Home — Murder, “cold” cases, and mayhem

This website is intended to deal with murder, brutality, corruption and hatred, all falling under what we call acts of injustice. We tell the stories of open and unsolved homicides–what are called “cold” cases. We also memorialize those whose lives have been taken from them in hope that somebody will come forward to tell the truth. So far our efforts center on Michigan.

David B. Schock, Ph.D.

“Somebody knows somethin’.  Somebody ALWAYS knows somethin’.”

That’s the way Jim Fairbanks put it when we made our first film, Who Killed Janet Chandler? Detective Fairbanks (retired) was the lead investigator on the law enforcement team in 1979. What he had to say then still applies today. For nearly every unsolved homicide there is somebody out there who could solve it if she or he would come forward and make a contact.

To call an unsolved homicide a “cold” case is chilling in its own right. Yes, these unsolved cases grow “cold” because there are no new leads; they more or less drop off the social and cultural radar. But they are NEVER “cold” to the family members and friends, they are never forgotten or out of mind. And there is always the hope that justice, however delayed, will be served.

We invite you to visit the We Remember part of this site, a place where families and friends of those whose murders remain unsolved contact us and can help to post details of the victims’ lives and the resultant investigations.

We also invite your view of what we are calling a Primary Documentary Investigation as we tell the story of the murder of Mina Dekker.

Our hope in all the cases we chronicle is that somebody who knows something will say something.

From David — A Weblog of investigation:

February 11, 2025 — Dineane Ducharme’s appeal comes to nought

As was her right , Dineane Rochelle Ducharme–convicted of the first-degree murder of her stepfather Roberto Caraballo–appealed. This morning comes the notice that her appeal has been denied.

The case is thoroughly laid out in the document, and while there may have been issues that might have been considered, the three-member Court of Appeals panel–Judges Stephen L. Borrello, James Robert Redford, and Sima G. Patel–ruled unanimously against her.

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January 28, 2025 — Gathering the assets

In preparation to help my contact at Wild Dreams Films make the sale to a broadcast house I have been gathering, preparing, and then sending via WeTransfer some really large video files. It is slow going, seemingly endless (it’s not, I know). I have hours of footage from the making of the film about Janet Chandler then through all the developments, the launch of the cold-case team, the country-wide investigation, the arrests, all the arraignments, the preliminary hearings, the trial, the verdicts, the aftermath…hours and hours. Along the way I’ve begun to tell my contact some of the stories that accompanied my involvement in the case…and I was involved. There is story after story about what we all had to go through to reach a successful conclusion of the case. I saw up close and personal how the investigative team worked–and boy did the members of that team work! There were times they thought they’d have to shut down. The success of the investigation really was down to them: young Michael Jafri, David Van Lopic, Rob Borowski, Roger VanLiere, and Geoffrey Flohr. They were and are heros. (Roger has since walked on; I really miss him.) So, I’m busy.

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January 25 , 2025 — Now under contract

I have signed a development contract with Wild Dream Films of Cardiff, Wales, to assist as they search out a network that will want the Janet Chandler story. IF–and only if–Wild Dreams succeeds do we go ahead and make a series (of an undetermined number of episodes) to tell as much as possible of the story. Our goal: to tell the truth in love.

When there is real news I’ll let you know. In the meantime, please pray that we go about this in a right way.

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November 2, 2024–A retelling of the Janet Chandler story

It’s time, maybe past time, to tell the true story of the 1979 murder of Janet Chandler. I have held off for many reasons. One was because fitting something like this into a broadcast one or two hour slot really was not a telling of the true story. What would that look like? Can’t tell you that just yet. There are a few production houses that are seriously sniffing. The most important part is the integrity of the process. Those companies already have passed that test and we’ve moved on to other considerations. There will be more–even if it all comes to ashes–in the offing.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the 1970 murder of Shelley Speet Mills is hotting up.

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June 5, 2024 — Freddie Bass Parker

I obviously have missed some things, things like this: Freddie Bass Parker, convicted of first degree felony murder for the killing of Janet Chandler in 1979 and imprisoned for life, died Oct. 28, 2021. That’s darned near three years ago, and it comes to me now. Wow. May God have mercy on his soul. Of all the defendants in the case, I thought he was the least hardened. But still absolutely guilty.

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