Michigan murders

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The "Michigan Murders", as they came to be called, were a series of highly publicized killings in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of Southeastern Michigan between 1967 and 1969.

The murders began with Eastern Michigan student Mary Flezar on July 10, 1967. Her body was found on August 7 with multiple stab wounds missing her hands and feet. Almost one year later, on July 6, 1968, student Joan Schell was found dead in Ann Arbor with 47 stab wounds. She had last been seen on July 1 with John Norman Collins, a student at Eastern Michigan University and a member of the Theta Chi fraternity. When questioned, Collins claimed he was with his mother at the time. Police took him at his word.

In late March, 1969, Jane Mixer was found in a cemetery. A law student at the University of Michigan, she had been shot and strangled. That same month, on March 26, 16-year-old Maralynn Skelton was also found dead, her body badly beaten. About three weeks later, 13-year-old Dawn Basom was found dead by strangulation after disappearing the previous evening. University of Michigan graduate student Alice Kalom was found in a field with her throat cut, stab wounds, and a gunshot to the head. The public outcry was increasing and the psychic Peter Hurkos was brought in to help, but proved to be of little help.

Soon the police had yet another body on their hands, student Karen Sue Bieneman, who went missing on July 23, 1969, and was discovered a few days later, strangled and beaten to death. This was the killer's downfall. While waiting on Bieneman on the day she disappeared, a shop manager had got a good look at her companion seated on his motorcycle. He was the previously mentioned John Collins, who was subsequently taken into police custody but again denied any involvement in the killing. During the investigation police discovered Collins was considered "oversexed," and that he had a history of sexual harassment. Collins then was positively identified by the store manager, and tests showed that hairs found attached to Bieneman's underwear matched those found at the home of Collins' uncle in Ypsilanti. Investigators also found a bloodstain on the washing machine in the basement of the house, and matched it to Bieneman's blood type. Collins was living at his uncle's house at the time, and his bedroom was a room in the basement, adjacent to the area where the washing machine was located.

Collins went to trial and, on August 19, 1970, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.