Identified! MI - Kent Co, Skeletal in Wooded Area, No Clothing, Alpine Twp, Mar 2019 - Charles Oppenneer

[Gardener1850]

KENT COUNTY, MI – Skeletal remains found in a wooded area in Alpine Township are being examined by Michigan State University’s Anthropology Department.

The remains were found Sunday, March 24, by a hunter looking for deer antlers near Kenowa Avenue and Six Mile Road.

Sheriff’s detectives recovered the remains then returned to the scene on Tuesday, March 26, to look for further clues.

“Obviously, the burning question is, ‘Who could this be?’” Kent County sheriff’s Sgt. Joel Roon said, at the scene.

Read more: ‘Who could this be?’ MSU anthropologists examine skeletal remains found in Kent County

"This isn't like a grave or a burial or that they had been there so long they had settled into the ground," sheriff's office Sgt. Joel Roon said.

His department spent more than two days removing them and searching for other evidence. They were back in the area Tuesday afternoon, with teams searching through fields and wooded areas.

Authorities can't say yet whether the remains are that of a man or woman, how old the person was, what caused the death or how long the remains have lain in the woods.

"There is sort of an operating theory that the remains have been there for a period of time. The window of time is rather wide," Roon said. "I can say with relative certainty that several seasons have likely gone by."

He added that searchers did not find any clothing, which he said could be significant.

Read more: Partial remains found northwest of Grand Rapids

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

My first thought was Jessica Heeringa, but with so many missing people, the remains could belong to quite a few. I've read how badly Jessica's family want her remains recovered. With all the horror and suffering they have endured, getting her remains to lay to rest is the least that should happen. It's odd that old skeletal remains just recently turned up. I hope the anthropologists can identify the remains. MOO.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Coincidentally, this missing (presumed dead) Michigan woman is reported on NBC news today. Marshall isn't too far from Kent County.

Mary Denise Lands still missing 15 years after disappearing from Michigan

 

[Trudie]

Coincidentally, this missing (presumed dead) Michigan woman is reported on NBC news today. Marshall isn't too far from Kent County.

Mary Denise Lands still missing 15 years after disappearing from Michigan

I once worked with Mary, we were in our early 20s.
I had just moved from Battle Creek to Marshall.
When this happened, I had no confidence in the Marshall police solving this.
Thanks for posting this update.

ETA: haven’t been to Marshall in years but in Kent county every couple of months.

 

[Andreee]

My first thought was Jessica Heeringa, but with so many missing people, the remains could belong to quite a few. I've read how badly Jessica's family want her remains recovered. With all the horror and suffering they have endured, getting her remains to lay to rest is the least that should happen. It's odd that old skeletal remains just recently turned up. I hope the anthropologists can identify the remains. MOO.

On google maps, it shows Norton Shores where Jessica worked at a gas station to be approx. a half hour drive to where the remains were found.

 

[Andreee]

I once worked with Mary, we were in our early 20s.
I had just moved from Battle Creek to Marshall.
When this happened, I had no confidence in the Marshall police solving this.
Thanks for posting this update.

ETA: haven’t been to Marshall in years but in Kent county every couple of months.

According to Google Maps, where Mary went missing is a 1 1/2 hour drive to where someone's remains were found.

 

[Trudie]

According to Google Maps, where Mary went missing is a 1 1/2 hour drive to where someone's remains were found.

Yes! Quite a drive. Personally, I think the remains will belong to someone from Kent county area. I see no reason Nary would be in Grand Rapids area or why anyone would drive her remains from Marshall to GR/Kent county, but who knows.
Closure will come to someone, that’s a good thing.

 

[Trudie]

My first thought was Jessica Heeringa, but with so many missing people, the remains could belong to quite a few. I've read how badly Jessica's family want her remains recovered. With all the horror and suffering they have endured, getting her remains to lay to rest is the least that should happen. It's odd that old skeletal remains just recently turned up. I hope the anthropologists can identify the remains. MOO.

Yea, Jessica was more in the Muskegon area, iirc.
Being the remains were found in Kent county, I think they’ll belong to someone from that immediate area.

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

Yes, it's a thirty-minute drive from Willis's grandfather's house (the murder site) to the location of the skeletal remains in Alpine Twp. Years ago, Willis's cousin, Kevin Bluhm, his accomplice, took LE to an alleged burial site close to Willis's house and the grandfather's house, but Jessica's body was not found. I've wondered if Willis moved her body or if the alleged site was just one more lie from Cousin Kevin. That the skeletal remains seem to have been recently placed in the location where they were found makes me question who would have recently moved them if they were Jessica's. Bluhm is out of jail, but is supposed to be wearing a tether to monitor his whereabouts, precisely because Jessica's remains have not been found and LE think he knows where they are. I certainly hope there is not another accomplice! MOO.
With Jessica Heeringa’s body missing, Kevin Bluhm must still wear tether

 

[Midge Montana]

Whenever I read about a body found in Michigan, I think about Danielle Stislicki. If I am computing correctly, this seems to be about two hours away from Southfield. Does Floyd Galloway have any connections to this area?

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

Updated Apr 3, 2019; Posted Apr 3, 2019
“WYOMING, MI -- The human skull found late last month in northern Kent County belongs to the man shot and decapitated in 2014 by the ‘Craigslist killer,’ police say.

Police announced Wednesday, April 3, dental records identify the skull found near 6 Mile and Kenowa Avenue as that of Charles Oppenneer, the 25-year-old man who was killed, decapitated and dumped in the woods near Gezon Park on July 12, 2014.

His killer, 31-year-old Brady Oestrike, then abducted Oppenneer’s girlfriend, 18-year-old Brooke Slocum, and chained her up in the basement of his Taft Avenue house in Wyoming.

[SBM]

Oestrike tortured Slocum for five days before killing her. She was eight months pregnant.

[SBM]

Using dental records, Joseph Hefner, a forensic anthropologist and professor at Michigan State University, was able to ‘positively identify’ the skull as belonging to Oppenneer.

Signs of trauma to the skull, along with evidence from the homicide scene, indicate Oppenneer was likely killed by gunshot, Wyoming Department of Public Safety Capt. James Maguffee said in a press release announcing the identification.

[SBM]” (BBM)
Skull of ‘Craigslist killer’ victim Charles Oppenneer found

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

Updated: Apr 03, 2019 10:39 PM EDT
“WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — The yearslong search for the head of a Kent County murder victim is now over.

[SBM]

A farmer discovered the skull on March 24 in woods along Kenowa Avenue north of 6 Mile Road in Alpine Township near the Kent-Ottawa county line. That's more than 17 miles away from where Oppenneer's decapitated body was found at Gezon Park nearly five years earlier.

Capt. James Maguffee said based on the Kent County Sheriff's Department's investigation, it doesn't appear the skull was left there recently. He said there was animal activity in the area.

[SBM]

‘(A)s soon as we heard remains were found in the form of a skull, instantly in our minds certainly went back to 2014 and we were anxious to hear for sure. And we were in communication with the sheriff's department early on,’ said Maguffee.

Oppenneer, 25, was murdered in Wyoming in 2014 along with his girlfriend, 18-year-old Brooke Slocum, who was eight months pregnant.

Investigators say the couple connected with Brady Oestrike on Craigslist and agreed to meet him at Gezon Park in a sex-for-money deal at 12 a.m. July 13. It was there that Oestrike killed and beheaded Oppenneer.

[SBM]

Police discovered Oppenneer's decapitated body covered by sticks in the park on July 16, which quickly led them to Slocum's home in northeast Grand Rapids. Her roommate told police about the sex-for-cash ads on Craigslist, which led detectives to uncover messages they linked to Oestrike on July 17.

Oestrike strangled Slocum that same day, her death certificate showed.

That evening, police were outside Oestrike's home on Taft Avenue SW, waiting to obtain a search warrant when Oestrike drove away, leading to a brief chase. That chase ended when Oestrike crashed on the Burton Street bridge over US-131, where he fatally shot himself in the head.

Officers found Slocum’s body in a suitcase in Oestrike’s trunk. Slocum's unborn daughter, already named Audi, did not survive.

[SBM]”
Skull of 2014 murder victim Charles Oppenneer found

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

So the guy who allegedly lured a minor away to make her his "girlfriend" so he could traffick her, even while eight months pregnant, now gets the rest of his remains returned to his family. Meanwhile, Jessica Heeringa's family still have nothing. Not the outcome I had hoped for. MOO.

 

[cvaldez1975]

So the guy who allegedly lured a minor away to make her his "girlfriend" so he could traffick her, even while eight months pregnant, now gets the rest of his remains returned to his family. Meanwhile, Jessica Heeringa's family still have nothing. Not the outcome I had hoped for. MOO.

is there a back story? i saw some mention of it in articles but not the whole story.

 

[Eleanor Rigby]

is there a back story? i saw some mention of it in articles but not the whole story.

@cvaldez1975 Sorry. I had thought the stories linked above covered that angle, maybe not.

Also, Oppenneer was killed quickly by a bullet to the head. Slocum was tortured over FIVE days. The video of it was so horrendous that investigators had to undergo counseling afterward. I may be wrong, but I don't get warm, fuzzy feelings over "Charlie's" head finally being reunited with his torso. Maybe beside the point, but, per his obituary, he already had two children when he started living with the underage Slocum. Articles refer to them being unemployed and broke, so I infer he was not supporting either himself or his children. IMO he was a trafficker who pimped out a teenager duped into thinking she was his girlfriend. To me, he's a trafficker whether he trafficked "just his 'girlfriend'" or a whole "stable" of girls. Per the article, her dad didn't think it was a good idea for her to meet men on Craigslist. The perp's family and roommates saw whips and chains and all kinds of guns in his filthy, disgusting house and his behavior was paranoid and irrational. There was even a shooting incident. Apparently, the only action that prompted anyone to take was for his roommates to move out. So much wrong with this whole story that it's hard to know where to begin!!! MOO.

Sorry for the rant; just really irritated that the remains were Oppenneer's and not Jessica Heeringa's.

Roommates say slain woman was sex trafficking victim
When asked if Oppenneer was acting like a pimp, Hallo says, "Yeah, I do. I don't feel like she wanted to I feel like she had to because Charlie was talking her into it you know for the money."

One man, who asked only to be identified as "Corey," says meeting men for sex on Craigslist is something that started before Slocum's 18th birthday and before he took her and her 25-year-old boyfriend in, back in December.

When asked if Oppenneer encouraged Slocum, Corey says, "She told me, because they were living in a car, but when it got cold they couldn't afford to let the car run all night so they had to get a hotel room. They had no money for it, so the easiest way to get money was doing what she was doing.

Hallo says Slocum thought it was dangerous, "but she said she's taking precaution."

They say attempts to talk her out of Craigslist rendezvous were always thwarted.

Corey says "When Charlie was gone, she was a very sociable, very loving person. When Charlie came around, especially towards me, it was, 'Don't talk to him, don't look at him.' He was very controlling.

So it continued until they left for a meeting Saturday night. Corey says, "You're risking your life if you do this, you don't know who you're meeting."

Craigslist triple murder opened victim's family's eyes to sex trafficking

 

[Blurgle]

“Trusting and wanted to see the best in others”.

If we could only teach girls that being “trusting and wanting to see the best in others” is the worst, most negative, most dangerous, most self-defeating character trait imaginable! Sadly, girls do often learn - from unaware parents, from abusive partners, from society - that ‘good girls’, ‘nice girls’, girls worthy of attention from boys, always trust blindly and always give other people (and especially men) the unwarranted benefit of the doubt under all circumstances.

It’s such a horrible thing society does to these girls, stripping them of their best defence against predation in the name of “niceness”.

 

[cvaldez1975]

@cvaldez1975 Sorry. I had thought the stories linked above covered that angle, maybe not.

Also, Oppenneer was killed quickly by a bullet to the head. Slocum was tortured over FIVE days. The video of it was so horrendous that investigators had to undergo counseling afterward. I may be wrong, but I don't get warm, fuzzy feelings over "Charlie's" head finally being reunited with his torso. Maybe beside the point, but, per his obituary, he already had two children when he started living with the underage Slocum. Articles refer to them being unemployed and broke, so I infer he was not supporting either himself or his children. IMO he was a trafficker who pimped out a teenager duped into thinking she was his girlfriend. To me, he's a trafficker whether he trafficked "just his 'girlfriend'" or a whole "stable" of girls. Per the article, her dad didn't think it was a good idea for her to meet men on Craigslist. The perp's family and roommates saw whips and chains and all kinds of guns in his filthy, disgusting house and his behavior was paranoid and irrational. There was even a shooting incident. Apparently, the only action that prompted anyone to take was for his roommates to move out. So much wrong with this whole story that it's hard to know where to begin!!! MOO.

Sorry for the rant; just really irritated that the remains were Oppenneer's and not Jessica Heeringa's.

Roommates say slain woman was sex trafficking victim
When asked if Oppenneer was acting like a pimp, Hallo says, "Yeah, I do. I don't feel like she wanted to I feel like she had to because Charlie was talking her into it you know for the money."

One man, who asked only to be identified as "Corey," says meeting men for sex on Craigslist is something that started before Slocum's 18th birthday and before he took her and her 25-year-old boyfriend in, back in December.

When asked if Oppenneer encouraged Slocum, Corey says, "She told me, because they were living in a car, but when it got cold they couldn't afford to let the car run all night so they had to get a hotel room. They had no money for it, so the easiest way to get money was doing what she was doing.

Hallo says Slocum thought it was dangerous, "but she said she's taking precaution."

They say attempts to talk her out of Craigslist rendezvous were always thwarted.

Corey says "When Charlie was gone, she was a very sociable, very loving person. When Charlie came around, especially towards me, it was, 'Don't talk to him, don't look at him.' He was very controlling.

So it continued until they left for a meeting Saturday night. Corey says, "You're risking your life if you do this, you don't know who you're meeting."

Craigslist triple murder opened victim's family's eyes to sex trafficking

thanks, after i had posted i googled and found that. gross. what a jerk.