Grand Rapids, Michigan, was once considered to be a safe place. That was before my birth in 1984. As my mother and grandparents told me, there was once a time when you could leave your windows open at night and doors unlocked, and nobody ever thought twice about something bad happening.
That is, until the community's sense of safety came screeching to a halt in 1970. By all accounts, Shelley Speet Mills should have felt secure in her home at 314 College Avenue. She had just gotten married to Lowell band teacher Bill Mills 17 days before her life was viciously taken from her. Shelley's mother, Vesta, was driving all the way from Holland on the morning of September 15, 1970 to take Shelley to lunch. With Vesta was her father - Shelley's grandfather - who was blind. When Vesta reached the home, she left her father in the car while she went to knock on the front door after Shelley failed to appear upon Vesta honking the car horn. No one answered. It was unlike Shelley to not answer, especially since the women had made plans for that day. Vesta was able to get in through the unlocked door and entered the home. She found what no mother should ever have to see - her daughter, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, her matted hair cloaking her face. Vesta quickly phoned the police, followed by a call to Bill Mills, but it was too late; Shelley was already deceased. Shelley had been stabbed 32 times - once in the chest, once in the back, and 30 times in the neck, which nearly decapitated her. The weapon (which was certainly a knife) was never found, and DNA testing did not exist back then like it does today. Who would do this? There were no obvious suspects, and Bill Mills was ruled out. Was this just a random attack? Shelley wasn't a careless young woman and reportedly locked her doors. The case ran cold as leads dried up. A year later, another woman - 25-year-old student Barbara Larson - was found stabbed to death in her mobile home, with the majority of her wounds occurring in the head and neck area, just like Shelley's. Barbara attended school in the Heritage Hill area, so police became concerned that they might be looking for the same suspect. In May of 1975, another woman was found deceased. This time, it was 20-year-old Laurel Jean Ellis, whose boyfriend, Carl Novak, found her body in her apartment at 627 Fountain Street NE. Laurel had not been seen or heard from in about a week, so Carl decided it was time someone checked on her. He found his girlfriend's body nude and decomposing, having been stabbed 60 times (45 of which were to the face and neck) before being strangled. DNA evidence was located near the door to the apartment, but analysis could not be conducted because science just wasn't there quite yet. Several months later, social worker Linda King was murdered at her home on Clancy Avenue NE, having been stabbed numerous times in the chest and strangled with her own clothing. If there had been any doubt about a serial killer before, there was little doubt to be had after Linda's death. Sadly, Linda would not be the final victim. Kathryn Darling, who was two months pregnant at the time, was murdered in her home in March of 1976. Friends that had gone to check on her discovered Kathryn (whose husband was then serving a five-year prison sentence) in the bedroom, having been beaten and stabbed. Her toddler son was found uninjured. Just two months later, the killer struck again, this time slaughtering Lois DeRitter in the Walker area, just to the west of Grand Rapids. On Christmas Eve of 1976, Nancy Sweetman was walking to her boyfriend's house. Around 12:55 AM, a loud ruckus was heard and reported by a neighbor. The responding officer found Nancy stabbed to death and a trail of blood leading to a water spigot on a neighboring lawn where the killer had apparently tried to wash their hands. That responding officer? He was Nancy's own brother, Officer Ronald Sweetman. Ida Mae Luchie was the next unfortunate victim. In November of 1977, she was found stabbed to death in the laundry room of her apartment located at 440 Crescent Street NE. She had also been bludgeoned with a banister spindle. Joanne Eggleston was the next victim. She was 21 at the time and had just returned to her home to take a nap on the sofa. Suddenly, a man entered and put a belt into her mouth. Joanne resisted, fighting back as hard as she could, which earned her a nasty stab wound to the throat. The thrust was so strong that the knife's blade actually broke off in her neck! This caused the killer to flee, and Joanne, who was paralyzed in all but an arm, to call for help. Joanne should've died. But she didn't. A few days after her attack, the Grand Rapids Press ran a scoop on her story. That night, the killer, probably feeling disempowered by their inability to finish Joanne off, struck again, likely to prove that they could still get the task done. This sadly left 21-year-old Catherine Fingleton dead, her body unceremoniously dumped near the I-96 expressway overpass, just a few blocks away from the home she shared with her fiance. A figure would eventually emerge from the shadows as a main suspect in the cases. Lamont Marshall was in his 20's when the murders were taking place and seemed to always be sniffing around at the crime scenes while police were investigating. Remember the banister spindle used to bludgeon Ida Mae? It was finally linked to being from Marshall's home after he had been questioned by detectives. Marshall was finally put away, and Joanne - the only surviving victim - was able to positively identify him as her attacker before Marshall became eligible for parole. In 2011, a man named Russell Vane was convicted of murdering Kathryn Darling. But did Marshall murder the other women? Unfortunately, many of these murders remain technically unsolved, even though they ceased with the death of Catherine Fingleton. Many of these victims have loved ones who are still seeking that extra bit of closure. As of right now, Detective Sergeant Chris Postma with the Grand Rapids Police Department's Major Case Team, is handling Shelley Speet's case. Any information that you might have regarding these unsolved murders should be forwarded to him. Let us hope that, in an era booming with forensic technology, that these cases can be finally solved. Resources: Delayed Justice "Heritage Hill killer eluded police in pre-DNA era" - mLive "Revisiting a Murder" Ghosts of Grand Rapids by Nicole Bray & Robert DuShane (Recommended read!)
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