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Chapter 1
Mark
In 1976, America was getting ready to throw itself a party. It was the country's two hundredth birthday, and red, white and blue bunting was going up everywhere. In the suburbs north of Detroit, life felt safe. Children walked to school on their own, rode their bikes to the shops, went out to play after lunch and came home when it got dark. Nobody thought twice about it.
Ferndale was one of those suburbs. It sat just north of Detroit's famous 8 Mile Road, a working-class town of small, tidy houses, a few steps down from the wealthy neighbourhoods of Birmingham and Franklin further up Woodward Avenue. It was the kind of place where people knew their neighbours, and kids knew every short cut.
Mark Douglas Stebbins lived there with his mother. His parents were divorced. He was 12 years old and in the seventh grade at Lincoln Junior High School. He was a small boy for his age, just four foot eight and about a hundred pounds.
On Sunday the 15th of February 1976, in the depths of a Michigan winter, Mark was at the American Legion Hall in Ferndale playing pool with his brother, Michael.
Mark decided he'd had enough. He wanted to go home early and watch a movie on television. At about 1.30pm he rang his mother to tell her he was leaving the hall and heading home.
It was the last time she ever heard his voice.
Michael stayed on at the hall. He left about an hour later and made his own way home. He has carried that hour with him ever since. Decades later he told reporters he still wonders whether he could have saved his brother if he'd gone home with him. Maybe, he said, whoever took Mark wouldn't have been looking for two boys.
Mark never got home.
The afternoon turned into evening, and the evening turned into night. At 11pm his mother rang the Ferndale Police Department and reported her son missing. She told them what he'd been wearing when he left: a blue hooded parka, blue jeans, black rubber boots and a red sweatshirt.
Somewhere between the American Legion Hall and his front door, a 12-year-old boy had vanished in broad daylight, on a Sunday afternoon, in a town where everybody knew everybody. No one saw him taken. No one heard him cry out. He was simply gone.
For four days, nobody knew where Mark was. Nobody knew who had him, or what was being done to him.
And nobody in Ferndale could have imagined that this was only the beginning. Mark Stebbins was the first. Over the next thirteen months, three more children would be taken from the streets around Woodward Avenue, kept for days, and killed.
The man who took them has never been named.
End of chapter one. 11 more chapters in the full book.
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What's inside: 12 chapters
- 1. Mark
- 2. The Body in the Parking Lot
- 3. Jill
- 4. Boxing Day on I-75
- 5. Kristine
- 6. The Girl in the Snowbank
- 7. Tim
- 8. His Favourite Meal
- 9. The Biggest Manhunt in America
- 10. The Drawing on the Wall
- 11. Hairs in a Pontiac
- 12. Fifty Years Without Answers
About this book
"THE KILLER WHO KEPT THEM FOR DAYS" is a general book by Leigh Ralph with 12 chapters and approximately 8,574 words. It covers key insights and practical takeaways on the topic.
This book was created using Inkfluence AI, an AI-powered book generation platform that helps authors write, design, and publish complete books.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "THE KILLER WHO KEPT THEM FOR DAYS" about?
"THE KILLER WHO KEPT THEM FOR DAYS" is a general book by Leigh Ralph covering key insights and practical takeaways on the topic.
How many chapters are in "THE KILLER WHO KEPT THEM FOR DAYS"?
The book contains 12 chapters and approximately 8,574 words. Topics covered include Mark, The Body in the Parking Lot, Jill, Boxing Day on I-75, and more.
Who wrote "THE KILLER WHO KEPT THEM FOR DAYS"?
This book was written by Leigh Ralph and created using Inkfluence AI, an AI book generation platform that helps authors write, design, and publish books.
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