7 Action News was the first to report that a recent $100 million lawsuit, filed on behalf of one of the families of an Oakland County Child Killer victim, was relying on information from an anonymous source who goes by the alias of “Bob.”
Both the attorney who filed the lawsuit, Paul Hughes, and Kristine Mihelich’s mother, Deborah Jarvis, admit they have never met “Bob,” nor do they know his real name or what he does for a living.
This is a recording of a conference call meeting that “Bob” conducted over the phone with Chief Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Paul Walton, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe, former Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon, and AP reporter Corey Williams in October of 2010.
LISTEN TO THE RECORDING BELOW
During that same time period, “Bob” was also contacting 7 Action News Investigator Heather Catallo. He said he could prove that there were more than just 4 victims of the Child Killer – and “Bob” wrote up a detailed memo, alleging that the victims were abducted and their bodies were discovered on dates that were connected to Pagan holidays.
“Bob” claimed the killings were tied to satanic cult activity in metro Detroit.
The problem was, “Bob” would never provide a name, or any information about himself, or a phone number so that we could verify what he was saying.
“If he was some crazy dude, he’d just be out there posting it all over. Or he would be turning the matter over to the local county prosecutor. He wanted one piece of information, essentially to confirm what he basically already knew, before he was going to put an individual out there as a suspect. And that, my friends, is integrity on his part. That’s all he wanted to verify before he put that information forward,” said Paul Hughes at a press conference last month.
“Are you sure he hasn’t posted anything on the internet,” asked Catallo.
“No,” said Hughes.
In November of 2010, someone posted a article on a blog-site – it’s made to look like it’s an Associated Press article, but it’s not. It matches the memo the anonymous source sent to 7 Action News.
Hughes says “Bob” has information that ties in additional victims -- young girls who vanished in the 70’s.
In the lawsuit he alleges there’s “an extremely high probability that the deaths of Donna Serra, Kim Larrow, Kimberly King, and Jane Allan, among others, are connected to the Oakland County Child Killer case.”
But Hughes admitted he was not aware that specific forensic evidence – dog hair and carpet fibers -- that connect the four known victims.
Hughes’ lawsuit alleges a massive cover-up at the hands of police and prosecutors. And that claim hinges on the grand jury that’s currently hearing testimony on this case.
The attorney says an email from the secret source prompted the Oakland County Prosecutor to impanel the grand jury in less than a week. Here’s what we know about grand juries – it takes a long time to put them together, and there’s a lot of oversight. It doesn’t happen in a week.
While they cannot legally discuss any case that’s before the grand jury, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office is emphatic that they did not convene a grand jury just to keep this confidential source quiet.
And the Prosecutor herself is calling this lawsuit groundless – and she says the family’s grief is being exploited.
