Terror in East Lansing: The Tale of MSU Serial Killer Donald Miller Read online

  Miller found work as a security guard after graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in criminal justice. To law enforcement and prosecutors, this was surely a slap in the face. Miller, who should have been on the road to becoming one of their own, had instead thumbed his nose at them, almost daring them to prove what they knew before he killed again.

  * * *

  Almost a year passed before the authorities finally got a break in the case that had gone nowhere. A high priority had been given to the case in an effort to reassure coeds that the college campus was safe, with a normally low rate of violent crime in East Lansing, in spite of the unsolved mystery of Martha Sue Young's disappearance.

  In October 1977, clothing belonging to Young was found in Bath Township, just north of East Lansing. According to police, it had been "systematically placed as if she'd levitated out of her clothes."

  "That's when our office, in particular, and East Lansing knew we were dealing with something out of the normal," Houk recalled. "We were convinced we were dealing with some type of psychopath."

  Unfortunately, this crime took place in the pre-DNA technology era, making it difficult to cull any useful evidence from the clothing and crime scene. Minus the solid physical evidence needed, authorities were unable to charge Miller with anything. Once again, the case was stalled, and the killer continued to plot his strategy for more victims right under the noses of the police.

  * * *

  On June 15, 1978, twenty-eight-year-old Marita Choquette went missing from her apartment in Grand Ledge, Michigan, a city west of downtown Lansing, the state's capital, which was popular with rock climbers because of its ancient sandstone and quartzite rock ledges. Choquette worked for WKAR, a television station in East Lansing.

  Twelve days after Choquette's disappearance, her mutilated remains were found in Holt, southeast of Lansing. The same day, June 28, 1978, Wendy Bush, a twenty-one-year-old student at MSU, disappeared. She was last seen alive on campus outside of Case Hall, home to James Madison College in the South Complex.

  It was obvious to authorities, students, and East Lansing residents alike that a killer was on the loose, targeting young women and almost daring the police to stop him in his tracks. But before they could do so, another life was claimed.

  On August 14, 1978, Kristine Rose Stuart, a thirty-year-old middle school teacher who happened to live just blocks from Donald Miller's house, vanished. This, in addition to the other cases of murdered and missing women, caused hysteria on and off campus, with the local media feeding the flames, fury, and fear of a serial killer at large.

  "It was very unnerving," Detective Westgate recalled. "You just don't have things like that go on in the community."

  For the thousands of coeds and other women in the normally tranquil college town, that fact was small consolation, as a murderer had obviously made his presence felt and intended to strike fear into the hearts of those most vulnerable.

  * * *

  As with most serial killers, overconfidence and a brazen, reckless nature proved to be this one's undoing. On August 15, 1978, with the disappearance of Kristine Stuart still very fresh, Donald Miller randomly picked a house in East Lansing where he sexually assaulted and attempted to murder fourteen-year-old Lisa Gilbert. Her younger brother Randy came home during the attack and Miller went after him.

  Lisa managed to escape from the house and go for help. A local fireman spotted Miller's car leaving the scene and called the East Lansing police department.

  With several eyewitnesses, the police were finally able to get what they needed to arrest Donald Miller. Having worked the case for many months and coming up empty, a relieved Westgate took the suspect into custody.

  Former prosecuting attorney Houk was especially pleased that Miller had been apprehended. "I had a wife, I had a young daughter, and I used to be terrified at night when Donald Miller was on the loose because I was certain he was a serial killer," he recalled. "I used to take to sleeping down on my couch in the living room."

  In 1979, after a trial by jury in Eaton County, Donald Gene Miller was convicted of "two counts of assault with intent to commit murder and one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct" in the attacks on Lisa Gilbert and Randy Gilbert. Miller was sentenced to three concurrent terms of thirty to fifty years behind bars.

  Miller's imprisonment notwithstanding, the police still did not know the whereabouts of the four young women they were convinced he had murdered. In an attempt to put closure to the cases for families of the victims, the decision was made to offer Miller a plea deal, with the cooperation of Sue Young, Martha's mother, and Ernie Stuart, the husband of Kristine Stuart.

  In addition to his earlier convictions, Donald Miller pleaded guilty in 1979 to two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of Young and Stuart, and he assisted authorities in locating the remains of the murdered, missing women.

  With the help of psychiatrists and the "truth serum" drug sodium amytal, Miller confessed to killing all four women. In July 1979, he led authorities to the skeletal remains of his ex-fiancée, Martha Sue Young, and of schoolteacher Kristine Stuart.

  "He knew exactly where he was taking us," Westgate indicated. "He didn't even get out of the car. He just pointed to where [they were]."

  Miller's defense attorney, Thomas Bengston, tried to explain his client's murderous actions. He suggested that Miller had "severe mental illness," which caused him to "lose control of his conduct."

  Law enforcement officials saw Miller as merely another serial killer who found sexual and sadistic satisfaction in murdering his victims and burying them where they couldn't be found without his help.

  * * *

  Incredibly, the plea bargain to which Donald Miller agreed did not add any time to the thirty to fifty years behind bars to which he had already been sentenced. Regardless, the higher end of that term would have been enough to keep him incarcerated for a good while, had it not been for issues within the Michigan prison system that allowed Miller's sentence to be reduced.

  In 1999, at age forty-four, after spending twenty years in prison with time off for good behavior, Miller was eligible for parole. That wasn't exactly what the family members of his victims had envisioned when the plea bargain had been approved.

  "You talk about a guy who had unbelievable luck," Houk griped. "Michigan enters into a real crisis in prisons, and we start whopping all sorts of prison time off of prison sentences, so [Miller's] forty-year prison sentence in the Eaton County case gets reduced by almost half, and he became eligible for parole."

  There was little reason to believe that Donald Miller had been adequately rehabilitated while serving time. Studies show that few violent offenders have been able to successfully rehabilitate within the difficult environment of the prison system. Indeed, according to Dr. Frank Ochberg, former director of the Michigan Department of Mental Health, "These guys don't get better. After they pass such a certain threshold, none of them can be treated or reformed. They are ruthless predators."

  With this in mind, and with the clock ticking until the day Miller walked out of prison a free man, concerned members of the community, including Ochberg, Houk, Sue Young, and Donna Irish, the stepmother of Lisa and Randy Gilbert, banded together to try to find a way to keep Donald Miller locked up. At the very least, they were determined to keep an eye on him and keep the city of East Lansing safe should he be released.

  * * *

  It took months before Eaton County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sauter uncovered information that would prevent Miller from being released anytime soon. It turned out that, in 1994, a weapon was confiscated from Miller's three-person cell by prison officials. The weapon, found in a footlocker inside a box with velvet lining, was a "heavy, six-foot shoelace with two large wooden buttons attached that had been tied with a large knot." This was considered a tool that could be used to strangle someone.

  Sauter, with help from Chippewa County and Ingham County prosecutors, went to court with this information in 1
998. Felony charges of harboring a concealed weapon were filed against Miller. If the jury found him guilty, Miller would have four convictions of felonies, which could lead to a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

  Donald Miller, his parents Gene and Elaine Miller, and his attorney, battled back, claiming that the shoelace hardly constituted a weapon and that Miller was being "railroaded." During the trial, his attorney was successfully able to suppress evidence of Miller's previous crimes, meaning the case had to be decided without the jury's knowledge of the murders he had committed.

  That didn't help Miller. He was convicted of intending to use the shoelace as a weapon and received an additional sentence of twenty to forty years in prison.

  Needless to say, the East Lansing community was relieved that Miller would have to remain behind bars for years to come. "That means, in my lifetime, he's never going to get out of prison," Ochberg remarked. "It really was a wonderful thing."

  Lisa Gilbert, who survived an attack by Miller, concurred. "Life without parole sounds better," she said, "but I'll take twenty to forty."

  * * *

  Since Martha Sue Young's death, her mother, Sue Young, has campaigned for antiviolence and longer sentencing for violent criminals. "We need to start looking at the things we tolerate," Young said. "We're naive in thinking that there isn't real evil in the world."

  As proof of this, Young never saw her daughter's murder coming. Donald Miller was perhaps the last person she would have suspected as her daughter's killer. As she put it, "He was normal, everybody thought. He was the guy next door."

  Unfortunately, when it comes to serial killers, it is often the unassuming neighbor who may become a target's worst nightmare. Many serial killers also go after intimates and family, putting them at greater risk than strangers.

  In the case of Donald Miller, this proved all too true for Martha Sue Young.

  * * *

  In 2010, Michigan State University's School of Criminal Justice celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary with much pomp and ceremony and events throughout the year to mark the historic achievement. An annual Wall of Fame was established in 2000 to honor alumni who had "distinguished themselves within the field of criminal justice while maintaining the highest standards of integrity and character."

  Since the school's inception, the number of alumni has risen to more than ten thousand students who have taken their education and occupational goals around the globe and put them to good use.

  At least one exception was alumnus Donald Miller, who cast a shadow over the school's worthy reputation, now serving time as a serial rapist and murderer.

  * * *

  As a 2006 Wall of Fame inductee, I am also a graduate of the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice, having received my bachelor's degree the very year Miller murdered his ex-fiancée, Martha Sue Young. I went on to receive a master's degree from the school before embarking on a successful career as a literary criminologist and bestselling author. My work includes this piece about fellow alumnus Donald Miller and the havoc he brought upon the college and community as a result of his homicidal rage.

  * * *

  REFERENCES

  "Admitted Killer Leads Police to Third Body." 1979. Ludington Daily News 89 (July 18): 205. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M9VOAAAAIBAJ&sjid =IkoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5612,6918758&dq=michigan+state+university +student+murdered&hl=en.

  Carpenter, Jacob. 2007. "East Lansing's Only Serial Killer Struck 30 Years Ago, Today He Is Serving His Term in Lenawee County." State News, November 8. http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2007/ 11/east_lansings_only _serial_killer_struck_30_years_ago.

  Flowers, R. Barri. 2003. Male Crime and Deviance: Exploring Its Cause, Dynamics, and Nature. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

  _____. 2009. College Crime: A Statistical Study of Offenses on American Campuses. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

  _____, and H. Loraine Flowers. 2004. Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers and Victims of the Twentieth Century. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

  "The Killer Next Door." 2009. 48 Hours Mystery. CBS News, February 11. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/01/06/48hours/main27268.shtml.

  Rykert, Wilber L. 1985. "The History of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University 1935-1963." Master's thesis, Michigan State University. http://www.cj.msu.edu/~history/rykert.html.

  "The School of Criminal Justice—50th Anniversary Jubilee." 1985. Michigan State University, School of Criminal Justice. http://www.cj.msu.edu/~history/ 50hist.html.

  State of Michigan Court of Appeals. 2000. Plaintiff Appellee vs. Donald Gene Miller, May 30. http://statecasefiles.justia.com/documents/michigan/court-of-appeals-unpublished/20000530_C215237(0048)_215237.OPN.PDF?1316644524.

  Trojanowicz, Robert C. 1985. "Michigan State's School of Criminal Justice Celebrates 50th Anniversary." Police Chief 8:70-71.

  Young, Sue. 2005. Lethal Friendship: A Mother's Battle to Put—and Keep—a Serial Killer Behind Bars. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse.

  # # #

  The following is a complete bonus true crime short

  THE MIDWEST MURDERS

  Alton Coleman & Debra Denise Brown

  By R. Barri Flowers

  Alton Coleman and Debra Denise Brown were a cold-hearted and deadly serial killer couple. However, unlike most individual or pair killers, Coleman and Brown may have been the first African American serial killing tandem who also targeted African Americans, by and large. During a two-month stretch in the hot summer of 1984, the couple went on a shocking rape, robbery, and murder spree across four Midwestern states, taking the lives of at least eight people. The killers sexually assaulted, tortured, bludgeoned, and shot their victims, showing no mercy.

  Yet they managed to elude authorities for weeks even while being pursued before being brought to justice. Coleman, who made the FBI's Most Wanted List and was the typical aggressor of the pair, was described as the "classic disorganized serial killer," in that he targeted victims who happened to be at the wrong place when the killing mood hit him, using whatever manner to kill that was at his disposal.1 Both Coleman and Brown came from troubled pasts and managed to find a strong connection in one another as they went on their violent rampage that, at one time, seemed as though it would never end...

  * * *

  Alton Coleman was born on November 6, 1955, in Waukegan, Illinois, some thirty minutes from Chicago. Taunted relentlessly by schoolmates for often wetting his pants, Coleman, who was a bit mentally challenged, was nicknamed "Pissy." Unable to cope, he dropped out of middle school while living in Waukegan with his grandmother. Coleman's mother was a prostitute who purportedly plied her trade in the presence of her son. He seemed to have been adversely affected by her work in the sex trade. Between 1973 and 1983, Coleman was charged several times with various sex crimes, taking plea deals in two of them, acquitted in two more, with the other cases being dismissed.

  Described by law enforcement as "smooth as silk," Coleman's penchant for escaping justice was due to his charming nature and ability to present an innocent facade. According to Lieutenant Marc Hansen of the Waukegan Police Department in a 1984 interview, "[Coleman] was good at conning jurors. He tells a convincing story in court. People are impressed with his testimony. He comes off as a decent person."2

  Coleman apparently had another means to sway jurors in his favor. He supposedly practiced voodoo, or wanted others to believe this, indicating to whoever would listen that it was this ritualistic religion with African and Roman Catholic origins, sorcery, black magic, and "voodoo charms" that protected him from the long arms of the law. For a while, he may have even convinced himself that this was true as he continued to escape justice.

  In one of the dismissed cases against him, it was Alton Coleman's sister who reported to police that he tried to rape his eight-year-old niece, the sister's daughter, before she had a change of heart and asked the court to drop the charges, suggesting it was merely a "misunderstanding." Though the judge
did not believe her changed story, calling it "completely implausible," without a victim or witnesses willing to testify, it let Coleman off the hook.3

  However, Coleman's penchant for criminality went beyond sex crimes and led to time behind bars. While kidnapping, robbing, and raping an elderly woman with an accomplice in 1973, Coleman dodged the rape charge when the frightened victim would not testify, but was sent to Joliet Correctional Center for two years for robbery. He would later spend additional time behind bars for a less serious crime while being acquitted of raping another person.

  No sooner was he a free man when Coleman once again faced rape charges, and the victim was just fourteen years old. As his trial date neared, he went underground and on to his rape, robbery, and murder spree across a number of states with a willing partner in Debra Brown.

  * * *

  Born in 1962, Debra Denise Brown was one of eleven children in what was described as a "well-respected" family. Having suffered from a head trauma during childhood, Brown was seen as "borderline mentally retarded" and categorized as a "dependent personality."4 In 1983, at the age of twenty-one, Brown was engaged to a man when she met Alton Coleman. Quickly charmed by him, she broke off her engagement, left home, and began what would become a deadly relationship. Brown's mother would later say that she had been a "good girl" before she met the likes of the career criminal Coleman. Whether this is true not is subject to interpretation. What is clear is that, together, Coleman and Brown achieved a frightening level of violent criminality they might never have accomplished apart.

  It was in May 1984 when their crime spree started and Alton Coleman and Debra Brown began to make a name for themselves that spelled trouble to potential victims and law enforcement.

  * * *

  In May of 1984, perhaps as a set up for things to come, Alton Coleman struck up a friendship with Juanita Wheat of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Wheat had a nine-year-old daughter named Vernita. On May 29th, the girl was abducted by Coleman at knifepoint in Waukegan, where she had apparently gone to get a stereo. The young girl was raped and murdered.