The Oakland County Child Killer 1

The Oakland County Child Killer (OCCK) is the name given to the perpetrator(s) responsible for the serial killings of at least four children in Oakland County, Michigan, United States, between 1976 and 1977. The victims were held captive before being killed, and forensic DNA testing has indirectly implicated two suspects, one of whom has since died, with the other serving life in prison for offenses against children. A DNA profile created from samples taken from some of the victims' bodies is from the main perpetrator, but does not match the DNA of anyone named in connection with the case; the perpetrator's identity is unknown.

Between February 15, 1976, and March 16, 1977, two boys and two girls aged between 10 and 12 went missing outside their homes, en route to or from another location, in Oakland County, Michigan, north of Detroit. Each child's body was discovered in a public area within nineteen days of his or her disappearance. The children were all either strangled or shot, with the two boys having been sexually abused. Once the victims were dead, the offender dispersed their bodies around Oakland County in places where they could be seen from roadways. The four deaths triggered a murder investigation which at the time was the largest in U.S. history.

Victims:

Mark Douglas Stebbins, 12: of Ferndale, did not return home from an American Legion Hall on February 15, 1976. His body was found four days later, wearing the same clothes he was last seen in, laying on a pile of wood and dirt in the parking lot of a local office building in Southfield. He had been strangled and sexually abused with a foreign object, and had two lacerations to the left rear of his head. Rope marks were evident on both his wrists and ankles, indicating he had been bound during his captivity.

Jill Robinson, 12: of Royal Oak, left her home on December 22, 1976, following an argument with her mother over dinner preparations. The following day, her bicycle was found behind a local hobby store, before her body was found alongside Interstate 75 in Troy, within view of Troy police station, on the morning of December 26. She had been shot in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun, and her body was fully clothed and wearing the backpack she had taken with her when she left home. Autopsy reports revealed that Robinson had been fed and cared for for at least three days before she was killed.

Kristine Marie Mihelich: 10, of Berkley, was reported missing on January 2, 1977, after she failed to return home from a 7-Eleven store on 12 Mile Road at Oakshire. A mail carrier found her fully clothed body nineteen days later on the side of a rural road in Franklin Village. She had been smothered to death less than twenty-four hours earlier and her body lay within view of nearby homes.

Timothy John King: 11, left his home in Birmingham and went to a pharmacy on the evening of March 16, 1977. After he failed to return home, an intensive search covering the entire Detroit metropolitan area was conducted, before his body was found on the evening of March 22 by two teenagers in a shallow ditch alongside Gill Road in Livonia. He had been sexually assaulted with a foreign object and suffocated approximately six hours earlier. Autopsy results revealed that King had eaten his favorite food-- Kentucky Fried Chicken-- shortly before his death, and that he was cleaned and groomed prior to his suffocation.

17-year-old Donna Serra went missing after hitchhiking to a beach after school in Macomb County, Michigan on September 29, 1972. Serra's body was discovered face down in a shallow creek on October 20, 1972, in her hometown of Ray Township in Macomb County, close to the 27 Mile Road. Before she was killed, Serra had been imprisoned and drugged for several days. Her death was due to strangulation. Her murder remains unsolved.

13-year-old Jane Louise “Janey” Allen went missing on August 8, 1976 and was last seen hitchhiking between Pontiac and Royal Oak in Oakland County, Michigan. Allen was found dead floating in a river in Miamisburg, Ohio, on August 11, 1976, four days later over 200 miles away from her Royal Oak home. Her wrists had been tied behind her back with torn strips of a T-shirt. Decomposition of the body left police unable to determine whether or not Allen had been sexually assaulted but they were able to ascertain that Allen had been dead before being dumped in the water. She had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Kimberly Alice: "Kim" King, 12, disappeared from Warren on September 15, 1979. She had stayed over at a friend's house that night. When she called her sister at 11:00 p.m., she claimed to have snuck out of her friend's house and to be phoning from a nearby outdoor phone booth. Her sister instructed her to return inside. However, Kimberly never went back to her friend's house and has not been seen or heard from since. Authorities believe she was abducted and that her disappearance is connected to the unsolved killings.