Body of missing GPP Woman found in Detroit

[Gianni]

I don't think "support our values" is intended as "Grosse Pointe Values." I think it means the values of people who are willing to pay taxes for things supporting the common good such as libraries, vs. tea party types who think everyone should just buy their own books, and if you want a community experience, just go to Borders, or if that doesn't work, just don't read.

[rb336]

Just looking at a map of 7 Mile/Hoover, I think there has to be an accomplice. The route from there to GPP seems too convoluted for any bus route back, and I doubt taxi service is that reliable. The only way I can see it is if he did find the route, left his car, then went home, killed his wife, drove her there and walked to his car. If he did that, his computer should show research to back it up. If he took a cab, one of the companies would have a record of the trip or a cab driver would remember it.

[GPCharles]

"Support our Values" - I just presumed it meant property values by keeping the library system, which is separate from the school system funding-wise, operating at a high level.

[MikeM]

Just looking at a map of 7 Mile/Hoover, I think there has to be an accomplice. The route from there to GPP seems too convoluted for any bus route back, and I doubt taxi service is that reliable. The only way I can see it is if he did find the route, left his car, then went home, killed his wife, drove her there and walked to his car. If he did that, his computer should show research to back it up. If he took a cab, one of the companies would have a record of the trip or a cab driver would remember it.

Right. Unless you took a circuitous route home using a combination of bus/taxi trips. The risk for him would be the last mile home, where someone could recognize him while walking to his house from wherever he was dropped off. Same thing later when leaving with his wife's car. Maybe he called his wife to come pick him up somewhere? All this supposes it was premeditated and not a last minute fit of rage.

[iheartthed]

Immediately.

I didn't know where this was, and just looked it up on the map...since the Freep was so nice as to publish the cross-street and a picture of the house.

Geez...I've passed by this place dozens of times on my walks to the park and back.

The folks to the W of that intersection by a few blocks had really weird rot in most of their trees.

I hate this. Too close to home.


I hope they solve it soon.


How could a Mercedes SUV survive with its rims & tires intact in that neighborhood overnight?! Wonder how many peered into those windows...


I'm obviously bothered by this...shouldn't have come over here to take a break from writing. Ugh.

On Belle Isle? When is the last time someone had their car stolen on Belle Isle???

ETA: Nevermind. I thought she was found on Belle Isle.

[iheartthed]

The pearl clutching in this thread is ridiculous. The husband was the first suspect because --contrary to public perception -- the vast majority of murders are not random. This is true in both the ghettos of Detroit and behind the white picket fences of Grosse Pointe Park. If he's charged then he does deserve to be presumed innocent until proven guilty... But that doesn't mean people aren't justified in being suspicious of him.

[GPCharles]

I think the opinions being expressed on tv and in the newspapers that it could not be the husband are based on the particular speaker's impression that he is a good man/person, not that he lives in Grosse Pointe.

[aoife]

Here's one thing that's becoming more apparent to me as I watch news coverage of this story: it seems the average Grosse Pointer would rather have a murder be a random act committed by an outsider [[read: Detroiter, which is really just a coded word for a black person) and live in fear of it happening again than have it be a crime deliberately orchestrated by a neighbor or "one of us," lest it hurt their image. For the average Detroiter: just the opposite.

PS--Not surprising for a community where the yard signs around town displaying support for a library millage proclaim "YES LIBRARY/ SUPPORT OUR VALUES," as if support for education/libraries is strictly a Grosse Pointe thing.

This is seriously the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. Of course people want to believe that it was an outsider, not her husband. That would be the same anywhere- no one wants to believe that someone who seemed to be just a genuinely good person would be murdered by her husband. You want it to be a stranger, or at least someone else not that close to her- it is easier to understand. Race has nothing to do with it- except when you insert your tired stereotypes into it.

The library signs have nothing to do with elitism or smug satisfaction. GP has an awesome library system- it comes from continuous community support. They put signs like this up every time there is a vote to remind people to go to the polls.

[MidTownMs]

This is seriously the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. Of course people want to believe that it was an outsider, not her husband. That would be the same anywhere- no one wants to believe that someone who seemed to be just a genuinely good person would be murdered by her husband. You want it to be a stranger, or at least someone else not that close to her- it is easier to understand. Race has nothing to do with it- except when you insert your tired stereotypes into it.

The library signs have nothing to do with elitism or smug satisfaction. GP has an awesome library system- it comes from continuous community support. They put signs like this up every time there is a vote to remind people to go to the polls.

Who are you to say someone else's opinion is stupid? Unless you were at the scene of the crime you do not know anymore than anyone else on here. To say someone is stupid just because their opinion differs from your's is not only rude but disrespectful.

[aoife]

Who are you to say someone else's opinion is stupid? Unless you were at the scene of the crime you do not know anymore than anyone else on here. To say someone is stupid just because their opinion differs from your's is not only rude but disrespectful.

Read it again. I was not commenting on the crime. The poster is class/race baiting. Which is stupid. And disrespectful to an entire community, the victim's family included. If you think that perpetuating stereotypes is cool, then that is your thing. I think it is revolting.

[MidTownMs]

Read it again. I was not commenting on the crime. The poster is class/race baiting. Which is stupid. And disrespectful to an entire community, the victim's family included. If you think that perpetuating stereotypes is cool, then that is your thing. I think it is revolting.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the whole point of this site is to speak freely without being judged or attacked. There probably are racists on this site as well as peoplewho perpetuate stereotypes. My point to you is that everyone on here has a right to their own opinion whether you agree with it or not. I have disagreed with many people on here but I don't to resort to name calling to get my point across.

[eastsidechris]

Of course people want to believe that it was an outsider, not her husband. That would be the same anywhere- no one wants to believe that someone who seemed to be just a genuinely good person would be murdered by her husband. You want it to be a stranger, or at least someone else not that close to her- it is easier to understand.

While I wouldn't want a neighbor to be responsible for a murder, I'd prefer it to a random killing where the murderer is still on the loose. If this was a completely random event, I'd be terrified if I lived in the area because there's no apparent motive--it didn't appear to happen over money or her car, and the method used to commit the murder was not only violent, but very personal.

Also, how would the perpetrator being a stranger make it any easier to understand, given the circumstances of the crime? If it was someone known to the victim, at least there's probably some underlying motive for the crime.

As for the library signs, the way one reads into the signs might change depending upon if the reader is a member of the community or an outsider.

[Stinger4me]

I wonder if the husband is any relation to a "Joe Bashara". Joe Bashara owned a business at Mack & Seyburn in the late 60's early 70's. Mr. Bashara was in a group called B.U.O.Y. 7, Businessmen United with Officers for Youth.

[princealbert]

As for the library signs, the way one reads into the signs might change depending upon if the reader is a member of the community or an outsider.

In my opinion, the "Support Our Values" slogan is used to drum up support for the libraries by subtly reminding voters that GP is a forward-thinking community, not a backward, tea party community like Troy.

[RickBeall]

I predict it was a crime of opportunity. She was raped and robbed.

[Alley]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the whole point of this site is to speak freely without being judged or attacked. There probably are racists on this site as well as peoplewho perpetuate stereotypes. My point to you is that everyone on here has a right to their own opinion whether you agree with it or not. I have disagreed with many people on here but I don't to resort to name calling to get my point across.

This seems contradictory to me. As I see it, aoife--who is included within "everyone on here"--was exercising the right to voice his/her opinion by stating "this is seriously the stupidest thing I have read in a long time." I also didn't notice any name-calling; saying a person's words/actions are stupid is different than calling them stupid. Just like saying a person's words/actions are rude and disrespectful is different than calling them rude and disrepectful.

[mikefmich]

I live in GP and previously stated that I hope the husband did it, rather than an outsider.

Yes absolutely, it would make it sooooo much easier on the family, right?

[Ravine]

Well, however it turns out, unless Matty Maroun did it, somebody around here will be bummed out and/or frightened.

It is natural enough, for the members of the community to hope to learn that it was the husband [[contrary to eastsidechris' wayward inference,) so they don't wind up feeling as though their community is being violated by a roaming killer, just as the family would be loathe to find that the husband did it. The woman is dead, so there is no point in being coy about one's preferences in regard to the disposition of the case.

Finally, any community that is maintaining healthy libraries, is striving to continue doing so, and is proud of the venture deserves accolades for promoting the values represented thereby. I don't see anything smug, or divisive, about it.
Offense taken in response to such a lawn-sign reveals far more about the offended than it reveals about the home-owner.

[thecarl]

Richard Jewell was blamed for the bombings during the Olympics in Atlanta, Steven Hatfill was blamed for the anthrax letters that created post-911 pandemonium, Elizabeth Smart's family was blamed for the disappearance of their daughter and the "obviously staged" kidnapping. We need to learn our lessons. I cannot rule out the husband - he would have had only a six-mile walk home, which could easily be traversed in 90 minutes. But, I also cannot rule out a paramour, a handy-man, a stalker, or some unhinged individual that sought revenge or pleasure in such an awful crime. And let's end the dialog about the location of the body somehow being an effort to implicate Detroit, or an African-American, in the crime. Assuming the decedent was murdered at her home, the neighborhood where the car was found was a proximate, inconspicuous location to dispose of the evidence. It could have been a ravine, a dumpster, a park, a forest, a farm - the killer just wanted a place to leave the body, and get away, without being detected.

[Ravine]

It could have been a ravine

Hey!! I represent that remark!!

[iheartthed]

And let's end the dialog about the location of the body somehow being an effort to implicate Detroit, or an African-American, in the crime. Assuming the decedent was murdered at her home, the neighborhood where the car was found was a proximate, inconspicuous location to dispose of the evidence. It could have been a ravine, a dumpster, a park, a forest, a farm - the killer just wanted a place to leave the body, and get away, without being detected.

Yeah, we know that has NEVER happened before...

Except for Bonnie Sweeten, Jennifer Wilbanks, Ashley Todd, Charles Stuart, and perhaps the most famous "blame the scary minority for what I did" criminal of all, Susan Smith.

[Buy American]

The case has gone national, on GMA this morning.

[MikeM]

I predict it was a crime of opportunity. She was raped and robbed.

Except that reports are she wasn't raped and wasn't robbed.

[401don]

The case has gone national, on GMA this morning.

"Gross Pointe? Isn't that a well-to-do area outside Detroit. Yeah, let's run with this one."

[iheartthed]

"Gross Pointe? Isn't that a well-to-do area outside Detroit. Yeah, let's run with this one."

A friend of mine once said these high profile wife or child killing stories always seem to come from either Florida or Michigan.