[18], Schell hailed from Plymouth and had recently moved into a house on Emmet Street in Ypsilanti; she was last seen by her roommate, Susan Kolbe, at a Washtenaw Avenue bus stop on the evening of June 30. Collins ends his email, with a request: "You can say whatever you want about me" butleave "my Dear Mother" out. One neighbor, Dr. Marjorie Barnes, saw Collins leaving State Police Sergeant David Leiks home. [130], Three days after both counsels had begun introducing witnesses, Joan Goshe was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Collins was subsequently taken into police custody but denied any involvement whatsoever in the killing. [137], Five independent witnesses were called to testify on behalf of the defense as to Collins' whereabouts on the dates Karen Sue Beineman had disappeared and her body had been found. He also triesto discredit his cousin for disclosing his private letters,suggesting what he wrote ismostly fiction. This is all so fascinating.. why do dumb women want to marry inmates ?? ", But, a "cop car pulled through the driveway and he got nervous.". ICK!!! Investigators had long suspected John Norman Collins of killing young women and girls in the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor areas in the late1960s. The killer, a charismatic, athletic E.M.U. The injuries described by Collins were consistent with those inflicted upon the victims which had not been disclosed to the news media, and David Leik would inform investigators that he had not disclosed any information regarding the Michigan Murders to his nephew. In November 1969, Andrew Manuel would plead guilty to charges of, The death sentence was not an option for the prosecution to seek as Michigan had, DNA belonging to a convicted killer named John Ruelas4 years old at the time of Mixer's murderwas also found upon the victim's clothing. Investigators noted strong similarities between this murder and previous killings attributed to the Michigan Murderer, including the fact that a garter belt had been tied around Skelton's neck[35] and her clothes and shoes had been neatly placed beside her body. "[116][n 3], A formal indictment would later be served against Collins for the first-degree murder of Roxie Ann Phillips in April 1970, although the evidence surrounding this indictment was ordered to be sealed until after the trial of Collins for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman had concluded. A vacationing Leik had entrusted Collins to watch over his house while he was away. Collins took Beinemans lifeless body to a gully off Riverside near the Huron River in Ann Arbor. Some know John Norman Collins, now 74 and serving a life sentence at Ionia Correctional Facility, as "the Ypsilanti Ripper," or "the Co-Ed Killer." Collins grew up in Michigan. ", Collins and Beineman chatted, and then they "started making out. ", Collins writes he knew he "couldn't leave her in my uncle's basement" because "he was a State Trooper for God's sake." The first victim, Mary Fleszar, disappeared in July 1967. In 1967, John Norman Collins lived in a rental about one block south of EMU's campus. This vehicle had slowed to a stop before the driver had asked her, "Want a ride?" [47], One week after the murder of Dawn Basom, a detective conducting a routine examination of this farmhouse basement discovered a scrap of cloth from Basom's blouse, plus an earring later determined to belong to Maralynn Skelton. [68], Mindful of the fact the killer had evidently returned to sites of his previous murders to move the bodies, possibly in a sexual ritual, police theorized he may also attempt to return to this latest crime scene. News articles described John Collinsas a square-jawed,"handsomeAll-American who seemed to be leading a textbook college career." In response to questions as to her personal character, Goshe further conceded she had previously lied under oath on two occasions (one instance of which was unrelated to the trial). That seems tocorrelatewith a memory Collins describes in his longletters. Each motion filed had been reserved or, in the final instance, denied. David Leik, had refused to divulge the blood type(s) of his family to defense attorneys. Then come back here for part two. According to Davis, he had heard Collins and Kalom arguing behind closed doors, before Kalom had run out of his (Collins') apartment, with Collins chasing after her. [11], A detailed examination of the crime scene revealed that the body had been moved three times throughout the month it had lain undiscovered:[12] initially, the body had lain upon a pile of bottles and cans obscured from view by elder trees, before being dragged five feet from this location into a field, where it had remained exposed throughout much of the time it had lain undiscovered. they didn't clean well enough??!! Nonetheless, the three appellate judges at this appeal hearing concluded thus: "In our view, improperly admitted testimony that is merely corroborative of properly admitted evidence is not the basis for holding the error reversible. [57] Sections of her clothing were scattered around her body, although one of her shoes was missing. Moreover, this search had also uncovered small bloodstains in nine areas of the basement. [92][n 2]. From what I read, the city and officials were so quick to get this solved (perhaps their donuts were getting cold) that they failed to look at anyone else. He also did some modeling, appearing in a bodybuilding magazine bare-chested with ripplingmuscles. Less than two months later, 21-year old Michigan graduate student disappeared shortly after midnight walking home from a friends party on Thompson Street. Age: 19 year-old. Maryann Struman is Freep Now director at the Detroit Free Press and project leader. [75], The 47th and final witness to appear for the prosecution at Collins' trial was a University of California chemistry professor named Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, who testified on August 5 as to his conclusions that the hair samples retrieved from Beineman's panties bore "a remarkable similarity" to those retrieved from the Leik household and that, upon statistical calculations he had begun the previous month, the odds of erroneous matching of the hair samples earlier testified to by Walter Holz were quite low. Still, in the police interviews and the letters, Collins steered clear of outrightconfessing to killing anyone, and in his email to the Free Press last week, he claims he has been exploited and wronged that in a way, he isthe victim. [97], The hairs found upon Beineman's panties and those recovered from the basement of the Leik home were subjected to a detailed forensic neutron analysis[98] to determine whether they had sourced from the same individuals. "Her and the daughter both had miniskirts on and with the boots, all the way up, and long, dangly earrings. Davis "told me that 'SOMETHING' happened at my uncle's house and that I needed to see it. [27], Despite the fact Mixer had not been subjected to a sexual assault, the fact her tights had been lowered to expose her thighs and sanitary napkin suggested a sexual motive behind the murder,[27] and although the victim had not been beaten, stabbed or mutilated, her student status, the tying of a garment around her neck, and the proximity of her abduction and murder led investigators to tentatively link her murder to those of Fleszar and Schell. He was then sentenced to serve a term of life imprisonment with hard labor, in solitary confinement, at Southern Michigan Prison. She wasn't upset with me and we got dressed. All had been killed and then dumped on back roads. As for the youngest victim, 13-year-old Dawn Basom, he was connected to her too: he had friends that lived in the apartment building near Dawn's home. Delhey formally closed his opening statement to the jury by requesting they return a verdict of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. August 1: Collins is arraigned on murder. Despite the advanced state of decomposition, the pathologist was also able to locate multiple lineal abrasions upon the victim's chest and torso,[10] indicating that Fleszar had been extensively beaten before her death. If you missed part one, stop reading right now and go to part one here. The detectives made special arrangementsto allow Collins to keep one of the pictures with him in prison. Fournier said his frat brothers learned that the hard way when he was thrown out because of theft. And she looked at them and I don't know, the third or fourth picture was Collins and when she saw it she just dropped her sandwich in her lap and said 'oh shit, that's him!'" [28][n 1], Four days after the discovery of Mixer's body, on March 25, a surveyor discovered the nude, mutilated body of a teenage girl lying upon a blue jacket behind a vacant house on a remote, rural section of Earhart Road,[30] just a few hundred yards from where the body of Joan Schell had been discovered eight months previously. [3], All the victims of the Michigan Murderer were young women between the ages of 13 and 21 who were abducted, raped, beaten and murderedtypically by stabbing or strangulationwith their bodies occasionally mutilated after death before being discarded within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County. The address has been changed to "College Place" to try to thwart groupies, but at the end of the name list on the Mailbox, we put "John Norman Collins" as a joke. Collins went to trial and on August 19, 1970, was found guilty and sent to prison for life with hard labor.John Norma will mark his 40 th year of incarceration in 2010. I remember her telling us how shocked the aunt was at the arrest and how hard she found it to believe that her nephew was involved. My mother was friends with Maralynn Skelton. "[14] Sternly informed a second time he would not be allowed to view the body, the young man had wordlessly exited the funeral home. He says he wasn't allowed to keepPolaroid photos of his late mother. I finished reading the book "Michigan Murders" today and am looking at the Internet for more information. "The Leik children, the three boys were all white blonde little guys and that hair, color wise, the first original look at it, seemed to be a fit," Larry said. "I would 'NEVER'hurt a CHILDEVER!!!" In the case of Joan Elspeth Schell, two separate witness accounts had placed the victim both entering a car with three men on the night of her disappearance, and walking alone in the company of a man believed to be John Collins later that evening. The perpetrator, John Norman Chapman (then known as John Norman Collins) was arrested one week after the final murder. He's believed to be the last person to see the first victim alive. David Leik and his wife, Sandra, following their testimony against Collins at his trial. When Mathewson questioned Collins on July 25 as to his movements two days earlier, he admitted that on the date in question he had been riding his Triumph Bonneville in the vicinity, and that he had stopped to converse with a former girlfriend of his while doing so (the point at which Mathewson had observed him). "Was he still going to deny everything?". Clothing found near the body was identified as belonging to Mary by her parents. Chapman's theory: Collins wasunhappy with his mother's marriage choices, blamed her for taking him away from his father, and took out his hatred for his mom on women like her: attractive, brunette, smart, independent and who rejected him. When questioned Collins claimed that he was with his mother at the time in Centerline, MI and it was probably just a case of mistaken identity. In September 1988, Chapman agreed to participate in a live interview conducted by the. [49] Sales of tear gas, knives, and security locks increased,[64] hitchhiking became a rarity among students, and the reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer increased to $42,000 (the equivalent of about $341,046 as of 2023[update]). and Delta Faucet/ Sonetto sink, stainless steel appliances, subway tile backsplash, ceiling fans throughout the home, Almond Darien vinyl flooring in Laundry Room and bathrooms. jc painted basement floor, uncle was suspicious had test done found blood, thats how jc got caught, "I was a 6th grader at Fletcher Elementary School and I can remember that my older sister knew Dawn. All-American boy John Norman Collins was arrested, tried, and convicted of the strangulation . John Norman Collins, 22, of Center Line Collins, a 22-year-old Eastern Michigan University student, never fit anyone's image of a killer. [132] (The prosecution had initially intended to question Davis in detail as to each of the contents of this laundry box upon the grounds that the contents Davis had previously described to investigators may include Beineman's missing cut-off blue jeans; however, Collins' attorneys successfully objected to this motion upon the grounds that Collins was solely on trial for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, and this testimony could suggest a link to the six other victims of the Michigan Murders then linked to the same perpetrator.