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Unsolved Cases Part 1: The Oakland County Serial Killer AKA 'The Babysitter' | #TrueCrime With Caledonian Kitty

(The confirmed victims of the so-called 'Babysitter' killer. Picture credit: tctimes)

It's been nearly 50 years since the horrific murders of 4 innocent children shocked Oakland County, Michigan. The four children who are confirmed to be the victims of the same perpetrator (or perpetrators) were 12 year old, Mark Douglas Stebbins, Jill Robinson (also 12), Kristine Marie Mihelich (aged just 10 years old) and 11 year old Timothy John King. Snow was heavy on the ground at the time each of the children's bodies were found, each had been abducted, held, either strangled, suffocated or shot. The boys had been sexually assaulted and the children had been cleaned thoroughly (investigators believe the children were bathed to remove evidence) before being disposed of in similar poses and patterns in the snow within 19 days of their abduction.

It was a terrifying time in the late 70s where parents were on tenderhooks wondering what was going to happen next. Each of the cases had startling similarities that were impossible to ignore and took place from February 1976 to March 1977. After March of 1977 everything seemed to have all of a sudden ceased. The case was one of the most covered and highly investigated at the time. In an effort to help find the killer, public appeals were made and a psychologist (Bruce Danto) published an open letter to the killer which was shared in the local media. There was an overwhelming response to the letter but most of the leads were useless until one particular informant raised some eyebrows. A man calling himself 'Allen' and identifying himself as a Vietnam war veteran, claimed that had been a roommate of the killer that the press were now referring to as 'The Babysitter'. The killer was given this nickname because of how he carefully abducted his victims then kept them in captivity in a manner which saw him feeding and washing the victims before disposing of their bodies.

'Allen' told Bruce Danto that the murders were an act of revenge for the war and that 'The Babysitter' wanted to teach wealthy parents a lesson by targeting children from well to do backgrounds in an effort to bring war on home soil. At the time it was hard to know if this 'Allen' character was legit but with investigators being desperate to get to the bottom of the case they couldn't afford to not pay attention to every little thing they could get. 'Allen' mentioned the snow and even told Bruce not to hope for more snow as if to indicate that more murders would happen.

Communication between 'Allen' and Bruce continued for some time before Bruce suggested that they meet. Everything seemed to be on track and 'Allen' seemed to be on board for the meeting but all of a sudden he vanished, no letters, no phone calls, not a word and there hasn't been a word from 'Allen' since. Who was this man? Was he really the killer or was he some loner who realised that the trail back to him was getting too hot so he decided to stop lying and just fade into the darkness? who knows, the real identity of 'Allen' remains a mystery to this day.

So much had been going on around the time that each of the bodies were found that investigators originally suspected 'The Babysitter' to have been responsible for a lot more murders and incidences that had been going on at the time. Some of these suspected murders have since been disproved and there is still a big question mark hanging around the others.

One of the facts that investigators found was that the killer not only had a thing for cleanliness, but was also obsessed with snow. Parents were fearful every time the winter weather would roll around in case the murderer struck again but things continued to be silent.

As well as 'The Babysitter', the serial killer is also known by the nickname 'The Oakland County Serial Killer' and 'The Snow Murderer'. This case has remained unsolved for decades and it's heartbreaking after so long you try to keep hopeful that a new lead will come but there is nothing to go on.

The case remains open to this day and one of the sad facts of the case was that the heartbroken father of Timothy John King, passed away a few years ago never finding justice for his son. Timothy's father, Barry had spent decades trying to keep the case alive and did everything he could to find information. He dedicated his life to finding his son's killer and never got that moment of justice and glory. Bruce reminds me a lot of Winnie Johnson (the devoted and late mother of 'Moors Murders' victim, Keith who was murdered by Ian Brady & Myra Hindley in 1964. I wrote about this horrendous case last year, you can find the post here) who never gave up looking for Keith's remains, she may have seen the day her son's killers were brought to justice but she did not have the closure of being given that last bit of comfort to have her son's remains for herself and her family to pay tribute and give a meaningful burial or cremation. Brady and Hindley were so evil to the core that they denied giving Winnie that information about where keith was.

I've written about cases that have been solved decades later but a case that is nearly 50 years old? Could it be possible a miracle could happen and we could still get some sort of closure for these poor families who've been through hell for decades? I can never imagine the pain of losing a child and then not knowing where they were or that the murderer has escaped justice for decades.

It brings to mind another case from my home town in Scotland which was finally solved last year after 27 years!! The Caroline Glachan murder shocked my home town for years and rumours were rife but nobody spoke up. Caroline's mother Margaret went through hell for years not knowing if the person she passed on the street was responsible for her daughter's murder. It was a case that never went away for us, every chance that Margaret could get she was looking for her daughter's killer. Regular updates and reports on the case were shared nationwide along with newspaper articles appealing for information and the case featured on many true crime documentaries. I seemed to be the only one in the true crime community who had written about the case back in 2019 but that might have been down to the fact that it was a murder that happened in a small town who knows? But when the three murderers were finally caught the news went world wide! Everyone was elated and astonished that after all this time that a case could be solved and justice finally done.

One of the sad facts about cases such as Caroline's and others that I have covered on this blog, is that by the time these cases are solved the celebration is bittersweet because the person is still no longer with us plus the years of anguish and hell that their loved ones have gone through, years wasted. It is like a torture for the families of the victims and it's another heartbreaking aspect of unsolved cases.

So there are a lot of broken hearts in the Oakland County case, innocent children being murdered, taken from their families with nobody facing justice for these horrendous crimes. Investigators still suspecting there could be more victims tied to the same killer. I guess all we can do is hope and pray that someone, somewhere comes forward and that this case (for the sake of the victims and their remaining loved ones who are still alive) will finally be closed.

RIP to the little angels (who are confirmed to be victims of this unidentified monster. We can but hope that one day all of this will be solved, it's important to never give up) Jill Robinson, Kristine Mihelich, Timothy King & Mark Stebbins. Thinking also of the other potential victims, survivors and their families.

If you have any information or could pass the phone number/email on to someone who does, please get in touch with the Oakland County Police Dept on 248 858 5000 or email osco@oakgov.com

Further Reading & Sources:

- The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes | Book by Michael Newton

- The Snow Killings | Book by Marney Rich Keenan

- Oakland County Child Killer | Wikipedia

- Oakland County Child Killer Case : Article | Click On Detroit

- Oakland County Child Killer: Article | Fox 2 Detroit

- Oakland County Child Killer: Case Discussion | Reddit

- Children of The Snow | TV Mini Series

- Oakland County Michigan | Wikipedia

- Oakland County Police Dept

Well, this heartbreaking story was the first instalment of my Unsolved series here on my blog. I will be covering five more cases in the coming weeks that you may not have heard about before and I hope that you will join me for them. Just a reminder that I publish a new post every Sunday evening, to keep up to date with when i share my latest content, check out my Linktree for all of my social media platforms.

Take care & I hope you will join me next time x

Sugardaddy On The Run: The Shocking Murder of Sofya Krasilnikova | The Sugarbaby Murders

(Left: Sofya Krasilnikova. Right: Vyacheslav Popov. Picture credits: thesun)

I wasn't sure whether to write about this shocking and bizarre case due to the limited information available, but I thought for the sake of Sofya, I would. At the end of the day, her story deserves to be told and the individual who took her life deserves to face justice.

This case occurred in 2022 so it's not that long ago, part of the reason for there being limited information is because the crime took place in Russia. I have done my best to gather as much information as I can to provide you with as much details as possible. I will be updating this post as soon as more information about the case becomes available.

So what do we know about the backstory of this case? Well, Sofya Kraslinikova was a beautiful 18 year old Russian girl who decided at the age of 17 to join a website looking for a Sugardaddy (for those unaware, a Sugardaddy is often a older man who dates younger women whilst financially supporting them. This type of 'relationship' if you could call it that, is purely financial and the conditions vary. A Sugardaddy may want sexual favours in exchange for money. some might want 'the girlfriend experience', others may just want an attractive young woman to go to dinner with them without anything sexual occurring). Well, on this website, Sofya was pretending to be 18 and it wasn't long before her pictures and advertisement caught the eye of a seasoned Sugardaddy.

A man in his early 40s by the name of Vyacheslav Popov was no stranger to Sugarbaby arrangements, in fact he preferred to 'date' only Sugarbabies and claimed at that point to have been 'dating' various young women for over 10 years. Vyacheslav wasn't exactly up there in the looks department but he seemed to have quite a lot of money to keep his Sugarbabies happy (how he happened to have so much money to burn is a mystery). He would lavish them with gifts, luxury hotels, holidays and visits to 5-star restaurants but like a lot of these arrangements, Vyacheslav would grow tired of his latest Sugarbaby and move on to the next.

(Sofya krasilnikova. Picture credit: The Sun)

Vyacheslav was already a regular user of this particular Sugarbaby site and when he and Sofya started to message each other, it appeared that they both had a lot in common according to Vyacheslav. He claimed their chance meeting on a Sugarbaby site was ''like a fairytale'' and he'd never felt that sort of connection before with any of his other Sugarbabies.

Vyacheslav liked to think of himself as a bit of a playboy and he had dreams of being famous. He appeared on a TV show in Russia bragging about his life with Sugababies. He was quite proud of his lifestyle and saw nothing wrong with it.

So after messaging each other back and forth on the Sugababy website, they arranged to meet in person on one condition, that Vyacheslav pay a 'meeting fee' (a 'meeting fee' is a standard arrangement that Sugarbabies always have in place, the Sugardaddy is expected to pay this fee whilst also paying for the dinner, any transport costs etc plus a discussion about a weekly or monthly allowance will also take place).

Sofya requested that he pay £200 to meet her and he agreed. When they had dinner, Vyacheslav couldn't have been happier and claimed to have got on so well with Sofya that she didn't leave his home until morning. It puts a chill down the spine to think about this 17 year old girl just going to some random older man's house and staying there until the morning. He wouldn't go into details of what they go up to, he said they ''just talked'' but make of that what you will. Sofya finally confessed to Vyacheslav that she was just 17 but he didn't seem to mind this and the pair continued to see each other.

In a further strange twist of events, Vyacheslav suggested they move in together and have a proper relationship. Sofya agreed but it wasn't the bliss filled experience that she hoped for. It turned out that Vyacheslav was a bit of a nutcase (incase that hasn't shone through already in this post) and there was a reason he was a single man in his 40s paying young women for their time. He enjoyed paying women for their time because he enjoyed the control and the power. The women would tell him what he wanted to hear and he would be in charge of what was happening whilst they collected the money. Going on arranged 'dates' was one thing, a Sugardaddy and Sugarbaby living in the same house is quite the other. Throw into the mix that Sofya was a child compared to 42 year old Vyacheslav, there would have been that father/daughter/adult/child dynamic. He probably expected homecooked dinners, ironed clothes and all the things you would expect from a mature woman in her 40s but trying to place all of these demands on a young girl who barely set foot out of High School.

(Vyacheslav Popov. Picture credit: The Sun)

Being a teenage girl living with someone so much older would have been quite stifling I imagine but she obviously thought this would be a great financial set-up. Things continued to get worse with daily arguments between the pair, it was clear that it wasn't working and things were said to have turned violent. Sofya had reported a horrible incident to the police where she accused Vyacheslav of sexual assault but the charges were later dropped and nobody knows why. Was it through fear? According to Vyacheslav, it was all fake and designed to gain publicity as he wanted to be a social media influencer.

I don't know how that could possibly make anyone 'popular', being accused of sexual assault. The man was delusional and a fantasist just trying to cover his own tracks.

It wasn't long after this that it became common knowledge around Sofya's family and friends that she wanted to leave Vyacheslav and was putting plans in place to do so. Nobody could imagine the horrific moment when Sofya's mother went over to visit her at the house (Vyacheslav was nowhere to be seen) only to find her daughter, deceased and covered in blood. It was clear that Sofya had been through a horrendous ordeal before she died, she was totally unrecognisable. She had been stabbed 15 times and her mother later said that the only way that she knew that the poor girl lying on the floor was Sofya was by the distinctive tattoos that she had.

Straight away the police were on the scene looking for Vyacheslav who completely vanished without a trace. He had been the last person to see Sofya and footage emerged of him walking into the house with her and leaving in a hurry just 12 minutes later. It was shortly after this that her Mother arrived and nobody else was seen going to or from the house.

The motive for the heartless murder of a young girl? She was going to leave him, those close to her knew it and she was very unhappy and it was clear that she was terrified of him. When she reported the assault she maybe thought that the police would offer her some sort of protection but it didn't work out that way and like a lot of terrified victims, she felt she had to return to him. We don't know what he may have threatened her with? Maybe threatened to hurt her family if she didn't do as he asked.

So a manhunt is officially ongoing, where could he possibly be? A murderer who has cash at his disposal is a frightening thing, he could be in Spain, France, here in the UK, anywhere! A friend of his was questioned by the police and the friend refused to believe that Vyacheslav was responsible for the murder of Sofya. He said ''What would he have to gain out of it?''

You don't have to be Columbo to figure out what has gone on here, Vyacheslav said that he believed his relationship with Sofya to be like a fairytale. He treated her differently to his other Sugarbabies and claimed to have never felt that connection before. She'd tried to get away from him before and went to the police, the situation was violent and getting worse. She was trying to leave him and there was probably a part of him that really resented her because he gave her money (we've seen this happen a lot with Sugardaddies who have later found out that their Sugarbabies have a boyfriend and they seek revenge) hoping she would fall in love with him.

None of us know what was going on in his mind but a young girl's life was cruelly taken. Sometimes I worry for young girls who watch Sugarbaby channels on Youtube who advertise this type of lifestyle. It can be very dangerous and it's not the 'easy money' they think it is. What they are seeing on Youtube and Instagram is the 'highlights', the material goods that a Sugarbaby has been given (whilst apparently doing nothing sexual at all for it lol) but they are never honest about what they have had to do to get that money. What happens when you get on the wrong side of your Sugardaddy or you have one that is a control freak and they find out where you live? There's so many ways that this situation can go wrong.

I love Pretty Woman as a movie but I think to certain women it gives this sort of ideal fantasy where they think the right Sugardaddy will pop up like Richard Gere and money will be no object. The reality of being a Sugarbaby is not all fun and glamorous as it's made to look on social media.

I hope that other content creators in the true crime community will cover Sofya's case and if you are in Russia and know more about the latest developments on the hunt for Vyacheslav Popov, please get in touch with me (jocaledonianKitty@gmail.com)

RIP Sofya.

Thank you as always for checking out my latest post and for joining me in the second instalment of The Sugarbaby Murders series. I will be back again on Sunday evening with a new case.

In the meantime, you can find me o my socials here and if you would like to support my work (that would be amazing, thank you!), you can do so here

Take care x

[Usually I provide a list of books, further reading & sources that have been part of my research on a particular case. in this instance, information is pretty scarce, all we know is that the investigation into the murderer's whereabouts is continuing. The article published by The Sun newspaper was invaluable with the main details of this case. My knowledge of the Sugarbaby lifestyle is by my own research watching Youtube videos over the years and for my ongoing research for this series. Any questions or enquiries please don't hesitate to email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com]