OCCK & North Fox Island: Case Timeline

Davison, 13, abducted in Allen Park on the south side of Detroit while riding his bike. Missing several days, strangled and dumped face-down in an alley in Oakland County. Found June 26 wearing the same clothes as when abducted. Survived the attack. MO remarkably similar to the OCCK murders. Not counted as an official OCCK victim. May have suffered brain damage from the attack. Formerly on the OCCK Wikipedia page, since removed.

Gregory Woodward Greene, Flint native, moved to California in the early 1970s. Coached a young boys’ baseball team and molested members. Arrested on 45 counts of CSC, kidnapping, and attempted murder in Huntington Beach, California (Orange County). Admitted to molesting 15 male victims ages 6–14 more than 200 times. In one case, choked a victim he believed was dead and dropped him off at the hospital. The boy survived. Spent 6 months in Orange County Jail before commitment to Patton State Hospital.

Greene sentenced to Patton State Mental Hospital in San Bernardino, California, as a mentally disturbed sex offender. His hospital case summary noted he made “a most unusual effort to gain insight into himself” and eventually took “a leadership role” in group therapy sessions. He would be released January 1976, return to court in August 1975, and be sent back for additional months before final release.

Detroit Free Press published a human interest piece portraying Shelden as a charming, eccentric naturalist and reclusive do-gooder creating an island getaway for boys on North Fox Island. Described his charitable work and philanthropic bona fides. Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission was operating as a front for a child exploitation and pornography ring. This piece is the documented record of Shelden’s public persona at the peak of the operation.

Christopher Busch, son of H. Lee Busch (GM Executive Financial Director), purchases a blue 1975 Chevrolet Vega two-door hatchback from Al Serra Chevrolet in Flint — similar in appearance to the blue AMC Gremlin reported near Tim King’s abduction site. The Gremlin became a focal point in the investigation and a red herring for four decades. Tim King’s brother Chris, returning to the pharmacy that night, saw a blue Gremlin still in the parking lot and reported it, but investigators would not confirm a Gremlin was involved. A 1971–72 Pontiac LeMans was later theorized but that claim was also recanted.

After serving time at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, California, Greene was transported by Orange County Sheriff to LAX, put on a plane, and flown directly to Detroit on February 11, 1976. His father and brothers picked him up. This is the documented moment a California-convicted violent child sex offender returned to Michigan and ultimately embedded in the network that connected to both North Fox Island and the OCCK investigation. He was placed on probation with a new PO in Michigan on March 1.

First of Busch’s two documented CSC offenses against James Vincent “Vince” Gunnels, 14, in Atlanta, Ess Lake Township, Montmorency County. First degree CSC — sexual penetration. Gunnels would become a recurring figure in the OCCK investigation, with mtDNA from his hair later matched to Kristine Mihelich’s jacket. Gunnels’ father would file charges February 25, 1977, after three additional CSC offenses against his son were documented.

Mark Douglas Stebbins, 12, walked home from the American Legion Hall in Ferndale where his mother Ruth worked as a bartender. Left around 1:15 p.m. to walk .75 miles home. Never arrived. Last seen in a blue hooded parka, maroon sweatshirt, Levi’s jeans, black rubber boots. Reported missing around 11 p.m. Body found February 19, 1976, at Fairfax Plaza in Southfield. Asphyxiated. Wrists and legs showed marks from binding. Had been repeatedly sodomized. Gregory Greene told investigators under interrogation that Christopher Busch had murdered Mark Stebbins.

The evening of Mark Stebbins’ disappearance, tow truck driver and known pedophile Archibald Edward Sloan, 35, called Southfield PD to inform them he would be working past closing at McCracken’s Service Center, 29420 10 Mile Road. Told them the light would be on and no need to stop by. Sloan’s parole officer, watching the evening news when Stebbins’ body was found, immediately thought of Sloan and called Southfield police the next day.

Southfield Police searched Sloan’s 1966 Pontiac Bonneville after his parole officer’s call. Evidence technician Mel Paunovich collected hairs and debris. Sloan provided alibis and passed a polygraph — administered by MSP examiner Ralph Cabot, whose work would later be refuted. In 2010 and 2012, DNA testing found one hair from the car had an mtDNA profile consistent with hairs found on Mark Stebbins’ clothing and on Tim King’s body — and did not come from Sloan, but from an as-yet unidentified person.

Busch and Greene took Kenneth Bowman, 13, to a wooded rural area off Dixie Hwy., near Mt. Holly in Groveland Township, in Busch’s blue Chevrolet Vega. Bowman later told investigators he feared he would be killed. Busch had a handgun under the seat. Greene sodomized Bowman, choked him unconscious. Greene told Bowman that Busch “had killed a kid out in the woods by Chris’ house.” Greene once asked Bowman to go to a “Playland” store to help him kidnap and kill a young boy.

Gerald Richards, 29, PE teacher at St. Joseph’s Elementary in Port Huron, arrested for CSC with a minor (10-year-old boy). As part of a plea deal, Richards gave up Shelden and described activities on North Fox Island. Named key principals: Dyer Grossman (NY millionaire, vice president of Brother Paul’s Mission), Adam Starchild (financial architect), and Rev. Claudius “Bud” Vermilye (Tennessee Boys Farm). The entire North Fox Island network began to unravel from this arrest.

MSP officers executed a no-knock warrant on Shelden’s Ann Arbor home, three days after Richards’ arrest. Found all file cabinets, closets and drawers had been emptied. Shelden had been tipped off when he phoned Richards on the day of his arrest and Richards’ wife told him police had taken Richards into custody. Shelden had already removed or destroyed incriminating evidence and begun his exit from the country.

Case file entry dated August 2, 1976: Washtenaw County Prosecutor Peter Deegan “wants to wait on warrant for Sheldon [sic] until invest. is completed.” This is the documented reason Shelden was not arrested in the immediate aftermath of Richards’ arrest. Deegan had made the immunity deal with Richards that produced Shelden’s name. The same prosecutor who received the information declined to act on it for four months. A September 7 entry shows Deegan again deferring — and at some point the complaints against Shelden and Grossman were closed “in error,” discovered October 8. Warrant finally issued December 17.

Jill Robinson, 12, had a disagreement with her mother in Royal Oak and left home on her bike, presumably heading to her father’s house about a mile away. Never arrived. Media misrepresented their argument and portrayed Jill as a “runaway,” causing lasting pain to her mother Karol. Body found December 26 on northbound shoulder of I-75 just north of Exit 69 in Troy, MI — within sight of the Troy Police Department. Shot in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun after being asphyxiated. She was the only OCCK victim shot. One witness reported seeing a light blue 1967 Pontiac Tempest stopped on the shoulder at the body’s location.

Case file entry September 27, 1976: “The St. Clair Prosecutor was contacted with request for warrant for Grossman for sex crime last summer. He has not authorized as yet due to work load.” Robert Cleland was Chief Trial Attorney in the St. Clair County Prosecutor’s office at this time. Dyer Grossman — the New York millionaire vice president of Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission — was never arrested, never charged, and has never been located. He was believed to have fled to California after Richards’ arrest.

A roll of undeveloped film mailed to Gerald Richards from California turned out to be photos taken at Boys Farm, Inc., in Alto, TN. Police raided Boys Farm November 10, arrested Rev. Claudius “Bud” Vermilye on 16 counts of CSC. Boys had been sent from state corrections and welfare agencies, given liquor, shown pornography, filmed in orgies by hidden cameras. Shelden’s name was found on a list of approximately 300 sponsors. The connection between North Fox Island and the national network was now documented.

Reporter Marilyn Wright of the Traverse City Record-Eagle published the first of a series of investigative articles exposing Shelden’s Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission as a front for a child pornography network. Christopher Busch’s name was mentioned in Wright’s coverage, pointing to his likely association with the production and distribution of child porn. Wright’s coverage ran through April 4, 1977, with an update August 23, 1978. Her reporting was entered into the Congressional record before the committee considering 1977 child exploitation legislation.

MSP sought Shelden for molesting a 10-year-old boy multiple times over the course of a weekend on North Fox Island. A second warrant was issued the same month for CSC with a 14-year-old Port Huron boy. Approximately five months had passed since Richards’ arrest and Deegan’s first refusal. By this date, Shelden had already fled the United States, obtained French citizenship by marriage, and relocated to Amsterdam. He was declared a federal fugitive. He would never be extradited. He died in Amsterdam July 9, 1996.

Kristine Mihelich, 10, walked to the 7-Eleven on 12 Mile Rd. in Berkley to buy a teen magazine. Taken at or near the store shortly after 3 p.m. In a 1977 pre-polygraph interview, Busch named this 7-Eleven among places he sometimes took boys through the Big Brother program. Body found January 21, 1977, in a ditch along Bruce Lane in Franklin, MI — 19 days in captivity, the longest of any OCCK victim. In 2011, a hair from her jacket was found to be an mtDNA match for Vince Gunnels.

Greene arrested January 25 in Flint on CSC charges related to Bowman. Immediately tells police Chris Busch killed Mark Stebbins. Busch arrested January 26 on the same Bowman charges at his restaurant The Scotsman in Alma. Both administered polygraphs by MSP examiner Ralph Cabot — both publicly described as passed. Oakland County Deputy Prosecutor Dick Thompson flew by helicopter through a snowstorm to observe Busch’s polygraph, the only one in hundreds attended by a prosecutor. In February 2008, a review by three independent examiners found Greene failed outright; Busch’s chart showed possible deception. Both men were eliminated as OCCK suspects after the polygraphs.

Bond for both Busch and Greene on Bowman charges was set at $75,000. But Busch’s bond was later reduced to $1,000 — the $75,000 figure crossed out on the court record and $1,000 handwritten in, with no initials or signature indicating who made the change. H. Lee Busch posted his son’s bail in cash. Greene, facing the identical charge from the same victim, would ultimately get life in prison. Busch would receive probation. This disparity would become one of the defining documented injustices of the case.

When detectives asked where Busch procured victims, he listed — in chronological order — the locations where the first three OCCK victims had been abducted, including Ferndale (Stebbins), Royal Oak (Robinson), and the 7-Eleven (Mihelich). Investigators believed Busch was establishing alibi rather than confessing. Busch also related his and Greene’s “split shift” child imprisonment fantasy — one working days, the other nights, so one would always be home with a captive victim. This detail would take on significance in light of later evidence.

Traverse City Record-Eagle article on the North Fox Island child pornography ring mentions Busch, whose name appeared on a ledger of North Fox Island clients. Eight rolls of film confiscated from Busch suggested he wasn’t just a consumer of Shelden’s material but may have helped produce and distribute it. This article ran four days before Tim King’s abduction.

Probably around 8:30 p.m. at Hunter-Maple pharmacy, four blocks from his home in Birmingham. Witnesses place him in the parking lot talking with a suspect pictured in several composite sketches, near a blue Gremlin. One witness, car designer Doug Wilson, reported seeing Tim with two men near a 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Body found March 22 along Gill Road in Livonia, Wayne County. Held 7 days. Autopsy found repeated sexual abuse, bite mark on tongue, smothering as cause of death. Younger brother of Catherine Broad, who has maintained decades-long advocacy and investigation.

Jane Burgess hired by the Busch family, replacing attorney R. Keith Stark. Burgess was flown around the state in the family’s private jet to post five-figure bonds for Busch in various counties. Around April 1977, Burgess arranged a private attorney-client privileged polygraph with examiner Larry Wasser. During the pre-test interview, Busch admitted to murdering Tim King — “I did the boy in Birmingham,” as later quoted by Patrick Coffey. Wasser, Burgess, and the Busch family then knew Busch had confessed to an OCCK murder. This information would not resurface until 2006.

Genesee County Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard organized a meeting of MI prosecutors and law enforcement to coordinate investigation of child exploitation, scheduled for April 11. Invitations were sent. The meeting never took place. Leonard claimed to remember nothing about it when asked in 2012. Author Marney Keenan noted the meeting “never happened — at least there is no record of it taking place.” One theory: it would have revealed that attendees were looking at suspects two or three degrees removed from Shelden or H. Lee Busch. Leonard was convicted of embezzling public funds in 1979.

Gerald Richards testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency during hearings on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act. From prison, Richards drew an elaborate diagram of the national child exploitation network spanning coast to coast and into Europe. The diagram documented nodes including North Fox Island, the Tennessee Boys Farm, The Church of the New Revelation (NJ), The Educational Foundation for Youth (Chicago), MAIL-O-MATIC forwarding (North Carolina), and F&S Distributions (California, operated by Guy Strait). Genesee County Prosecutor Leonard and assistant Lenore Ferber also testified. Richards’ testimony was used in support of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act of 1977.

Greene sentenced to life in prison June 14, 1977, by Judge Phillip Elliott. Busch sentenced July 29, 1977, by Judge Robert Templin — two years probation for the same third-degree CSC charge from the same victim, Kenneth Bowman. Same crime, same victim, same jurisdiction — life vs. probation. The documented basis for this disparity has never been publicly explained beyond the reduction of Busch’s bond from $75,000 to $1,000 by an unidentified person. H. Lee Busch posted the reduced bond in cash.

Found dead in his bedroom, .22 caliber bullet hole in forehead, rifle in bed next to him. Officially ruled suicide despite: body found with dominant hand pinned beneath torso; .41% BAC; no blood or tissue spatter on gun muzzle; no gunpowder residue on hands; four shell casings but only one wound; a .22 caliber bullet hole in a wall; no suicide note. Scene included bloody ligatures on a closet floor, a drawing of a screaming child resembling Mark Stebbins, and a shotgun shell balanced on a lighter — described by criminologist Michael Arntfield as “a diorama.” Suicide ruling made before lab reports returned. First responding officer, Cpl. Richard McNamee, was later arrested on CSC charges himself. The rifle was returned to H. Lee Busch promptly on request, breaking the chain of custody. Greene’s cellmate later reported Greene had bragged about murdering four kids.

Task Force dissolved less than a month after Busch’s death, with no charges filed, no persons of interest publicly named, and no apparent further investigation into Busch’s possible involvement. Beginning a year earlier and continuing through March 1980, Task Force officials repeatedly spun a theory in the media that the killer may have been committed to a mental institution by his wealthy family — explicitly naming wealth as the operative factor: “the killer’s family had him committed.” Task Force Commander Robertson: “I would guess that he’s in an institution or that he’s dead.” The Detroit Free Press reported the imminent Task Force shutdown the day after Busch’s body was found.

On October 1, 1983, Sloan — then living in an abandoned Packard Plant in Hamtramck — raped a coworker’s 10-year-old son. At his January 1985 trial, a psychiatrist testified Sloan was “only capable of sexual satisfaction with small children.” Judge Michael Talbot sentenced him to life without parole on two counts of first degree CSC. Sloan is currently incarcerated at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian, MI. Hair from his Pontiac Bonneville had already been matched to hairs from Stebbins and King — but not to Sloan himself.

Roughly eight years after his release from prison, Gerald Richards was arrested and charged by the U.S. Postal Inspector for trafficking in child pornography. Richards claimed he was reformed and had been gathering evidence on a child porn dealer to turn in — calling his arrest entrapment by the post office. He died in 1998.

Barry King, Timothy’s father, interviewed pedophile Richard Lawson, who had called from jail claiming to know who killed Tim. Lawson described how Detroit’s Cass Corridor child pornography ring operated — approximately 140 children involved. Named Shelden as a financier of child porn films. Said the likely reason Tim was abducted was because he fit the general appearance of a child Shelden was seeking for a film. Referred to three other suspects by number: Number One (unknown gambler/procurer), Number Two (Bob Moore, who made films funded by Shelden), Number Three (Ted Lamborgine, a pedophile who worked for Ford and moved from Michigan). Lawson’s molestation case was dismissed in exchange for this information — but the information was apparently not investigated further at the time.

Over nine months, Helen Dagner met with self-proclaimed OCCK suspect John Hastings at a Big Boy in Alpena. Hastings appeared to have intimate knowledge of the crimes — drew maps of victims’ drop-off sites on place mats, made incriminating statements including claiming the shotgun used on Jill Robinson belonged to his brother. Dagner went public online when investigators dismissed her claims, becoming one of the internet’s early cybersleuths. She maintained interest in the case through its coldest years. In 2009, Georgia Highway Patrol polygraph investigator concluded Hastings “absolutely” knew Busch and Greene despite his denials. Dagner died November 27, 2018.

Greene, 45, died of a heart attack watching television in his cell at Jackson Prison. Guards found him sitting upright with his eyes open. In March 2008, Det. Cory Williams interviewed Greene’s former cellmate, who said Greene readily talked about past rapes and once bragged he had “gotten away with murdering four kids.” A polygraph indicated the cellmate was truthfully reporting Greene’s admissions. In the early 1980s, Greene had contacted Flint Det. Tom Waldron saying he had something to tell him — Waldron’s chief wouldn’t give permission to follow up. Waldron said he always regretted not going on his own. Greene was never again investigated for the OCCK murders during his 18 years in prison.

Shelden died of natural causes in his Amsterdam apartment at age 68, having fled the United States in 1976 and never faced trial for his documented role running a child pornography and abuse network on North Fox Island. His attorney L. Bennett Young of Birmingham confirmed his death. The MSP closed the case file with the notation: “Exceptional clearance, suspect is dead and cannot be prosecuted, but was obviously involved.” His FBI file contains more than 1,047 records still unreleased as of 2026.

Michigan State Police began reconstituting the OCCK Task Force in late 2005, announcing the reopening of the case for the 30th anniversary in 2006. This led to the investigation of Ted Lamborgine, the identification of Christopher Busch as a strong suspect (via the Larry Wasser revelation to Patrick Coffey), and the eventual discovery of key DNA evidence tying Gunnels to Mihelich’s jacket.

At a polygraphers’ conference in Las Vegas, Patrick Coffey — a childhood neighbor of the King family — met Larry Wasser. When Coffey mentioned the OCCK case, Wasser’s demeanor changed and he exclaimed: “I tested the guy who killed your neighbor boy.” He said both the suspect and attorney were deceased. This led investigators to Christopher Busch and his 1977 private polygraph confession. Wasser fought subpoenas to the Michigan Court of Appeals before finally identifying Busch through vague “recollections.” He later denied the entire conversation with Coffey, calling his account “totally bogus.” He died before the case was resolved.

Offered an extremely generous plea deal in exchange for telling what he knew about the OCCK crimes — just 10 years for 14 felony CSC counts — Lamborgine chose to keep quiet and plead guilty, receiving three life sentences. The terms of that offer, and what information investigators believed Lamborgine had, remain among the most significant unanswered questions in the case.

Three independent examiners reviewed Ralph Cabot’s 1977 polygraph results on Busch and Greene. Findings: Greene failed outright; Busch’s chart was perhaps inconclusive with possible deception indicated on key questions. Both had been cleared as OCCK suspects based on Cabot’s 1977 determination of “passed.” Cabot was known within the MSP for shoddy polygraph work. Oakland County Deputy Prosecutor Dick Thompson had been present for Busch’s original test — the only polygraph in hundreds attended by a prosecutor — and accepted the result without independent review.

FBI DNA lab at Quantico returned positive mtDNA match: a hair found on Kristine Mihelich’s jacket was consistent with Vincent Gunnels. When later confronted with the match, Gunnels closed his eyes, refused to look at Mihelich’s photo, and said he wanted an attorney. In a recorded call from jail with his sister, he said: “I wasn’t there when it happened” — an indirect admission that his hair was on the victim’s jacket while implying he was not present at the murder. He suggested his brother Paul might also need to come forward. Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton publicly downplayed the mtDNA evidence.

After more than three decades, with no substantive information from investigators regarding Tim’s unsolved murder, Barry King went public in the Detroit News with what the family had learned about Christopher Busch and his associates since Larry Wasser’s 2006 revelation. The story by Marney Keenan, “Finding Timmy’s Killer,” ran October 26, 2009, on the front page. This was the first public identification of Busch as a named suspect in the OCCK murders.

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper had Birmingham Police Chief Don Studt call Barry King to advise that Christopher Busch, Gregory Greene, and Vince Gunnels were no longer considered OCCK suspects by the prosecutor’s office. No reasoning was offered. King commenced FOIA lawsuits against both the MSP and Oakland County Prosecutor. He won against the MSP — receiving 3,400+ pages of case files, at a cost of more than $11,000 in clerical costs. He lost against Cooper’s office, as the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that Cooper had no responsibility to explain her decision.

Three human hairs — one from Tim King’s groin, one from Mark Stebbins’ clothing, one from Arch Sloan’s Pontiac Bonneville — all had the same mitochondrial DNA profile. Comparison with Sloan’s DNA established the hairs were not his. The unknown hair donor is probably a white male based on haplogroup analysis. This is the strongest physical evidence in the case to date, connecting a convicted pedophile’s car to the first and last OCCK victims. The evidence has been compared against Busch, Greene, Lamborgine, Hastings, Norberg, and hundreds of others — no match has been made. Det. Cory Williams believes Sloan dumped Stebbins’ body.

In a surprise press conference, Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper announced a “tremendous breakthrough” — the mtDNA linking Stebbins, King, and Sloan’s car. She then stated the hairs “do not come from the driver of the vehicle.” This public announcement informed Sloan — who would not have known this — that the hairs linking two victims to his car were not his own, destroying any investigative leverage the evidence might have given prosecutors to pressure Sloan into talking. The decision to go public with this disclosure, and its effect on the investigation, has never been explained.

Beginning around this time, people came forward claiming to have been victims of organized pedophilia in the Detroit area from the mid-1970s into the 1980s. Some allegations describe a ring of pedophiles within General Motors’ executive management. One woman described being sexually abused by her GM manager father and his associates at private parties in Bloomfield Hills and Palmer Park — her father was promoted rapidly after he began bringing her. Another described being passed to “babysitters” who prepared children for appearance in child porn films, with filming taking place in a storage shed, movies transported in “Scooby Doo” VHS cases.

A tip from a reader of Marney Keenan’s “The Snow Killings” led to the discovery that Bloomfield PD Cpl. Richard McNamee — the first officer at the scene of Busch’s death, alone for perhaps half an hour — had molested children in the community while on patrol in the 1970s. McNamee was arrested on CSC charges in the early 1980s. The significance: the first and longest solo presence at an already-questionable death scene was a documented pedophile with community ties to the network under investigation.

Barry King, father of Timothy King (Victim #4), died at his home of a degenerative motor neuron disease. He spent more than four decades seeking justice for Tim’s murder and accountability from law enforcement. His lawsuits produced the release of thousands of pages of case files. His blog “A Father’s Story” and the video presentation “Decades of Deceit” document the family’s decades-long battle with local and state law enforcement. The OCCK cases remain open and unsolved.

Documentary filmmaker Colin Browen filed a FOIA lawsuit against the FBI after requests for more than 1,047 unreleased files in the Shelden/North Fox Island case were met with a claim that processing could take more than six years. The FBI has posted a public Vault file on Shelden, but researchers say the unredacted records would clarify the scope of who was identified and why wealthy clients were never prosecuted. Browen’s investigation has taken him to the Netherlands, Germany, and India, where he claims to have spoken to new victims of Shelden and alleged perpetrators.