Deanie Peters -Grand Rapids, MI cold case msg. since 2/5/81

[lost indie]

This is a local case that has been bothering me since it happened...

deanie just disappeared off the face of the earth...

http://www.freewebs.com/find_dean_marie/index.htm

[Roamer]

That's a very sad story. So very long with no answers. :girl_sad:

[packy]

The sad thing is there may have been remains found that have never been identified that could have been Deanie. It does not appear she ran away since she left her wallet and makeup at home. I'd love to see the police reports and notes about her disappearance.

[Roamer]

We have some pretty good "detectives" here. Maybe someone can find more on her.

[Pauli]

http://www.michigandoes.com/images/MP/DeanniePeters2.jpghttp://www.michigandoes.com/images/MP/DeanniePeters1.jpg
Dean Marie Pyle Peters
Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan
February 5, 1981
Classification: Non-Family Abduction



Left: Deannie at age 14
Right: Age-Progression to age 35 years
Vital Statistics

Date of Birth:
September 24, 1966

Age at time of disappearance:
14-years-old

Approximate Height: 5'3

Approximate Weight: 110 lbs

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female.

Dentals: Available

Clothing: A brown ski jacket, pink sweater, blue jeans and a cream colored scarf with the word "ski" written on it in dark brown lettering Circumstances
Deannie was last seen at approximately 4:45 p.m. at a local middle school where she attended her little brother's wrestling tournament. The eighth-grader excused herself to go to a restroom during the tournament, and was never heard from again.

For a detailed review of events surrounding Deannie's case, please refer to the news articles in the Michigan Does Discussion Board (http://www.michigandoes.com/index.php/topic,25.0.html).

Investigating Agency
Kent County Sheriff's Office
Sgt. Jeff McAlery
616-336-3113
NCIC Number: M-160127499

Source: Grand Rapids Press (http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/)
Source: NCMEC (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=603596&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US)
Source: Doe Network (http://www.doenetwork.us/)

[Pauli]

Dean Marie Pyle Peters

http://www.charleyproject.org/images/p/peters_dean.jpg http://www.charleyproject.org/images/p/peters_dean_ap.jpg
Left: Pyle Peters, circa 1981;
Right: Age-progression at age 40 (circa 2006) http://www.charleyproject.org/banners/bar.jpg

[Pauli]

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss...4500.xml&coll=6 (http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-27/1139931979134500.xml&coll=6)

Deanie Peters' best friend still lives in pain

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

By Tom Rademacher and Ken Kolker
The Grand Rapids Press

Both wore their hair the same, loved the same rock musician, attended the same church. They hung out together virtually every day, traded clothes, baby-sat together, even celebrated birthdays the same month.

But tragically, Kathy Kingma would celebrate her 15th and all future birthdays without her best friend, Deanie.

"Twenty-five years have passed, and still she's missing," said Kingma, as tears poured down her cheeks. "Why?

"Why, why, why?"

It's a question that has evaded authorities since Feb. 5, 1981, the afternoon Dean Marie Pyle Peters -- "Deanie" to family and friends -- walked out of the gym at Forest Hills Middle School and never was seen or heard from again.

And even a quarter-century later, the ripple effect produced by her disappearance remains strong for those who knew and loved her.

"It is a pain that never goes away," said Kingma, who was Kathy Weeks when she and Deanie were eighth-grade classmates.

Kingma took a ragged breath on her cigarette and looked into space as she acknowledged she will never see her childhood friend again.

"The only place that Deanie is alive is in my head and in my heart," she said.

Two Sundays ago was especially tough for Kingma. It marked the 25th anniversary of the day Deanie waved to her mother's friend, said "I'll be right back," and strolled from the gym.

It also served as a painful reminder of the day she picked up a newspaper to learn that Eugene Debbaudt, who was assigned to solve cold cases for the Kent sheriff's department, would not be taking on Deanie's case.

Debbaudt, a former FBI agent here who solved the 1993 Robert Fryling murder case for the sheriff's department, has said Deanie's case was supposed to be next in line. A reported rift between Debbaudt and the detective bureau derailed that idea.

By all public accounts, Deanie disappeared without a trace. No one has been charged in connection with what detectives largely believe was a homicide.

But at times, it only seems like yesterday when Kathy and Deanie were "jammin' to Meatloaf" in one anothers' homes, or stealing out for a cigarette, or phoning each other to talk about school, about boys.

"I can still see her smile, still hear her voice," said Kingma, who remembered how Deanie always worked over the first syllable of her name -- "Hey Kaaa-thy...Hey Kaaa-thy."

Kingma said immediately after detectives suspected Deanie was abducted -- a theory never proven -- they took measures to safeguard her best friend.

"They were afraid I might be next. For three weeks, I was watched over," said Kingma, who admitted the experience "absolutely" frightened her.

Kingma still treasures a diary she kept the year Deanie disappeared.

On Jan. 2, 1981, Kingma wrote that "I got a call from my best friend Deanie. She asked me to come over and spend the day with her...We jammed down with records. I guess my favorite group is Meatloaf. I like that record "Bat Out of Hell..."

But just five weeks later, on Feb. 12, she would record that "This last week has been hell. My best friend Dean Marie Pyle 'Deanie Peters' has been missing since last Thursday... There are so many stories and you don't know what to believe. I love her and am praying for her..."

Although at least one church in the area has planted a tree and established a scholarship in Deanie's honor, Kingma said she was forlorn over the fact that there is no gravesite or memorial erected to Deanie. Kingma herself was on track to set something up at their middle school around 1993, but fell gravely ill with aplastic anemia and was not able to follow through.

So at least six times a year, she drives by the home in which Deanie used to live. It helps her to think of the good times they had together as kids, and that "Deanie lived and breathed on this earth."

[Pauli]

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss...4500.xml&coll=6 (http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-27/1139932130134500.xml&coll=6)

Deanie Peters' mom upset investigator left out in cold

Tuesday, February 14, 2006
By Ken Kolker and Tom Rademacher
The Grand Rapids Press

For more than 25 years, she has grieved.

Now, she is angry.

Mary Peters, the mother of Deanie Peters, who disappeared at age 14 from Forest Hills Central Middle School, says she is upset that apparent jealousy forced an outside cold-case investigator to quit working for the Kent County Sheriff's Department before he could pursue her daughter's case.

"So, I suffer because of a rift between an outsider and them?" she said in a phone interview from her home in Prescott, Ariz. "Isn't that sad they won't let me have closure? It's kind of sick."

Peters, who said she has not heard from a detective in five years, wants Sheriff Larry Stelma to invite former FBI agent Eugene Debbaudt back to re-open the case.

Debbaudt, who five years ago solved the 1993 murder of millionaire developer Robert Fryling for the sheriff, said the thought is intriguing, though he does not expect an invitation.

"What investigator wouldn't be excited? said Debbaudt, who runs a private detective agency. "In fairness to the family, somebody ought to be looking at it."

Debbaudt said the Peters case sounds almost "Fryling-esque," with leads not fully followed.

Then-Sheriff James Dougan hired Debbaudt in 2000 to investigate old, unsolved murders, starting with the shooting of Fryling in his Cascade Township home.

The Feb. 5, 1981, disappearance of Deanie, an eighth-grader at Forest Hills Central Middle School, was to be second on the list, Debbaudt said.

On Monday, Sheriff Stelma said that "Mr. Debbaudt did an excellent job when he was here, and I have no issues with him," but he stopped short of offering to invite him back. "I'm not going to respond to that," he said.

As for differences between his department and Debbaudt, the sheriff said "I'm not going to air those in the media." He said he disagreed with perceptions that those differences still exist, emphasizing that "All of those people that were involved in the original Fryling case that created the distractions are gone."

Stelma specifically mentioned former lead detective Sgt. Chet Bush, who now works security at the county courthouse. Bush has said he wasn't allowed to properly investigate either case.

Stelma had nothing but praise for the detective bureau in place now: "Considering the constraints on our resources, I think the detective bureau has done an outstanding job."

Deanie Peters was at her brother's wrestling clinic when she told her mother's friend, "I'll be right back." She hasn't been seen since.

Kent sheriff's detectives said they developed as many as a dozen suspects but ran into dead-ends. Among those questioned were a school janitor, a man on death row in Florida and men in the Lowell area.

In September 2001, after solving the Fryling murder with the arrests of a pimp and prostitute, Debbaudt quit as cold-case investigator, citing professional jealousy among a small group of Kent sheriff's detectives.

"There were too many distractions, people there who didn't want me there," he said in a recent interview.

Bush, the former head of the Fryling investigation, was later re-assigned for not turning over documents to Debbaudt. Bush later testified he wasn't allowed to pursue leads in the Fryling case, including the developer's involvement with prostitutes.

Bush recently told The Press he also ran into roadblocks in the Peters case, which he took over in 1993. He was not allowed to fly to Arizona to interview the girls' parents, and was not given time to track another suspect, he said.

Debbaudt called it "pretty pathetic" that detectives had not eliminated any suspects in the Peters case.

"The case probably begs for a very thorough investigation," Debbaudt said. "You have to be willing to commit to it and start over again. You have to start like it was February 1981. Even today, I don't assume she's dead."

Mary Peters, who was granted a presumptive death certificate for Deanie in 1992, said she needs somebody to pursue the case. "There will never be closure until she's found," she said.

Stelma declined to discuss what's new with the Peters case. Asked when his detectives might again contact Deanie's mother or stepfather, he said, "I don't micro-manage those investigations. I don't tell them how to do their job."

[Pauli]

Dean Marie Pyle Peters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsyYN0JPTs

[Pauli]

I came across this...

Mr. E
02-14-2006, 12:33 PM

Wonder what Bruce Bunch's alibi was? He was the then 17-year-old student who claims he had a "mental telepathy thing" and had a dream about Deannie, which he told to other people, and which made some people believe he struck Deannie with his car, killed her, and buried her. That seems like an odd thing to say. I don't know if he is or was a person of interest, but he seems pretty weird.


and this...

By the way Mr. E., Bruce is now living in Tennessee and is still a person of interest but has never been questioned thoroughly by Kent County Sherriff's (I dont believe that KCSD has ruled anyone out entirely since the case has never been solved). Furthermore even though he has family here in Michigan he has never returned and some have speculated that he is afraid that if he were to return he might be brought in for questioning and that is why he has not come back.


I can't find any old news articles with either of these names..

[Pauli]

I did find a Bruce E Bunch in Knoxville and on in Murfreesboro

The one in Knoxvill was born in 1974, that would put him at the same age as the one listed above.

[Roenick]

I did find a Bruce E Bunch in Knoxville and on in Murfreesboro
The one in Knoxvill was born in 1974, that would put him at the same age as the one listed above.


Wouldn't the one in question have to have been born around 1963, though, If she was born in '66?


There is one on myspace that says he's 34 - that would be a 1974 birth, in knoxville.

[lost indie]

This case has been haunting me since it happened.

Glad to see they are still working on it...

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7968029

[lost indie]

Somehow...I missed this video....

what do you think?

Do the parents seem kind of "off"?

http://video.woodtv.com/?video_id=10864

[packy]

My sound messed up so without sound it makes everyone seem a little odd. Who was the blonde woman?

Hope they do find someone that remembers seeing something that might give a clue. Great idea to start over.

[lost indie]

My sound messed up so without sound it makes everyone seem a little odd. Who was the blonde woman?

Hope they do find someone that remembers seeing something that might give a clue. Great idea to start over.

The older blonde woman was a friend of the family who was at the wrestling match with her son. Deanie told her she was going to the bathroom and she was the last person that ever saw Deanie.

The younger blonde was Deanie's best friend. It seems that she is the one who is really fighting to keep the case alive. She thought that Deanie might have snuck out of the school for a quick smoke rather than going to the bathroom.

The mom and step-dad moved out of state a long time ago and won't comment on the case at all.

[packy]

The older blonde woman was a friend of the family who was at the wrestling match with her son. Deanie told her she was going to the bathroom and she was the last person that ever saw Deanie.

The younger blonde was Deanie's best friend. It seems that she is the one who is really fighting to keep the case alive. She thought that Deanie might have snuck out of the school for a quick smoke rather than going to the bathroom.

The mom and step-dad moved out of state a long time ago and won't comment on the case at all.

Thanks, Lost Indie. Good for her friend who won't give up.

[lost indie]

Thanks, Lost Indie. Good for her friend who won't give up.

Did you watch the video? The parents seemed hinky to me....

Mom was in full makeup and styled hair. Stepdad wouldn't look at the camera. No tears falling.

[lost indie]

:bump:

[Nut44x4]

http://www.freewebs.com/hope4lost/deanmariepylepeters.htm

14 year-old Dean attended her brother's wrestling tournament on February 5, 1981 along with her mother at a local middle school in Ada, Michigan, just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan where she lived.Dean was last seen by her mother when she excused herself to go to the rest room but she never went/made it to the rest room-and was never seen again.

Dean (who usually went by the nickname 'Deanie') is suspected to have been abducted, though that was never proven in her case. She had dreams of being a model someday and was described by many to be 'very attractive'. Another theory was that Dean ranaway to California where she originally lived, but soon it was obvious that wasn't the case since she left her make-up, purse and all her money behind. (Friends say she never went anywhere without her make-up.) Police say Dean had no reason to runaway-there was no family probelms detected and that she was a bright student.

In 1991, Dean was declared legally dead and her case is now a cold case, which many fear will never be solved. The sad thing is, Dean has been forgotten by lots of people and also by the media, but despite all of that, Dean's friends and family have never stopped looking for her and they never will.

more at the site....

[Nut44x4]

June 30, 2008
Cadaver dog leads independent search for Deanie Peters in Ionia

Posted by Ken Kolker | The Grand Rapids Press June 30, 2008 17:55PM

IONIA COUNTY -- The cadaver dog sniffed through the woods along the Flat River on Monday for the body of Deanie Peters, a teen who disappeared more than a quarter-century ago.

But cold-case detectives, who recently re-opened the investigation, were not part of the search.

"It's outside of what we're doing," said State Police Lt. Curt Schramm, who is heading the investigation. "If they're doing that, it's not in cooperation with what we're doing."

The search for Peters' body was the latest conducted by volunteers -- often organized by the girl's acquaintances and others interested in the case -- without help from police.

This search was done at the request of a producer at a local television station who was working on a story, search organizers said.

A Doberman, named Rose, searched behind an old one-room school at Potters and Marble roads in western Ionia County, then moved several miles north to the former Young Marines camp along the Flat River.

For years, rumors have circulated that Peters was buried at the sites.

The dog's handler, Maria Ciski, of Great Plains Search Dogs in Wichita, Kan., said she volunteered to conduct the search while vacationing in Michigan. She worked with members of Michigan Search & Rescue.

Her dog is specially trained to search for "historical cadavers" and has found ancient American Indian burial sites, she said.

"She's hitting the high-probability areas," around the Young Marines camp, said Dave Holcomb, of Michigan Search & Rescue.

Holcomb said he notified the Ionia County Sheriff's Department before the search and said searchers planned to start digging if the dog hit on a scent. The dog is trained to pick up odors of human bones.

Schramm said cold-case investigators would like to have known about the search beforehand but said they welcomed the help.

"Obviously, they can do that if they want to," he said. "We have limited resources. ... The point of this is, we want to find her and prosecute those responsible."

He said detectives likely will conduct their own cadaver-dog searches, though he did not know if the Ionia County sites would be targeted.

"We're really into this case right now," he said. "There are a number of leads we're checking on."

Peters was 14 when she disappeared on Feb. 5, 1981, from Forest Hills Central Middle School while attending her brother's wrestling clinic. Her disappearance has baffled police.

The five-member cold case team, with members from the state police, Kent County Sheriff's Department and Grand Rapids Police Department, announced in March it had re-opened the investigation.

Police are asking that anyone with information to call 632-6373 or Silent Observer at 774-2345.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/06/cadaver_dog_leads_independent.html

[Nut44x4]

Adding a face to the name......

[packy]

I merged this thread with another one that was about the same case, so please excuse some of the order of posts. Didn't want to lose anything of value or delete any parts.

More power to those volunteers who are willing to search since it was said LE had limited funds and were not apparently going to hit on some of the probable areas for a search.

[emmeblu]

:1222423:Deanie Marie Pyle Peters

This case is really sad to me. A 14 year old has been missing for this long and no one is any closer to solving this case in 2008 than they were in 1981. I have searched for additional pictures of Deanie (beautiful 14 year old) and could only find the one that is shown on the missing site. How on earth does someone fall through the crack in this manner? :1187603408.CR.Mothe

I could not view the video of the parents as it is no longer available. Wonder if the family was interviewed and given LDT at the time. It is stated there were no family problems but does one really know? Kudo's to the friend that seems to push for another investigation.

Heartbreaking. I hope she ran away and is safe somewhere in this world.

[Faith]

The disappearance of fourteen year old Deanie Peters...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsyYN0JPTs

[Faith]

MISSING
http://www.freewebs.com/find_dean_marie/DPeters.jpg http://www.freewebs.com/find_dean_marie/DPeters1.jpg
(We do not personally know Dean or her family, but we still want to bring her home.)
Above is a picture of what Dean would look like at age 35.


http://www.freewebs.com/find_dean_marie/

[Faith]

Age-progression rendering of Deanie Peters from February 2007.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/03/small_deanie%20peters%202007.jpg

[lost indie]

Age-progression rendering of Deanie Peters from February 2007.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/03/small_deanie%20peters%202007.jpg

I do not like that rendering. Deanie was really into fashion and would never have done that to her hair...

jmo

[Faith]

$25k for info to solve missing persons case
Comments 2 | Recommend 0
November 20, 2009 8:21 AM

Video @ Link

KENT COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Kent County deputies are offering a big reward for information that helps solve a 30 year old missing persons case.



Deanie Peters disappeared back in 1981. The 14 year old was last seen at Forest Hills Central Middle School.



At a news conference Thursday detectives announced they've ruled out all their previous search locations and they're asking for new tips.



Also, there's now a $25,000 reward for anyone with information that helps them end the search.



"We actually have the ability now to do things we've never been able to do back in 1981. To devote five detectives full time for a year and a half on one case," said Cold Case Team Supervisor Sally Wolters.



One new lead involves a fight at Peters' school. It happened a few days before she disappeared.



Police want anyone with information on that fight to come forward as soon as possible.

http://www.wwmt.com/articles/kent-1369569-county-0in.html

[Faith]

New developments in the Deanie Peters disappearance

11/19/2009 2:12:22 PM

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Cold case investigators in Kent County are asking the public for help in finding the body of a girl who vanished in 1981.

Deanie Peters disappeared after leaving a wrestling practice at the Forest Hills Central Middle School gym to go to use the restroom.

Thursday afternoon authorities from the Kent County Sheriff's Department announced there is a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the discovery of Peter's body.

The five members of the cold case team told reporters they believe she is dead, but they could not say why. They also disclosed that in the days leading to her disappearance Deanie Peters was involved in an altercation.

WZZM 13 received a phone call Thursday from a person who was close to Deanie Peters at the time she disappeared. They tell us they remember Peters talking about being physically threatened.

We've confirmed the caller knew Deanie Peters 28 years ago. This person tells us Deanie Peters was threatened by two girls.

In a phone interview the caller told us, "There was an altercation between two girls and Deanie- shortly before she disappeared. It was involving some boy at the time that she was seeing." The caller went on to say, "They approached her and they threatened to physically harm her."

Tonight on WZZM 13 at 11 we will have more from the caller and a look back at the case.

If you have information about Deanie Peters case click on the link to the Kent County Cold Case Team (http://www.accesskent.com/CourtsAndLawEnforcement/SheriffsDepartment/ColdCaseTeam.htm) website.
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=115903&catid=14

[Faith]

Kent County Sheriff to update case of Deanie Peters, missing since 1981
By The Grand Rapids Press
November 16, 2009, 6:24PM

deanie peters.JPGDeanie PetersKENT COUNTY -- Cold-case investigators attempting to solve the 1981 disappearance of Deanie Peters have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to update their efforts, but authorities said they will not announce an arrest.

The team of five detectives set its eyes on solving the Peters case about 20 months ago, pledging to revisit all aspects of the 14-year-old's vanishing Feb. 5, 1981.

Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma will address the probe but is not expected to declare any major developments toward an arrest or resolution.

As recently as May, the investigators used a backhoe to excavate a 30-foot-by-50-foot area behind an Ionia County schoolhouse while searching for Peters' remains. It was one of many areas authorities said they were taking another look at during the renewed focus.

Peters went missing from a wrestling practice at Forest Hills Middle School gymnasium after her mother said she left to use the bathroom. She hasn't been seen since, a case that has baffled investigators then and now.

Through the years, police have searched fields, looked into a school incinerator, sent divers into a shallow pond and searched a mound of rocks with cadaver dogs.

They have jailed a school janitor for a night, and questioned suspects in Lowell. Officers have traveled to other states including Kentucky and a visit to Florida's death row for an interview with a potential suspect.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/11/kent_county_sheriff_to_update.html

[Faith]

Missing for 30 years, but police continue search
Comments 0 | Recommend 0
November 19, 2009 8:13 AM



KENT COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A Kent County woman has been missing for nearly three decades now, and police still aren't giving up the search.



Deanie Peters disappeared from Forest Hills Central Middle School back in 1981. She was 14 at the time.



Thursday sheriff's officials in Kent County plan to update the investigation.



They are not expected to declare any major developments, but cold case investigators are working to solve the mystery around Deanie Peters' disappearance.



Back in May detectives searched near a former young Marines camp. It's an area they keep going back to for clues.



During this last search detectives tried to take a fresh look at the case and start from the beginning.



Those who own the property that was searched say they believe their land might hold some answers.



"You hear the rumors over the years which obviously can be skewed from 25 years ago from yesterday to today. It always seems to add up that there's something going on out there," said property owner Toni Schaker.



Deanie Peters would be 42-years-old today.



If you have any tips related to case call police.

http://www.wwmt.com/articles/0in-1369524-police-kent.html


Happy Birthday Deanie :1222423:

[Faith]

Reward, new clues in Deanie Peters case 11/19/09

Investigators trying again to solve the 1981 disappearance of 14-year-old Deanie Peters say they have learned that the girl was involved in an altercation a few days before she vanished, and want to talk to any witnesses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVafzyvdiP8

[lost indie]

I've been so busy with black friday on the horizon that I totally missed this.

Thanks SO much Faith for keeping up with this! This case is so near and dear to my heart. Deanie was such a beautiful young woman/girl. She had a ton of potential. Her family and friends loved her dearly. In an instant she was taken away.

I pray that there are people with knots in their stomachs tonight. People who won't sleep tonight.

Tick-tock murderers.....the time is coming to pay for Deanie.

I've only known Deanie from newspapers or TV, but she has been in my heart for all these years. She needs justice. I hope I will be able to see it.

[lost indie]

:bump:

tick tock killers...

[Nut44x4]

The missing diary of Deanie Peters
Lead detective said diary could be key

Updated: Wednesday, 25 Nov 2009, 6:45 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 25 Nov 2009, 12:57 PM EST

By Ken Kolker
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The former lead detective in the 1981 disappearance of 14-year-old Deanie Peters says a potentially key piece of evidence -- Deanie's diary -- is missing.

He also says that the man he believes was the lead suspect -- a former Lowell man who later moved to Kentucky -- died two years ago before cold-case detectives got a chance to interview him.

Former Kent County Sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth Kleinheksel, who has continued to work on the case even in his retirement, says the State Police cold-case team obtained a subpoena about a year ago forcing him to testify before a Kent County judge about the investigation and the whereabouts of the diary.

"I don't know what happened to it," he told 24 Hour News 8 Wednesday.

The diary could play a key role based on the cold-case team's theory: That a confrontation with classmates at Forest Hills Central Middle School somehow led to her disappearance and death. Deanie Peters was an 8th-grader there and disappeared on Feb.5, 1981, during her brother's school wrestling match.

Kleinheksel said he had possession of the diary and read it over and over during his investigation. Deanie kept a detailed diary, writing about parties and boyfriends, but she suddenly stopped making entries about three weeks before she disappeared, Kleinheksel said.

"They were hoping they might find a new clue, which would be possible," he said of the cold case team. "But we studied that diary very closely and found nothing in there."

However, he didn't know about the confrontation at the time, he said.

He testified that he recalled giving the diary at some point to Deanie Peter's mother, Mary Peters, who now lives in Arizona, he says. But Mary Peters doesn't have it and doesn't recall getting it, Kleinheksel said.

Kleinheksel said the original investigation was mired by poor communication -- including detectives who conducted interviews but didn't turn over their reports to him. He was working at the time as a juvenile missing person detective, he said.

A woman who identified herself as one of Deanie's best friends told 24 Hour News 8 that she told a detective within days of the disappearance that Deanie had had a confrontation with two girls over a boy. Kleinheksel said he never saw a report on that interview.

"We had hundreds of tips; we had hundreds of leads, and there was a lack of communication. Yes, there was. I'm not pointing fingers to anybody, but we never got that information to follow up on."

He said he didn't learn about the alleged confrontation until about four years ago, when he was working the case as a private detective.

He said he has provided that information to cold-case detectives.

Kleinheksel says he believes one of the girls who confronted Deanie had a boyfriend who lived in Lowell. It is that man he believes is a lead suspect in the case. He died, apparently of natural causes, in February 2008, he said.

"I know we made mistakes back in those days," Kleinheksel said. "We had limited resources, but we didn't find her, and I feel bad about that. I really do. I want to find her."

An anonymous donor has put up $25,000 to anyone who provides information leading to the discovery of her body and to those who were involved in her death.

If you have information about Peters' disappearance, you are asked to call the Cold Case team at (616) 632-6123.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/kent_county/The-missing-diary-of-Deanie-Peters

[Nut44x4]

Finding Deanie: Secrets Revealed
Target 8 Investigation
Updated: Thursday, 04 Feb 2010, 11:23 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 04 Feb 2010, 6:59 PM EST

By Ken Kolker
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- Cold case detectives told 24 Hour News 8 they have interviewed suspects in West Michigan who know where to find the body of Deanie Peters, who was 14 when she disappeared from her school nearly three decades ago.

And, they've made those suspects a promise: Anybody involved in the Feb. 5, 1981, disappearance won't face criminal charges -- unless they helped kill Deanie.

"There are individuals in the Grand Rapids area that know what happened to Deanie Peters, that know where her body is, and they've chosen to remain uncooperative in this investigation," said Sgt. Sally Wolter, the head of the Kent Metro Cold Case Team.

The statute of limitations has expired for those who helped hide Deanie's body, or who know about it and have refused to tell police.

Wolter said she believes a "number" of people still living in West Michigan know where Deanie's body is buried.

In this special report, 24 Hour News 8 tracked the cold case team's investigation from Kent County to Kentucky and back again.

Along the way -- new details about threats against Deanie, a recently failed lie-detector test and the man identified by police as the main suspect.

Also, Deanie's mom and stepfather, Mary and John Peters, sat down for their first broadcast interview since days after the disappearance.

"I can't believe anybody could do this to parents, or anybody could know something and keep it a secret for all these years," Mary Peters said. "It's hard."

Meeting Deanie

Deanie was a typical teenager -- hanging out at the mall, borrowing her friends' clothes, sneaking out her bedroom window to smoke cigarettes. She was an eighth-grader at Forest Hills Central Middle School.

She liked the band Meatloaf -- and boys.

"She was the girl that for me, that I think every girl would have liked to look like," said one of her best friends, Cathy Weeks Kingma. "At 14, she definitely didn't look like 14. She was absolutely beautiful."

On Feb. 5, 1981, just before 5 p.m., she was getting ready to leave the middle school gymnasium with her mom after watching her little brother wrestle.

"She asked if she could go to the bathroom first, and she walked across the gym floor and never came back," her mother said.

Kent County Detective Ken Kleinheksel, the original investigator, said he was stumped.

"At the time, she was last seen by the back door of the school -- she was walking side-by-side with a friend, or a girlfriend, or with a young lady approximately 15 to 17, 18 years old, and they were talking and there was no argument; there was no disturbance," he said days after the disappearance.

Did she run away? Was she kidnapped?

For weeks, friends, family and volunteers searched for Deanie. Her mom and stepfather pleaded for her return.

The case struck fear in a community that, until then, had been given little reason to fear. And investigators couldn't provide any relief.

"I know we made mistakes back in those days," said now-retired Kleinheksel in a recent interview. "We had limited resources. We didn't find her."

A shaky start

At first, Kent County detectives focused on middle school custodian Arthur Diaz. Kids at school knew him as Mr. Art. He was 40 years old, had moved to West Michigan from Chicago and taken the job at Forest Hills.

"They thought I had kidnapped her and sold her somewhere in Chicago, or somewhere in Nevada," he said. "I have some friends out in Nevada, and I'm saying, 'you are nuts. I've been here all this time.' "

Diaz was cleaning the school office the night Deanie disappeared, though he tells 24 Hour News 8 he didn't see her there.

But he remembers her.

"She was a happy-go-lucky kid," Diaz said.

Detectives interviewed him repeatedly -- "you know, the good-cop, bad-cop, good-cop, bad-cop routine."

Perhaps, they suggested, he burned her in the school incinerator.

He faced questions in front of a grand jury -- after spending the night at the Kent County jail.

In his cell was another inmate, planted there by police -- a man who owed detectives a favor. Would Diaz make a jailhouse confession?

Diaz thought the inmate was an undercover cop. He said he had nothing to confess.

"I thought I was living in a nightmare," he said of the experience. "You're going to hang me for something I didn't do?"

Diaz said he lost sleep, spent $1,600 on an attorney and watched as detectives searched his property. Shortly after the disappearance, he said, Deanie's mother confronted him at the school.

She recalled that Diaz helped her look for Deanie immediately after she vanished.

In 2008, the newly formed Kent County Metro Cold Case Team took its turn at Diaz, but he said he refused to take a polygraph test.

The team -- with detectives from Kent County, Grand Rapids and the Michigan State Police -- started working the case in March 2008 with a $300,000 grant.

A source close to the team told 24 Hour News 8 that Diaz -- now 69 -- is no longer considered a suspect.

But to the retired custodian, living on Grand Rapids' northeast side,

that is little relief.

"There's going to be doubt in somebody's mind somewhere," Diaz said. "It leaves a little shadow over your head. It's not a halo up there. It's a dark cloud."

Other successes

The case also weighs heavily on detectives.

"It's really difficult to put 10,000 man hours onto an investigation, 16 months, and not be at the point where you would expect to be," Wolter said.

In recent years, cold case investigators have cracked other high-profile cases:

The 1993 murder of millionaire businessman Robert Fryling at his Cascade Township home. An outside investigator solved it eight years later with arrests of a pimp and a prostitute.
The 1975 murder of Laurel Ellis in Heritage Hill, with the conviction of Lamont Marshall in 2008. He is linked to five other murders in the Grand Rapids neighborhood.
The 1979 gang rape and murder of Janet Chandler in Holland, solved with the arrests of six people, including five security guards in 2006 -- 27 years later.
"After watching the Janet Chandler case, that's a clear example of how individuals can hold a secret so horrifying for so long," Wolter said.

Early on, police in Deanie's case received a tip that turned their focus away from the janitor and onto Joseph Fallstrom, of Lowell.

But Fallstrom steered them elsewhere -- telling investigators what he heard at a summertime gathering four or five years after Deanie's disappearance.

He said he was partying around a bonfire on a sod farm along the Grand River. Also in attendance, he said, was a friend of a friend named Bruce Bunch.

"He's throwing a big fit, crying and blubbering and saying, 'I killed her. I killed Deanie Peters.' And he kept carrying on about it, you know, and I bumped one of my friends and I said, 'What's he talking about?' 'Oh, that's just Bruce. When he gets drunk, he's a poor-me baby.' "

Moving on

Deanie was officially declared dead in 1992 -- 11 years after she vanished. Cause of death: unknown. Place of death: unknown, according to her death certificate.

Her mom and stepfather have moved to Arizona, but still find it difficult to move on. Her little brother, William, who was 6 when Deanie watched him wrestle, is now 35.

They've kept some of Deanie's stuffed animals, and the photos that keep her 14 forever.

"I don't think you ever get over it -- you kind of move on," Mary Peters said. "There's certain times of the year (when) it's worse than others, like now, because it's coming up on the anniversary of her disappearance of 29 years. So, I don't think you ever get over it, because there's no closure here."

Even without a known killer to forgive, the family has found the grace to grant forgiveness.

"I've already forgiven that person a long time ago, or persons, you know," she said. "They're the ones who have to live with the guilt, not us."

The search, now, is for Deanie's body -- and her killer.

For a time, it appeared Fallstrom might be the man.

24 Hour News 8 spoke to another man who also overheard Bunch talking about Deanie at the party, though that man wouldn't go into detail and didn't want his name used.

The original detectives interviewed Fallstrom in the 1980s.

"They said, 'We heard a different story,' " he recalled.

"'What would that have been?'" Fallstrom said he responded.

Answered the detectives: "'Well, we heard that you and your brother accidentally ran her over at a party and that you guys disposed of her body.'"

Fallstrom -- the story goes -- was canoeing with friends down the Flat River in the years after the disappearance when they approached the former Young Marines Camp, on a hill overlooking the water in Ionia County.

"Supposedly, I pointed up there and said, 'That's where we buried Deanie Peters.' Well, that's an absolute lie," Fallstrom said. "I never even canoed that stretch of river."

That led to repeated searches at the former camp.

"Over the years, every so many years, it would come up again," Fallstrom said. "And then I'd be visited again by some detectives, and they'd want to hear the story.

"The whole time I told them, 'I will take a polygraph.' "

"'That won't be necessary,' " he recalled detectives saying. "Almost like they wanted to keep me wrapped up in it."

Fallstrom denied it again in 2008 when the cold case team tracked him down.

This time, he said, he took a polygraph.

"At the end of the polygraph, (the polygraph operator) said, 'Mr. Fallstrom, I'm going to pass this along to the detectives. You're clearly not part of this.' And, I said, 'Yeah, that's what I've been saying for the past 20-some years."

He also showed the cold case team what he says finally cleared his name -- an alibi, in writing.

A U.S. Army document shows he was at Fort Benning, Ga., as a trainee in early 1981 -- when Deanie went missing.

A source close to the investigation said the Army papers -- which Fallstrom only recently obtained -- officially eliminated him as a suspect.

"You can't explain the amount of shame -- to be in the eye of the spotlight," Fallstrom

said.

A theory revisited

But recently, the spotlight shifted, focusing on a new theory -- or actually, an old one that has resurfaced.

At a November news conference, cold case team members asked for more information about a physical altercation between Deanie and other students.

"I can't tell you what the altercation was about, but I can tell you it concerned Deanie enough and it concerned the school officials enough that knew about that to document it," Wolter recently told 24 Hour News 8.

One of Deanie's best friends, who asked not to be identified, told 24 Hour News 8 that Deanie told her about the altercation.

Deanie said it happened at the middle school between Deanie and two girls just days before the disappearance. It involved a boy Deanie was dating.

The other girls, including the boy's sister, threatened Deanie if she didn't break up with him, the friend recalled.

Wolter wouldn't discuss details of the fight. "A lot of homicides occur for simple, mind-blowing reasons," she said.

Deanie's mom said the cold case team only recently told her about the fight.

"It doesn't make sense at all, for somebody to fight, or possibly kill my daughter over a boy," Mary Peters said.

The best friend said she told a detective about the fight just days after the disappearance. She wondered why police didn't follow up on it 29 years ago.

Kleinheksel said he doesn't recall being told about the fight during his search for Deanie.

"We had hundreds of leads, hundreds of tips, and was there a lack of communication? Yes, there was," he said. "I'm not pointing fingers at anybody -- (it's) just that we never got that information to follow up on."

A police source told 24 Hour News 8 one of the girls in the fight was identified as a former girlfriend of Bruce Bunch.

Bunch was 17 when Deanie vanished. He lived with his family in a double-wide trailer backed up against a wooded hill on Grand River Drive.

He was a junior at Lowell High School -- not a good student, relatives said, but he showed an interest in fixing cars.

And, an acquaintance recalled, he also showed an interest in a girl who went to Deanie's school.

"He would show up at the sod field parties this one particular summer with this pretty girl -- way too pretty for him, let's just put it that way," Fallstrom said.

Since retiring in 1994, Kleinheksel has worked on the case as a private detective, out of his basement office.

Kleinheksel said he recently tracked down a new witness: a woman living in Lowell who already had spoken to the cold case team.

She told him Bunch drove to her house with friends one night:

"He came that night, Bruce Bunch did, and he was just upset and just goofy, and he said, 'Today, I was at a school, and didn't mention the name of the school, and I hit a girl with my car. He said, 'I either backed over her or ran over her, and I killed her.' So he loaded her up in the car, we -- and I don't know who the 'we' is -- and took her out and they took her down Cascade to Snow Avenue.

"At the end of Snow Avenue comes the freeway, and they took her out and they -- there's a pile of rocks. They laid her on the ground and covered her up with a big pile of rocks."

Kleinheksel thinks Bunch and others later buried her elsewhere after the spring thaw.

In search of Bruce Bunch

In 2008, Metro Cold Case detectives started tracking Bunch -- a man now identified by a source as their best suspect.

In Michigan, the team searched potential burial sites connected to Bunch and others.

The team has interviewed more than 300 people, worked more than 10,000 hours and has traveled to seven states, including Kentucky. And they've focused on one man.

Somerset is a town in southern Kentucky -- a state best known for horse racing and bourbon.

But Somerset is in Pulaski County, a "dry" county, where finding bourbon takes some work, and where bells ringing from the white steeples of Baptist churches are the biggest draw.

Bunch settled there with his first wife, Beth, their young daughter and his wife's two sons. He had family there.

It was 1985 and four years after Deanie disappeared.. Bunch had opened his own garage.

"He was a real good mechanic -- probably the best around," said a friend, Terry Bryant. "There wasn't nothing he couldn't fix or diagnose."

Jeff Rouse worked for Bunch, drank with him and, eventually, bought his garage.

"If a man was going to be around a drunk, he's the kind you wanted to be around, keep you rolling all the time," Rouse said.

He recalled one of those drunken experiences.

"We were all sitting around after-hours one night -- we'd all had a few beers -- and he made a joke: when he was 17, 18 years old being a murder suspect. That's the only thing I've heard the man say about it."

Nobody pressed Bunch for details, Rouse said. "We all kind of thought it was a joke, really, you know?"

Several years after the disappearance, in April 1988, Bunch and his wife were visiting relatives in Lowell.

The story about Bunch's blubbering at the sod farm had reached Lowell

police, who pulled him in for questioning.

"When I asked him what was going on, what was said, how he answered the questions, all he told me is they don't know what they're talking about," recalls his first wife, Beth Vaught. "Any other time I brought it up, it was not subject to discussion."

Police had hearsay, but no evidence -- no crime scene, no body.

In early 2008, Bunch told a reporter about a dream he had about Deanie after watching a TV report, but insisted he did not kill her. He said he told others about the dream, which prompted rumors that spun out of control.

He also told the reporter he did not know Deanie.

"His statement changed every time someone talked to him," Wolter said.

The investigation has frustrated cold case detectives, she added.

"Solving old cases doesn't always mean you make an arrest, but you come up with answers, and I think we're at that point where we do have some answers," Wolter said.

The cold case team eliminated old suspects -- Diaz and Fallstrom, among them.

Also among those cleared: Edward Zakrzewski II, who is on Florida's death row for killing his wife and using a machete to kill his two children. He used to live near Forest Hills Central Middle but had moved from Michigan before Deanie vanished.

Police also eliminated Deanie's stepfather, John Peters.

Instead, detectives have zeroed in on one man: Bunch. Detectives interviewed his relatives, friends and co-workers.

"They thought he had murdered a girl and done something with the body, and they couldn't find the body," Bryant said.

Vaught said all five of the cold case detectives interviewed her and her new husband in Somerset. She told them about her ex-husband's nightmares and about the violence.

"Bruce seemed troubled many times through the years," she said. "I can't explain anything as to why he was having nightmares."

She said he once pushed her from their stopped car when he was drunk, breaking her ankle.

"I know that he was a big drinker when I was with him and there were some times, some pretty scary times, when he and I had our little scuffles," Vaught said.

Although Bunch has no criminal record in Michigan or Kentucky, court documents obtained by 24 Hour News 8 show his first wife filed for a domestic violence order in 1994.

He "will do anything to keep me, such as beating me, killing me and or blowing his own head off," she wrote. "Also, he looks for me when I'm away from the house and says he'll run me off the road."

"He was a loud, obnoxious, forceful person," Vaught said.

It wasn't unusual, she said, for Bunch to wake up after a night of heavy drinking, and remember nothing.

"He'd get up the next day, get moving and say, 'I did what?' "

The couple divorced in 1998 after 15 years of marriage, and she was left with lingering questions.

"I don't know why, but I've always had an idea that if Bruce was involved with it, it was probably an accident and he was probably drunk, in a car, and he and maybe others just got scared and did the wrong thing back when," she said.

Before the cold case team could interview Bunch, he died. He was buried in Somerset on Feb. 5, 2008 -- the 27th anniversary of Deanie's disappearance.

The cause of death: myocardial infarction -- a heart attack -- at a Somerset hospital as doctors performed a heart catheterization. He was 44 years old and had a history of heart problems.

Secrets revealed?

Dead or alive, the cold case team wanted to learn as much as it could.

Is it possible he revealed a secret? A death-bed confession?

"That seemed to be the main concern -- was to pick and dig and try to put the pieces together from something that maybe he had said or done," Vaught said.

Detectives found his only child, his daughter, Janelle Mosely, in Louisville.

"The detectives have came to everybody and asked everybody that they can possibly ask, and they haven't found out anything that they didn't know before, and I mean, I just don't see why they keep bringing it up," Mosely said. "People can talk, but that's all they can do is talk. There's nothing to be proven. Oh, we don't know who it is, so let's put the blame on some dead guy."

It wasn't the first time Mosely had heard about Deanie and her father's alleged involvement.

About nine years ago when Mosely was 16, a retired detective --- she believes it was Kleinheksel -- tried to reach her father. So, she questioned her dad.

"I said, why? And he told me that there was some girl that was missing, her body was missing and they thought that he could have something to do with it because he knew the girl or he met the girl, or something like that," she said. "I asked him straight out. I said, did you have anything to do with it, dad? 'No, hell no.' That's what he told me. 'Hell no.' "

Mosely said she has no reason to doubt her dad. Even though her father drank a lot and had a big mouth, he was still a good man, she said.

"He was a very lovable guy, even though he was an asshole, because he was -- but it was because of his mouth," she added.

Rouse

said cold case detectives didn't like what he had to say.

"Bruce was too good-hearted of a person," he said. "Accidents happen, and kids do stupid things, but I'd never believe it. I couldn't see it. He just wasn't that way.

"As far as Bruce goes, I think they're picking on the wrong bum. They need to leave him be. He's dead and gone. He lived his life. He's left this earth. They need to leave him be."

But for the first time, Target 8 has found a connection between Bunch and Deanie -- revealed by his daughter and an aunt who also lives in Kentucky.

"Yeah, he'd met her, that's what he told me. He met her," his daughter said.

Woman in altercation talks

So, what's next?

Cold case detectives are making a promise: Those who know where to find Deanie's body won't be prosecuted.

"Every single individual that we've felt had knowledge of this case was told that there'd be no prosecution, unless they themselves admitted to killing Deanie Peters," Wolter said. "(They) would not go to jail, not suffer any prosecution and basically would be a hero in the Peters family to finally give them peace of mind."

24 Hour News 8 reached one of the women involved in that altercation with Deanie.

Her husband's uncle is Jack Christensen, a retired Kent County sheriff's captain who worked on Deanie's case years ago.

The woman says she was friends with Bunch, but not his girlfriend.

"He wished," she told 24 Hour News 8.

Through the door of her Ada home, she filled in some of the blanks, admitting she and two other girls threatened Deanie over a boy.

"It was a stupid deal because this girl -- it was a boy -- like, 'You better stay away from him.'

"It wasn't like we pounded on her," she said. "We probably threatened her, which was a bad thing."

When asked whether she had passed a recent lie-detector test, the woman responded: "Heck no."

Said Wolter: "I'm surprised she was truthful."

The woman said she was not involved in the disappearance.

"If I knew something, why wouldn't I tell? This was 30 years ago," she said. "Why didn't they talk to us 30 years ago, you know, when we remembered?"

Police say they hope the offer of immunity and a $25,000 reward will shake out the truth.

Friends, relatives and others drawn into this mystery say it's time for an end.

"If they find her, that would be a relief," said Diaz, the former janitor and original suspect. "For the family, for her and me. That'd be a big relief for everybody."

Said Vaught: "I really hope and pray that Deanie Peters' family finds some closure, that they can someday. And, in the event that happens, we can put all of this behind us, too."

Added Weeks Kingma: "For me, I believe she deserves to rest in peace. I believe it's peace of mind for all those who always wondered what happened to her. She deserves a place on this earth that said she was here."

Deanie's mom made a plea -- directly to those who know.

"Maybe they can come forward anonymously, because I don't care," she said. "I've forgiven them a long time ago."

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Finding-Deanie-Secrets-Revealed

[Nut44x4]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/peters_dean.html

good picture in the center

[Faith]

wow, why haven't they come forward before now? I pray they find her and bring her home.

[lost indie]

I saw this special. I'm so glad her mom came out of seclusion to do this piece. I believe this is the first time I've seen her since it happened.

Wow...they publicly stated that only the killer would actually be prosecuted. I am really hoping that there is someone out there who wants to get this off their chest and give the family some peace.

We're still looking for you Deanie!

If you see the piece....look at the background pictures of Deanie. It seems like they only show the one. Deanie was a beautiful girl.

And yes.....tick tock KILLER. Tongues are going to loosen now.

[lost indie]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/peters_dean.html

good picture in the center

I like the center one too.

[nanabillie]

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/New-tips-on-Deanie-Peters-disapperance
New tips on Deanie Peters disappearance

Cold Case team has new info on 1981 case

Updated: Friday, 05 Feb 2010, 6:14 PM EST
Published : Friday, 05 Feb 2010, 4:33 PM EST

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- Cold case detectives are investigating a handful of tips they received after Target 8's special, Finding Deanie: Secrets Revealed, uncovered new details in the disappearance of Deanie Peters.

The Kent Metro Cold Case team also monitored WOOD radio talk show, Mouth to Mouth, which discussed the project with listeners during the first hour of Friday's show.
Cold case team leader Sgt. Sally Wolter said she believes one of the show's callers was a classmate of Deanie's whom they've been trying to reach.

Deanie was 14, 29 years ago today, when she disappeared from Forest Hills Central Middle School. She was getting ready to leave with her mother after watching her little brother wrestle when she asked to use the bathroom. Her mother never saw her again.

Target 8 learned that cold case detectives have identified and interviewed people still living in West Michigan who they believe know where to find the body.

We also learned that a man named Bruce Bunch, who died two years ago, is considered the lead suspect. He lived in Lowell and was 17 at the time Deanie vanished.

The former classmate had little to say when she called WOOD radio today. "She was a really good kid, and she was excellent, got good grades, too," she said.
Much more at link