Jack in the Box
Here’s the start of the film, really only the first ten minutes:
Jack in the Box is Copyright©2005 by penULTIMATE, Ltd.
It’s a rare event when a murder victim eludes identification. Â That WAS the case here…the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department had been unable to identify the body of this man who was murdered and then burned beyond recognition. I undertook this case when I was teaching at Hope College and involved the students who were studying the making of documentary films, much as I did when I set out to tell the story of Janet Chandler. Then Ottawa County Sheriff Gary Rosema came to me to tell the story when his department ran out of leads. Â His hope was that somebody would come forward with enough information to put a name with this body. And that’s exactly what happened.
The full, nearly hour-long film is available here.
Know that the content is extremely graphic and may be disturbing. Â This is not suitable for children or, probably, most teens.
There have been some changes since we made this film: I no longer teach at Hope College, and Sheriff Gary Rosema, Detectives Bob Donker and Jim Brack, and Lt. Steve Crumb of the Ottawa County (MI) Sheriff’s Department are retired.
What to know more about the film?  You can read Greg Olger’s news release about the program here.
And what follows are reports of arrests and films of the various court proceedings.