Case Libraries
Interactive timelines, sourced reference documents, and case records for seven Clutch Justice investigations, six in Michigan and one beyond it, plus the After the Diary series library tracking 17 cold cases. Every resource is free, requires no signup, and is sourced to a named document, outlet, or public record.
Each library below carries its own detailed sourcing statement, and that statement governs the material in it. As a general rule across all eight: every evidentiary claim is sourced to a named document, outlet, or public record. Individuals named as suspects, subjects, or persons of interest have not been convicted of the conduct under investigation unless a conviction is specifically documented, and are entitled to the presumption of innocence. Where the record is incomplete, unverified, or disputed, it is labeled as such. These are research references, not legal findings.
All seven investigation libraries have a complete set of interactive tools built to Clutch Justice’s evidentiary standard: an interactive timeline, a structured Who’s Who, and an annotated reading list at minimum, with a geographic map added where the case calls for one. The Lansing River Trail library tracks a live case and is updated as records are released. The After the Diary library works differently: it is a running case inventory for the series, with a verification tier on every entry.
Michigan Cold Case & Accountability Research
Six investigations, each with its own dedicated library. Open any case below for its full set of timelines, reference documents, and reading lists.
Lansing River Trail Deaths
Five unhoused men died after being found along the Lansing River Trail in eleven months. One death was never announced. Police saw similarities in July; the public question of a connection came from a victim’s family in September.
- Coverage: October 2025 to present, with earlier trail cases under review
- Location: Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan
- Status: Police say the deaths may be related and cannot rule out a serial killer; one suspect charged in one death and presumed innocent
- Includes: interactive timeline, who’s who, location map, reading list
OCCK & North Fox Island
The Oakland County Child Killer investigation and the North Fox Island child pornography operation, mapped together across five decades of documented overlap.
- Coverage: 1971 to 2026
- Location: Oakland, Wayne & Charlevoix counties, Michigan
- Includes: interactive timeline, who’s who, geographic map, reading list
Erik Cross
The 1983 murder of Erik Cross in Vicksburg: four prosecutorial declinations, five people named in a 2017 sheriff’s referral, and zero charges filed.
- Coverage: 1983 to 2026
- Location: Vicksburg, Kalamazoo County, Michigan
- Includes: interactive timeline, who’s who, reading list
The Michigan Murders
The 1967 to 1969 Washtenaw County murders, the junk forensic science that convicted John Norman Collins, and the institutional record that never closed the other six cases.
- Coverage: 1967 to 2026
- Location: Washtenaw County, Michigan
- Includes: forensic timeline, career pipeline map, victim case records, MSP lab timeline
Ambrose Sullivan
The 2016 hit-and-run death of Ambrose Sullivan, the felony charge that was filed against David Vega and the ones that were not, and the documented financial network connecting the Vega family to Michigan Republican political infrastructure.
- Date: September 1, 2016
- Location: Green Oak Township, Livingston County, Michigan
- Status: David Vega convicted of one felony count (failure to stop at the scene of a fatal accident); $3 million civil judgment remains unsatisfied per the family’s public record
- Includes: interactive timeline, who’s who, geographic map, reading list
Joey Nagle
The June 16, 2022 death of Joseph “Joey” Maverick Nagle in an Allegan County officer-involved shooting, the missing body-camera record from the involved deputy, and the Michigan State Police detective’s documented ties to a prior fabricated-evidence case.
- Date: June 16, 2022
- Location: Allegan County, Michigan
- Status: Autopsy ruled homicide; no initiating-deputy camera footage exists; six-part investigative series, most recent installment published September 18, 2026
- Includes: interactive timeline, who’s who, reading list
Beyond Michigan
Cases outside the state that meet the same standard: a public record worth assembling, institutional questions still open, and people still waiting on answers.
Israel Keyes
A contractor and father from Anchorage who killed across the country for more than a decade without being linked to a single crime, was caught when he broke his own rules, and died in an Alaska jail before trial with most of his victims still unnamed.
- Coverage: 1978 to 2024
- Location: Alaska, Washington, Vermont, New York, Texas, and other states
- Status: Never tried; FBI believes 11 homicides; 3 victims identified; at least 7 unidentified per the FBI in 2020
- Includes: interactive timeline, who’s who, geographic map, reading list
Series Libraries
Reference hubs for multi-case investigative series: every case the series covers, its current status, and where each installment lives.
After the Diary
Michelle McNamara’s True Crime Diary chronicled cold cases others had stopped looking at. After the Diary goes back to those cases and documents what has happened since: what she wrote, what changed, how well each fact has been checked, and which installment covers it.
- Cases tracked: 17, from Kathleen Lombardo and the Colonial Parkway Murders to the Golden State Killer finale
- Installments: 2 published, with a dedicated OCCK installment and a Golden State Killer finale planned
- Verification: every entry carries a tier: Confirmed, Documented, or Needs Checking
- Includes: filterable case inventory, series prologue, links to each installment
After the Diary is an independent Clutch Justice project. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, or produced in cooperation with the estate of Michelle McNamara, Patton Oswalt, HBO, or the publishers of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.
Have information relevant to any of these cases?
Clutch Justice is not a law enforcement agency and cannot receive evidence directly, but wants to hear from anyone with documentation relevant to this reporting. Contact the case-specific line where one exists, or reach Clutch Justice directly for any case on this page.