Information On Elderly Killings Remains "Skimpy"

Information on elderly killings remains 'skimpy'

By BONNIE DeSIMONE 

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

No new leads have been turned up in the investigation into the murders of three elderly women in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area.

“We’re still working on what skimpy information we have,’’ said Maj. Walter Hawkins of the Ann Arbor Police Department. He said detectives from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, the Michigan State Police and the Washtenaw County Sheriffs Department are continuing to meet and compare notes on a regular basis.

Ypsilanti Police Detective Jess Foley said that an effort to canvass people over 60 living alone in Ypsilanti has petered out somewhat after a strong start.

All three victims were widows who lived alone. Florence Bell, 91, of 36 S. Summit St., Ypsilanti, was found last Jan. 8 with her throat slashed. Margorie Upson, 85, of 309 W. Cross St., Ypsilanti, and Louise C. Koebnick, 84, of 621 W. Jefferson St., Ann Arbor, were strangled in their homes two days apart, Sept. 29 and Oct. 1.

David E. Brown, a Grand Rapids landscape worker who is a prime suspect in the Bell case, remains under heavy guard in the infirmary of the San Bernardino, Calif, county jail.

Brown, 24, was serving terms for burglary and attempted murder at Jackson State Prison when he slipped away from guards at the University of Michigan’s Neuropsychiatric Clinic a year ago and vanished without a trace. He is believed to have been in California at the time of the Upson and Koebnick killings.

On Oct. 5, Brown allegedly beat and robbed three elderly people, one of whom died several days later, in their San Bernardino home. He was injured in another escape attempt from a medical facility where he was being treated after a scuffle with police.

Brown has maintained that he had an accomplice in the beatings. But one of the two survivors, who had recovered sufficiently to talk to police this week, disputed that statement, said San Bernardino City Police Detective Richard Taack.