BRIDGEPORT TWP, MI — More than nine years after a Saginaw County man and his car vanished, the car has turned up in northern Michigan.
Michigan State Police Sgt. Joseph Rowley confirmed that police on Tuesday, Sept. 8, took possession of a bronze 2001 Chevrolet Malibu that was in the possession of Eric L. Franks. Both Franks and the Malibu were last seen on March 21, 2011.
“The vehicle was recently recovered from a car lot,” Rowley said. “It had been purchased in an estate sale and then sold. We do know which car dealership it was recovered from, but we don’t want to release that right now. We want to make sure we have our ducks in a row.”
Chad D. Baus, Franks' brother-in-law of Archbold, Ohio, told MLive the Malibu was located in a curious way thanks to an amateur internet sleuth.
“It was the most extraordinary thing,” Baus said. “It was a person from California, a student who was getting distracted from her schoolwork watching a YouTube video of Eric’s case. She ran a Carfax report on his car, which had been missing all this time. I’m a car dealer by trade myself and I had never thought to run a Carfax report. I was 100 percent convinced, as the police were, that the car had been destroyed, hidden, was at the bottom of a lake, who knows.”
The timeliness of the student’s search was also eerily fortuitous.
The Carfax reports showed the car had a title issued in Saginaw County on Aug. 21, followed by an oil change in Clare on Aug. 31, Baus said.
“Had she run it two weeks ago, nothing would have shown up,” Baus said. “These are all fresh records.”
Baus himself years ago had sold the car to Franks' mother, Jo Ann Franks, who then let her son use it, he said. As such, Franks himself could not buy license plates or get the title for the car, Baus said.
Over the Labor Day weekend, Baus and wife Beth Haus were in St. Ignace and decided to stop in Clare on their way home to Ohio.
“I was still telling myself, ‘It’s probably an error; it’s probably a typo,’” Baus said of the Carfax information. The Bauses visited the business where the Malibu had had its oil changed and were connected by staff there with the man who owned it. They then visited the car’s current owner, also in Clare.
“The guy works at a dealership but had bought the vehicle for himself from a person who had bought it at the estate sale,” Baus said. “The estate sale was in Saginaw; it had been there this whole time.”
The Malibu’s new owner showed the car to the Bauses.
“I can’t describe the emotions of walking around the corner and seeing that car,” Baus said. “It was amazing. There it was. It was amazing to see the car and to see the condition it was in. It’s a shiny, 19-year-old car. It doesn’t look any different than when it left here.”
After confirming it was indeed the same car, Baus called the Michigan State Police detective handling the case, who came directly to the site in Clare. Police loaded the Malibu on a flatbed truck and took it from the scene, Baus said.
The Malibu is now at the Michigan State Police Crime Lab.
“It’s going to be processed,” Sgt. Rowley said. “Hopefully, that will unveil some sort of investigation lead for us.”
Rowley added that investigators are treating Franks' disappearance as a cold case. They will be working backwards on the case, going over and sifting through old reports to ideally generate new leads.
Franks was 38 when he disappeared. He had moved from Ohio to Saginaw County in 2010 to be closer to his teenage daughter and a former girlfriend. He was residing at Miller’s Motel in Bridgeport Township, checking out of there on March 21.
Franks' sister and mother reported him missing several months later, making the initial report to their local police agency in Ohio, Baus said.
The ex-girlfriend told police she had seen Franks removing belongings out of his motel room before heading north on Dixie Highway. The motel owner told police he had not seen Franks that day but had seen the ex-girlfriend removing items from Franks' room.
The ex-girlfriend died in Florida in 2016. The following year, the Investigation Discovery true crime show “Disappeared” featured an episode on the Franks case.
Baus said there were stains on the passenger seat and floorboard of the Malibu that could be blood. He added that the estate sale where the Malibu was sold has a connection to Franks' deceased ex.
“I’ve prayed for answers for my mother-in-law and for my wife all this time,” Baus said. “I’ve kind of gotten used to the idea that we’re never going to get answers. Obviously, finding the car, it’s just a huge piece of the puzzle that’s been missing. I’m still trying not to get my hopes up that this will lead to ultimate justice this side of heaven.”
Anyone with information regarding Franks' disappearance is urged to call police at 989-495-5555.
Read more:
Arrest in Bay City cold case doesn’t end mystery of 13-year-old’s murder in 1973
Family of missing Bay City man seeking answers 18 years later
Police confirm an arrest was made this year in 1973 slaying of Bay City teen
Click here to read MLive’s 2012 series on the Jan Rohrer cold case.
"case" - Google News
September 10, 2020 at 11:07PM
https://ift.tt/3ijNfNR
Cold case: Car of man missing since 2011 turns up in northern Michigan - MLive.com
"case" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37dicO5
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Cold case: Car of man missing since 2011 turns up in northern Michigan - MLive.com"
Post a Comment