Judge Rules Prosecutor Has To Open Up About Oakland Child Killer

By Christy Strawser

SOUTHFIELD (Talk Radio 1270) The man who claims he has information that could crack the Oakland County Child Killer case released a statement for the first time Friday on the Charlie Langton 1270 Talk Radio show, saying the killers are still alive.

[VIDEO] Oakland Child Killer Case Roundtable

And another bombshell dropped: Barry King, father of victim Timothy King, filed a Freedom of Information claim and quietly won when Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Potts ruled Oakland County prosecutor Jessica Cooper has to appear in court July 27 and produce an update on the 35-year-old case.

"We had a motion for the order to show cause and she (Potts) just ruled that it's time for her (Cooper) to come to court and tell us under oath what she has," King said.

That's something new in the case that has bedeviled Oakland County law enforcement for decades, since four children were kidnapped in separate incidents in Oakland County between February 1976 and March 1977, and turned up later in shallow graves. Two boys and two girls, they had all been held for days before being killed. Their bodies had been washed, clothes cleaned and pressed, and they'd been fed wherever they'd been held in captivity. It set off a national panic.

Just as fast as the killings started, they stopped. And a search for justice has continued since.

A man known only as Bob has come forward claiming he has information based on thousands of hours of research. He's legitimate enough that former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon brokered a meeting in October 2010 with Bob, the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, and top investigators.

Bob wanted to give up a bit of information he said he had in exchange for getting a bit of information from the prosecutor that had never been released. Cooper refused, and the relationship fell apart.

Bob weighed in during a roundtable Langton hosted with Debbie Jarvis, mother of 10-year-old victim Kristine Mehelich, attorney Paul Hughes, and Barry King, father of victim Timothy King. Jarvis filed a $100 million lawsuit earlier this week demanding that Cooper release information that she believes could solve the case.

Issued exclusively to Langton, Bob's statement said the killers -- who he said he knows are still alive -- changed their pattern after they were nearly caught at the scene where Timothy King, 11, was left. They stopped leaving victims out for the public to find, he said, adding he thinks six more killings should be tied to the Oakland Child Killer.

In the killing that Bob said changed their pattern, King was slain shortly before he was discovered. His body was still warm when teen-agers stumbled onto him in a shallow ditch along 8 Mile Road in Livonia.

Barry King had begged on TV the night before for his son's release, saying he needed to come home ane eat his favorite meal from Kentucky Fried Chicken. The postmortem on King, after he'd been raped and suffocated, showed his last meal was KFC.

"I'm not really going to comment on that at this time, but the constitution says crime victims have the right to meet
with the prosecutor," King said. Because Cooper hasn't met with him or the families of other victims, she now has to appear in open court, under oath, and discuss the case.

"She has to come to court and tell us why she's not producing the documents we've requested," King added.

The father added that he believes it's possible more than one person was involved in the killings, and he believes there's enough circumstantial evidence against a convicted pedophile, Christopher Busch, who committed suicide in November 1978, to look at him again.

King said he got a call last Friday from a woman who saw a TV show about the case and remembered seeing Timothy King in a car with a man who looked like Christopher Bush. "That's the first time I got any kind of lead that he was involved with them," King said.

The woman reported that she was driving down M-59, passed a blue Gremlim and saw Tim inside. She reported it at the time to Birmingham police, who had asked the public to stay on alert after King disappeared.

"She saw the picture of Christopher Busch, and said, 'That's the man I saw,'" King said.

Bob said he believes there could be six more victims, at least one out-of state, that match the way the four were killed in Oakland County.

Some questioned whether Bob himself could be involved -- and Cooper said she wouldn't negotiate with someone who could be calling from a "mental institution."

"I have spent over $100,000 of my personal funds, almost 5,000 hours and have made clear that I want no money in return for obtaining justice," his statement said, later adding, "My response is: Anyone that can spend this amount of money in an effort is more likely to own the mental institution.

"To all those who question my motives and agenda, you are wasting my time."

Jarvis said she believes Bob has valuable information, saying, "I've been in contact with him for the last two years, it's obvious he has information that's beyond information from old newspaper clips."

She said she's only talked to him on the telephone, but Hughes said when Bob first came forward he made him hand over information only someone with inside information on the case would know -- and was able to confirm it.

Bob wanted the prosecutor to do the same thing, but Cooper wouldn't play ball.

"The representatives from Oakland County got back to Bob and said 'We're not going to give you that information," Hughes said. "The prosecutor was not going to give one collateral piece of information ... It's a very inconsequential piece of information that after 30 years was not going to jeopardize any investigation."

Cooper addressed the issue after Bob's interview, releasing a statement that said, "The prosecutor doesn't respond to conspiracy theorists...particularly those who will not identify themselves and she will not respond to attorneys who file frivolous pleadings in federal court ... The court will respond to that. (I)  will not legitimate scurrilous allegations that would jeopardize an ongoing investigation."

Jarvis described the anguish she's experienced since her daughter disappeared.

"She left the house and walked to the store, never to be seen again, two blocks from the house," Jarvis said. "As parents, we do lose our children, due to accidents, illness, we can accept that. But you've got to remember these children were taken and held, in my case 19 days. Can you imagine what's going through your mind? There's your child, obviously crying out for you and you're not there.

"You have to go on, you can't quit ... Could I walk away from this? No, I can't. I won't."