Prosecutors announcing on Tuesday what could be the first significant break in years in the Oakland County Child Killer Case, one of the most notorious murder investigations in Southeast Michigan history.
Prosecutor Jessica Cooper and her investigative team asking for help locating associates of a 70-year old prison inmate who owned a vehicle now linked to the murders of two young people: Mark Stebbins and Timothy King.
The boys were among four children abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered beginning in 1976. The crimes have gone unsolved despite the efforts of various law enforcement efforts for more than 35 years.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Cooper said that hairs collected as part of the investigation into the murders of both 12-year-old Mark Stebbins 11-year-old Timothy King share the same DNA profile and may have come from the same person. Those hairs were collected from the bodies of both victims and were a key piece of evidence linking the two murders.
Cooper says a task force dedicated to investigate the crimes also tested hair and fibers collected from a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville once owned by Arch Edward Sloan and determined they matched the hairs collected from both Stebbins and King.
And while that was a significant development, Cooper says by using the latest DNA testing available they were able to determine the hairs collected did not come from Sloan. They believe someone else may have used that vehicle when committing the crime.
Arch Edward Sloan has a lengthy criminal history and is currently serving two life sentences in the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon for first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a male minor in 1983.
Cooper says the task force investigating the child killings is now asking for the public’s help to locate anyone who may have had access to any of Sloan’s vehicles from the time of the murders.
