DETROIT – The Local 4 Defenders were the first to report on the 6,000-page never-before-seen file in the Oakland County Child Killer case.
The Defenders have learned that there is no evidence linking the man many considered the No. 1 suspect in the killings – Christopher Busch – to the crimes and the real killer may still be alive.
Now, the Defenders have learned that Busch was in custody while police investigated the killings and admitted he was a pedophile.
Investigators wanted to keep him in jail but he was let go after he agreed to a plea deal.
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson was the prosecutor at the time of Busch's arrest. The Defenders have obtained a legal document showing Patterson agreed to the plea deal, which lead to Busch getting probation and being released.
On the document, it says "no deals" and is signed by R. Thompson, who was an assistant prosecutor.
READ: Christipher Busch documents
"I can't answer why (there was a deal) and I suspect that, why he was given that break, we have that file, there is only perhaps one person who can answer that. And that's not me," said current Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper.
Statement from Patterson's spokesman
"It is difficult to speculate why the chief assistant prosecutor approved a plea agreement in the 1977 Christopher Busch sex assault case. According to Local 4's documents obtained from the prosecutor, the victim said on the stand, ‘I lie to everybody.' It is possible the victim's testimony adversely impacted the case against Busch. Nevertheless, the chief assistant prosecutor agreed to a guilty plea of a 10-year felony. However, the sentencing judge, based on his view of the facts of the case, gave Busch probation. It is regrettable the sitting prosecutor 35 years later would attempt to politicize a case she knows nothing about."
Children kidnapped, found dead
At least four children from Oakland County were kidnapped and found dead between 1976 and 1977.
Mark Stebbins, 12, Jill Robinson, 12, Kristine Mihelich, 10, and Timothy King, 11, all are called victims of the killer.