Delayed Justice

On May 6, 1996, the body of Sherri Lynn Cardosa was found in a burning house on W. 21st Street in Holland,  Ottawa County,MI.  Police believe Sherry had been shot to death several days earlier.  Also found was the body of Gary Holtgeerts, who was the  owner of the house, and who died of a self inflicted gunshot wound.  Holland police concluded that the case was a murder/suicide, but Sherri’s family believe that someone else murdered her.

MJVH

On the night of July 30, 2008, Daniel Alan Thompson and a friend gave a third, unknown person a ride in his car.  They reached their destination on Kermit Street, south of Pierson Road, in Flint, Genesee County, MI.  The third person got out of the vehicle to talk with some people, and Daniel was shot in the chest while he and his friend waited in the car.  Daniel later died at Hurley Medical Center.  He was twenty years old.  

Columbus and Vera Stewart were the last known people to see their daughter, Sherry Stewart Brown, when they visited on her birthday, August 6, 1996 at her apartment on College Avenue NE, Grand Rapids, Kent County, MI.  Two years later Sherry’s body was found in a ditch near Butterworth Avenue SW, Grand Rapids, but she was not identified until four years later, in 2002.

With the arrest of Derrick Anthony Brown the solution of who murdered Richard Dannah seems more certain. Here’s the story of the crime that MJVH posted in 2010: On May 31, 2008, Dannah was found shot to death in the backyard of a home at 449 Adams SE, in Grand Rapids, Kent County, MI. Witnesses report that around 5:30 a.m. a dark colored car stopped near the address and fired shots into the backyard.   Richard was nineteen years old.

 Frances Molen, Richard’s mother, called her son “Toothpick” because he was tall and skinny.  She wants people to know that Richard loved people and enjoyed playing sports such as football and basketball. She cannot imagine that anyone would want to hurt her son, and believes that Richard was an innocent victim who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That was exactly the case.

Here are stories that tell the tale:

From Fox 17: “Arrest made in 2008 cold case, victim’s mother relieved.”

From John Agar at mLive: “Police make arrest in 2008 killing of Grand Rapids man, 19”

From WOOD TV8: “Man charged in 2008 shooting death of teen in GR.”

On January 19, 1983, Janette Roberson was found murdered in the basement of the Gambles store in Reed City, Osceola County, MI.  Detectives believe she was murdered sometime in the afternoon between one and four o’clock.  The store was open for business, and there were customers and other employees in the building at the time, but no heard or saw anything related to her homicide.  It is unknown if Janette was sexually assaulted, but her body was found partially clad.

A man who left town the day of Janette’s murder was questioned and released by the police. Three other people who bought fish and supplies on that day were wanted for questioning, but no solid leads have been brought to the attention of the detectives in the twenty seven years since Janette’s death.

MJVH

The source? FBI Uniform Crime Report as reported by Scripps Howard News Service.  Time frame? 1980-2008.  Reporter/analyst Thomas Hargrove has compiled this series of stories on the state of murder in our country.  And he goes state by state, year by year.  When it comes to Michigan, well…I didn’t know it was quite that bad.  Only 52 percent of homicides in this state have been cleared during all that time.  Nationwide it’s 67 percent.  What accounts for the disparity?  We’re lower than Alabama, heck, we’re even below Washington, D.C., and that’s supposed to be the murder capital of the whole country.  Mr.Hargrove says that it may be the murder rate in Detroit that drags (or has dragged) the whole state down.  Oh, my!  More bad news about a really great city, a city I have grown to love.

Here are the state-by-state stats.

Here are the year-by-year statistics nationwide.

And here is a story about homicides solved and unsolved: Nearly 185,000 homicides since 1980 remain unsolved.

And here’s a story that discusses the solving of murders: Victim’s age, sex, race affect homicide clearance rates.  No surprise that when you do things that are risky you put yourself at greater risk.  But to be murdered for it?  Yup.  It happens.  A lot.

Another story: Many “best practices” known to improve murder investigations.

And yet another, ths time by Elizabeth Lucas: One in nine Americans knows the victim of an unsolved homicide.

More: Some police departments fail to tell FBI when they solve homicides.

Finally, here is a really powerful tool: a searchable database.  So if you want to see what’s been happening in your own back yard, have a look.

Again, my thanks to Mr. Hargrove, Jason Bartz, Elizabeth Lucas, and Scripps Howard.  This is a lot to read, but I think you’ll find it worth your time.  And most of the unsolved cases could be closed if the people who KNEW something about he murders would come forward.  The crime of murder is bad enough in itself…to compound it with silence is unconscionable.    Your chances of being murdered are less today then there were in 1938 (the year of Mina Dekker’s murder)–that’s in murders per hundred of thousands of our population.  I believe what has changed in all the intervening years is a willingness to ignore any moral obligation that accompanies “Thou shalt not commit murder.”