MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - The Latest on police excavations in Detroit area as part of cold case investigation (all times local):
3 p.m.
Authorities say a man serving life for the 1986 killing of a Detroit-area girl could be responsible for cold-case slayings of other girls reported missing decades ago.
Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told reporters Wednesday that investigators suspect 69-year-old Arthur Ream is a serial killer.
The FBI and other agencies are digging in a forest in Macomb Township for the remains of 12-year-old Kimberly King. She was last seen in 1979.
Ream was convicted in 2008 in the slaying of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki, who was last seen in 1986. After his conviction, Ream led police to her remains in the same wooded area, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Detroit.
Police questioned Ream last year after other prison inmates said he boasted about killing several other girls.
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2 p.m.
Police say a suspect in the decades-old slaying of a 12-year-old Michigan girl boasted to fellow prisoners that he killed several other girls.
Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told reporters Wednesday that “the suspect in this case also did brag about murdering four to six people to inmates where he is being housed.”
Police have said detectives questioned 69-year-old Arthur Ream in prison about Kimberly King who was last seen in 1979.
The FBI and local agencies are excavating woods about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Detroit in Macomb Township, near where Ream led police in 2008 to the remains of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki.
Ream is serving life in prison for killing Zarzycki who disappeared in 1986.
Dwyer says authorities “do have probable cause to believe” the area “is a gravesite.”
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10:50 a.m.
Authorities have resumed excavating a wooded area in southeastern Michigan, hoping to uncover the remains of a 12-year-old girl and up to six other girls reported missing decades ago.
Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer says crews are digging Wednesday morning at the site in Macomb Township for the remains of Kimberly King. The FBI and other agencies spent Tuesday at the site about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of downtown Detroit.
King was last seen in 1979 in Warren. Police began searching the site after interviewing a man serving life in prison for killing another girl whose body was found buried nearby.
Dwyer says four to six other girls could be buried there.
King’s sister, Konnie Beyma, told The Associated Press that she has contacted detectives and is hoping to recover Kimberly’s remains.
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12:20 a.m.
Authorities are set to resume excavation work in a wooded area northeast of Detroit for the remains of a 12-year-old girl and the bodies of up to six other girls reported missing.
Warren police, the FBI and other agencies spent Tuesday digging through dirt and vegetation at the site in Macomb Township for the remains of Kimberly King. The work is expected to restart on Wednesday.
King was last seen in 1979 in Warren. Police began searching the Macomb Township site after speaking with a man serving life in prison for the slaying of another girl whose body was found near the wooded area about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of downtown Detroit.
Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer says the bodies of four to six other girls reported missing may be buried at the site and that the excavation may take several days.
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