A Chance Encounter

Webster Township is a rural civil township in Washtenaw County, in the south-eastern corner of Michigan, about fifty minutes west of Detroit. The story is set on a 113-acre farm on Trotter's Lane, where Christine Kurtz, known as Christy, lived alone with thirteen horses and a collection of geese, goats, cats and dogs.

Kurtz was born into money. Her father owned a steel company in Detroit, and when she was a teenager both her parents were killed in a private plane crash. She and her older sister and brother were raised by an aunt in Grosse Pointe, and a trust fund paid for her education at Eastern Michigan University. this part of the story is covered for now She worked at a small boutique called Strangers in Ypsilanti and dated Gregory Fournier, a fellow student who later became a novelist. By the 1980s she had married and divorced, and she decided she preferred to live alone. She bought the farm in Webster Township, kept animals, and told people to get off her land. She had more than a million dollars in the bank, no job, and no locks on her doors.

details of the account remain covered until revealed He had a spotty work history and had been assistant manager of a pizza place in Whitmore Lake until he was fired in June 1990. After that he stayed in cheap motels in Whitmore Lake and Ann Arbor until the money ran out, then slept in barns, abandoned buildings and a silo in Webster Township, where he kept stolen property. Between the middle of September and the middle of November 1990, about twenty-five burglaries were reported in Whitmore Lake, Webster Township and Dexter. Sharon Meyer's house was broken into through the kitchen window on 26 September, and again on 5 November, when about $4,500 worth of jewellery, cameras, radios and shoes were taken in a duffel bag. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

On 24 November 1990, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a friend saw Kurtz. She was not seen again. Her animals went unfed, which was completely out of character, and her next-door neighbour, Rick Godfrey, contacted her sister Kathy in Colorado. Kathy called the Michigan State Police and filed a missing person report. The police searched the farm twice, bringing dogs, but found nothing; they later said the smells of the barn, the animals, the hay and the manure had confused the dogs. On 1 December the disappearance reached the newspapers, and police began looking for Kurtz and her blue 1987 Ford F-150. The burglaries in the area stopped in the same week she vanished.

On the morning of 26 December 1990, Godfrey was feeding the horses with his children. He pulled a bale of hay from the stack and saw a pair of leather boots sticking out. He recognised them as a Christmas present he had given Kurtz two years earlier. He moved more hay and found her body underneath, fully clothed and frozen. She had been missing for thirty-two days. Her brother and sister flew to Michigan. On 28 December she was formally identified using dental and medical records. The autopsy found that she had been shot once in the back at close range with a .38 calibre gun, and that there was no other trauma.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Police believed he had been sleeping in abandoned buildings in Webster and Northfield townships, and a state police patrol had seen him leaving Independence Lake County Park on 21 November. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He was driving Kurtz's truck and had a pawn slip for an item taken from her house, other property of hers, and half a pound of cocaine. this part of the story is covered for now Washtenaw County sheriffs travelled to Mississippi to question him, and the Mississippi governor signed an extradition warrant.

details of the account remain covered until revealed He said he had never seen her, and that he had taken the cocaine and drug paraphernalia from her house. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it At the preliminary hearing on 21 February, a dozen witnesses testified, including burglary victims. William Miller said a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, its holster and a box of Western .38 bullets that had not been made since 1975 were stolen from his house on 14 November. Herbert Lintz said four guns were stolen from him on 17 November, including a .38 Colt Special in a distinctive pouch. The gun found in Kurtz's truck was in Lintz's pouch, with ammunition like Miller's, though Lintz's Colt revolver was never recovered. A firearms expert testified that the bullet that killed Kurtz was the same type as Miller's and had most likely been fired from a .38 Colt Special. this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed The prosecution argued that it was irrelevant and amounted to character assassination, and the judge agreed. The defence case was that someone who knew about the drugs and cash in an isolated house with no locks had killed her. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Neighbours criticised the police for not searching the barn thoroughly and for not warning residents about the burglaries; Brenda Asaro began organising a neighbourhood watch. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it