Episode 174: Erik Cross (Part 1 of 2)

0:12 Hello, and welcome to the Catch My Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening. My name is Mark. For nearly eight years, I've written a weekly newspaper column about true crimes and missing people for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio. With the column and podcast, my objective has always been to bring attention to cases that haven't received much media attention if annie. This week's story involves a seventeen year old Michigan high school student named Eric Sterling Cross, who told his parents that he was spending the night with his friend Bill Cook. The plan was for Eric's father to pick both of the young men up the next day and they were going to spend the day at a boat show. Unfortunately, June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three would be the final day that Eric's parents and his younger sister Jackie would ever see Eric alive. He would be brutally murdered. What happened to Eric? Who would want to kill him?

1:12 Easy going and fun loving teenager, Eric Sterling Cross was born in Flint, Michigan, on September twenty fifth, nineteen sixty six, to Ted and Mary lou Cross. Eric lived in Vicksburg, Michigan, which is in Kalamazoo County with his parents and his younger sister, Jackie Mitchell. According to Jackie, Eric was a great big brother. The two shared a love for music, and both of them loved led Zeppelin. Eric loved to hunt, fish and spend his time outdoors, as many teenagers did back in the eighties. Jackie said that her and Eric had a great childhood. They were loved by their parents and had a strong family unit, but life would change after Eric was viciously murdered in nineteen eighty three. On June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three, Eric had made plans to stay overnight with his friend Bill Cook. Eric's dad playing on picking up the boys and spending the next day at a boat show. It was something that Eric had looked forward to. However, unknown to Eric's family, he was planning on attending a graduation party that evening.

2:27 There would be alcohol at the party and the events that this party would lead to Eric's brutal killing. Instead of staying overnight with Bill, Eric walked home alone. According to Eric's sister, he didn't stay with his friend Bill because Bill decided to spend time with his girlfriend and the other people who would be involved in Eric's death. Eric's sister said that her brother's friend abandoned him and left him alone. After Eric left the party, he was ineviated. Some time before two am, Eric was seen walking past the gas station. There were also two carloads of teenagers from the party seen near Eric as he walked home. According to Jackie, she said that there was some false information about what happened next. She said that media sources have claimed that Eric's father heard him return home, assumed that he was home, and then went back to sleep. Jackie stated that this is not true. She said that her father did not hear anything and he never suspected that Eric was home because he had told his parents that he was spending the night with his friend Bill, so there was no reason for him to suspect that Eric had arrived home. As far as he knew, he didn't expect to see Eric until the next day, when he was supposed to pick him up at his friend Bill's home.

3:47 Jackie has said that it's important to know the truth because people had accused Eric's father that being negligent by leaving his son outside to die. Had he known Eric had returned home, he would have gone to the door and let his sign in. Jackie wanted me to stress this for this episode because she said that her father was a caring and loving man and he died knowing that people blamed him for Eric's death, which was not true. Early that Sunday morning, Eric's father went outside to get the newspaper. He would be shocked by what he found. Eric's lifeless body was in the driveway. He must have been confused. Why would Eric be dead in the driveway when he was supposed to be with his friend Bill waiting on a ride to the boat show.

4:33 It was assumed that Eric had walked home, got hit by a car, and then died. Upon further examination from the medical examiner, the explanation for Eric's death would be far more horrific. Based on evidence. There was ripped pieces of clothing at the scene, blood, and evidence of rope burns on Eric's body. It also appeared that someone had beaten him. Based on Eric's wound, someone had tied him to a car and dragged his body through the streets before finally running him over. Rumors began to spread that there were several witnesses and people began talking. Eventually, the story came out that a teenager named Brent Spaulding, who had bullied Eric in school, had followed Eric home and found him lying next to a tree. Most likely, he had fallen asleep and never made it into his house. According to witness statements, Spaulding tied a rope around Eric and then attached the other end of the rope to his car. He then dragged Eric to his death. However, after dragging Eric through the streets, Spaulding realized that Eric wasn't dead. He then decided to run Eric's body over to make it appear like a hit and run.

5:45 Although there have been witnesses who said Spaulding confessed and other witnesses who have shared this information with law enforcement, Spaulding has never been arrested. According to Jackie Mitchell, everyone in town knew who killed her brother. She said it was secret. She said that in late twenty seventeen, law enforcement put out a warrant to arrest five people and then charge them with killing Eric. The five people named as being responsible for killing Eric are Amber Thomas, Bill Cook, Tim Martin, Brian Spaulding Senior, and Brent Spaulding. Although law enforcement was prepared to arrest these five individuals they would receive some devastating news. The prosecutor's office has since refused to prosecute the alleged killers. This is the first part of a two part story, and now on with the story of Eric cross is told by his sister, Jackie Mitchell. Eric Jerlane Crust is my brother, and he was born in September twenty fifth, nineteen sixty six in Flint, Michigan. And after I was born, I should say, he actually lived with my parents when he was quite in Hamtrammick, which is in the Detroit area. But then the riots that happened in Detroit in the late sixties where they were like bringing up the town and so on, made my parents moved back up to Grand Blank, which is closer to where my dad went

7:17 to college at General Waters Institute. So then I was going there up in Grand Blank when they lived at Grand Blank in nineteen seventy and then we moved up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is a marvelous place and was a wonderful place to be a child. Eric and I and my parents Mary Lewinted Crossed lived at the end of the dirt road up there in Escanaba and with state forests act up to our properties. As are some of the best memories I have of growing up with Eric is the two of us just like this was back in the seventies, people who were not so worried about letting their children run around then just when outside and ran through the state course and we had our golden lab Misty who ran around with us climbing the tree.

8:11 That really, Eric was just a very outdoorsy person and that's what he enjoyed the most throughout his life, with being outside. So then when we moved back down to Graham Plank, which was due to a job situation from my dad, that was a fair difficult transition for both of us, but I think even more for him because he was a little older than me and just look like we moved into this subdivision that was kind of hoty toy It wasn't even the most toyty tili of Grand Plank, but it was very horty choice for us, you know, having come from being having a very rustic light to them living with neighbors right next to and all up in your business and everything. So that was very difficult for both of us. But we lived there for a while, and then the last move that we made the family was over to Vicksburg, which is where Eric was ultimately dirt. So we moved there in nineteen two in September. Eric was sixteen and I was twelve, And I don't know. I don't think that was as bad as a transition for him as going when we moved him, because Vicksburg was like more of a country town. I think it was worse for me because the schools were so bad compared to what I was used to, but like for him because he was not as academically outed as I was more of an outdoorsy type than I came on, type of person knew like to fix things, like to play with his dogs, you know, helped my dad with think.

9:43 My dad and Erquois hunting fishing a lot. So for him, he liked moving back to the country, which we did in Fixburg. But then I was not aware that he was being bullied in school. He's in the high school and I was in the junior high and so we weren't in the same school. But other people have told me. After he was murdered, it came out that he had been bullied at school, like being a new person coming I think in the middle of high school is probably difficult transition in a lot of ways. But he liked the real aspect of apika a motorbike, which I can remember looking out my window at seeing him ride his motorbike through the corn field when there weren't any corn in them, because I could see a layout in the distance ride his motorbike. He's friends the Chapman these twin boys, Chapman brothers lived across the feet, so he ride his motorbike over to visit them. And that's just what he enjoyed doing, and he had a lot of opportunities to do that in Vicksburgh, although I personally regretted moving there because he was murdered less than a year if we moved there, So I always thought of that as a mistake or a bad place because of what ended up happening to him. We'll go ahead and take a quick break in one way return we'll hear more about Jackie's thoughts on life in Vicksburg after the family relocated to the city where Eric would eventually be killed in So it sounds

11:28 to me like he really didn't have a lot of friends in school and his thing was just being home and hunting and doing things with his dad and riding his dirt bite And he was probably happiest when he was at home and not so much in school. Does that sound about right? I think that's right. Yeah. So he wasn't really into math and that kind of thing. He wasn't really into the academic subjects in Vicksburg that they had autoshop, the wood shop kind of thing. He was doing that, which he really annoyed. And because we were so new, he did have friends at school, but this crowd ended up getting him into trouble. He had only started hanging out with them toward the end of his life to hanging out with this very bad family who was wealthy and a horrible, horrible family that had a history of abuse and secrecy in their family, that were an established family from that area that had a lot of money and construction. That was one of your typical kind of generational degradation type situations. Like when I started listening to the coverage of this Alex Murdoch trial and the Carolinas, it totally reminded me of this family. They're almost exactly the thing. Like they started out with the grandfather who built the wealth and the empire and had all kinds of connections in and I was talking about the murderer's family out all kinds of connection of the community, was well respected. And then his son, who the father of the killer, who ended up kind of beginning the downfall of his family by

13:03 just acting it was a complete disregard of people around him, and raising a murderer by not only abusing his children, but just encouraging them their bad behavior and just to be selfish and do whatever they felt like doing the matter, and don't disregard to anyone around them. And then of course the third generation, very similar to the Murdoch family, just ends up being complete waste rolls, you know, just addicts, alcoholic drug addicts who just don't even have any semblance of order civilization anymore. The very similar situation. The only difference is, of course, in the case of this recent Murdoch trial, they actually were brought to justice, whereas Eric killer has not been brought to justice.

13:52 Now, when you moved out to Vicksburg and Eric was going to school, was he a senior. No, When we moved there, he was a sophomore. He was preparing to go into his junior year. Actually, it's interesting because that I know that I recalled this from when I was young. I used to ride my bike to the cemetery. If it's his crave and someone had put a T shirt on his grave. I'm sure one of his classmates that said juniors do it better, which I thought was a very nice touch. Of course, he never actually got to be junior, but the rest of his class did. Now, what were Eric's goals in life? What did he want to do after he left high school? Tell me about his goals and his plans for the future. Back then, in the early eighties, we were not going around like they do today, like you must know what you're going to do, you must start exploring careers immediately.

14:46 I mean, we talked about it, but I don't ever remember him saying I'm definitely going to be this thing or that thing. I don't know. I don't even remember him saying that he wanted to be anything in particular. He was just enjoying his life. He like music a lot, I mean, besides his outdoor pursuits, he wanted to learn to play the guitar. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to do that. Since his life was robbed from him, but he wanted to play the guitar. He wanted slowly electric guitar. That my parents told him they would be willing to get him an acrustic guitar if he would take lessons to learn the acoustic tar first, and then he could then electric guitar to death about of course, that never came to fruition. That was just to play abound the time that he was killed. I can relate because I was a freshman in high school in nineteen eighty three. Oh okay, so you were from that same era that you understay what I'm talking about. Yeah, right, So when you said that Eric was just living in the moment and not thinking about his future, I thought, well, that was me and my best friend back in the day.

15:50 We were the same when I was a freshman in high school. If you would have asked me what I wanted to do with my life after I graduated from high school, I would have had absolutely no clue. Did go to the military, but my parents helped me decide that because my dad was a veteran. But I do know what you're talking about, because back in those days, me and my buddies, we never discussed what we wanted to do after high school. We were just so busy in the eighties, listening to music and keeping up with what people were wearing and watching sports on TV. We were just so busy, like you said, just living in the moment. We never thought about our futures. Yeah, right to. And it's a lot different today. Kids today, it's like when our thirteen fourteen years old, they're pushed into what are you gonna do after you get out of high school? You need to start thinking about your future. But back when I was growing up in the eighties, it just wasn't like that.

16:42 It sounds like your brother and you live the same type of life that my brothers and I lived. I mean we went outside, stayed outside all day, only came in to use the bathroom or eat, and then come in when the street lights came on. Me and my brothers just would go riding bikes and just day outside all day. But that was the thing to do. We never saw our parents until it was time to come in. We spent the whole day outside with our friends playing you know, baseball, football. We just hung out and talked. There was no technology, so staying outside was the thing. To do. If your parents punish you, they made you stay inside, and that was a terrible punishment back in those days.

17:23 Today you couldn't pay a kid to go outside and play. It's like, when I look outside today, you don't see any kids outside. But when I grew up, if you looked outside, everyone was outside different times, right, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, so life is really different. And you know what else I find interesting. Whenever I post stories on my Facebook page or my cash My Killer Facebook page, I'll post stories from old cases that happened back in the eighties or before, if someone was killed, or someone selling girls Scout cookies got abducted. I can often tell how old somebody is just by seeing their comments, you know, because you'll see statements like, well, how could you let an eight or nine year old go out and sell cookies and collect money? And I'm thinking, when I grew up in the eighties, I did go out and collect money and sell things door to door. I had a newspaper route when I was a kid. I delivered papers, I knocked on doors, I collected money. I got up at five o'clock in the morning when I was a kid to deliver newspapers, and then when I got home from school, I had an afternoon route, so then I would deliver papers after I got home from school. And I also sold candy and cookies for my school when I was a kid as well, and I often went alone. Now today it's a different story. I wouldn't send one of my young kids out today to do what I did back in the eighties. But it really was a different

18:57 time, and people today have a difficult time understanding the kind of things that we did in the past. Things that were acceptable, like riding in cars without seatbelts, or riding in the back of a pickup truck with no seatbelt, or anything like I said, those are things that you wouldn't do today, but you know, thirty forty years ago, it's what we did and it was acceptable, right, Yes, because the reasons are or is there more crime or is it just public styfe more or whatever it is, people do walk around in fear a lot more. And I feel like that example that you just cave it is one of the things that keeps me, you know. I try to avoid comment fictions on various YouTube videos and so on about Eric because people will blame my parents, not only is it actually inaccurate, but it's just they're judging them from the strength of mind of today, which is completely different than how it was back then for sure. Right, So tell me about your last moments with Eric. When did you last see him, and tell me about your conversation with him the last time you saw him alive? Yeah, okay, it was his stummer. It was June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three, and it was a Saturday, and this was the first time he was going to go out. He had just been grounded for a month because he had a fender bender. He'd only just recently gotten his license and then he had a fender bender where he was reaching over

20:30 to change the station on the radio and not paying attention and we ended the car in front of him. So anyway, yeah, so I can remember. He seemed really happy, like he was whistling getting ready to go, and he had this very nice eighties fathered hairdo. He was in the bathroom Homie's hair. The door was opened, and then my room was like right next to it. So the radio was playing. It was the song The Look of Love by ABC. Wow. ABC, that's an old band. I remember them. I haven't heard anyone mention them in a long time. Yeah, And so I was getting ready and I don't remember exactly what we were talking about. I remember the music, and then I think I just said about to him because he was going out the door because he was supposed to spend the night at his friend's house, and what he told my parents he was doing with spending the night at a friend house. Then my dad was going to pick him and his friend Bill up in the morning to go to a boat show in Detroit. He was going to have to get up really early to drive over there, and it was like a big deal.

21:37 It's like an exciting excursion they were going to do. So Hays, I forget to say it later because you're the first person I've talked to about Eric's case in terms of a public statement since two twenty But in January twenty twenties, when this thing happened with the Attorney General of Michigan, Korea had a meeting with their representative and I just basically quit the case. But one of the things I really want to get out there is that it wasn't like my parents were letting him go to this drinking party, which is what he was doing without telling them. It was the senior graduation party where the parents were charging three dollars get in and the parents were serving alcohols open. Anyway, my parents had no idea who was going to this thing, and they didn't know he was out wandering around the streets or whatever. They thought he was spending night with his fun at his hut. So even though there's this thing that's gotten out there, I think it's from the Crime Watch Daily episode that my dad heard him trying to get in or something like that, or heard in Randlan door. And when I looked at the police report, that is not accurate to like I've read the actual police report, it's not accurate to what it says. The police detective who said that was not reading enough the police pots. That is not accurate. And my parents did not think he was coming home. My dad was going to pick him up at Bill's house in the morning. So that has gotten out there, and I do not like that at all. That's what some of these ridiculous comments are about.

23:04 It doesn't even matter. I mean, even if my dad did hear that, that doesn't mean it's my dad's fault. He died with murder, But it didn't. That didn't happen anyway, complete lie. I should say misrepresentation of the truth, because I don't think the detect purposely set it wrong. But it is unfair to think that my dad just left him out there to get murdered. That is not what happened. So anyway, I just want to make sure that I put that on the records. Okay, I was going to ask you about that because I did reading several of the articles that your dad had heard him trying to get in, but he didn't get out of bed and just ignored it. But you're telling me that's not true.

23:48 Okay, Yeah, well he didn't. He wasn't even planning to come back. Well, it wasn't an expecting Eric to come home because he was supposed to pick him up the next day for the boats. So there really wouldn't be any reason for your dad to expect Eric to be trying to get into the house exactly. Yeah, but I do want to say that I forgive them. I know why people do this. They try to distance themselves because they want to think nothing my bad is ever going to happen to my family. They haven't really had anything bad happened you can tell or they wouldn't be making these judgments, and so I forgive them, Like I know that was like you think, if you do a biding right, it won't happen to you. But the thing if it is, you know what, Like we were saying before, do we need to keep the child locked in the room at all time? Never come out then? Because there is danger in the world. So it's always a balance between the child has some freedom responsibility, like you having people out, that's amazing that you did that. Like a lot of children today, like they wonder why they don't have job skills or don't not responsibility when they graduate it because they never were allowed to sail or take any risks. You can't just throw them out there, right. So another reason why I like to speak to people who actually knew the victim is because I find that in a lot of cases, when I talk to people, they'll tell me that certain things that have been released in the media aren't true. And that's also what I've learned about listening to a lot of different

25:23 podcasts. They don't actually speak to anybody that knew anything about the case personally or any of the victims. When they do their research. They just go by whatever they find online or whatever they find in the newspaper, so they really don't know if the information that they're sharing is actually true. So whenever I get a chance, I like to ask for clarification. So Eric actually lied to your parents because he didn't tell them he was going to a party with drinking involved. Had he done that, I'm sure your parents would not have allowed that to happen. So he said he was going to stay with his friend, but he was actually going to a party. Yeah, he went to the friend's house and they were planning to go back to Bill's house.

26:14 They just didn't actually ever make it back there, but they went to the party from the house where he was spending the night. So yeah, he did go spend the night there. And I think their plan originally, which went haywire, of course, was to get back to Bill's because my dad was supposed to pick them up there in the morning to go to this boat show. They were excited about go to the boat show. They did want to go, and they both made it to the party. Correct, They both went to the party. Yeah, yeah, his friend. I mean I tell you that his friend who he spent the night with was the girl. I'm sorry, the friend's girlfriend was the sister of the killer, so she was also in the car and she has since died of cancer, but she That is kind of the link of how he Eric even got mixed up with this horrible crowd of people and this family from hell. Okay, and from what I understand, one of the people that was familiar with what happened to your brother died of cancer, that's right. Yeah. And of all the people who were involved murdering Eric, which was a group of five teenagers, and then the cover up assisted by the parents, so all of them were in this conspiracy to murder and then lie about Eric's death, which when the sheriff did later request warrants, he included one of the parents in the warrants they requested, which I was very happy because to me, that father is he might not have been there when Eric was killed, but he

27:47 helped throw it up and he produced the murderer. And not every parent whose child murders someone is responsible. This person was directly responsible because if he did let his son get punished the sun was like teen years old, this would have been way better off than now. We ended up like he not only tried to destroy our family, he destroyed his own son by not letting him take responsibility. And the reason why he didn't want to let the son take responsibility wasn't protecting the sun. It was because he knew if that went to trial that all of his crimes would come out, because they explained that to us when they were trying to bring it to trial. So he covered up the murder to save himself, and in this process destroyed his own son and my father as well. Okay, And based on what I've seen about this case, your brother god intoxicated and then he stumbled home. Tell me if that's true, and which happened after he arrived at the party, tell me about that night. Okay, Well, this was not a random event as it sometimes portrayed, because this person who ended up confessing to multi people that he murdered my brother has told where, when, why, how he did it? Was a bully who was witness used to push Eric into the pop machine, call him all kinds of names, call him gay, call him

29:17 this, call him that the other thing was constantly targeting Eric car asking him. This was the culmination of constant bullying and harassment that started at the school continuing on to this party. But also the other thing that happened was extremely unfortunate in this case. One of the many things was that they tried to at first put out that they thought was a hidden run when it wasn't. It was a purposeful, premeditated act of murder. But anyway, so in terms of going back to your question about the party, there are several credible witnesses who did see Eric walking down the st read alone from the party, and this one of them was the needs girl just happened to be home just looking out the window or whatever, like, people who had no reason to lie about who were just staying what they saw, even though he was supposed to be with Bill. But Bill had gone off with this other crowd, the bully and the bully sister who was Bill's girlfriend. I mean, basically, even though he denies it, the way I read the police report and the eye wiscounts is Bill just abandoned Eric, you know what I'm saying.

30:29 But however it happened, they ended up. There's also otherwise eyewitnesses that saw the two cars which were i'll just call them the bully. You said, you don't want me to name these people if they have been named as persons, I mean, if anyone wants to look it up, it's they've been named it as persons of interest. Well, you can go ahead and name them. That's fine. I mean their names are all over the internet that these five individuals are people of interest. And I saw the warrant online and I saw their names. So it's called acknowledge that these five individuals were involved with killing your brother or they knew something about it. So you can mention their names. Yeah, yeah, right down the warrant. Yeah. And so WMT, which is our local Kalamazoo News three TV channel, was the first one to publicly name Brent Spaulding as a person of interest, along with his father, Brian Spaulding, and then the other people who they were seeking Warren Son, which was Tim Martin, Amber Thomas, and Bill Cook.

31:34 The so called friend. I mean, I've been calling him a friend only because he was a friend, I guess, you know, at least he claimed to be so. Anyway, the cars that were driven by the suspects were seen at the corner store, which was only like four doors down from our So the part that happened that point is hard to say, because maybe they just saw him walking by. Maybe they we're waiting for him. We don't really know. But however it happened, they got a hold of them, they tied him up, he had rope burns him. In the Autopian so On, Jackie shared an important part of Eric's story with me. She said that a young man named Bill Snyder went to the police and gave them details about her brother's murder. He told the Forties that Brent Spalding had confessed to him that he had indeed killed Eric. Also, Bill Snyder isn't the same Bill that Eric was supposed to be staying with on the evening of his death. Bill Cook was the friend Eric was supposed to spend the night with.

32:40 Jackie considers Bill Snyder a true hero because he was asked not to go to the police or share any information about what Spalding had told him. But Bill decided that it was the right thing to do to go to the police and tell them what really happened to Eric, and he had no motivation to lie about anything as Spaulding was one of his friends, and Jackie felt that it was brave of Bill to go to the police. We'll go ahead and take a momentary break, and when we come back, we'll listen to Jackie's thoughts on Bill Snyder telling law enforcement what really happened to Eric on the day that he was killed. I'll just tell you what Brent Spaulding said to his friend Bill Snyder when he confessed. Bill Snyder went in and took a lie detector test at the count of Zoo County Sheriff's department in December of nineteen eighty three. And so even though Brian Spaulding, the father of Brent, had gone to Snyder's house, I'll just call him Snyder's so we don't get confused.

34:05 Thea Bill, who's the false friend? He had the father, Brian Spolting, gone Snyder's house and tried to stop him from going to the police to tell them the confession when Brent confessed to murdering my brother. But Bill Snyder Wrent, anyway, wonderful hero the story, Bill Snyder, wonderful young man to have done that, you know, being pressured by this wealthy father of your friend. Don't go tell It'll be bad for Brent. Blah blah blah. Anyway, So what Brent said to Bill Snyder is Eric was laying down by the tree in front of his house, So this is me talking.

34:45 According to this confession, Eric had made it past the store, but they must have seen him them found then they tried to get in the house. But that whole thing, I don't like it at all. It's all speculation. They never find his you know, whether his abusers and bullies and killers took it from him, possibly so he couldn't get in his house. His house, he was never found. So he was apparently trying to get home since his pause brand cook had abandoned him and Eric had to fend for himself, so he couldn't get in because he didn't have a key. So he's laying down by the tree. Apparently. Brent said he came up. He was laying down by the tree. Brent said, I tied one end of the rope around Eric's waist, and I tied the other end around the bumper of my car, and I drove around the block. So he dragged him to his death. This is what Brent Faulving told Bill Snyder in December of nineteen eighty three. They dragged my brother to his desk a block.

35:47 You know, it's a country block there. You know, every street's like a mile. That's what he said, is around the block. But anyway, but then that wasn't good enough for him, because these are the different accounts that have come from the brave young people who did decide to tell the truth, because some of them went to the Spalding house and saw them when they were trying to decide how to cover up the crime and what to do. I witnessed accounts from those brave young people, which is acceptable in the court of law obviously as evidence if you say this person said this and made this confession of how they killed Eric, how they covered it up. All of those people I want to commend because even many of them were afraid, obviously for their light. Even the false friend, Bill Cook said in his Lye detector test, which he failed, he was afraid something would happened to him if he told what he knew. But Bill Snyder, who told this confession about the rope, he passed his Lye detector test. He's the only one I saw that did pass his light Detecker. But anyway, those people who were willing to come to long and no one there was a killer, they had come to their person, and then the prosecutor of Kalamazoo County refuses to go out and issue the wards to share, basting the issue to catch a killer and bring him to justice, when all distans are saying, the guys told multiple people who did it. We have people who were there,

37:21 and you still won't get out of your fancy car that you run around Kalamazoo and on the salary we're paying you and just go and bother to catch the guy who everybody in town, everybody in the county knowed it. It's absurd. So anyway they put him in the trunk. They were probably wronk and probably on drunk. Who knows what they did. But other people came to the house to other wonderful young people who knew the Spauldings were there when they were at the house trying to get rid of the evidence, clean out the trunk and so on. Because they came up with this stant to bring him back to our house, run over him a bunch of times to try to make it look like a hit and run. So this was their wonderful plant was to leaven in the road like a piece of trash, knowing that his parents come out there and find him so that, you know, so TB looked like an accident. The only reason they pretended to go along with their stant because it was obvious that was not what had happened. They knew there was about the rope burns. They knew he was just like outrageously, you know, more than you would have if you just got hit by car, because stract or for probably miles. And then they knew that all the tire tracks and the car injuries were post mortem. They could tell he was already dead before they started running him over. Plus there was a neighbor who heard

38:52 them screaming, you know, the girls screaming who in the car? He saw us when after they dropped his body off and ran it over in the morning, So that was what they decided to do, these youth. And then when the Spaulding parent wherever they were vacation or somewhere overnight, they weren't there, they decided to start covering it up and going around and telling witnesses not to talk. And all the parents involved with these killers decided to help cover up the murder and up there that false had lost their child who you know, at first didn't know or what happened or anything. Of course, right away, wasn't long before everybody in the whole town knew, and they still did nothing. And then these still people were at the school I had to go to school with and be on the cross country team with the brother of the killer, who was supposedly also in the car. But I was a child, I'm like, oh, I guess this is how it happens.

39:52 They just don't kill people and nobody does anything and everybody knows who it is. To me, that was just norm like I thought, I mean, when people were shocked. Later, I'm like, oh, okay, so this isn't normal that you're telling me, Like normally people do get arrested when they commit murder. I was told the story was they put Brent in a mental hospital so that he wouldn't get arrested, And it's true, that is what happened. The last line on the nineteen eighty three police report before they reopened it as a coal case is Brent's currently is at Pine Rest Mental Hospital. Case remains open pending further investigation. I mean, that is what happened. I kind of thought later that must just have been a myth, like people don't get away with murder just by checking themselves into a mental hospital.

40:37 But it worked for him. Well, yes, and he's still not locked up. I did see his little video clip of him coming out of jail and a reporter was interviewing him asking him if he had anything to do with Ris murder. Of course he denied it. So I did see that clip. Yep. I've learned a lot in the last thirteen years, and we started pursuing justice on Facebook. I thought they had a conscience. We met with Bill Cook to try to get information. I called the Amber on the phone. I used to imagine Brent would concess one day. I thought people. I didn't realize how many people. I don't know. They objected statistics, But there's a lot of people out there that if they can get away with something, they don't care. And it's said to know that because I used to imagine when I was younger, Oh, if I could just talk to Amber, I'm a mother. Now she's a mother. She would answer my questions that I asked her, like what were last moments? Like did he have any last words? Was he in pain before he died?

41:40 You know things you want to know, But she wouldn't answer them. I even asked her to meet with a priest and me off the record, no law enforcement. Please just give me peace about what happened to my brother so I can stop thinking about it. Nope, not going to do that, not going to help. You don't care. That's how these people are. Yes, I saw that she's now deceased or someone in that group is deceased. No, that is her friend, my Brett, who had died of cancer. Matter. She is the only one that I think had a conscience. She was at the funeral chamber and May Brett. They were friends. They were in the car alleged obvious, he's true. Anyway, they were in the car amber and my Brett came to the funeral. I didn't know who they were. I can remember it as a twelve year old girl.

42:30 First of all, the organist started playing stairwid to Heaven You. Of course, you probably maybe remember that song from your days back in high school led Zeppelin. Yeah, that was one of the ways Eric and I had bonded over that because he was in direct and roll music. I was more into the clapcorn music. I was taking piano lessons that kind of thing. But I liked pop music. Too, But I had this piano book that was greatest hit Stay East or whatever popular songs today anyway, So I had stairwid Heaven in it, and I was just like he had that record album, and so he would play it on the album. And so I remember playing it to Gil Ericlexis song I'll learned this one, and he was like really excited about it because he didn't pay attention to what I was playing him the piano half the time. But when I played Scary to Heap and he was raged that I could play that. So when my mom was planning the funeral and I said, oh, well, we maybe you should have them placed there. We'd haven't because you really liked that song. So I gave the organist, Carlos Doublefield my piano book and she played it out of there.

43:28 And when they started playing at a sponge teenage there at the funeral, like base, people started wailing and crying, and these two girls in particular were whaling and crying. I'm like, oh my gosh, they must have really liked Derek. I didn't even know them. Then later, when they were lowering Eric's body into the ground, Amber and Neigbrett were there again like wailing eye. I'm like, wow, I talk. We don't know these girls that obviously care so much about him. But Maibrett, I know from some of the little bit of statements I read, or even though her parents they tried to keep them from talking, they had them plead the fifth all these different things, she had a conscience. I just know she did from things that I've heard, so I'm sure was eating her up inside. And I do believe that contributes to cancer. I mean, I do believe that was a contribution to her death. I know I sound angry I'm saying that, but it's like or whatever, that's your life. I mean, if you haven't even learned yet at your age that you should try to make it right and make amends. I mean, his son, Brent, who is sent into hell of constant addiction, drug abuse, prison, drunk driving, all the things he does, He's had to go through the twelve step program a bunch of times. It's like what you go through it and then you just pretend like you haven't even gone past step one. I mean, acknowledge there's a higher power, make amends, find the people you've wronged. I mean, how can you even go through the twelve step program. If you can't even acknowledge that you killed somebody, well, I'll tell you. I had a conversation with my grandson about this, well about crime, because he watches

45:04 True Prime shows with me, and I told him that people will get away in this life with earthly justice. They'll be able to avoid it, but they don't get away with it in the eyes of God. I said a lot of times, when I see a crime, all I have to do is take a look at the suspect's life afterward and see how that person's life unfolded. For instance, we talked about O. J. Simpson after he was acquitted of killing his ex wife. Take a look at how his life has gone afterward. He ended up going to prison for robbery, and you don't see him in movies anymore commercials. He's become a pariah. So his life really hasn't been that great since he got acquitted. So taking a look at that situation, he may have got away with justice, but in the eyes of the creator, he's paying for his sins. And also, after watching that video of Spaldine coming out of jail, I guess that was back in twenty fifteen he looked pretty bad in that video, and I guess he's not really been able to stay out of trouble, so it doesn't look like he's getting away with much. Yeah, Yeah, I absolutely agree. Yeah, And that concludes the first half of Eric's story. Be sure to listen to the conclusion next week. According to a Fox seventeen news story, they

46:35 shared a statement from the Michigan Attorney General's office about the status of Eric's case. We know this is a heartbreaking decision for the Cross family. While there is simply not enough evidence to criminally charge any of the remaining suspects with the death of Eric Cross, we can only imagine the decades of pain and anguish they have experienced, and we wish we were able to make a different decision. We did everything we could in this case, including reinterviewing witnesses, but it is clear that we will never know the truth about the tragic circumstances that led to the death of Eric Cross that night more than thirty six years ago.

47:16 Unfortunately, this has been a crushing below to law enforcement and Eric's family. If you have listened to this story and would like to assist law enforcement or Jackie Mitchell get justice, for Eric. Please contact the Silent Observer at two six nine three four three two one zero zero or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office at two six nine three eight three eight seven four eight. And if you would like to know more about this case, you can also visit the Justice for Eric Sterling cross Facebook page. I will be sure to provide this information in the case story notes. And if you are a parent, law enforcement official, friend, or relatives see and Justice for an Unsolved Thomas side case, please visit my website and complete the contact form. You can also contact me through Facebook. Thank you for listening