No Such Thing is a story crafted from events of my youth. During the winters of 1976/1977, a serial killer stalked Oakland County, Michigan abducting children and murdering them, leaving their bodies to be found easily. The four known victims, Mark Stebbins, Jill Robinson, Kristine Mihelich and Tim King were abducted from various locations along the Woodward Avenue corridor that stretches from Detroit to Pontiac. Their abductions and subsequent deaths left an indelible mark on the communities affected.
Tim King, the younger brother of my friend and the close friend of my own brother-in-law was abducted on March 16, 1977 after having spent the afternoon playing with friends. . . one of those friends was my brother-in-law. My late mother-in-law had her own experience with a stranger that day that jarred her. The combination of her experience coupled with wide-spread horror of the abduction and killing of a child so close to home, set into motion a series of events that led me to make a death bed promise to keep searching for the killer.
The internet became a useful vehicle to exchange information and the Oakland County Child Killer cases were not spared. The theories are rampant, some viable, some ludicrous. The suspects, the stories, and the coincidences that have been revealed leave more questions pointing to the biggest question of all: Why, after 36 years, is this case not yet solved?
In my own research, I have thousands of emails, articles and the FOIA documents given to Tim King’s father. Like a jellyfish, the events remain unchanged, but the longer time passes, tentacles grow and intertwine, complicating the cases further.