DETROIT – On the heels of a major announcement in the more than 30-year-old investigation, the Local 4 Defenders have provided a rundown of the timeline of events in the Oakland County Child Killer investigation.
Complete coverage: Oakland County Child Killer case section
1976:
February: The first victim, Mark Stebbins, goes missing on Feb. 15. He was last seen in Ferndale. Stebbins' body was found four days later on Feb. 19 in Southfield.
December: Victim No. 2, Jill Robinson, goes missing on Dec. 22. Her body was found four days later on Dec. 26 along Interstate 75 in Troy.
1977:
January: Two more children go missing in Oakland County. Kristine Mihelich went missing on Jan. 2 in Berkley. Her body was not found until Jan. 21 in Franklin.
Gregory Greene, 27, was arrested on child sexual assault charges. Greene leads investigators to 26-year-old Christopher Busch, telling them Busch killed Stebbins. However, Busch and Green both pass polygraph examinations. Greene was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting young boys. Busch gets probation for the same charges.
March: On March 16 of the same year, nearly two months after Greene's arrest, the third victim, Timothy King, goes missing in Birmingham. King was found dead March 22 in Wayne County -- near 8 Mile Road in a Livonia neighborhood.
1978:
November: Busch is found dead from a what is ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A drawing of a boy was found in Busch's room at his home in Bloomfield Township. it would take decades for police to decide the sketch resembles Stebbins.
December: The task force which had been working the case shuts down.
Decades pass without resolution. Christopher Busch was still a prime suspect.
2012:
February: Suspect James Vincent Gunnels tells the Local 4 Defenders that he had nothing to do with the child killings. Police investigators had said Gunnels was the best lead in the 35-year-old serial killer mystery. His DNA is a mitochondrial DNA match to a hair found on the body of victim Kristine Mihelich.
June: Oakland County prosecutors open files with new evidence in the Oakland County Child Killer case. Prosecutors say the evidence points away from Busch as a suspect in the investigation. The prosecutors say the families of the victims and media outlets continuing to push Busch as the Oakland County Child Killer have misinterpreted public documents and have not seen the real evidence. They say a new suspect will be named.
Man tied to hair found on Oakland County Child Killer victims, in his vehicle
July: Local 4 Defenders learned there is physical and DNA evidence linking an associate of 70-year-old Arch Edward Sloan to the male victims in the murder spree which began in the 1970s. This associate left hair at the crime scene of the two murdered boys. Sloan is reportedly the owner of the car where the hair was found.
Sloan's criminal history dates back to 1959 when he was arrested at the age of 18. He was busted for gross indecency between males. He served four years and two months in jail and was released in August 1963.
It is believed Sloan worked at a garage or gas station near 10 Mile and Middlebelt roads during the time of the Oakland County Child Killer murders. Seven years after the death of Timothy King, Sloan was arrested again. He was charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. The offense took place in October 1983. He was sentenced to life in prison in January 1985. He has been behind bars since.
-- Sloan's 1970s Pontiac Bonneville