CASE 404Michigan
2021
Dee Warner
Dee Warner disappeared from her Michigan farm. Her family and investigators pursued answers for years before the discovery of her remains changed the case against her husband Dale.
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Showing 1–10 of 10CASE 262Michigan City, Indiana
2016
Hufracio Arteaga
Car salesman Hufracio Arteaga was found stabbed in his office in April 2016. Cameras at an adjacent building provided a way to investigate activity around the business.
CASE 422Orion Township, Michigan
1999
Martha Gail Fulton
Martha Gail Fulton was leaving her job at the Orion Township Public Library when she was killed in October 1999. Investigators traced the shooting to a plot involving Donna Trapani, who had been involved with Fulton’s husband, and people recruited from Florida. Separate juries convicted Trapani and Sybil Padgett of first-degree murder and conspiracy. Michigan’s Court of Appeals affirmed those convictions in 2003. The federal habeas decision provides another detailed record of Trapani’s unsuccessful challenge.
CASE 066Michigan, United States
1995
Tina Biggar
Michigan college student Tina Biggar disappeared in 1995 while keeping her work as an escort secret from people close to her. Investigators discovered that she had been murdered. The search exposed the hidden part of her life and the circumstances that brought her into contact with her killer, devastating her family and friends.
CASE 367Wyandotte, Michigan
1989
The DeLisle children & Larry DeLisle
Brian, Melissa, Kathryn, and Emily DeLisle drowned when the family car entered the Detroit River in 1989. Their father Larry was convicted of murder. The Confession Tapes examines the disputed interrogation and his account that the crash was accidental.
CASE 048Detroit, Michigan
1985
Alan Canty
Detroit psychologist Alan Canty disappeared in 1985 while concealing a second life from his wife. Investigators uncovered his involvement with a young woman and her violent associate, John “Lucky” Fry. Canty had been murdered, and the discovery forced his family to confront both the killing and the deception that preceded it.
CASE 004Michigan, United States
1977
Francine Hughes
After years of domestic violence, Francine Hughes set fire to the bed where her former husband, James Hughes, was sleeping in their Michigan home. She took her children out of the house and surrendered to police. Her 1977 trial ended in an acquittal by reason of temporary insanity and drew national attention to battered women’s experiences.
CASE 311Southeastern Michigan
1967–1969
The Michigan co-ed murders
A series of killings of young women in southeastern Michigan spread fear between 1967 and 1969. The investigation connected several communities and generated extensive reporting about the offender called the Co-Ed Killer.
CASE 225Detroit, Michigan
1964–1995
Robert Kearns & the windshield-wiper patent
Inventor Robert Kearns fought automakers over the use of his intermittent windshield-wiper technology. His long patent dispute placed an individual inventor against large manufacturers. Flash of Genius dramatizes the litigation and its strain on his family; John Seabrook’s collection includes the reporting behind the film.
CASE 196Montgomery, Alabama, and Detroit, Michigan
1955–1956
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery bus boycott
Photo credit
John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped/resized. Adaptations use the same license.Rosa Parks’s arrest after refusing to surrender her bus seat became a catalyst for Montgomery’s organized bus boycott. Her activism extended far beyond that moment, including decades of civil rights work in Alabama and Michigan. The biography and documentary challenge the idea that her protest was accidental.
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