GUILTY MI - Paul DeWolf, 25, fatally shot in Ann Arbor frat house, 23 July 2013

[black_squirrel]

Bolds by me to note interesting details.

"Paul DeWolf shared that passion for the piano with Lindsey Gaston, a second-year medical student he once dated."

Interestingly enough, LG was no longer his girlfriend at the time he died.
Was he dating someone else that we do not know?

Gatson said she knows nothing will bring DeWolf back, but if someone comes forward, it will help his friends and family gain closure. "Ann Arbor is a pretty safe college town, and you just don't think that would happen to somebody, especially somebody you care about so much," Gatson said.

Name misspelled twice. A reporter with dyslexia?

 

[black_squirrel]

Burglary next door about the exact same time Paul was killed. I hope police are seriously looking for that burglar.
Somebody could have been trying to burglarize the place, but before they could, they saw Paul. Shot him and run away.

As I understand, the burglary was reported at 8:30pm, but the actually burglary may have been well before that, during daytime.

 

[ajaxskier]

Given that I live/work in Ann Arbor, I've been following this case... The crime that tends to happen on/near campus is almost never of a truly "violent" nature. Typically the crimes consist of pick-pockets, stealing laptops through an unlocked door/window etc. This doesn't mean a botched robbery is impossible, it just seems extremely unlikely to me, given my personal experience here over the past 13 years.

I strongly agree with the posters that indicate this looks more like an attack of a "personal" nature. As soon as the victim's identity was released - two distinct possibilities came to mind:

1) Crime of passion. The victim posted a Facebook note a few years back that made pretty clear his feelings on a few social issues. The nature of these comments seem to contradict one of the victims very close particular friendships. I'm not going to speculate how this contradiction could have led to the horrible crime that took place... Lots of dynamics would be at play in a close friendship of this nature - and many possible outcomes. (sorry for not listing the name(s) or initials... if you want know who I might be thinking of, it won't be too hard to figure it out...)

2) There is another person in the victim's life that seems to have posted about his/her mood disorders & general emotional health... even submitting a personal essay of their intense panic attacks to a website A quick glance at this person's Facebook photos was deeply unsettling - given the above mentioned person's person struggles.

It's possible that law enforcement already has their person of interest - and keeping them under close surveillance until they have enough evidence to arrest, but then that is also seeming maybe less likely as the victims family has been pleading for help on their son's case - leading one to think they really have no solid leads at this point. If there are, in fact, no good leads, it would seem as though, at some point, law enforcement will be compelled to begin releasing more details of what IS known - in a broad effort to trigger memories and bring in more facts/clues. I can't imagine the horror that the victim's family is living through. I just hope that if/when this is solved that the circumstances surrounding his death don't further add to their pain. This case certainly is strange...

 

[Woe.be.gone]

Thank you posting your thoughts and sharing your insights here ajaxskier.
:Welcome1:

I'm very troubled by this case. Paul's life never should have ended like this as he had so much to give the world.
The police have to solve this one; they just have too. lease:

 

[LambChop]

:welcome4::welcome6::welcome3:

Welcome to Websleuths, ajaxskier

 

[Katana]

How did the co-worker that found Paul get into his room? Paul's door must have been left unlocked by the killer. Was the co-worker by himself?

 

[Spellbound]

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2013/10/paul_dewolfs_family_still_comi.html

Nothing really new, but a nice interview with the family and how they are coping.

 

[bourne]

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2013/10/paul_dewolfs_family_still_comi.html

Nothing really new, but a nice interview with the family and how they are coping.

Thanks Spellbound! Here are some highlights -- BBM -- from the Kyle Feldscher article (and by the way he's LATE in publishing it since he tweeted last week it would be either Thurs or Fri and it's now Sun when it's printed, lol):

“Sometimes I do expect to see him come in, because he would pull a prank,” said his sister, Rebekah DeWolf.

Kris and Rebekah DeWolf and Paul’s father, Thom DeWolf, sat down with The Ann Arbor News last week for an extensive interview about Paul’s life and death.

Kris and Thom DeWolf were not able to have children and were in the process of adopting their son Joshua when Kris DeWolf had a surgery the DeWolfs hoped would allow them to conceive a child...A month later, Kris was pregnant with Paul. She was also eventually able to have another child, Rebekah.

“He truly was a gift,” Kris DeWolf said. “He was a miracle, in that way.”

Joshua was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder affecting the peripheral nervous system, when Paul was still a boy. Watching his brother go through this ordeal and being around doctors ended up being a monumental influence on young Paul.

Rebekah DeWolf said the two of them shared their love of the sport — “Well, I didn’t love it as much,” she says — and would run together. She said he popularized a tradition of praying before every cross-country meet at Schoolcraft High School that continues to this day.

He was a dedicated student but remained closed with his family, often talking with his mother two or three times a week by phone and visiting home often. As he matured, his relationship with his sister deepened and they became best friends.

The siblings developed a plan on how to use their future careers — he would be a doctor and she would be a nurse — to help those who were less fortunate.

“The closer he got to finishing his graduate degree at the U-M medical school, the more he was looking forward to serving his country.”

Thom said the family found out Paul’s death was a homicide at the same time the public did, on July 25.



Okay, so we find out that Paul was a prankster, so his murder could POSSIBLY be a game gone deadly wrong...

On the other hand, it seems to me that there would have been a very intense sibling rivalry between the two brothers in the family...One brother might have felt excluded from the closeness the other family members shared...Paul very accomplished and ambitious. Shared dreams with his sister...The brother was not even part of this interview...

Note that the family did not find out that Paul's death was a homicide until 7/25, yet a family member's Fb page profile pic was suddenly changed to one of him and Paul on 7/24 when this person is not close to Paul and never posted any pics of Paul before on his Fb.

Also, as noted by a local ajaxskier above, someone with bipolar disorder and disturbing Fb, is part of this mix.

I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, just putting factual info out there.

 

[jjenny]

His pranks are described as him taping his sisters' shoes to the ceiling. What kind of prank would involve a loaded gun?

 

[bourne]

His pranks are described as him taping his sisters' shoes to the ceiling. What kind of prank would involve a loaded gun?

I said it was possible but IN MY OPINION unlikely as other scenarios and motives for his murder has higher plausibility. But I can see how peeps even med students would play shooting games with one another for fun. In fact, paul and his brother are into shooting. So are some of Paul's friends including a female.

 

[jjenny]

Shooting games for fun in his room? Where are all the bullet holes?

 

[bourne]

Shooting games for fun in his room? Where are all the bullet holes?

Omg calm down. I said it was possible not that it actually happened. It could be just ONE person doing the shooting and no one else. Get it?

 

[black_squirrel]

Note that the family did not find out that Paul's death was a homicide until 7/25, yet a family member's Fb page profile pic was suddenly changed to one of him and Paul on 7/24 when this person is not close to Paul and never posted any pics of Paul before on his Fb.

I think that you misread that. I believe they were notified on 7/24.

 

[Katana]

I think that you misread that. I believe they were notified on 7/24.

You are right. It says the family found out it was a homicide on the 25th. Deputies showed up at the family home on the 24th.

 

[bourne]

I think that you misread that. I believe they were notified on 7/24.

Thanks! As soon as I posted, I realized it could be that the family was made aware of Paul's death on 7/24 by LE, but that LE didn't inform them the COD was specifically "homicide" until 7/25. I hope that's the case.

Still...My #1 suspect remains the same. He has the most motive, means and opportunity. He's unstable and obsessed with shooting. Also, since he's been unemployed for a long time now and has access to a vehicle, he has the time to stalk Paul and do him harm. I think the perp might even have been the same one who shot Paul in the leg with a bb-gun last Oct. 2012.

This same perp might have stalked Paul for many many months, and the recent celebratory birthday event of the sister and also of her becoming a CNA and Paul publicly complimenting her as the "best" sister in the world and announcing her accomplishments may have triggered the perp's long-standing jealousy and seething anger and resentment towards Paul.

I think the perp might have only wanted to "nick" Paul and cause him some pain, but due to the perp's medical condition, he misfired and shot Paul in the neck instead. And when the perp realized the severity of Paul's condition, he fled. Of course, this is all just conjecture. Could be a totally different perp or it could be the same perp and he did want to permanently end Paul's life or at least, permanently damage Paul neurologically by purposefully aiming at the neck and spinal cord so that Paul would not be able to finish med school...

All JMO

 

[bourne]

Black mini-sub-machine gun looking thing appears to be an Uzi. The revolver is likely a full-bore .38.

I was unable to multi-quote this with Black_squirrel's pic, so I had to copy and upload the pic again. Thanks Blacksquirrel for the brother's Fb pic of guns.

A gun enthusiast friend of mine said the following about the guns in the pic:

"The holstered handgun in the upper-right is a revolver, I’m guessing a Smith & Wesson, though I don’t know the model number, and I’m not sure what caliber it’s in. In the bottom-left, it’s a pistol, probably semi-automatic, that uses 9mm pistol rounds (the long magazine is for the pistol). In the bottom-left is a .22 LR caliber magazine that belongs to an AR-7 Survival Rifle (but that rifle is not visible in the picture)."

 

[SapphireSteel]

Maybe the perp is much closer to home...

:websleuther:

 

[Spellbound]

I was thinking that the campus might be "quieter" during the summer months and stumbled upon this archived article from AnnArbor.com. "Goldenghost" wrote in the comments about his/her experience in that building 13 years ago. I have no idea if security or other things have changed or improved since then. (I tried to go back through the pages here and did not see it. Apologies if it has already been seen and discussed)

http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/...gunshot-wound-to-neck-fired-by-another-peson/

Goldenghost
11:09 PM on 8/2/2013
Having lived in the basement of Phi Rho Sigma (and on the second and third floor) many years ago this story sends an absolute chill down my spine. My condolences to Mr. DeWolf's family.

I can provide some information about the house. July is a month when Phi Rho Sigma (known to us as Phi Rho) is much quieter than normal. During much of the year there are about 32 medical students living in the house, most medical students (occasionally the house had to rent a room to a graduate student when it couldn't fill up with medical students) and roughly 50-50 male-female. However, during July and early August the house is much, much quieter. Most of the first year medical students are away on vacation and the new first year medical students have yet to arrive. So basically, you have mostly upper classmen in the house who are extremely busy doing clinical rotations, many of them pulling 24 hours shifts in the hospital and returning to the house exhausted.

The house has a cook, but if memory serves me, the cook is usually gone in the summer.

When I lived in Phi Rho, the front and back door security was not always super great. There is a parking lot at the back of the Tudor house and there is a back door that grants easy access to the first and basement levels. There are also ground level windows to most of the basement rooms. There is of course a front door as well and when I lived in the house in the late 90s the doors were unlocked during the day much. Most of the time someone ensured that the doors were shut and locked at night, but there were occasions, once in a blue moon, when a door was left open.
2 replies

Goldenghost
11:10 PM on 8/2/2013
More about the basement (I had to use an addendum as there is a character limit to the posts) : the basement level has 4 rooms if I recall, 3 singles and one double. The rooms are quite small. The basement also houses the study area which has multiple study areas and a computer. There is also a furnace, the laundry room and a storage area in the basement. There is also a very small library of medical texts. There is not a lot of value in the basement with the exception of the computer and of course, whatever people have in their rooms. The study area in the basement was used frequently (of course, we're medical students). Another thing about the basement at Phi Rho: it is a dark place...even during the day, the lighting is generally poor and the hallways are dark with the exception being the study room if people are in there using it.Anyway, this is all I can write right now. This is just awful. The feeling that "this could have been me" is an icky, awful feeling and I hope the police solve this tragedy. Again, my deepest condolences to the family.

Goldenghost
1:30 PM on 8/3/2013
Actually, I think I am mistaken...there are only 2 single rooms and 1 double in the basement. One single room faces the back parking lot and the other single and the double face Catherine Street. The single basement room that faces the back parking lot has a window that looks out into the sunken cement stairs that lead down from the parking lot to the back door. When you open the back door you can go up a few stairs to the main foyer on the first floor or down a few stairs to the basement. Forgive me, it's been 13 years since I lived there.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

The possibility being hinted to or discussed here, would mean a double whammy for the family - hard to even imagine.
It seems as if it would be one of the easier scenarios to investigate though and we know nobody has been named a suspect or been arrested.

 

[black_squirrel]

The possibility being hinted to or discussed here, would mean a double whammy for the family - hard to even imagine.
It seems as if it would be one of the easier scenarios to investigate though and we know nobody has been named a suspect or been arrested.

I think that by now the Police will have interviewed everyone close to Paul, his family, his fellow students at the frternity,
his girlfriends etc. Possibly they have a suspect. But my impression is that they do not. I think it is not going to be an easy
scenario. But perhaps someone close to Paul could have been involved, even if he or she did not pull the trigger.