Barry King, the father of Oakland County Child Killer victim Timothy King, has died.
Local 4 and ClickOnDetroit have learned Barry King died this week while in hospice care.
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Timmy King was the fourth victim to be connected to the Oakland County Child Case in the 1970s. The 11-year-old went missing from his home in Birmingham on March 16, 1977. His body was found March 23, 1977 in a ditch along Gill Road, about 300 feet south of 8 Mile Road in Livonia.
Before the murder of Timmy King, police and the public couldn’t fully connect the dots on the various cases of missing children and murders. After Timmy’s body was found, police knew they had a child killer on their hands. They organized the largest manhunt in U.S. history at that time. A task force was established.
Barry King spent decades pursuing the case on his own, trying to prove the identity of the Oakland County Child Killer. His family prepared “Decades of Deceit,” a six-hour DVD describing their understanding and reaction to the investigation of his murder.
Barry and his wife established the Tim King Fund in 1977 to provide assistance to abused children and to promote youth activities in Birmingham. His parents did not want anyone to forget Tim’s death.
5-part Oakland County Child Killer docuseries
The “Child Killer” docuseries focuses on the unsolved murders of at least four children in Oakland County between 1976 and 1977.
Investigators have been working for decades to determine who the serial killer is and if he is still alive. Those who knew the victims -- their families, friends, classmates, teachers, coaches and neighbors -- have been forever changed by what happened during the 13-month period from February 1976 to March 1977. In that time, the four children were abducted and murdered with their bodies left in various locations within or just outside Oakland County.
There were at least two other murder cases that investigators believe may have been victims of the “Oakland County Child Killer” or “The Babysitter Killer,” as some called him.
The ensuing murder investigation was the largest of its kind in U.S. history at the time.
Here are the five parts to the docuseries: