Episode 174: Erik Cross (Part 1 of 2)

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Hello, and welcome to the Catch
My Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.

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My name is Mark. For nearly
eight years, I've written a weekly

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newspaper column about true crimes and missing
people for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.

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With the column and podcast, my
objective has always been to bring attention

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to cases that haven't received much media
attention if annie. This week's story involves

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a seventeen year old Michigan high school
student named Eric Sterling Cross, who told

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his parents that he was spending the
night with his friend Bill Cook. The

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plan was for Eric's father to pick
both of the young men up the next

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day and they were going to spend
the day at a boat show. Unfortunately,

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June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three
would be the final day that Eric's

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parents and his younger sister Jackie would
ever see Eric alive. He would be

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brutally murdered. What happened to Eric? Who would want to kill him?

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Easy going and fun loving teenager,
Eric Sterling Cross was born in Flint,

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Michigan, on September twenty fifth,
nineteen sixty six, to Ted and Mary

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lou Cross. Eric lived in Vicksburg, Michigan, which is in Kalamazoo County

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with his parents and his younger sister, Jackie Mitchell. According to Jackie,

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Eric was a great big brother.
The two shared a love for music,

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and both of them loved led Zeppelin. Eric loved to hunt, fish and

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spend his time outdoors, as many
teenagers did back in the eighties. Jackie

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said that her and Eric had a
great childhood. They were loved by their

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parents and had a strong family unit, but life would change after Eric was

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viciously murdered in nineteen eighty three.
On June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,

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Eric had made plans to stay overnight
with his friend Bill Cook. Eric's

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dad playing on picking up the boys
and spending the next day at a boat

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show. It was something that Eric
had looked forward to. However, unknown

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to Eric's family, he was planning
on attending a graduation party that evening.

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There would be alcohol at the party
and the events that this party would lead

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to Eric's brutal killing. Instead of
staying overnight with Bill, Eric walked home

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alone. According to Eric's sister,
he didn't stay with his friend Bill because

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Bill decided to spend time with his
girlfriend and the other people who would be

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involved in Eric's death. Eric's sister
said that her brother's friend abandoned him and

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left him alone. After Eric left
the party, he was ineviated. Some

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time before two am, Eric was
seen walking past the gas station. There

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were also two carloads of teenagers from
the party seen near Eric as he walked

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home. According to Jackie, she
said that there was some false information about

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what happened next. She said that
media sources have claimed that Eric's father heard

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him return home, assumed that he
was home, and then went back to

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sleep. Jackie stated that this is
not true. She said that her father

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did not hear anything and he never
suspected that Eric was home because he had

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told his parents that he was spending
the night with his friend Bill, so

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there was no reason for him to
suspect that Eric had arrived home. As

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far as he knew, he didn't
expect to see Eric until the next day,

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when he was supposed to pick him
up at his friend Bill's home.

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Jackie has said that it's important to
know the truth because people had accused Eric's

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father that being negligent by leaving his
son outside to die. Had he known

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Eric had returned home, he would
have gone to the door and let his

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sign in. Jackie wanted me to
stress this for this episode because she said

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that her father was a caring and
loving man and he died knowing that people

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blamed him for Eric's death, which
was not true. Early that Sunday morning,

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Eric's father went outside to get the
newspaper. He would be shocked by

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what he found. Eric's lifeless body
was in the driveway. He must have

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been confused. Why would Eric be
dead in the driveway when he was supposed

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to be with his friend Bill waiting
on a ride to the boat show.

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It was assumed that Eric had walked
home, got hit by a car,

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and then died. Upon further examination
from the medical examiner, the explanation for

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Eric's death would be far more horrific. Based on evidence. There was ripped

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pieces of clothing at the scene,
blood, and evidence of rope burns on

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Eric's body. It also appeared that
someone had beaten him. Based on Eric's

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wound, someone had tied him to
a car and dragged his body through the

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streets before finally running him over.
Rumors began to spread that there were several

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witnesses and people began talking. Eventually, the story came out that a teenager

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named Brent Spaulding, who had bullied
Eric in school, had followed Eric home

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and found him lying next to a
tree. Most likely, he had fallen

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asleep and never made it into his
house. According to witness statements, Spaulding

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tied a rope around Eric and then
attached the other end of the rope to

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his car. He then dragged Eric
to his death. However, after dragging

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Eric through the streets, Spaulding realized
that Eric wasn't dead. He then decided

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to run Eric's body over to make
it appear like a hit and run.

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Although there have been witnesses who said
Spaulding confessed and other witnesses who have shared

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this information with law enforcement, Spaulding
has never been arrested. According to Jackie

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Mitchell, everyone in town knew who
killed her brother. She said it was

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secret. She said that in late
twenty seventeen, law enforcement put out a

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warrant to arrest five people and then
charge them with killing Eric. The five

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people named as being responsible for killing
Eric are Amber Thomas, Bill Cook,

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Tim Martin, Brian Spaulding Senior,
and Brent Spaulding. Although law enforcement was

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prepared to arrest these five individuals they
would receive some devastating news. The prosecutor's

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office has since refused to prosecute the
alleged killers. This is the first part

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of a two part story, and
now on with the story of Eric cross

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is told by his sister, Jackie
Mitchell. Eric Jerlane Crust is my brother,

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and he was born in September twenty
fifth, nineteen sixty six in Flint,

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Michigan. And after I was born, I should say, he actually

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lived with my parents when he was
quite in Hamtrammick, which is in the

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Detroit area. But then the riots
that happened in Detroit in the late sixties

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where they were like bringing up the
town and so on, made my parents

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moved back up to Grand Blank,
which is closer to where my dad went

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to college at General Waters Institute.
So then I was going there up in

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Grand Blank when they lived at Grand
Blank in nineteen seventy and then we moved

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up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is a marvelous place and was

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a wonderful place to be a child. Eric and I and my parents Mary

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Lewinted Crossed lived at the end of
the dirt road up there in Escanaba and

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with state forests act up to our
properties. As are some of the best

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memories I have of growing up with
Eric is the two of us just like

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this was back in the seventies,
people who were not so worried about letting

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their children run around then just when
outside and ran through the state course and

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we had our golden lab Misty who
ran around with us climbing the tree.

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That really, Eric was just a
very outdoorsy person and that's what he enjoyed

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the most throughout his life, with
being outside. So then when we moved

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back down to Graham Plank, which
was due to a job situation from my

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dad, that was a fair difficult
transition for both of us, but I

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think even more for him because he
was a little older than me and just

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look like we moved into this subdivision
that was kind of hoty toy It wasn't

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even the most toyty tili of Grand
Plank, but it was very horty choice

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for us, you know, having
come from being having a very rustic light

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to them living with neighbors right next
to and all up in your business and

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everything. So that was very difficult
for both of us. But we lived

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there for a while, and then
the last move that we made the family

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was over to Vicksburg, which is
where Eric was ultimately dirt. So we

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moved there in nineteen two in September. Eric was sixteen and I was twelve,

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And I don't know. I don't
think that was as bad as a

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transition for him as going when we
moved him, because Vicksburg was like more

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of a country town. I think
it was worse for me because the schools

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were so bad compared to what I
was used to, but like for him

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because he was not as academically outed
as I was more of an outdoorsy type

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than I came on, type of
person knew like to fix things, like

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to play with his dogs, you
know, helped my dad with think.

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My dad and Erquois hunting fishing a
lot. So for him, he liked

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moving back to the country, which
we did in Fixburg. But then I

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was not aware that he was being
bullied in school. He's in the high

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school and I was in the junior
high and so we weren't in the same

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school. But other people have told
me. After he was murdered, it

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came out that he had been bullied
at school, like being a new person

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coming I think in the middle of
high school is probably difficult transition in a

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lot of ways. But he liked
the real aspect of apika a motorbike,

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which I can remember looking out my
window at seeing him ride his motorbike through

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the corn field when there weren't any
corn in them, because I could see

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a layout in the distance ride his
motorbike. He's friends the Chapman these twin

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boys, Chapman brothers lived across the
feet, so he ride his motorbike over

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to visit them. And that's just
what he enjoyed doing, and he had

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a lot of opportunities to do that
in Vicksburgh, although I personally regretted moving

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there because he was murdered less than
a year if we moved there, So

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I always thought of that as a
mistake or a bad place because of what

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ended up happening to him. We'll
go ahead and take a quick break in

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one way return we'll hear more about
Jackie's thoughts on life in Vicksburg after the

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family relocated to the city where Eric
would eventually be killed in So it sounds

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to me like he really didn't have
a lot of friends in school and his

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thing was just being home and hunting
and doing things with his dad and riding

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his dirt bite And he was probably
happiest when he was at home and not

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so much in school. Does that
sound about right? I think that's right.

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Yeah. So he wasn't really into
math and that kind of thing.

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He wasn't really into the academic subjects
in Vicksburg that they had autoshop, the

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wood shop kind of thing. He
was doing that, which he really annoyed.

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And because we were so new,
he did have friends at school,

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but this crowd ended up getting him
into trouble. He had only started hanging

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out with them toward the end of
his life to hanging out with this very

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bad family who was wealthy and a
horrible, horrible family that had a history

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of abuse and secrecy in their family, that were an established family from that

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area that had a lot of money
and construction. That was one of your

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typical kind of generational degradation type situations. Like when I started listening to the

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coverage of this Alex Murdoch trial and
the Carolinas, it totally reminded me of

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this family. They're almost exactly the
thing. Like they started out with the

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grandfather who built the wealth and the
empire and had all kinds of connections in

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and I was talking about the murderer's
family out all kinds of connection of the

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community, was well respected. And
then his son, who the father of

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the killer, who ended up kind
of beginning the downfall of his family by

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just acting it was a complete disregard
of people around him, and raising a

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murderer by not only abusing his children, but just encouraging them their bad behavior

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and just to be selfish and do
whatever they felt like doing the matter,

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and don't disregard to anyone around them. And then of course the third generation,

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very similar to the Murdoch family,
just ends up being complete waste rolls,

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you know, just addicts, alcoholic
drug addicts who just don't even have

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any semblance of order civilization anymore.
The very similar situation. The only difference

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is, of course, in the
case of this recent Murdoch trial, they

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actually were brought to justice, whereas
Eric killer has not been brought to justice.

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Now, when you moved out to
Vicksburg and Eric was going to school,

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was he a senior. No,
When we moved there, he was

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a sophomore. He was preparing to
go into his junior year. Actually,

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it's interesting because that I know that
I recalled this from when I was young.

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I used to ride my bike to
the cemetery. If it's his crave

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and someone had put a T shirt
on his grave. I'm sure one of

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his classmates that said juniors do it
better, which I thought was a very

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nice touch. Of course, he
never actually got to be junior, but

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the rest of his class did.
Now, what were Eric's goals in life?

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What did he want to do after
he left high school? Tell me

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about his goals and his plans for
the future. Back then, in the

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early eighties, we were not going
around like they do today, like you

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must know what you're going to do, you must start exploring careers immediately.

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I mean, we talked about it, but I don't ever remember him saying

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I'm definitely going to be this thing
or that thing. I don't know.

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I don't even remember him saying that
he wanted to be anything in particular.

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He was just enjoying his life.
He like music a lot, I mean,

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besides his outdoor pursuits, he wanted
to learn to play the guitar.

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Unfortunately, he never got a chance
to do that. Since his life was

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robbed from him, but he wanted
to play the guitar. He wanted slowly

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electric guitar. That my parents told
him they would be willing to get him

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an acrustic guitar if he would take
lessons to learn the acoustic tar first,

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and then he could then electric guitar
to death about of course, that never

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came to fruition. That was just
to play abound the time that he was

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killed. I can relate because I
was a freshman in high school in nineteen

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eighty three. Oh okay, so
you were from that same era that you

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understay what I'm talking about. Yeah, right, So when you said that

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Eric was just living in the moment
and not thinking about his future, I

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thought, well, that was me
and my best friend back in the day.

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We were the same when I was
a freshman in high school. If

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you would have asked me what I
wanted to do with my life after I

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graduated from high school, I would
have had absolutely no clue. Did go

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to the military, but my parents
helped me decide that because my dad was

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a veteran. But I do know
what you're talking about, because back in

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those days, me and my buddies, we never discussed what we wanted to

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do after high school. We were
just so busy in the eighties, listening

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to music and keeping up with what
people were wearing and watching sports on TV.

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We were just so busy, like
you said, just living in the

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moment. We never thought about our
futures. Yeah, right to. And

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it's a lot different today. Kids
today, it's like when our thirteen fourteen

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years old, they're pushed into what
are you gonna do after you get out

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of high school? You need to
start thinking about your future. But back

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when I was growing up in the
eighties, it just wasn't like that.

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It sounds like your brother and you
live the same type of life that my

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brothers and I lived. I mean
we went outside, stayed outside all day,

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only came in to use the bathroom
or eat, and then come in

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when the street lights came on.
Me and my brothers just would go riding

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bikes and just day outside all day. But that was the thing to do.

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We never saw our parents until it
was time to come in. We

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spent the whole day outside with our
friends playing you know, baseball, football.

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We just hung out and talked.
There was no technology, so staying

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outside was the thing. To do. If your parents punish you, they

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made you stay inside, and that
was a terrible punishment back in those days.

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Today you couldn't pay a kid to
go outside and play. It's like,

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when I look outside today, you
don't see any kids outside. But

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when I grew up, if you
looked outside, everyone was outside different times,

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right, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, so life

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is really different. And you know
what else I find interesting. Whenever I

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post stories on my Facebook page or
my cash My Killer Facebook page, I'll

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post stories from old cases that happened
back in the eighties or before, if

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someone was killed, or someone selling
girls Scout cookies got abducted. I can

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often tell how old somebody is just
by seeing their comments, you know,

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because you'll see statements like, well, how could you let an eight or

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nine year old go out and sell
cookies and collect money? And I'm thinking,

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when I grew up in the eighties, I did go out and collect

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money and sell things door to door. I had a newspaper route when I

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was a kid. I delivered papers, I knocked on doors, I collected

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money. I got up at five
o'clock in the morning when I was a

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kid to deliver newspapers, and then
when I got home from school, I

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had an afternoon route, so then
I would deliver papers after I got home

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from school. And I also sold
candy and cookies for my school when I

235
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was a kid as well, and
I often went alone. Now today it's

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a different story. I wouldn't send
one of my young kids out today to

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do what I did back in the
eighties. But it really was a different

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time, and people today have a
difficult time understanding the kind of things that

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we did in the past. Things
that were acceptable, like riding in cars

240
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without seatbelts, or riding in the
back of a pickup truck with no seatbelt,

241
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or anything like I said, those
are things that you wouldn't do today,

242
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but you know, thirty forty years
ago, it's what we did and

243
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it was acceptable, right, Yes, because the reasons are or is there

244
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more crime or is it just public
styfe more or whatever it is, people

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do walk around in fear a lot
more. And I feel like that example

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00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:40.079
that you just cave it is one
of the things that keeps me, you

247
00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:44.799
know. I try to avoid comment
fictions on various YouTube videos and so on

248
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about Eric because people will blame my
parents, not only is it actually inaccurate,

249
00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:55.799
but it's just they're judging them from
the strength of mind of today,

250
00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:59.839
which is completely different than how it
was back then for sure. Right,

251
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:03.319
So tell me about your last moments
with Eric. When did you last see

252
00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:07.279
him, and tell me about your
conversation with him the last time you saw

253
00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:11.960
him alive? Yeah, okay,
it was his stummer. It was June

254
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:18.799
twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,
and it was a Saturday, and this

255
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.960
was the first time he was going
to go out. He had just been

256
00:20:22.039 --> 00:20:26.759
grounded for a month because he had
a fender bender. He'd only just recently

257
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gotten his license and then he had
a fender bender where he was reaching over

258
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:34.880
to change the station on the radio
and not paying attention and we ended the

259
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car in front of him. So
anyway, yeah, so I can remember.

260
00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:41.720
He seemed really happy, like he
was whistling getting ready to go,

261
00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:48.519
and he had this very nice eighties
fathered hairdo. He was in the bathroom

262
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Homie's hair. The door was opened, and then my room was like right

263
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next to it. So the radio
was playing. It was the song The

264
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Look of Love by ABC. Wow. ABC, that's an old band.

265
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:04.440
I remember them. I haven't heard
anyone mention them in a long time.

266
00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:10.079
Yeah, And so I was getting
ready and I don't remember exactly what we

267
00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:12.000
were talking about. I remember the
music, and then I think I just

268
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said about to him because he was
going out the door because he was supposed

269
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to spend the night at his friend's
house, and what he told my parents

270
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he was doing with spending the night
at a friend house. Then my dad

271
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was going to pick him and his
friend Bill up in the morning to go

272
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:33.880
to a boat show in Detroit.
He was going to have to get up

273
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really early to drive over there,
and it was like a big deal.

274
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It's like an exciting excursion they were
going to do. So Hays, I

275
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.960
forget to say it later because you're
the first person I've talked to about Eric's

276
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:51.799
case in terms of a public statement
since two twenty But in January twenty twenties,

277
00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:55.839
when this thing happened with the Attorney
General of Michigan, Korea had a

278
00:21:55.880 --> 00:22:03.079
meeting with their representative and I just
basically quit the case. But one of

279
00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:06.319
the things I really want to get
out there is that it wasn't like my

280
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parents were letting him go to this
drinking party, which is what he was

281
00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:14.160
doing without telling them. It was
the senior graduation party where the parents were

282
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:18.279
charging three dollars get in and the
parents were serving alcohols open. Anyway,

283
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:21.960
my parents had no idea who was
going to this thing, and they didn't

284
00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:25.160
know he was out wandering around the
streets or whatever. They thought he was

285
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:29.160
spending night with his fun at his
hut. So even though there's this thing

286
00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:33.559
that's gotten out there, I think
it's from the Crime Watch Daily episode that

287
00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:37.599
my dad heard him trying to get
in or something like that, or heard

288
00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:41.200
in Randlan door. And when I
looked at the police report, that is

289
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.599
not accurate to like I've read the
actual police report, it's not accurate to

290
00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:48.720
what it says. The police detective
who said that was not reading enough the

291
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:52.480
police pots. That is not accurate. And my parents did not think he

292
00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:55.640
was coming home. My dad was
going to pick him up at Bill's house

293
00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:00.480
in the morning. So that has
gotten out there, and I do not

294
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:03.200
like that at all. That's what
some of these ridiculous comments are about.

295
00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:08.000
It doesn't even matter. I mean, even if my dad did hear that,

296
00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:12.960
that doesn't mean it's my dad's fault. He died with murder, But

297
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.000
it didn't. That didn't happen anyway, complete lie. I should say misrepresentation

298
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.279
of the truth, because I don't
think the detect purposely set it wrong.

299
00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:26.839
But it is unfair to think that
my dad just left him out there to

300
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.039
get murdered. That is not what
happened. So anyway, I just want

301
00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.279
to make sure that I put that
on the records. Okay, I was

302
00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:37.799
going to ask you about that because
I did reading several of the articles that

303
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:44.720
your dad had heard him trying to
get in, but he didn't get out

304
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:48.240
of bed and just ignored it.
But you're telling me that's not true.

305
00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:52.519
Okay, Yeah, well he didn't. He wasn't even planning to come back.

306
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:56.640
Well, it wasn't an expecting Eric
to come home because he was supposed

307
00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:02.160
to pick him up the next day
for the boats. So there really wouldn't

308
00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:07.319
be any reason for your dad to
expect Eric to be trying to get into

309
00:24:07.319 --> 00:24:11.680
the house exactly. Yeah, but
I do want to say that I forgive

310
00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:17.200
them. I know why people do
this. They try to distance themselves because

311
00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:19.799
they want to think nothing my bad
is ever going to happen to my family.

312
00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:23.839
They haven't really had anything bad happened
you can tell or they wouldn't be

313
00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:29.480
making these judgments, and so I
forgive them, Like I know that was

314
00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:32.440
like you think, if you do
a biding right, it won't happen to

315
00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:34.240
you. But the thing if it
is, you know what, Like we

316
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.440
were saying before, do we need
to keep the child locked in the room

317
00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:41.720
at all time? Never come out
then? Because there is danger in the

318
00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:45.720
world. So it's always a balance
between the child has some freedom responsibility,

319
00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:49.759
like you having people out, that's
amazing that you did that. Like a

320
00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:53.240
lot of children today, like they
wonder why they don't have job skills or

321
00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:59.119
don't not responsibility when they graduate it
because they never were allowed to sail or

322
00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:02.759
take any risks. You can't just
throw them out there, right. So

323
00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:08.039
another reason why I like to speak
to people who actually knew the victim is

324
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:12.880
because I find that in a lot
of cases, when I talk to people,

325
00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:18.160
they'll tell me that certain things that
have been released in the media aren't

326
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:23.200
true. And that's also what I've
learned about listening to a lot of different

327
00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:30.000
podcasts. They don't actually speak to
anybody that knew anything about the case personally

328
00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.680
or any of the victims. When
they do their research. They just go

329
00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:37.680
by whatever they find online or whatever
they find in the newspaper, so they

330
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:44.920
really don't know if the information that
they're sharing is actually true. So whenever

331
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:49.519
I get a chance, I like
to ask for clarification. So Eric actually

332
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:53.640
lied to your parents because he didn't
tell them he was going to a party

333
00:25:53.640 --> 00:25:57.640
with drinking involved. Had he done
that, I'm sure your parents would not

334
00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:00.759
have allowed that to happen. So
he said he was going to stay with

335
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:07.839
his friend, but he was actually
going to a party. Yeah, he

336
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:12.880
went to the friend's house and they
were planning to go back to Bill's house.

337
00:26:14.039 --> 00:26:17.079
They just didn't actually ever make it
back there, but they went to

338
00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:21.480
the party from the house where he
was spending the night. So yeah,

339
00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:25.079
he did go spend the night there. And I think their plan originally,

340
00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:27.559
which went haywire, of course,
was to get back to Bill's because my

341
00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:30.720
dad was supposed to pick them up
there in the morning to go to this

342
00:26:30.759 --> 00:26:34.000
boat show. They were excited about
go to the boat show. They did

343
00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:37.319
want to go, and they both
made it to the party. Correct,

344
00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:41.000
They both went to the party.
Yeah, yeah, his friend. I

345
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:45.640
mean I tell you that his friend
who he spent the night with was the

346
00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:49.799
girl. I'm sorry, the friend's
girlfriend was the sister of the killer,

347
00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:56.839
so she was also in the car
and she has since died of cancer,

348
00:26:56.440 --> 00:27:02.160
but she That is kind of the
link of how he Eric even got mixed

349
00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:07.440
up with this horrible crowd of people
and this family from hell. Okay,

350
00:27:07.559 --> 00:27:11.839
and from what I understand, one
of the people that was familiar with what

351
00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:15.920
happened to your brother died of cancer, that's right. Yeah. And of

352
00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:22.240
all the people who were involved murdering
Eric, which was a group of five

353
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:26.599
teenagers, and then the cover up
assisted by the parents, so all of

354
00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:33.119
them were in this conspiracy to murder
and then lie about Eric's death, which

355
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.200
when the sheriff did later request warrants, he included one of the parents in

356
00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:41.119
the warrants they requested, which I
was very happy because to me, that

357
00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:47.920
father is he might not have been
there when Eric was killed, but he

358
00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:52.920
helped throw it up and he produced
the murderer. And not every parent whose

359
00:27:52.039 --> 00:27:57.920
child murders someone is responsible. This
person was directly responsible because if he did

360
00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:04.119
let his son get punished the sun
was like teen years old, this would

361
00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:08.200
have been way better off than now. We ended up like he not only

362
00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.440
tried to destroy our family, he
destroyed his own son by not letting him

363
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:18.079
take responsibility. And the reason why
he didn't want to let the son take

364
00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:22.759
responsibility wasn't protecting the sun. It
was because he knew if that went to

365
00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:26.359
trial that all of his crimes would
come out, because they explained that to

366
00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:29.880
us when they were trying to bring
it to trial. So he covered up

367
00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:34.279
the murder to save himself, and
in this process destroyed his own son and

368
00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:38.920
my father as well. Okay,
And based on what I've seen about this

369
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:45.599
case, your brother god intoxicated and
then he stumbled home. Tell me if

370
00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:51.279
that's true, and which happened after
he arrived at the party, tell me

371
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:57.000
about that night. Okay, Well, this was not a random event as

372
00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:03.880
it sometimes portrayed, because this person
who ended up confessing to multi people that

373
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:07.960
he murdered my brother has told where, when, why, how he did

374
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.920
it? Was a bully who was
witness used to push Eric into the pop

375
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.960
machine, call him all kinds of
names, call him gay, call him

376
00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:22.799
this, call him that the other
thing was constantly targeting Eric car asking him.

377
00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:27.920
This was the culmination of constant bullying
and harassment that started at the school

378
00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:34.359
continuing on to this party. But
also the other thing that happened was extremely

379
00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:40.759
unfortunate in this case. One of
the many things was that they tried to

380
00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:45.480
at first put out that they thought
was a hidden run when it wasn't.

381
00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:52.240
It was a purposeful, premeditated act
of murder. But anyway, so in

382
00:29:52.359 --> 00:29:56.480
terms of going back to your question
about the party, there are several credible

383
00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:02.400
witnesses who did see Eric walking down
the st read alone from the party,

384
00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.880
and this one of them was the
needs girl just happened to be home just

385
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:08.640
looking out the window or whatever,
like, people who had no reason to

386
00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:12.160
lie about who were just staying what
they saw, even though he was supposed

387
00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:15.240
to be with Bill. But Bill
had gone off with this other crowd,

388
00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:21.640
the bully and the bully sister who
was Bill's girlfriend. I mean, basically,

389
00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:26.240
even though he denies it, the
way I read the police report and

390
00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:29.400
the eye wiscounts is Bill just abandoned
Eric, you know what I'm saying.

391
00:30:29.799 --> 00:30:36.880
But however it happened, they ended
up. There's also otherwise eyewitnesses that saw

392
00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:40.359
the two cars which were i'll just
call them the bully. You said,

393
00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:42.640
you don't want me to name these
people if they have been named as persons,

394
00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:45.599
I mean, if anyone wants to
look it up, it's they've been

395
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.640
named it as persons of interest.
Well, you can go ahead and name

396
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:52.519
them. That's fine. I mean
their names are all over the internet that

397
00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:57.160
these five individuals are people of interest. And I saw the warrant online and

398
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:03.880
I saw their names. So it's
called acknowledge that these five individuals were involved

399
00:31:03.880 --> 00:31:07.839
with killing your brother or they knew
something about it. So you can mention

400
00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:11.440
their names. Yeah, yeah,
right down the warrant. Yeah. And

401
00:31:11.480 --> 00:31:18.599
so WMT, which is our local
Kalamazoo News three TV channel, was the

402
00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:23.599
first one to publicly name Brent Spaulding
as a person of interest, along with

403
00:31:23.640 --> 00:31:29.319
his father, Brian Spaulding, and
then the other people who they were seeking

404
00:31:29.480 --> 00:31:34.680
Warren Son, which was Tim Martin, Amber Thomas, and Bill Cook.

405
00:31:34.920 --> 00:31:37.279
The so called friend. I mean, I've been calling him a friend only

406
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:41.440
because he was a friend, I
guess, you know, at least he

407
00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:47.319
claimed to be so. Anyway,
the cars that were driven by the suspects

408
00:31:47.359 --> 00:31:52.440
were seen at the corner store,
which was only like four doors down from

409
00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:56.640
our So the part that happened that
point is hard to say, because maybe

410
00:31:56.680 --> 00:32:01.759
they just saw him walking by.
Maybe they we're waiting for him. We

411
00:32:01.799 --> 00:32:06.759
don't really know. But however it
happened, they got a hold of them,

412
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:10.920
they tied him up, he had
rope burns him. In the Autopian

413
00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:16.039
so On, Jackie shared an important
part of Eric's story with me. She

414
00:32:16.119 --> 00:32:21.480
said that a young man named Bill
Snyder went to the police and gave them

415
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:27.880
details about her brother's murder. He
told the Forties that Brent Spalding had confessed

416
00:32:27.880 --> 00:32:32.240
to him that he had indeed killed
Eric. Also, Bill Snyder isn't the

417
00:32:32.279 --> 00:32:36.759
same Bill that Eric was supposed to
be staying with on the evening of his

418
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:39.880
death. Bill Cook was the friend
Eric was supposed to spend the night with.

419
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:46.480
Jackie considers Bill Snyder a true hero
because he was asked not to go

420
00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:52.759
to the police or share any information
about what Spalding had told him. But

421
00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:55.720
Bill decided that it was the right
thing to do to go to the police

422
00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.480
and tell them what really happened to
Eric, and he had no motivation to

423
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:06.640
lie about anything as Spaulding was one
of his friends, and Jackie felt that

424
00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:09.920
it was brave of Bill to go
to the police. We'll go ahead and

425
00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:15.359
take a momentary break, and when
we come back, we'll listen to Jackie's

426
00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:21.559
thoughts on Bill Snyder telling law enforcement
what really happened to Eric on the day

427
00:33:21.559 --> 00:33:43.440
that he was killed. I'll just
tell you what Brent Spaulding said to his

428
00:33:43.720 --> 00:33:47.240
friend Bill Snyder when he confessed.
Bill Snyder went in and took a lie

429
00:33:47.319 --> 00:33:53.880
detector test at the count of Zoo
County Sheriff's department in December of nineteen eighty

430
00:33:53.920 --> 00:34:00.200
three. And so even though Brian
Spaulding, the father of Brent, had

431
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:05.240
gone to Snyder's house, I'll just
call him Snyder's so we don't get confused.

432
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:09.360
Thea Bill, who's the false friend? He had the father, Brian

433
00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:15.039
Spolting, gone Snyder's house and tried
to stop him from going to the police

434
00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:21.280
to tell them the confession when Brent
confessed to murdering my brother. But Bill

435
00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:28.119
Snyder Wrent, anyway, wonderful hero
the story, Bill Snyder, wonderful young

436
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:31.880
man to have done that, you
know, being pressured by this wealthy father

437
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:36.559
of your friend. Don't go tell
It'll be bad for Brent. Blah blah

438
00:34:36.599 --> 00:34:42.440
blah. Anyway, So what Brent
said to Bill Snyder is Eric was laying

439
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:45.239
down by the tree in front of
his house, So this is me talking.

440
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:49.760
According to this confession, Eric had
made it past the store, but

441
00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:53.320
they must have seen him them found
then they tried to get in the house.

442
00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:57.159
But that whole thing, I don't
like it at all. It's all

443
00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:01.760
speculation. They never find his you
know, whether his abusers and bullies and

444
00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:06.559
killers took it from him, possibly
so he couldn't get in his house.

445
00:35:06.920 --> 00:35:09.840
His house, he was never found. So he was apparently trying to get

446
00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:15.360
home since his pause brand cook had
abandoned him and Eric had to fend for

447
00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:20.719
himself, so he couldn't get in
because he didn't have a key. So

448
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:23.159
he's laying down by the tree.
Apparently. Brent said he came up.

449
00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:28.880
He was laying down by the tree. Brent said, I tied one end

450
00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:35.000
of the rope around Eric's waist,
and I tied the other end around the

451
00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:38.960
bumper of my car, and I
drove around the block. So he dragged

452
00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:44.679
him to his death. This is
what Brent Faulving told Bill Snyder in December

453
00:35:44.679 --> 00:35:47.800
of nineteen eighty three. They dragged
my brother to his desk a block.

454
00:35:47.960 --> 00:35:52.360
You know, it's a country block
there. You know, every street's like

455
00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:55.480
a mile. That's what he said, is around the block. But anyway,

456
00:35:55.639 --> 00:36:00.760
but then that wasn't good enough for
him, because these are the different

457
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:06.920
accounts that have come from the brave
young people who did decide to tell the

458
00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:12.719
truth, because some of them went
to the Spalding house and saw them when

459
00:36:12.719 --> 00:36:15.840
they were trying to decide how to
cover up the crime and what to do.

460
00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:21.880
I witnessed accounts from those brave young
people, which is acceptable in the

461
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.800
court of law obviously as evidence if
you say this person said this and made

462
00:36:24.800 --> 00:36:30.239
this confession of how they killed Eric, how they covered it up. All

463
00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:35.559
of those people I want to commend
because even many of them were afraid,

464
00:36:36.039 --> 00:36:38.800
obviously for their light. Even the
false friend, Bill Cook said in his

465
00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:44.239
Lye detector test, which he failed, he was afraid something would happened to

466
00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:47.280
him if he told what he knew. But Bill Snyder, who told this

467
00:36:47.400 --> 00:36:52.360
confession about the rope, he passed
his Lye detector test. He's the only

468
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:55.239
one I saw that did pass his
light Detecker. But anyway, those people

469
00:36:55.280 --> 00:36:59.840
who were willing to come to long
and no one there was a killer,

470
00:37:00.519 --> 00:37:06.280
they had come to their person,
and then the prosecutor of Kalamazoo County refuses

471
00:37:06.360 --> 00:37:10.559
to go out and issue the wards
to share, basting the issue to catch

472
00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:15.559
a killer and bring him to justice, when all distans are saying, the

473
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:20.679
guys told multiple people who did it. We have people who were there,

474
00:37:21.320 --> 00:37:27.480
and you still won't get out of
your fancy car that you run around Kalamazoo

475
00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:32.519
and on the salary we're paying you
and just go and bother to catch the

476
00:37:32.599 --> 00:37:38.840
guy who everybody in town, everybody
in the county knowed it. It's absurd.

477
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:44.760
So anyway they put him in the
trunk. They were probably wronk and

478
00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:47.719
probably on drunk. Who knows what
they did. But other people came to

479
00:37:47.800 --> 00:37:54.880
the house to other wonderful young people
who knew the Spauldings were there when they

480
00:37:54.920 --> 00:37:59.480
were at the house trying to get
rid of the evidence, clean out the

481
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:02.760
trunk and so on. Because they
came up with this stant to bring him

482
00:38:02.760 --> 00:38:07.519
back to our house, run over
him a bunch of times to try to

483
00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:13.360
make it look like a hit and
run. So this was their wonderful plant

484
00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:16.880
was to leaven in the road like
a piece of trash, knowing that his

485
00:38:17.079 --> 00:38:22.400
parents come out there and find him
so that, you know, so TB

486
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:28.440
looked like an accident. The only
reason they pretended to go along with their

487
00:38:28.440 --> 00:38:31.480
stant because it was obvious that was
not what had happened. They knew there

488
00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:36.360
was about the rope burns. They
knew he was just like outrageously, you

489
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:37.800
know, more than you would have
if you just got hit by car,

490
00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:43.639
because stract or for probably miles.
And then they knew that all the tire

491
00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:46.440
tracks and the car injuries were post
mortem. They could tell he was already

492
00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:52.440
dead before they started running him over. Plus there was a neighbor who heard

493
00:38:52.519 --> 00:38:55.280
them screaming, you know, the
girls screaming who in the car? He

494
00:38:55.440 --> 00:39:00.320
saw us when after they dropped his
body off and ran it over in the

495
00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:06.159
morning, So that was what they
decided to do, these youth. And

496
00:39:06.199 --> 00:39:10.880
then when the Spaulding parent wherever they
were vacation or somewhere overnight, they weren't

497
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:15.559
there, they decided to start covering
it up and going around and telling witnesses

498
00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:22.679
not to talk. And all the
parents involved with these killers decided to help

499
00:39:22.840 --> 00:39:29.960
cover up the murder and up there
that false had lost their child who you

500
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:32.000
know, at first didn't know or
what happened or anything. Of course,

501
00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:37.119
right away, wasn't long before everybody
in the whole town knew, and they

502
00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:42.519
still did nothing. And then these
still people were at the school I had

503
00:39:42.559 --> 00:39:45.039
to go to school with and be
on the cross country team with the brother

504
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:49.880
of the killer, who was supposedly
also in the car. But I was

505
00:39:49.960 --> 00:39:52.239
a child, I'm like, oh, I guess this is how it happens.

506
00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:54.960
They just don't kill people and nobody
does anything and everybody knows who it

507
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.199
is. To me, that was
just norm like I thought, I mean,

508
00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:00.280
when people were shocked. Later,
I'm like, oh, okay,

509
00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:06.320
so this isn't normal that you're telling
me, Like normally people do get arrested

510
00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:09.800
when they commit murder. I was
told the story was they put Brent in

511
00:40:09.800 --> 00:40:15.360
a mental hospital so that he wouldn't
get arrested, And it's true, that

512
00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:19.719
is what happened. The last line
on the nineteen eighty three police report before

513
00:40:19.719 --> 00:40:23.639
they reopened it as a coal case
is Brent's currently is at Pine Rest Mental

514
00:40:23.679 --> 00:40:30.800
Hospital. Case remains open pending further
investigation. I mean, that is what

515
00:40:30.960 --> 00:40:32.920
happened. I kind of thought later
that must just have been a myth,

516
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:37.960
like people don't get away with murder
just by checking themselves into a mental hospital.

517
00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:40.440
But it worked for him. Well, yes, and he's still not

518
00:40:40.519 --> 00:40:45.800
locked up. I did see his
little video clip of him coming out of

519
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:51.119
jail and a reporter was interviewing him
asking him if he had anything to do

520
00:40:51.159 --> 00:40:54.360
with Ris murder. Of course he
denied it. So I did see that

521
00:40:54.440 --> 00:41:00.039
clip. Yep. I've learned a
lot in the last thirteen years, and

522
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:05.920
we started pursuing justice on Facebook.
I thought they had a conscience. We

523
00:41:06.119 --> 00:41:08.320
met with Bill Cook to try to
get information. I called the Amber on

524
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:14.199
the phone. I used to imagine
Brent would concess one day. I thought

525
00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:16.480
people. I didn't realize how many
people. I don't know. They objected

526
00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:21.719
statistics, But there's a lot of
people out there that if they can get

527
00:41:21.719 --> 00:41:25.000
away with something, they don't care. And it's said to know that because

528
00:41:25.039 --> 00:41:28.599
I used to imagine when I was
younger, Oh, if I could just

529
00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:32.039
talk to Amber, I'm a mother. Now she's a mother. She would

530
00:41:32.039 --> 00:41:37.199
answer my questions that I asked her, like what were last moments? Like

531
00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:40.039
did he have any last words?
Was he in pain before he died?

532
00:41:40.119 --> 00:41:44.760
You know things you want to know, But she wouldn't answer them. I

533
00:41:44.840 --> 00:41:47.760
even asked her to meet with a
priest and me off the record, no

534
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:52.280
law enforcement. Please just give me
peace about what happened to my brother so

535
00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:54.880
I can stop thinking about it.
Nope, not going to do that,

536
00:41:55.079 --> 00:41:59.920
not going to help. You don't
care. That's how these people are.

537
00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:04.679
Yes, I saw that she's now
deceased or someone in that group is deceased.

538
00:42:05.039 --> 00:42:07.719
No, that is her friend,
my Brett, who had died of

539
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:10.719
cancer. Matter. She is the
only one that I think had a conscience.

540
00:42:10.760 --> 00:42:15.599
She was at the funeral chamber and
May Brett. They were friends.

541
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:22.679
They were in the car alleged obvious, he's true. Anyway, they were

542
00:42:22.719 --> 00:42:25.800
in the car amber and my Brett
came to the funeral. I didn't know

543
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:30.159
who they were. I can remember
it as a twelve year old girl.

544
00:42:30.239 --> 00:42:34.480
First of all, the organist started
playing stairwid to Heaven You. Of course,

545
00:42:34.519 --> 00:42:37.920
you probably maybe remember that song from
your days back in high school led

546
00:42:37.960 --> 00:42:39.880
Zeppelin. Yeah, that was one
of the ways Eric and I had bonded

547
00:42:39.920 --> 00:42:43.440
over that because he was in direct
and roll music. I was more into

548
00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:46.639
the clapcorn music. I was taking
piano lessons that kind of thing. But

549
00:42:46.679 --> 00:42:51.519
I liked pop music. Too,
But I had this piano book that was

550
00:42:52.320 --> 00:42:57.039
greatest hit Stay East or whatever popular
songs today anyway, So I had stairwid

551
00:42:57.119 --> 00:43:00.360
Heaven in it, and I was
just like he had that record album,

552
00:43:00.679 --> 00:43:02.880
and so he would play it on
the album. And so I remember playing

553
00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:07.360
it to Gil Ericlexis song I'll learned
this one, and he was like really

554
00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:09.119
excited about it because he didn't pay
attention to what I was playing him the

555
00:43:09.119 --> 00:43:12.599
piano half the time. But when
I played Scary to Heap and he was

556
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:16.559
raged that I could play that.
So when my mom was planning the funeral

557
00:43:16.639 --> 00:43:21.440
and I said, oh, well, we maybe you should have them placed

558
00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:22.639
there. We'd haven't because you really
liked that song. So I gave the

559
00:43:22.760 --> 00:43:28.239
organist, Carlos Doublefield my piano book
and she played it out of there.

560
00:43:28.760 --> 00:43:31.000
And when they started playing at a
sponge teenage there at the funeral, like

561
00:43:31.079 --> 00:43:37.159
base, people started wailing and crying, and these two girls in particular were

562
00:43:37.159 --> 00:43:38.800
whaling and crying. I'm like,
oh my gosh, they must have really

563
00:43:39.320 --> 00:43:43.719
liked Derek. I didn't even know
them. Then later, when they were

564
00:43:43.760 --> 00:43:47.280
lowering Eric's body into the ground,
Amber and Neigbrett were there again like wailing

565
00:43:47.639 --> 00:43:52.360
eye. I'm like, wow,
I talk. We don't know these girls

566
00:43:52.360 --> 00:43:58.000
that obviously care so much about him. But Maibrett, I know from some

567
00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:00.599
of the little bit of statements I
read, or even though her parents they

568
00:44:00.639 --> 00:44:04.559
tried to keep them from talking,
they had them plead the fifth all these

569
00:44:04.599 --> 00:44:07.760
different things, she had a conscience. I just know she did from things

570
00:44:07.760 --> 00:44:12.159
that I've heard, so I'm sure
was eating her up inside. And I

571
00:44:12.199 --> 00:44:15.679
do believe that contributes to cancer.
I mean, I do believe that was

572
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:19.159
a contribution to her death. I
know I sound angry I'm saying that,

573
00:44:19.239 --> 00:44:22.760
but it's like or whatever, that's
your life. I mean, if you

574
00:44:22.039 --> 00:44:27.440
haven't even learned yet at your age
that you should try to make it right

575
00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:30.360
and make amends. I mean,
his son, Brent, who is sent

576
00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:36.360
into hell of constant addiction, drug
abuse, prison, drunk driving, all

577
00:44:36.360 --> 00:44:38.519
the things he does, He's had
to go through the twelve step program a

578
00:44:38.519 --> 00:44:40.920
bunch of times. It's like what
you go through it and then you just

579
00:44:42.039 --> 00:44:45.400
pretend like you haven't even gone past
step one. I mean, acknowledge there's

580
00:44:45.400 --> 00:44:49.880
a higher power, make amends,
find the people you've wronged. I mean,

581
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:53.199
how can you even go through the
twelve step program. If you can't

582
00:44:53.199 --> 00:44:57.360
even acknowledge that you killed somebody,
well, I'll tell you. I had

583
00:44:57.360 --> 00:45:04.440
a conversation with my grandson about this, well about crime, because he watches

584
00:45:04.480 --> 00:45:08.840
True Prime shows with me, and
I told him that people will get away

585
00:45:09.360 --> 00:45:15.159
in this life with earthly justice.
They'll be able to avoid it, but

586
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:19.079
they don't get away with it in
the eyes of God. I said a

587
00:45:19.079 --> 00:45:22.960
lot of times, when I see
a crime, all I have to do

588
00:45:22.360 --> 00:45:29.440
is take a look at the suspect's
life afterward and see how that person's life

589
00:45:29.519 --> 00:45:34.880
unfolded. For instance, we talked
about O. J. Simpson after he

590
00:45:35.199 --> 00:45:38.679
was acquitted of killing his ex wife. Take a look at how his life

591
00:45:38.679 --> 00:45:45.679
has gone afterward. He ended up
going to prison for robbery, and you

592
00:45:45.719 --> 00:45:51.440
don't see him in movies anymore commercials. He's become a pariah. So his

593
00:45:51.559 --> 00:45:57.000
life really hasn't been that great since
he got acquitted. So taking a look

594
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:00.760
at that situation, he may have
got away with justice, but in the

595
00:46:00.760 --> 00:46:05.800
eyes of the creator, he's paying
for his sins. And also, after

596
00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:10.079
watching that video of Spaldine coming out
of jail, I guess that was back

597
00:46:10.119 --> 00:46:15.239
in twenty fifteen he looked pretty bad
in that video, and I guess he's

598
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:19.199
not really been able to stay out
of trouble, so it doesn't look like

599
00:46:19.239 --> 00:46:24.280
he's getting away with much. Yeah, Yeah, I absolutely agree. Yeah,

600
00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:30.079
And that concludes the first half of
Eric's story. Be sure to listen

601
00:46:30.159 --> 00:46:35.880
to the conclusion next week. According
to a Fox seventeen news story, they

602
00:46:35.920 --> 00:46:40.840
shared a statement from the Michigan Attorney
General's office about the status of Eric's case.

603
00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:46.239
We know this is a heartbreaking decision
for the Cross family. While there

604
00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:52.000
is simply not enough evidence to criminally
charge any of the remaining suspects with the

605
00:46:52.079 --> 00:46:55.639
death of Eric Cross, we can
only imagine the decades of pain and anguish

606
00:46:55.719 --> 00:47:00.159
they have experienced, and we wish
we were able to make a different decision.

607
00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:07.000
We did everything we could in this
case, including reinterviewing witnesses, but

608
00:47:07.159 --> 00:47:12.280
it is clear that we will never
know the truth about the tragic circumstances that

609
00:47:12.440 --> 00:47:15.760
led to the death of Eric Cross
that night more than thirty six years ago.

610
00:47:16.360 --> 00:47:22.519
Unfortunately, this has been a crushing
below to law enforcement and Eric's family.

611
00:47:22.199 --> 00:47:25.960
If you have listened to this story
and would like to assist law enforcement

612
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:31.519
or Jackie Mitchell get justice, for
Eric. Please contact the Silent Observer at

613
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two six nine three four three two
one zero zero or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's

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00:47:37.559 --> 00:47:45.000
Office at two six nine three eight
three eight seven four eight. And if

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00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:47.880
you would like to know more about
this case, you can also visit the

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00:47:49.039 --> 00:47:52.480
Justice for Eric Sterling cross Facebook page. I will be sure to provide this

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00:47:52.599 --> 00:47:57.960
information in the case story notes.
And if you are a parent, law

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00:47:58.039 --> 00:48:01.480
enforcement official, friend, or relatives
see and Justice for an Unsolved Thomas side

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00:48:01.480 --> 00:48:07.519
case, please visit my website and
complete the contact form. You can also

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00:48:07.599 --> 00:49:29.719
contact me through Facebook. Thank you
for listening