, don't think too much about

(24:37):
ers, murder and tests remember andwhen he was alive, which is why
America, I think what you're doingwith your podcast because many of them,
Yeah, I mean many of thembe a story. It's understandable. They
focus on the crime because that's thenewsworthy thing. But the person who the
victim was is meaningful and oftentimes there'sa reason why that victim was targeted.

(25:03):
That it is important to the biggerpicture, and it's important for people to
understand because because all of these police, they are part of that struggle between
good and evil. That light cannever go out. I will always remember
Eric as miss alive. We onlyhave like a few because you know,
video because the recorder was not evenhappening. Then maybe some people had him,

(25:29):
but I think they didn't become popularuntil after that. My uncle John
made some eight millimeter films of Ericand so he then made that into a
video pair later and then I eventuallygot converted to the DVDs of a few
films of him moving. But right, Johnny just bored or interview. I
have you know in front of metwo pictures Eric and the film. He

(25:51):
looks like he's two or three,sitting on a seat sell with my dad,
and the other one he's a littleolder, looks like he's maybe six
or seventies with my dad. Nextto a motorbike in the woods, and
he was just a very sweet boy. And that's what a lot of people
who knew him, which is alwaysa gem and a treasure for me whenever
I meet someone knew who knew Ericin school in Vicksburg or wherever, Like

(26:15):
I met someone just last summer whoI hadn't talked to before. It's like
such a treasure to talk to someonewho knew him when he was alive.
Because even though he did some ofthese kind of you more rough and humble
type things like counting, fishing,motorbikes like any boys do, he was
like at his heart, like justa very curing and kind of sweet person.

(26:37):
Your brother sounds like a really greatyoung man who loved his family and
was enjoying his life. It's sosad that his life was just cut so
short. I mean, he reallydidn't even get a chance to live.
It seems unfair that he only gotsixteen years of life. He should still
be alive today and spending time withhis own children kids. I also feel

(27:02):
terrible for your father because he diedwithout ever seeing any justice for his only
son. I realize that your momis getting up there in the years,
and unfortunately she may not even seejustice either. So the last question that
I would have for you is foranyone out there that's listening to the sound
of your voice, if they haveany information that could help lead to an

(27:25):
arrest, what would you say tothat person or persons if they know anything.
I would say, there's no timelike the present, if you might
as well come forward with what youknow, and especially someone who has direct
information or can give something that isgoing to help push these arrests forward.

(27:47):
My dad was pursuing justice. Hewrote a letter to the editor of the
Commercial Express in Vicksburg, I thinkthat was in nineteen eighty four, saying
that he thought it was his phivicduty to protect the community and other people's
children to pursue justice. That washis original motivation. So that's the kind

(28:07):
of person whose son was taken fromhim and he died never seeing justice for
his only son. My mom iseighty two years old, never change justice
for her only son. It wemean everything to our family to have some

(28:30):
closure, to put this to rest. It's really a service to the perpetrators
as well to be forced to bebrought to earthly justice. Some people it's
the only way, the only wakeup call that works. They've been running
from themselves now for forty years.They've never come to terms with something that

(28:53):
happened when they were teenagers. They'venever even developed past that point. Their
children and running around an adult bodiesstill trying to hide from their crimes.
The witness who has real information.Even if you're one of the people who
was there, who've been offered severaltimes immunity to tell what you know,

(29:14):
you still haven't done it. Evenif you're the main perpetrator who knows you
can't possibly get past step one totwelve step program. Any of these people,
you could lighten beload of so manypeople, you know, redeem yourself,
Redeem the community of Vicksburg, KunamazooCounty. So many people would be
overjoyed if this could actually be broughtto closure. Because that's the one thing

(29:41):
I've learned from talking to people.I had no idea how much it affected
other people. You know, youtalk about urban legends like this was a
rural legend. Like so many peoplecame up to me and said, oh,
I've told your story about your brotherto my children, and they were
in high school. You know,you're ever at a party. Even if
you're in trouble, call me rightaway and no questions asked. It's like

(30:04):
a cautionary tale, especially about thebullying that was gone on on checked,
which I think we're doing better asa society about going out now, but
back then we really weren't good atit. Anybody who's carrying this knowledge around
on your heart, it's for yoursake if you don't want to do it
for other people. Believe me,I know, coming clean, telling the

(30:25):
truth is a bomb and healing foreveryone. And even if it means taking
some punishments, so be it.But you know, many times, Sheriff,
it's that they know who they're after. They're willing to make deals and
offered many deals just to try toget these main perpetrators, and for whatever
reason, people are too afraid orintimidated, or maybe they don't want to
admit they took Bridesteck. Then someof these other parents, besides the main

(30:51):
parent who they tried to get thewarant for and with them, are at
the end of their lives. Ifone of them happens to be listening,
it's like, please, sir,you did the wrong thing back then.
You went around and you are tryingto take down Eric's toasters, trying to
ask for help. You've covered upyour child's involvement. You're a Catholic,

(31:12):
you go to Mass, and yetyou covered up a murder, and you're
not going to get that off yoursoul before you died for the sake of
your families. There, I couldsay something each one of them and speak
into their heart because I know andI've seen, and I don't pretend.
I've called up Brian, I calledup Amber, and I talked to Bill

(31:33):
like. I don't sit around andpretend. I don't even know what it's
like to run around and live alife where you're killer, but you run
around pretending you're a normal person.Everybody knows anyway, what's the point.
So that's what I would say tohim, and I have a lot more
faith. But that's a short version, and that concludes the story of Eric
Sterling Cross. If you have listenedto Eric's story and would like to assist

(31:57):
law enforcement or Jackie Mitchell get justicefor Eric, please contact the Silent Observer
at two six nine three four threetwo one zero zero, or you can
also reach out to the Kalamazoo CountySheriff's Office at two sixty nine three eight
three eight seven four eight And ifyou would like to know more about this

(32:22):
case, you can also visit theJustice for Eric Sterling Cross Facebook page.
I will be sure to provide thisinformation in the case story notes. And
if you are a parent, lawenforcement official, friend, or relative seek
injustice for an unsolved comic side case, please visit my website and complete the

(32:43):
contact form. You can also contactme through Facebook. Thank you for listening.