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:

April 15, 2023 — Tony Willis, dod August 6, 1994

Coming back from yet another spinal fusion, there’s the tug to get back to work on a homicide. The last seven years have largely been devoted to my film work on peace activist A.J. Muste (radicalforpeace.org). Now that’s done I might could do more work. Doesn’t matter that I’m 74 and don’t walk well.

The case is that of Tony Willis, shot and killed outside his house. He collapsed roughly at the intersection of Lafayette and Brown streets in Grand Rapids.

More to come.

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February 8, 2023 — Beverly McCallum’s trial schedule

Here is the trial schedule (for now) for Beverly McCallum of how things are scheduled to roll out in Eaton County (thank you Alysia Sofios):

Status conference for pretrial motions – April 27 at 11 a.m. 

Final pretrial – August 29 at 3 p.m.

Jury selection – September 8 

Trial – September 11, 12, 13, 15th (afternoon), 18th (until 1:30 p.m.) 19th, and 20th.

Initially, she was to be tried for second degree murder, but the crime warranted a first-degree charge. 

Finally, I have been missing in action, seriously missing. Yet another spinal fusion (my third). Enough pain to go around. I hope you will forgive me.

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September 20, 2022 — Beverly McCallum is bound over for trial

Beverly McCallum faced her accusers and Judge Kelly Morton in 56A District Court, Eaton County. Her arraignment today resulted in charges of first degree murder and molestation of a body. Alysia Sophios was in the courtroom and said that the judge heard from Gord DeVries, the discovered of the body of Roberto Caraballo, forensic pathologist Stephen Cohle, and Chris McMillan, one of the admitted participants in the crime, who witnessed the assault and gave out on Ms. McCallum’s part in the planning and execution of the murder.Much more to come.

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September 15 — 52 years ago Shelley Speet Mills was killed. And there also is this podcast….

The murderer of Shelley Speet Mills (stabbed to death in 1970) has skirted justice for yet another year. Oh, gosh. What will it take? A confession? A true report that the killer may have relayed to someone else? I do not know but I pray it happens.

A few days ago I noted that the website was blowing up at the “We Remember” node for Shakara Carter. Yes, we have her listed, but the file is very thin. There are some podcasters who had done a ton of work on the case. More, I think they have done a very fine job in talking the story. The podcast? Crime Junkie.

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September 12, 2022 — At last the answers to the murder of Sharon Kay Hammack.

1996. Sharon Kay Hammack was found murdered. This according to John Tunison of mlive: “Her body was found by a truck driver, who discovered her wrapped in a cloth and dumped along 76th Street SE, near Kraft and Broadmoor avenues in Caledonia Township. She had been strangled.

“She also had been stabbed twice in the head.”

And now, thanks to DNA and a whole lot of hard work, Garry Dean Artman, 64, an over-the-road trucker, has been charged with her murder. Artman was most recently based in Florida but he lived in Grand Rapids in the mid-90s when at least a dozen local women, including Hammack, were found dead in Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa counties.

He was arrested down south and has been extradited and arraigned. One of my favorite reporters, Susan Samples of WOOD TV, filed this report.

I am more than dilatory getting this posted.

In other actions, Beverly McCallum, accused of leading the assault on Roberto Caraballo in Charlotte, MI, in 2002, will be facing her preliminary hearing in Eaton County District Court Sept. 20. Our friend Alysia Sofios will be in court and I’ll ask her for an update.

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