Who’s Who: OCCK & North Fox Island
Who’s Who: OCCK & North Fox Island
North Fox Island Principals
Yale graduate (1950). Grosse Pointe native. Descendant of Russell A. Alger, 20th Governor of Michigan and Secretary of War under McKinley. Served in the Michigan Air National Guard. Graduate work in geology at Wayne State. Worked in real estate and oil. Active as a Big Brother through Ann Arbor’s YMCA.
Purchased North Fox Island for $20,000 in 1960. Installed a private airstrip. Incorporated Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission in 1975. Ran a documented child pornography and abuse network from the island. When Richards was arrested July 1976, Shelden fled after being tipped off by Richards’ wife. Obtained French citizenship by marriage. Relocated to Amsterdam. Declared a federal fugitive. Never extradited.
Died Amsterdam, July 9, 1996, age 68. MSP case notation: “Exceptional clearance, suspect is dead and cannot be prosecuted, but was obviously involved.” FBI file: 1,047+ records still unreleased as of 2026.
Physical education teacher from Port Huron. Found Shelden through a coded classified ad in a specialty publication. Became the network’s primary recruiter, logistics operator, and subscriber list manager. Catalogued approximately 600 correspondents and customers.
Arrested July 23, 1976, after a mother reported her son’s sexual assault. The only principal convicted. Pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Sentenced to two to twenty years at Jackson. Served a fraction. Testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1977, drawing a diagram of the national network’s structure.
Arrested again on child pornography charges in 1988. Died 1998. Only one of four known principals to face conviction.
Carmel, New York, millionaire. Science teacher at a prestigious all-boys boarding school. Listed as vice president of Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission. Co-incorporator with Shelden and Richards.
A September 27, 1976 case file entry documents that St. Clair County Prosecutor Robert Cleland was contacted about a warrant for Grossman for sex crimes the previous summer and had not authorized it, citing workload. Grossman was never arrested, never served with a warrant, and was never charged in relation to North Fox Island.
After Richards’ arrest, it was believed Grossman fled to California. Last known reported location in public records: Tacoma, Washington, around 1977. Never confirmed dead or alive in any public record since. Status unknown.
Self-described “perpetual traveler” and white-collar criminal. Published material advising readers on establishing child-care organizations and camps. Ran the Church of the New Revelation, the parent organization of Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission.
Stood trial for various financial and other crimes over the years. Never charged in relation to North Fox Island. Died in Spain, 2006.
OCCK Suspects
Son of H. Lee Busch, executive finance director of Europe for General Motors. Attended school in Switzerland. Graduated from a Midland culinary school. Opened a restaurant/bar called The Scotsman in Alma with his father’s backing.
Documented client and friend of Frank Shelden per investigators. Arrested in 1977 with Gregory Greene in Genesee County for sexually exploiting more than two dozen adolescent boys. Released on bond despite Greene implicating him in the OCCK murders. Administered a polygraph by MSP in 1977 that was publicly described as passed. Later documentation revealed three experienced examiners concluded Busch either failed or did not pass the test.
Found dead in an apparent suicide at his parents’ home in November 1978, gunshot wound between the eyes. Never charged in the OCCK murders. A portrait of a screaming boy was found in his possession during a search.
Flint native. MSP reports document an extensive history of violent child sex crime convictions in California before Greene ever came to Michigan — including at least one case in which he believed a boy was dead and dropped him off at a hospital. The boy survived. After serving his California jail term, Greene returned to Flint, where he met Christopher Busch.
Moved to Michigan in 1975. Arrested with Busch in 1977 in Genesee County for sexually exploiting more than two dozen adolescent boys. Under interrogation — specifically about North Fox Island pedophilia activity — told investigators that Chris Busch murdered Mark Stebbins, the first OCCK victim. Convicted on child sexual assault charges. Sentenced to life in prison.
Greene is not a Michigan criminal who happened to connect to North Fox Island. He was a California-convicted violent child sex offender who relocated to Michigan, embedded in the network, and became the thread that linked the two investigations.
Convicted child molester. First publicly identified as an OCCK suspect in July 2012 when the Oakland County Prosecutor publicly requested information on his possible involvement.
Hair from his 1966 Pontiac Bonneville matched hairs found on victims Mark Stebbins and Timothy King. Mitochondrial DNA later linked an unknown male’s hair found in the car to the victims, but the DNA was not Sloan’s own. He failed an OCCK polygraph. Currently serving a life sentence at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian for unrelated child sex crimes.
Retired auto worker. Named a top OCCK suspect in 2007. Member of a 1970s sex ring that preyed on young boys in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. Part of a five-man ring; he and Richard Lawson were the only two still alive when charged in 2006.
Charged with 19 counts of sexually assaulting children. Received a life sentence. Refused to take a polygraph about the OCCK murders. Investigators do not believe he is the killer but consider him to have valuable information about the case. Connected to Busch through survivor testimony.
Only 16 years old at the time of the OCCK killings. Documented victim of Christopher Busch — two CSC cases were filed on his behalf against Busch. Investigators believed Gunnels may have been used as a lure to draw children closer to the killer. Described in investigative documents as the “Flint connection.”
Mitochondrial DNA from hair found on victim Kristine Mihelich’s jacket produced a hit via CODIS connected to Gunnels. When re-interrogated, Gunnels stated he was often in Christopher Busch’s vehicle. Connected to Lamborgine and Lawson through investigative threads. Repeatedly denied knowledge of the OCCK murders.
Met with the King family. Barry King described his account as believable but contradicted by prior statements to others.
Prosecutors & Officials
Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor) Prosecutor at the time of the North Fox Island investigation. An August 2, 1976 case file entry documents that Deegan “wants to wait on warrant for Sheldon [sic] until invest. is completed.” This is the documented reason Shelden was not arrested immediately after Richards’ arrest on July 23, 1976.
The delay between Richards’ arrest and a warrant for Shelden — driven in part by this documented declination — gave Shelden time to flee the country after being tipped off by Richards’ wife.
St. Clair County Prosecutor at the time of the North Fox Island investigation. A September 27, 1976 case file entry documents that Cleland was contacted about a warrant for Dyer Grossman for sex crimes and had not authorized it, citing workload. Later described by Catherine Broad’s reporting as having given Frank Shelden a “pass” in 1977.
Grossman was never arrested, never charged, and has never been located. Cleland later became a federal judge, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Charlevoix County district attorney at the time of the North Fox Island investigation. Former FBI agent. Served as a director of a Big Brother program, the same civic organization Frank Shelden was involved with in Ann Arbor.
Case file documents establish that Berlage visited North Fox Island with his two teenage sons on at least one occasion. Berlage is identified in documented sources as a likely mutual acquaintance between Shelden and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Peter Deegan — the suggested connective tissue between the two prosecutors whose warrant delays gave Shelden time to flee.
Berlage has not been accused of any crime in relation to North Fox Island. His documented visit to the island with minor children, his Big Brother affiliation overlapping with Shelden’s, his former FBI career, and his position as the identified link between Shelden and Deegan place him as one of the most significant underdiscussed figures in the prosecutorial record.
Executive finance director of Europe for General Motors. Father of Christopher Busch. Provided financial backing for Christopher’s restaurant/bar, The Scotsman, in Alma. An associate named Bobby Moore was reported to take young boys to visit H. Lee Busch, per investigative documents cited in research on the case.
Not accused of any crime. Documented as the source of Christopher Busch’s social and financial standing.
Member of the same Cass Corridor sex ring as Ted Lamborgine. Already serving a life sentence for murder when charged in 2006 with 28 counts of sexually assaulting children. Told WDIV in 2006 that he knows who the Oakland County Child Killer is. Investigators do not believe he is the killer but consider him a source of information.
Connected to Lamborgine, and through Lamborgine to Busch. Gunnels’ name emerged in the investigation of Lamborgine and Lawson.
OCCK Victims
First confirmed OCCK victim. Abducted in Ferndale. Body found February 19, 1976. Held approximately 4 days. Under interrogation, Gregory Greene told investigators that Christopher Busch had murdered Mark Stebbins. Hair from Arch Sloan’s car matched hairs found on Stebbins.
Abducted after leaving her parents’ home following an argument with her mother. Body found December 26, 1976. Held approximately 4 days. Her case is one of the four that remain open and unsolved.
Abducted while heading to a local 7-Eleven. Body found January 21, 1977. Held 19 days, the longest captivity of any OCCK victim. Mitochondrial DNA from a hair found on her jacket produced a CODIS hit connected to James Vincent Gunnels. Case remains open.
Brother of Catherine Broad, who has maintained a decades-long investigation through her blog and advocacy. Abducted March 16, 1977. Body found March 22, 1977. Hair from Arch Sloan’s car also matched hairs found on Timothy King. A Busch molestation survivor later claimed to have crossed paths with Timothy King during his captivity.
Timothy’s father Barry King filed lawsuits against the state police and prosecutors that led to the release of more than 3,000 pages of documents, including key materials now central to the North Fox Island connections.