Delayed Justice

Talfrieda Covington was murdered a long time ago in Muskegon.  1991.  That’s before the advent of the Internet.  Up until this month, a search of her name would have returned nothing.  Pfft.  As far as the electrons  holding hands that make up cyberspace, she didn’t exist and her murder, much less her birth, was unremarked.

Her mother, Anna Crockett, contacted us and asked if there might be something we could do.  There was.  We met over coffee and marveled over the too brief life of this innocent.  Our prayer, offered together, was the the murder could be solved.  Oh, it could be, if just the right voice would speak.  And we prayed that she not be forgotten.

Here are some of the details:

Talfrieda Covington, 28, was found dead June 30, 1991, on the sidewalk in front of her home at 2109 Valley in Muskegon.  The postmortem report revealed she had been stabbed 23 times. According to newspaper reports, loud voices were heard at around 5:30 a.m. but it wasn’Â’t until 6:44 that a passerby observed her body on the sidewalk.  “Frieda” was two-monthsÂ’ pregnant at the time of her murder.

Ms. Covington had two children, a daughter (then 5) and a son (then 3).  Her daughter was staying with her grandmother, Anna Crockett, on the night of the murder and police report that her son said he was awaked by a loud argument and that his mother told him to go back to bed, which he did.

Police say they have several suspects in the case, but not enough evidence yet to bring the murder(ers) to trial.

Anna Crockett says her daughter was “too trusting; she took people at face value.  She loved her children, she loved the Lord.  She didnÂ’’t do drugs, she didn’Â’t smoke.”

Ms. Crockett works at Holy Trinity Church of God in Christ across the street from the site of her daughter’Â’s murder and says “It took me a year before I could drive down that street.  This has been so hard.”

But she has the strength necessary to see this through: “My strength came from Him.””

Contact: Det. Matt Kookema, Muskegon City Police, 231.724.6961 or by e-mail at Mathew.Kolkema@postman.org.

‘Freida’s photo shows a lovely young woman and you can see that here.

And now you can find her when you search for her.  And maybe you or someone you know can be of help to her.

On February 5, 1981, at Forest Hills Central Middle School, Grand Rapids, Kent County, MI, Deanie Peters disappeared while attending her brother’s wrestling tournament.  Deanie told her mother that she was going to the restroom, but she never returned and no one questioned who was at the school that night could place her near any of the school’s restrooms.

Deanie had no history of family problems or running away; police could find no reason for her disappearance.

Ten years after her she went missing, Deanie Peters was legally declared dead.  In May 2009 an area in Lowell, MI near an old schoolhouse was evacuated in search of her body, but nothing was found.  Police are currently pursuing other leads.

MJVH

Consider that there may well have been more than 170 Wackehut guards in Holland during the Chemetron strike.  That’s a lot of people and the vast majority had nothing to do with the murder of Janet Chandler.  But by our accounting there well could have been lots of  people (24 with some assurance from the witness stand), and perhaps more (again, based on testimony), who had something to do with the planning, the abduction and the rape and murder of Janet Chandler.  You can read the list here.  (And a reminder: Each and every one of these people is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.  Further, being at the scene of a crime is not a crime.)

What’s the point of all this? The first part is to more completely tell the story. This is the most depraved crime I’ve encountered. Donna Pendergast said much the same in her opening arguments:

Screams bottled up in boxes and binders.  Boxes and binders that would sit for years on end gathering dust on a shelf, waiting for the day when someone would discover the key to their mystery and unlock their dark secret, unlock their dark secret about an act of brutality so ruthless, so savage, so horrific that I guarantee that it will make your skin crawl. A dark secret that the evidence in this case will prove had been concealed by a cover-up as massive and far-reaching as it was horrific and silent. A cover-up in the form of a conspiracy of silence adopted by some and forced upon others. A conspiracy of silence that would span nearly three decades before its dark secret was revealed.

What you’re about to hear in this courtroom will terrify you, horrify you, will haunt your dreams for a long time to come, maybe the rest of your lives.  It’s got all the elements of a Grade B horror movie.  Terror. Torture. A savage rape by multiple parties.  A brutal murder in cold blood. Unfortunately, no horror movie but real life here in Ottawa County in January of 1979.

This trial will tell that 28-year-old story, a story of brutal, violent and premeditated murder.  Not only a story but the final chapter in the life of a 22-year-old woman, the life of a 22-year-old woman who  would die alone, terrified, naked, bound, and in an agonizing manner.

This trial will tell the story of a lurid tale. A wild tale of decadent behavior and depravity.  A tale of torment and torture. A tale of rape and revenge. A story that would end with the final act in a horrific crime, the brutal and savage murder of a 22-year-old college student. A college student that would die gasping for air as a belt was repeatedly tightened and loosened and tightened and loosened around her neck until it was tightened for the final time and the life drained from her body as her lungs screamed for air.

Morgue Number 82431450 for the year 1979. Janet Chandler. Unfortunate victim of a horrifying fate. Her cries now silenced for good.

That, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that was the scenario that was played out here in Holland specifically on January 31st of 1979. But as you’re about to hear during the course of this trial, this was anything but play. It was every bit as real as it was permanent. Every bit as cold-blooded as it was calculated. Every bit as premeditated as it was intentional. Plain and simple, it was the ruthless obliteration of a young life.

But the final chapter in Janet Chandler’s life would not be the final chapter in this story.  That chapter would take 28 years to write. That chapter will be written in this courtroom. That chapter will tell the story of how Janet Chandler ended up in that house of horrors, naked and bound, a belt around her neck. Unfortunate victim of a marathon torture session that would terminate only when her life was terminated as well.

That chapter will tell the story of the evil that l[ay] dormant for years on end while people went about their lives and while the knowledge of what really happened to Janet Chandler was restricted to a small circle of persons bound together only by a conspiracy of silence to stifle the truth.

That chapter will tell the story of a dedicated team of police officers, a cold-case team. A cold-case team that wouldn’t let this case die despite the many obstacles that they encountered along the way.  A cold-case team that would unravel this conspiracy of silence and unearth the shocking truth about the identity of those who had murdered Janet Chandler.

The telling of the story would be reason enough.  But I have another reason.  Those affiliated with the crime who walk around free today really can’t be free…whether they know it or not.  This is a corrosive crime; it will eat away at everything it touches.  The question for those who share culpability: how’s your life been?  I would trust that some would say it’s not been worth warm spit.

This I know: the only way out from under is full confession.  That’s where atonement starts, with the admission of the sin.

I spoke with a judge the other day who asked just what I expected.  I told him I expected some people to give it up.  “Doesn’t seem likely,” he said.  No, it doesn’t seem likely, but we need to let these people know what we expect of them and what it is we’re asking them to do.

Here it is: give it up and call the Cold Case Team at the Holland Police Department–616.355.1120.  That’s where it needs to begin.

Talfrieda Covington, 28, was found dead June 30, 1991, on the sidewalk in front of her home at 2109 Valley in Muskegon. The postmortem report revealed she had been stabbed 23 times. According to newspaper reports, loud voices were heard at around 5:30 a.m. but it wasn’’t until 6:44 that a passerby observed her body on the sidewalk. “Frieda” was two-months’ pregnant at the time of her murder.
Ms. Covington had two children, a daughter (then 5) and a son (then 3). Her daughter was staying with her grandmother, Anna Crockett, on the night of the murder and police report that her son said he was awaked by a loud argument and that his mother told him to go back to bed, which he did.
Police say they have several suspects in the case, but not enough evidence yet to bring the murder(ers) to trial.
Anna Crockett says her daughter was “too trusting; she took people at face value. She loved her children, she loved the Lord. She didn’’t do drugs, she didn’’t smoke.”
Ms. Crockett works at Holy Trinity Church of God in Christ across the street from the site of her daughter’Â’s murder and says “It took me a year before I could drive down that street. This has been so hard.”
But she has the strength necessary to see this through: “My strength came from Him.””

DBS

…Of course, it may well be that there were several planning sessions…the main one with Carl and Laurie a second one with Cheryl, Diane, Mike Chandler, Ron Wirick, and Glenn Johnson.

You can watch and hear what Diane Marsman has to say here.

That Michael Chandler is an interesting character who shows up in lots of folks’ testimonies. After the film premier of Who Killed Janet Chandler? I received a call from him. I remember sitting in my office and listening to him go on and on about what good buddies he was with Janet, how everybody thought they were brother and sister. About how they prayed together. I wasn’t buying it. And neither were the cops when I turned over the information to them. And that’s the way it pretty well went…tips would come in and I’d pass ’em on to people who were skilled at that kind of investigation.

Making that film and all that followed has probably been the most important work I’ve ever done. We know, for instance, that many of these people KNEW about the forthcoming film as I was making it. I remember sitting at the Wooden Shoes Tap Room one evening. (That’s right next to the what was the Blue Mill Inn, a place where the strikers and guards would party, a place where janet had been.) I was trying to find anybody who might have remembered anything about the event. Oh, yes, they did. Oh, sure, they’d speak with me…just dial this number. Yeah, just like that. Poof! Gone. I thought it was my antiperspirant. But the hair on the back on my neck was up the entire time I was there. I went there just once; I didn’t need to go back.

And once the film was made, well….

We know Carl Paiva had a copy of the film, one of the few possessions in his addled life, when he was arrested.

And we even made a special cut of the film for officers to use in their interrogations. But that’s another story. Going over the trial testimony, the film comes up almost each day. That’s gratifying. And I hope people will understand that what I’m trying to do by allowing the witnesses to name names is trying to bring all this to conclusion.

I have only praise for the investigation or prosecution; the five officers and their support staff are heros as are prosecutors Donna Pendergast and Craig Bunce. And all the support of the legal system, Judges Bradley Knoll, Susan Jonas, Ed Post, the bailiffs, the court recorders, the court administrator, and the jury that sorted through everything…all earn highest marks in my book. And they have done all they can do for now.

The revelation of who planned the murder “party”, who participated, who was there…the goal of all that is to make public their names, to have them known for what they have done.

I think I’m done with this for now. I may post some of the subsequent cross, redirect and recross from Diane Marsman, but I may not. This has been a long time in coming and difficult to do. But this was what was asked of me and I hope to have been good at need.

Pretty much all of Ron Wirick’s direct testimony, cross examination, redirect, and recross at up now here. I’ve had to take this slow over a couple of days. This should give you an idea of the one man’s history in hiding the truth. EVERYBODY who testified has a similar story: they kept quiet for all these years. Much of that shows up on cross and it sounds a lot the same. Here, though, Steve Fishman digs out some more names. They include:

WILLIE BASS

JIM NELSON

CARL PAIVA

FREDDIE PARKER

MATT MANION

HARRY KEITH

ROBERT LYNCH

ROBIN CLONKEY

AVERY GRANT

TOM BRUCE.

He said he watched as a skinny, blond-haired guy raped Janet. Using photos supplied by investigators he identified him as Tim Smith.

TIM SMITH.

And he added Vinnie Crnich as someone he also saw having sex with Janet.

VINNIE CRNICH.

In addition, he contradicts Cheryl Ruiz’ statement that she saw him raping Janet.

All are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

You can watch him here. I have chosen to document all the direct, cross, redirect, and recross to give some idea of the nature of the people that the investigators had to work with. They repeatedly lied, tried to deceive, to tell only the smallest part of the story. After more than a quarter century they were hugging the truth to themselves, intent on not sharing it. Evasion was a way of life.

Harry Dean Keith’s testimony is up and now leaves only two more witnesses who attended the “party”: Ron Wirick and Diane Marsman.

Keith delivers three names:

TIM SMITH

MIKE CHANDLER (GERALD MICHAEL CHANDLER–-no relation to Janet)

DALE MARION

All are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.

This was one of the hardest so far for me to edit. She went on and an on about the details of the assaults on and multiple rapes of Janet Chandler and you can see the results here. I cut down her testimony but it’s still brutal. You can tell the edits because I dip to black. I have not taken out any names and the one she delivers clearly is that of

RON WIRICK

as someone she says she saw raping Janet Chandler. We’ll hear from him in subsequent testimony. He acknowledges that he was there taking pictures of the rapes. You’ll find some substantial discrepancies between what she says and what Patty Bright Wards says. Pay attention particularly to what Cheryl says about what she heard from the downstairs rape room.

Oh, and instead of Mark Sands’ argument of 10-12 men who raped Janet, Cheryl ups the ante a little: 10-15. And she was watching.

Again, Assistant Attorney General Donna Pendergast’s warning applies: It’s no crime to be at the scene of a crime. And all are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

I used to teach that…the goal of relating news was to tell the truth in love. If all you have is truth, it’s defecated rationality (a term I’ve borrowed from Russell Kirk). And if you have love, but no truth you have…a lie. It takes both. There must be in your heart a space for those whose stories you are telling and you must tell the whole story as you know it.

I sat in church today and listened to the epistle, in this case Ephesians 4:1-16…and there it was, the axiom I’d been teaching for decades:

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped as each part is working properly, promoted the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

BUT SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE. Ahhhhhhh, yes. My heart has been troubled by this recent work editing the comments of the witnesses in the trail of the murder of Janet Chandler. These are hard things to choose to hear and edit. Imagine the pain for the court transcriptionist who also sat through the entire testimony and then had to render it word for word! She certainly was telling the truth (so far I have found not one inaccuracy in proofing her work against my filmic record) and I hope she was able to do that and keep her sense of well being, her love for herself and the world.

Oh yes, there is love.

There is the love we have for Janet and her family. That’s the easy love…they are so lovable. But the epistle calls us to love as well and to speak the truth in love about all the people who were at the party. I don’t suppose it was God’s plan for Carl Paiva, Bubba Nelson, Freddie Parker, Tony Williams, and Robert Lynch to be murderers and rapists. Or for the other five to seven who raped her to be a part of that. Or for Laurie Ann Swank to fuel the fury of the attack, or for the other people to watch or even be in the house. But that’s what happened. That’s the truth of it.

It’s hard for me to take a necessary step back. I’ve had to edit and edit and edit my work here, pushing back my anger and outrage. The need is for me to tell the truth in love, not for me to be righteously indignant.

But I have to keep telling myself that and to keep working at it. What good is going to church if you’re not going to pay attention to what’s put before you?

****

With all the foregoing, last night I finished the testimony of Patty Bright Ward.