MI MI - Eric Franks, 40, Buena Vista Twp, 21 March 2011 *car found in 2020* #2

[Nymeria]

Amazing news, one step closer.....

 

[searchingfamily]

Missing man’s car was apparently hidden in garage of a vulnerable adult
The caretaker of vulnerable adult was mother of Eric Franks' child
Missing man’s car was apparently hidden in garage of a vulnerable adult

 

[searchingfamily]

Since I don't see any way to delete when there is a double-post, I'll just edit and say thanks again from the family.

 

[dotr]

Cold case: Car of man missing since 2011 turns up in northern Michigan

Eric L. Franks, missing from Saginaw County since March 21, 2011.

''Chad D. Baus, Franks' brother-in-law of Archbold, Ohio, told MLive the Malibu was located in a curious way thanks to an amateur internet sleuth.

“It was the most extraordinary thing,” Baus said. “It was a person from California, a student who was getting distracted from her schoolwork watching a YouTube video of Eric’s case. She ran a Carfax report on his car, which had been missing all this time. I’m a car dealer by trade myself and I had never thought to run a Carfax report. I was 100 percent convinced, as the police were, that the car had been destroyed, hidden, was at the bottom of a lake, who knows.”

The timeliness of the student’s search was also eerily fortuitous.

The Carfax reports showed the car had a title issued in Saginaw County on Aug. 21, followed by an oil change in Clare on Aug. 31, Baus said.

“Had she run it two weeks ago, nothing would have shown up,” Baus said. “These are all fresh records.”

Baus himself years ago had sold the car to Franks' mother, Jo Ann Franks, who then let her son use it, he said. As such, Franks himself could not buy license plates or get the title for the car, Baus said.''

 

[Midge Montana]

Kendra; you dirty so and so. I wish you were alive to face the music.

 

[Suglo]

I wonder what his daughter is thinking now...

 

[Laughing]

I wonder what his daughter is thinking now...

Poor thing!

Tragically loosing both parents, to two different evils.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

If Kendra runs an adult care facility, wouldn't other properties be considered, where she delivered adult care? Seems like such a sloppy waste for authorities to merely assume the car had been scrapped, based on some phone numbers, instead of at least checking the major possibilities first. This reminds me a little bit of an Unsolved Mysteries segment in which a female caretaker took advantage of an older wealthy partially blind man by switching out his expensive furniture for very cheap stuff placed in the same locations. This older gentleman probably never knew the car was stashed in his garage. But I doubt he would have fought a police request to take a look.

Find the car when Kendra is still alive and it's a totally different ball game. The mother and daughter can be played off each other in separate interrogation rooms. Greater chance of finding forensic material also, before it went through an estate sale and changed owners.

Regardless, I'm thrilled there was a breakthrough in this case.

Yes, what is Emily thinking now? Somehow I'm not defaulting to her tragic bad luck.

Quite the opposite

 

[Aluev]

Somehow from what I've read, I have the theory that Kendra didn't kill Eric, she just helped cover it up. Her boyfriend was hostile towards Eric and there were witnesses. Perhaps he killed him in a fit of jealousy. Emily was quite young and we don't know what story she heard from her parents. Let's remember that she didn't know Eric all her life. The one she knew and trusted was her mother.

 

[Aluev]

Cadaver dog searches Saginaw garage where missing man’s car was most likely kept for years

"Franks' car was part of the Rutledge estate sale. In a part of the garage that a cadaver dog searched today, an area that appears to have an altered part of the garage floor was examined. Its not clear what the dog or investigators found in the search. Bofman is hoping the Franks' family gets answers."

 

[Midge Montana]

So thankful for the answers so far. Hoping Eric is soon home. Hugs to Eric’s Mama.

 

[Gardenista]

Just read the latest. Wow.

 

[Midge Montana]

I wonder if they found anything important in the garage?

 

[Aluev]

Finding the car is a very good development. Police budget is limited on an adult Missing person's case as opposed to a Murder investigation and they can't thoroughly follow every lead or even allowed to get the warrants they would need to search properties etc. If any indication of foul play is verified the investigation can then become a Murder investigation and things develop more quickly.

I was following the Mcstay Family dissapearance, that turned out to be a gruesome murder. Police procedure was very dissatisfactory and seemed inadequate while it was just treated as a Missing person's case. They couldn't even get a warrant to seal off the family's home for a thorough forensic investigation. When the family's skeletal remains were found (completely by chance) after 4 long years, the detectives were finally able to progress the case and come to charge and later convict the man who killed the family in just one year.

 

[Coppertop15]

New owner of Saginaw home where Eric Franks’ car was hidden may have another clue

There was supposedly an incinerator in the home previously?!

 

[Aluev]

New owner of Saginaw home where Eric Franks’ car was hidden may have another clue
There was supposedly an incinerator in the home previously?!

After some sleuthing I came up with the basement photo. There is obviously some heavy object missing next to the green column that has left marks on the basement floor:

More photos from the property, including the one of the garage with Eric's car in it can be seen here: realtor.com

 

[Laughing]

Eric's Mom, so very sorry about how this is all unfolding in the media.

 

[Bethan]

Yes....our thoughts are with you.

 

[Roselvr]

OMG! This case is finally being solved! It will be difficult as the indication of blood on the car's floor sadly confirms Eric met with harm but his family can finally have some closure.

Not solved just that his car was found at a house where Erics former girlfriend was a caregiver

 

[longtallcold]

I know I am late here, but I wanted to express how happy I am that this development has unfolded, and hopefully lead to closure for Eris's family. And kudos to the sleuth who uncovered this information!