June 20, 2009
Members of Allegan County's cold-case team say they believe a man who disappeared in 1994 was murdered and that someone might know where his body is located.
Michigan State Police trooper Scott Ernstes, a member of the cold-case team, said that after reopening the case of Charles Starrett earlier this year, the team concluded that the 51-year-old, unemployed divorced father of two estranged children was killed.
"Witness statements and other physical evidence indicate that foul play was involved," Ernstes said. He said the team, known formally as the Allegan County Focused Investigation Team, hopes someone with information on the location of the body will come forward.
A friend of Starrett's told investigators he saw him for the last time on July 5, 1994, and that Starrett had left his home in Allegan Mobile Estates, 1260 Lincoln Road in Allegan Township, and walked to Riverside Market, 131 Marshall St. in Allegan, to buy a bottle of Wild Irish Rose wine.
Investigators don't believe the friend's story, however, and have suggested the friend killed Starrett after an argument, Ernstes said. He declined to identify the friend or say what investigators believe the two argued about.
One of Starrett's sisters, Catherine McLeod, of Holland, said that before her brother disappeared she spoke with him at least every other day and that he was planning to move in with her. McLeod said she went to pick him up, realized he was gone and reported him as missing on July 11, 1994.
"It was like he disappeared into thin air. We hunted and hunted for him," McLeod said. "I have a feeling or premonition that he was killed."
The Allegan County Sheriff's Office investigated Starrett's disappearance, but the case went cold in August 1994.
Ernstes said the case was reopened in February after investigators received new information, but he declined to elaborate. He said the cold-case team is now trying to find Starrett's body in Allegan County.
Starrett's friend, whom Ernstes described as a "person of interest," has ties to the Pullman area, the trooper said. "(Starrett) may have visited Pullman with the person of interest on occasion," he said.
Ernstes said there is a reward for information on the location of Starrett's body.
