I was heartened to see that Fox 2 Detroit produced a short documentary marking the 50th anniversary of the Oakland County Child Killer case, which left an indelible mark on me as a child growing up in the area.
Sadly, despite all the technological advances in crime solving over the past five decades, it doesn't sound like investigators are any closer to solving the case. DNA is obviously how most cold cases are solved these days -- and the two male victims were both sexually assaulted. But I'm just now learning that rape kits weren't introduced in Detroit until the late 1970s or early 1980s, which may explain why this case could remain unsolved forever, because surely a familial search would have been conducted by now if they had any usable biological evidence.
As it stands, a few strands of hair without the roots are all investigators seem to be working with, and they were reportedly too few or too degraded for testing using Bode Technology's proprietary DNA X-traction process, which can sometimes generate nuclear DNA profiles from single rootless hairs. For now, we continue to hope someone comes forward.
Have a look and let me know what you think. This North Fox Island angle -- which was not something I knew about back when -- is truly horrifying.
P.S. I've also recently learned that the blue AMC Gremlin was eventually ruled out back in the day, which is perhaps why they used a Ford Pinto instead!
