Mon, 12 Jan 2026 15:50:45 -0800 marlon from private IP, post #10839941 /all boy finds body in the woods https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/01/a-9-year-old-boy-and-the-skeleton-in-the-grass-part-1-of-body-on-the-hill.html A 9-year-old boy and the skeleton in the grass: Part 1 of Body on the Hill Updated: Jan. 12, 2026, 7:42 a.m.|Published: Jan. 12, 2026, 7:35 a.m. By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com This is Part 1 of a four-part MLive investigation into the killing of an unidentified man whose body was found by a 9-year-old boy on a remote Jackson County hill in 1986. The case quickly and quietly faded from public view, even after authorities ruled it a homicide. Nearly 40 years later, the victim has been identified, and police have renewed their efforts to find the killer. Keep Watching 1 Venezuela anuncia la excarcelación de 116 presos políticos y eleva a 133 el totalVenezuela anuncia la excarcelación de 116 presos políticos y eleva a 133 el total At “Dead Man’s Hill,” there’s no plaque, just overgrown weeds where a body once lay. It’s a good place to hunt, tucked inside a desolate tract of land in Jackson County’s Norvell Township, population 2,800. It feels like the middle of nowhere, but it’s at the center of a messy mystery. In August 1986, the body of a young shirtless man with Velcro shoes was found by a 9-year-old boy. How did he get there? Who was he? Who killed him and why? Forty years later, old questions have been answered, new ones have surfaced, but some remain buried on the side of that lonely hill – perhaps forever. Body on a Hill Michigan state police sketch artist drawing of the John Doe discovered in Norvell Township Aug. 25, 1986. The sketch is dated December 2011.Courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff's Office ‘HE WAS PURPLE’ It was about 76 degrees with a light wind on Aug. 25, 1986. Matt Merriman, 9, was on a three-wheel ATV tearing through corn fields behind his babysitter’s house on Wampler’s Lake Road in Jackson County’s Norvell Township. He and a neighborhood kid -- the son of Merriman’s babysitter -- were looping through the trails when Merriman began to lose control. The machine began to tip. He jerked the steering wheel to regain balance and lurched through tall grass leading up the side of a knoll. There, he stumbled on something that would forever be etched in his memory – a depression in nearby grass. Merriman inched closer. He looked down. There it was: a shirtless dead man with his head turned to the left. Bones were sticking through some of the remaining skin. The body was wearing Velcro shoes and corduroy pants. “He looked like a zombie,” Merriman, who’s now 48, told MLive in a recent interview recounting his grisly discovery. “He was purple. His skin was sunk into his ribs, his skin taut to his face, everything was just sunken. He was more or less a purple skeleton. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, my God, he’s got the same pants and shoes on as me.” Matt Merriman as a child An image of Matt Merriman when he was a child near the age at which he discovered a dead body in Jackson County's Norvell Township.Courtesy of Matt Merriman JOHN DOE In a state of shock, Merriman and his friend fled back to the nearby farmhouse to tell the adults, Patricia and Robert Brown, who called police. Chief Robert F. Gibson, one of the only full-time officers with the bare-bones Norvell Township Police Department, responded to the scene for what was described by dispatchers as a “found skeleton.” “Mr. Brown advised he returned to the reported location and discovered a badly decomposed body lying on the ground next to a tree on top of a hill …” said the 1986 Norvell Township police report obtained by MLive through a Freedom of Information Act request. “He stated the boys had been riding their three-wheelers in that area for some time; however, had not reported such a finding previously.” The body belonged to a white man with a neck-length ponytail. He was “partially decayed,” wearing gray 31-inch waist Rustler corduroy pants, a brown leather belt with a metal buckle, white socks and size 9, white-and-black Olympian brand tennis shoes with “Velcro closers,” the report said. “A shirt, which appeared to be a purple T-shirt, was tied around neck of body, knot toward front,” reports said. Subsequent evidence records, however, described it as a “dark blue U of M shirt.” Merriman doesn’t remember seeing any T-shirt. The Browns told police no one had come to their home looking for help. They didn’t recognize the man. “Mr. Brown advised he has been in the area of the scene about one month ago he smelled a slight putrid odor,” the police report said. “However, in the past, he has found decaying animals in the area and believed the odor he smelled was from a dead animal.” The police chief interviewed the boys and called the Jackson County Medical Examiner. A Jackson County sheriff’s deputy and medical examiner personnel arrived about 5 p.m. They noted the body didn’t have any ID. The right front pocket had been turned inside out. They took photos, measurements and collected evidence, including a purple handkerchief found 40-feet away in the field, and two cigarette butts taken from a nearby hunting blind. They tagged the body: “A-335-86, John Doe.” Body on a Hill Norvell Township police photo from Aug. 25, 1986, depicting the area where Matt Merriman found an unidentified body in Jackson County when he was 9 years old. Photo provided to MLive by the Ann Arbor Police Department.Courtesy of Ann Arbor Police Department STRANGLED An hour and a half later, a hearse transported the unknown man’s body to Foote Hospital, since renamed Henry Ford Jackson Hospital. Officials slid John Doe into a cooler to await an autopsy the following day. He’d be moved again to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing to be examined. “When I arrived at the hospital the specimen had been unclothed and the head had been removed and partially cleaned,” wrote Michigan State University (MSU) anthropology professor Dr. Norman J. Sauer, who performed the initial death examination. “The specimen was in an advanced state of mummification.” The aim was to determine who this man was and how he died. Except no one seemed to be looking for him. Pathologist Dr. Laurence Simson also examined the body. He estimated the man to be between 23 and 35 years old, about 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds. On his upper-left arm appeared to be a tattoo that was now an undiscernible blotch of black ink. There were no indications he’d been stabbed, shot or beaten. The medical examiner guessed the man had been dead for a few months but couldn’t rule out that he’d died as far back as the previous summer in 1985. Dr. Simson wrote in his report that decomposition made it impossible “to establish with certainty” the cause of death. However, the knotted T-shirt around the man’s neck, among other things, led the doctor to conclude it was ligature strangulation. “Further, it is my opinion that the manner of death should be classified as homicide,” he wrote in a report dated Oct. 17, 1986. Body on a Hill A map of the scene created by police in Norvell Township after Matt Merriman discovered a body there on Aug. 25, 1986.Courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff's Office ‘IT WILL ALWAYS BE DEAD MAN’S HILL’ When he arrived home after the discovery, Merriman said some members of his family downplayed the impact it had on his 9-year-old self. He remembers an uncle who joked: “I heard you found a new friend up in the woods.” Merriman spent the next two months sleeping in his parents’ bed. News of the body on the hill appeared in local media police briefs. “Man’s body discovered,” reads an undated clipping Merriman’s family cut from the Brooklyn Exponent four decades ago. He still has the clipping today. At the time, no cause of death was listed. A day after the discovery, a page-three story in the Jackson Citizen Patriot read: “Authorities puzzled by body, death case.” Pre-autopsy notes recorded by the county medical examiner a day after the body was found noted “possible strangulation.” However, Norvell Township Police Chief Robert Gibson told the reporter there were no obvious signs of homicide. Gibson died in 2020. It was briefly big news in the little community. While the stories notified the public there was an unidentified dead man, the medical examiner didn’t reveal much in his explanation for the death, only stating that it was “caused by other than natural causes.” The autopsy report declaring the death a homicide by strangulation wouldn’t be signed until more than a month later. “As fast as it started, it faded away,” Merriman said. “There was no follow-up, there was nobody contacting us about nothing. The one police report, that was it.” Body on a Hill Matt Merriman, 48, who discovered a dead body on a hill while riding an ATV when he was 9 years old, revisits the location in Jackson County's Norvell Township on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.Abra Richardson | Mlive.com At the time, the idea of a murder never crossed Merriman’s mind. Merriman, his parents and neighbors figured it was an accident – possibly an overdose. Or maybe he fell from a nearby tree. A few years after the body was discovered, Sherri Evans moved into the home where the Browns lived. By that time, the body had become neighborhood lore. She still lives in the house and remembers the boys talking about how Matt found the body on the hill. Evans hasn’t thought much about it since. “It was just an oddball thing,” she said. “Except to say, it will always be Dead Man’s Hill.” Next up: While Jackson County officials were grappling with the discovery of the body, police in nearby Ann Arbor had taken a report about a 25-year-old man who recently vanished. Be sure to check out the next installment of Body on Hill this Wednesday. Gus Burns I am an investigative and cannabis industry reporter. Please call me with any tips, leads or story ideas, 989-372-2495. Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:18:55 -0800 zerosugar from private IP Reply #13095951 This stuff has always freaked me out tbh. I hear so many people go missing yearly in state and national parks too. Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:30:17 -0800 marlon from private IP Reply #19941390 when i was a kid i found a couple piles of stones that had an oblong shape, like a grave. was too afraid to mess around it Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:24:34 -0800 marlon from private IP Reply #12699427 https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/01/he-left-to-pick-up-his-paycheck-and-never-came-home-part-2-of-body-on-the-hill.html Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:54:37 -0800 marlon from private IP Reply #10543171 He left to pick up his paycheck and never came home: Part 2 of Body on the Hill Updated: Jan. 14, 2026, 9:34 a.m.|Published: Jan. 14, 2026, 9:10 a.m. By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com This is Part 2 of a four-part MLive investigation into the killing of an unidentified man whose body was found by a 9-year-old boy on a remote Jackson County hill in 1986. The case quickly and quietly faded from public view, even after authorities ruled it a homicide. Nearly 40 years later, the victim has been identified, and police have renewed their efforts to find the killer. Part 1 of this series is available to read here. Robert Stuewe NAMUS image Robert L. Stuewe, who vanished from Ann Arbor when he was 25, last seen on June 19, 1986. This image appeared in a missing-person record entry uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database.National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database In 1986, 25-year-old Robert “Bob” Lee Stuewe was a blond-haired, ponytail-wearing, Bob Seger-loving veteran with acne. He was staying in a friend’s Ann Arbor basement and working in town as a line cook at Mountain Jack’s, a popular steakhouse. Life was bumpy but manageable for the young man. And then, something strange happened. Robert Stuewe disappeared. SON OF IMMIGRANTS Living in Ann Arbor had been a homecoming of sorts for Stuewe – he’d spent most of his childhood there. His parents, Lore G. Moes and Kurt Stuewe Sr., were German immigrants who met on the soccer fields of the Germania Club, an Ann Arbor-area social gathering spot for new arrivals. They married in January 1959 when Moes was 25 and Kurt Stuewe was 22, according to Ann Arbor News archival marriage notices. Their eldest son, Kurt Stuewe Jr., was soon born. Robert Lee Stuewe was born April 10, 1961, followed by the youngest boy, Paul Andrew Stuewe, in March 1964 and sister Lori-Ann Stuewe in October 1965. Robert L. Stuewe as a child Childhood photo of Robert L. Stuewe, who was born in Ann Arbor and was reported as a missing person in June 1986. Photo is courtesy of sister Lori-Ann Stuewe.Courtesy of Lori-Ann Stuewe Lori-Ann said her parents each worked multiple jobs upon arrival to the U.S. “I don’t know exactly how it worked back then,” she said. “Somebody pays for your ticket and then you come over and you work for them until you pay off your ticket.” Kurt Sr. started out in bakeries. He learned English, took a more lucrative job at a machine shop and eventually opened his own business in Howell, which allowed the budding family to thrive financially. “They were the best parents you could ever want,” Lori-Ann Stuewe said. “Childhood was great.” The family was looking for a slower pace and more space. They moved from their small Ann Arbor home to a “nice, big house” with 13 acres in Livingston County’s Hamburg Township in 1974, Lori-Ann said. “We had snowmobiles and stuff like that.” All four children attended nearby Dexter High School. Lori-Ann described Stuewe as “adventurous” and “outgoing.” “He always had friends,” she said. “They weren’t the greatest friends. He was a little on the bad-kids side.” Steuwe Family Yearbook Photos Robert ‘Bob’ Stuewe during in his junior yearbook at Dexter High School in 1978. Photo courtesy of Dexter Community Schools.Courtesy of Dexter Community Schools ENLISTED Lori-Ann remembers her brother getting into trouble for smoking marijuana and cigarettes. One time he ran away to Florida with a friend, Steven Spehar, and was gone for nearly a month. “We took a Greyhound bus, went to Florida, ended up in Miami,” said Spehar, who’s now 64 and became friends with Stuewe when they were 12. “There was a church college there. We were on the beach and they kind of took us in and helped us get back home.” As his class neared graduation in 1979, Stuewe and his friends got into some kind of trouble, though Lori-Ann doesn’t remember the specifics. She said it led to an ultimatum: “My mom said, you either turn your friends in, or you go into the military. So he went into the military.” Robert Stuewe military An undated picture of Robert Stuewe, who enlisted in the U.S. Army before graduating from high school.Courtesy of Lori-Ann Stuewe Stuewe didn’t graduate with his class and instead set off for boot camp, followed by a deployment to Germany. “I remember he ended up getting a broken arm because somebody slammed his arm in a tank door,” she said. “And I remember he got into a fight with an officer for making fun of his name – I think he ended up getting demoted for that.” Records reviewed by MLive don’t state why Stuewe left the military but indicate he served at Fort Knox in Kentucky and in west Germany between May 1979 and his discharge in April 1982. HOMEWARD BOUND After Stuewe came home, the military habits were ingrained. He’d walk through grocery stores “at attention,” making 90-degree military-style turns down the aisles, Lori-Ann said. “It was hard for him to relax, but then he did and got back into normal life.” There were some brushes with the law when he got home, according to records, though no one MLive spoke with was aware of Stuewe’s pending legal troubles. Police records reviewed by MLive indicate he’d been arrested for drunken driving in 1983. Then in July 1984, prosecutors charged Stuewe with misdemeanor larceny, under $100, and receiving and concealing stolen property, according to court records obtained by MLive. The following year, he faced a felony charge of breaking and entering a vehicle to steal property valued in excess of $100. He was also drinking a lot, according to family and friends. “He did have some issues with alcohol when he got older,” Lori-Ann said. Stuewe’s friend and roommate around this time, Steven Spehar, also said alcohol consumption was a problem. “It wasn’t just drinking a few beers,” Spehar said. “Sometimes it was drinking like a fifth of whiskey.” According to Spehar, his friend dabbled with cocaine and occasionally took LSD. Stuewe eventually moved into the Gallatin Manor Apartments downtown Ann Arbor with Spehar, who often took on the role of “dungeon master” during weekend-long, booze-soaked, marijuana-tinged bouts of Dungeons and Dragons, a roleplaying game that peaked in popularity in the mid-1980s. Mountain Jack's in Ann Arbor Image from Mountain Jack's, 300 S. Maple in Ann Arbor, that appeared in the Jan. 28, 1986, edition of the Ann Arbor News. Mountain Jack's permanently closed in 1999.Ann Arbor News Spehar worked with Stuewe at Mountain Jack’s and they had a group of friends who liked “to go party,” often spending nights at the Blind Pig or the Full Moon bar. “We go out and get trashed or whatever,” Spehar said, “but as far as everyday stuff, he was a pretty upbeat, outgoing, nice guy.” About this time, Stuewe rekindled a friendship with Darrell Cole, a dishwasher at the restaurant. They’d known each other as kids. “Somewhere down the line -- I don’t know if it was (because) they couldn’t pay the rent or the lease expired -- but he was looking for a place to stay,” said Cole, who’s now 60 and lives in Ann Arbor. “I ended up helping him out. He got a job, had some money, started crashing over at my mom’s house.” Stuewe’s past The home where Robert Stuewe lived with Janet Cole Sopp and her son, Darrell Cole, for several months before his disappearance in June 1986. Abra Richardson For a few months in the spring of 1986, Stuewe moved in with Cole; his mother, Janet Cole Sopp; and sister, Desiree Bennett. Stuewe slept in the basement on a bed next to a pile of clothes. The house was within walking distance of Mountain Jack’s – which was good because Stuewe didn’t have a license or a car. He kept his old military uniform, comic books and medals in a trunk. By the summer of 1986, Lori-Ann said her brother was “getting everything turned around.” VANISHED But on June 19, 1986, Stuewe disappeared. He stopped showing up to work or the bars he frequented. His friends and family never heard from him again. As for the final sighting, witness accounts in police reports are inconsistent. Decades later, memories are fuzzy. “We were sitting in my living room talking, and he goes, ‘I gotta go pick up my paycheck,’” Sopp, the mother of Darrell Cole, told MLive 39 years later. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll see you later.’ I never laid eyes on him again.” Darrell Cole remembers walking in the front door and seeing Stuewe on the couch, watching TV and drinking a cup of coffee. “He had rattled off a list of things that he was going to do and after that I don’t remember ever seeing him again,” Darrell Cole said when reached by MLive in October. Cole, like many people interviewed for this story, isn’t entirely confident in his memory. “You are going back 40 years,” he said. “I can remember bits and pieces. I don’t know how much of what I’m remembering overlaps other days.” Stuewe’s mother, Lore Stuewe, told police her youngest son, Paul Stuewe, was the last family member to speak to Stuewe. Paul picked up his brother, drove Stuewe to collect and cash his paycheck, and dropped him back off at the Cole home, according to the 1986 account. Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:26:45 -0800 marlon from private IP Reply #13054588 https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/01/a-mother-waited-years-for-her-missing-son-to-call-part-3-of-body-on-the-hill.html A mother waited years for her missing son to call: Part 3 of Body on the Hill Updated: Jan. 16, 2026, 9:02 a.m.|Published: Jan. 16, 2026, 7:00 a.m. Robert Stuewe NAMUS image Robert L. Stuewe, who vanished from Ann Arbor when he was 25, last seen on June 19, 1986. This image appeared in a missing-person record entry uploaded to the National and Unidentified Persons System database.National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com This is Part 3 of a four-part MLive investigation into the killing of an unidentified man whose body was found by a 9-year-old boy on a remote Jackson County hill in 1986. The case quickly and quietly faded from public view, even after authorities ruled it a homicide. Nearly 40 years later, the victim has been identified, and police have renewed their efforts to find the killer. Part 1: A 9-year-old boy and the skeleton in the grass Keep Watching 1 Duolingo is the Devil Part 2: He left to pick up his paycheck and never came home Part 3: A mother waited years for her missing son to call A dead body on a hill. A missing man. They didn’t add up – yet. As the years passed, investigators chased dead-end leads and unfounded rumors that 25-year-old Robert Stuewe, the steakhouse cook who went missing in Ann Arbor in 1986, had fled in fear for his life or run off with a woman. But he remained a ghost. “I didn’t feel in my heart that he was dead or anything like that,” said sister Lori-Ann Stuewe. “I guess I thought maybe he could be in the Witness Protection Program. I tried to always think of something other than the bad alternative.” Stuewe never showed up for subsequent court hearings related to his unresolved 1985 felony larceny arrest. Court records show he was on probation. A bench warrant for noncompliance was issued by the Washtenaw County Circuit Court in July 1986. On Nov. 15, 1986, Stuewe’s name appeared in the Ann Arbor News among a list of area residents who had uncollected IRS returns. By the spring of 1987, friends say they heard Stuewe moved to Florida, where his oldest brother, Kurt Stuewe Jr., had previously lived. Former roommate and coworker Darrell Cole remembers Stuewe’s younger brother, Paul, “saying that he had tracked Bob down to Florida and he had a girl who came from money or something.” Close friend Steven Spehar similarly said: “Paul was the one mentioning to me that he probably went to Florida.” Lori-Ann doesn’t recall hearing this. “(Paul) was sick to death because his brother was gone,” she said. “He would have told me that too.” Later in 1987, reports indicate one Ann Arbor police investigator was thinking along similar lines – that Stuewe was alive and left town. “Sgt. O’Grady surmised that Mr. Stuewe probably fled the area to avoid prosecution on the … felony charge and directed that the entry be cancelled,” said an Ann Arbor police report dated Nov. 3, 1987. The investigation went dormant for the next year and a half, according to Ann Arbor police reports. Lori-Ann said there were rumors that Stuewe may have become involved – she’s not clear in what capacity – with a large drug bust involving two semis that occurred near Brighton about a month prior to Stuewe’s disappearance. The first mention of a large drug bust appears in an Ann Arbor police report from June 30, 1986. Stuewe’s mother “said that her son (Paul) had told her that Robert may have had something to do with the recent arrests in Brighton area for cocaine sale/possession,” the report said. In May 1989, Stuewe’s mother walked into the Ann Arbor Police Department to discuss the status of her son’s case. During the meeting, she “again brought up the possibility of her son being in in a witness program due to the drug raid in Brighton,” the report said. The officer checked with an area FBI agent who said he “had no records on this case,” and a state trooper who said it “didn’t sound familiar.” In that same police report, an Ann Arbor detective noted that on April 24, 1989, he followed up with Detective John Southworth of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office about the three-year-old lead involving an unidentified body in Norvell Township. “Sgt. Southworth (redacted) was called and he confirmed deceased mentioned in Sept. ‘86 was not Stuewe,” the 1989 report said. The word “not” was underlined. Today, Southworth doesn’t remember telling an Ann Arbor police officer that the John Doe wasn’t Stuewe. “That’s a hell of an assumption that I would have made,” Southworth told MLive in a recent interview. “There has to be more to that -- either a poor assumption on his part, or real, real bad call on my part.” Southworth believes there are missing records that could explain what unfolded and why he said the John Doe wasn’t Stuewe. Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker said it’s a possibility. “Like any cold case, the pre-1993 reporting system was not computerized, so reports are difficult to locate,” Huttenlocker said. “I have been advised that, at some point, our records room was at the courthouse, the room flooded, and that some of the paper reports were destroyed.” Past news reports indicate a pipe burst inside the Jackson County courthouse in 2006 and flooded a section of the building where records were stored. Robert L. Stuewe as a child Childhood photo of Robert L. Stuewe, who was born in Ann Arbor and was reported as a missing person in June 1986. Photo is courtesy of sister Lori-Ann Stuewe.Courtesy of Lori-Ann Stuewe BABY TEETH In June 1989, Ann Arbor police sent a second request for Stuewe’s dental records, though reports don’t make clear why. They’d already collected dental records shortly after the disappearance. The request went to pediatric dentist Dr. Arnold Morawa, who died in 2024. The office manager sent back a letter stating that it had been more than 15 years since Stuewe was a patient. “At the time that he was a patient in our practice he was at the age of having only primary teeth,” she wrote. “Since these primary teeth have since been lost, any records that we might have would not indicate the current fillings or extractions.” The records police had been using to compare Stuewe to unidentified remains over the three prior years were useless – they were his baby teeth, according to that letter. Investigators needed Stuewe’s adult dental records. With the help of Stuewe’s mother, they began seeking them from the U.S. Army. A military memo dated July 5, 1989, reviewed by MLive shows Ann Arbor police thought they had a lead – a man’s body found in the Upper Peninsula. It was the basis for the dental records request. “During October 1987, the skeletal remains of a white male similar in age and size of subject were located in Newberry, Michigan,” the memo said. “Ann Arbor Police Department investigators now believe the above mentioned remains may be that of Stuewe; however, insufficient medical and dental records exist concerning Stuewe for positive identification.” It didn’t mention the Norvell Township John Doe. Body on a Hill Michigan state police sketch artist drawing of the John Doe discovered in Norvell Township Aug. 25, 1986. The sketch is dated December 2011.Courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff's Office ‘IT WAS KIND OF WEIRD’ Throughout the years, various reports indicate Ann Arbor police reviewed the case, sometimes reaching out to family or Janet Cole Sopp, who owned the home where Stuewe last lived, to confirm Stuewe was still missing. According to Ann Arbor police reports, investigators never spoke to one key witness: Paul Stuewe. He was the last family member to reportedly see Stuewe, the originator of the drug-bust rumors and claims Stuewe disappeared to Florida, according to reports, friends and family. MLive asked Ann Arbor police whether investigators interviewed Paul and received no response. Paul moved to Florida around 1989, according to Lori-Ann. He died at age 26 on April 1, 1990, after a collision with a milk truck, she said. MLive confirmed the death with staff from the Florida medical examiner’s office. Paul Stuewe’s obituary, published on April 22, 1990, in the Ann Arbor News, notes one surviving brother, Kurt Jr., and one surviving sister, Lori-Ann. There’s no mention of Robert Stuewe. “We kind of kept that out,” Lori-Ann said. “I don’t know why my mom decided to do that. “It’s kind of weird.” Robert Stuewe military An undated picture of Robert Stuewe, who enlisted in the U.S. Army before graduating from high school.Courtesy of Lori-Ann Stuewe ‘WAITING FOR A PHONE CALL’ In March of 1991, Ann Arbor police received Stuewe’s adult dental records from the military, but there’s no indication they were compared with either of the previously mentioned unidentified remains case – the man found in Norvell Township or the Upper Peninsula discovery in Newberry. Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:28:06 -0800 marlon from private IP Reply #16599132 https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/01/i-wake-up-and-feel-like-hes-floating-above-me-part-4-of-body-on-the-hill.html ‘I wake up and feel like he’s floating above me’: Part 4 of Body on the Hill Updated: Jan. 18, 2026, 9:38 a.m.|Published: Jan. 18, 2026, 8:00 a.m. Robert Stuewe missing person flier image and Jackson County John Doe composite sketch Ann Arbor police Robert Stuewe missing person photo and Jackson County John Doe composite sketch By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com This is Part 4 of a four-part MLive investigation into the killing of an unidentified man whose body was found by a 9-year-old boy on a remote Jackson County hill in 1986. The case quickly and quietly faded from public view, even after authorities ruled it a homicide. Nearly 40 years later, the victim has been identified, and police have renewed their efforts to find the killer. Part 1: A 9-year-old boy and the skeleton in the grass Part 2: He left to pick up his paycheck and never came home Part 3: A mother waited years for her missing son to call Part 4: ‘I wake up and feel like he’s floating above me’ By 2019, police had a match – dental records showed the body on the hill was 25-year-old Robert Stuewe, a line cook from Ann Arbor who had been reported missing a few months before the body was found in 1986. What happened to Stuewe? Who killed him? In a case complicated by jurisdictional confusion, a mix-up with dental records, potentially missing reports, dead witnesses and the passage of time, the first matter to sort out was who should investigate the homicide. Should it be the agency that took the missing-person report or the one that found the strangled body? Ann Arbor police “determined that the crime appeared to have occurred in their location,” Jackson County Detective Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker said. “So, they asked if they could take over the investigation.” There’s no explanation as to what evidence led police to believe Stuewe was killed in Ann Arbor, but the case was assigned to veteran Ann Arbor Police Detective Bill Stanford in April 2019. He has since retired and now works for the Saline Police Department. Body on a Hill Norvell Township police photo from Aug. 25, 1986, depicting the area where Matt Merriman found an unidentified body in Jackson County when he was 9 years old. Photo provided to MLive by the Ann Arbor Police Department.Courtesy of Ann Arbor Police Department Stanford met with Jackson County detectives on April 10, 2019, and began scouring past reports. He requested new analysis of long-stored evidence, including the University of Michigan T-shirt police believe was used to strangle Stuewe, and hairs found at the scene. “The knot to the ligature had been untied at some point but the shirt was intact,” Stanford noted in a report dated April 17, 2019. “The shirt ligature and hairs are being sent to the crime lab for possible identification of a suspect in this case.” Stanford conducted initial phone interviews with Lori-Ann Stuewe, whom he recalled being cooperative, and Kurt Stuewe Sr., who “was just like done. He didn’t want anything to do with it,” Stanford said. Stuewe’s father and current wife never responded to MLive’s requests for comment and Stuewe’s only living brother, Kurt Stuewe Jr., sent a text message referring comment to his sister. “It’s too hard for them,” Lori-Ann said, “so they just kinda shut down.” Robert Stuewe military An undated picture of Robert Stuewe, who enlisted in the U.S. Army before graduating from high school.Courtesy of Lori-Ann Stuewe ‘IT’S NOT HIM’ On May 24, 2019, police reports indicate an Ann Arbor police detective notified Stuewe’s father that his son died of a homicide. During a September call with MLive, Lori-Ann said no one ever told her that her brother’s death had been ruled that way. “Maybe my dad just didn’t want to tell me,” she said. “I don’t understand. I mean, he was nice guy, he would do anything for anybody.” Lori-Ann still does not totally believe the remains are her brother. Her first doubts originated with the description of the clothing. Reports said he was wearing corduroy pants and Velcro shoes. “My brother did not own that,” Lori-Ann said. “As a fact, he would not wear anything like that.” Steuwe Family Yearbook Photos Robert ‘Bob’ Stuewe during in his junior yearbook at Dexter High School in 1978. Photo courtesy of Dexter Community Schools.Courtesy of Dexter Community Schools Police collected DNA from Lori-Ann and her father, but police reports don’t confirm it was ever analyzed, since Stuewe was identified with dental records. The absence of DNA comparison has contributed to her skepticism. Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker said state police are reviewing available evidence for further forensic testing, but neither he nor representatives from the Ann Arbor Police Department responded to questions about the DNA collected from family members. “If they could do the DNA correctly, and I saw a picture of the tattoo – whether it’s distorted or not – then maybe that might bring closure,” Lori-Ann said. Her brother had a Garfield tattoo. The original medical examiner noted an area of discoloration with black pigment on the left upper arm that was thought to be a tattoo. Following the identification in 2019, detectives gave Stuewe’s father and Lori-Ann information about recovering Stuewe’s remains. They never collected them. “I’ve already told them when they wanted me to claim the body: It’s not him,” Lori-Ann said. “You do what you’ve got to do with it.” Dr. Joe Hefner, the MSU anthropology professor who confirmed the ID, recalls speaking to Lori-Ann in an effort to convince her the finding was accurate. “She did not think it was him,” Hefner said. Stuewe’s bones remain in possession of the Michigan State University Department of Anthropology. Body on a Hill Matt Merriman, 48, who discovered a dead body on a hill while riding an ATV when he was 9 years old, revisits the location in Jackson County's Norvell Township on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.Abra Richardson | Mlive.com ‘IT DON’T GET ANY EASIER’ Stanford said he was preparing to move forward with interviews when COVID hit. Plans stalled. Stanford retired in 2020. Focus was lost. “I don’t know if Ann Arbor has done anything with it, to be honest with you,” Stanford told MLive in September. “I handed it off to another detective.” Stanford admits it’s a difficult case. The initial investigation was conducted by the defunct Norvell Township Police Department, two other agencies were involved, Ann Arbor and Jackson County, and the remaining evidence has been in storage for decades. “Stuff gets lost over time, stuff gets damaged, mold grows,” he said. “New policies and procedures come into place and eventually new eyes look at these cases. Sometimes there’s work that can be done, and sometimes everything’s been done. “People die, move out of state. It doesn’t get any easier, let’s put it that way.” Stanford has theories about the case – but is reluctant talk about them. “I don’t know if I really want to share that because it’s an open case,” Stanford said, but he thinks there are “leads to follow up on.” After Stanford’s final notes from 2019, the case file again went dormant. “Members of our department have remained in regular communication with the family of Robert Stuewe since he was first reported missing in 1986,” Ann Arbor spokesman Chris Page told MLive in November. “Since that time, our department has taken many steps to learn the exact circumstances that led to Mr. Stuewe’s disappearance.” Stuewe’s sister disputes that statement. She also said that, as of October, she hadn’t spoken to police in more than five years. Ann Arbor police have declined to answer further questions related to the case. Body on a Hill A map of the scene created by police in Norvell Township after Matt Merriman discovered a body there on Aug. 25, 1986.Courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff's Office REOPENED MLive first learned of the case in September 2019. At that time, police confirmed a homicide investigation was underway but said no further details could be provided. On June 10 of last year, Jackson County Detective Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker was asked if the case was ever resolved. Ann Arbor police “have not really given us (many) updates,” he said. “They did assign it to one of their detectives. I know he was close to retirement at the time, so I don’t know what happened with it after that. “I believe they had a person of interest that they were focusing in on.” The same day MLive spoke with Huttenlocker, a new Ann Arbor detective was assigned to the case, reports show. The new detective followed up with Stanford’s earlier requests for DNA analysis. “A partial DNA profile was obtained from swabs of interior piece of shirt, insufficient for comparison purposes,” he wrote. “A known buccal swab of possible suspects is needed for further analysis and comparisons.” Notes don’t address the hairs.Replies require login.
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