Town note
Nunica means pottery or earthenware; quantities of Ottawa pottery were found near the mouth of Nunica Creek, which gave Crockery Township and Crockery Creek their names.
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FILE 532 / 28 September 2024 / 70 MIN / express
We are going to Crockery Township, Michigan ... the small town we'll be talking about is Nunica ... this is in Ottawa county, about 30 minutes outside of Grand Rapids about 0:03:14
Nunica means pottery or earthenware; quantities of Ottawa pottery were found near the mouth of Nunica Creek, which gave Crockery Township and Crockery Creek their names.
about 0:04:25The first European settlers in the area were French Canadians, a father and son passing through, likely trappers.
about 0:05:15Zinc was found in the area in 1858.
about 0:05:26Nunica was officially incorporated in 1872; one website says the name comes from the Ottawa word for zinc.
about 0:05:47Nunica means pottery or earthenware; quantities of Ottawa pottery were found near the mouth of Nunica Creek, which gave Crockery Township and Crockery Creek their names.
about 0:04:25The first European settlers in the area were French Canadians, a father and son passing through, likely trappers.
about 0:05:15Zinc was found in the area in 1858.
about 0:05:26Nunica was officially incorporated in 1872; one website says the name comes from the Ottawa word for zinc.
about 0:05:47There were about a thousand people in the area in 1880.
about 0:06:00By 1924 there was no zinc left.
about 0:06:04A big influenza outbreak in 1927 killed almost 800 people from this town.
about 0:06:10The 1930 census showed about five thousand people here.
about 0:06:32In 1935 about a third of Nunica was destroyed by the great Nunica fire, which was speculated to have started when the Nunica train station was struck by lightning and caught fire.
about 0:06:36The train station was never rebuilt and the town never recovered from the fire.
about 0:07:13By 1950 there were only a thousand people there.
about 0:07:25By 1957 the town was unincorporated.
about 0:07:35Currently there are about 350 people left there.
about 0:07:45Police interactions in 2016
▲ at least 13
Police visits for neighbourhood disputes, 2014 to 2017
▲ 54 times in three years
Protection order requests denied by judges
▲ five times
Times prosecutors declined to charge Sheila
▲ at least twice
"4,581"
Comparison: "about 4,500". No direction stated.
As told in 2024 about 0:04:00
"about 350"
No direction stated.
As told in 2024 about 0:03:39
"$81,161"
Comparison: "above the national average by over $10,000". Direction: above.
As told in 2024 about 0:04:08
"$235,800"
Comparison: "very low in comparison to the rest of the country". Direction: below.
As told in 2024 about 0:04:13
"at least 13"
Comparison: "more than one a month". Direction: above.
As told in 2024 about 0:18:08
"54 times in three years"
Comparison: "almost twice a month". Direction: above.
As told in 2024 about 0:35:45
"five times"
Direction: above.
As told in 2024 about 0:36:06
"at least twice"
Direction: above.
As told in 2024 about 0:36:21
2.3 / 5 · average of 3
“Christine says the service and food were wonderful, drinks were never empty, portions were perfect, and the bacon candy melts in your mouth; she lives two hours away but will drive back to eat there.”about 0:08:05
“Scott complains of cold crappy housemade chips, angry, rude, unfriendly and unhelpful bar staff, and says he did not order an entree because the bartender was so unfriendly.”about 0:08:32
“Pat says the restaurant does not like people in wheelchairs, has no accessible entrance or ramps, and that owners and managers make excuses.”about 0:09:17
Crockery Township sits in Ottawa County in western Michigan, about thirty minutes outside Grand Rapids, and the story belongs to Nunica, a hamlet of roughly 350 people inside the township. The name Nunica is said to mean pottery or earthenware, after the Ottawa pottery found near the mouth of Nunica Creek, which is how the township came by the name Crockery. Zinc was found in the area in 1858, Nunica was incorporated in 1872, and by 1924 the zinc was gone. A 1927 influenza outbreak killed almost 800 people, and in 1935 about a third of the town burned in what locals called the great Nunica fire, said to have started when lightning struck the train station. The station was never rebuilt, the population fell from about 5,000 in 1930 to about 1,000 by 1950, and the town disincorporated itself in 1957. Median household income in the township is $81,161, above the national average by more than $10,000, and the median home costs $235,800, low compared with the rest of the country.
Sheila K. Bong was born on 29 October 1958 to Charles and Lila, grew up around Crockery Township, graduated from Coopersville High School, married, divorced, and raised three children. She worked for several years as a certified nurse's aide at Fountain View Estates until health problems forced her to stop. In 2005 she moved onto a one-acre parcel three miles south of Nunica, on an unmaintained gravel easement lined with side-by-side homes surrounded by farmland. The property belonged to her fiancé, the long-haul trucker Wayne Holman, who was rarely there.
Neighbours described him as calm, even-keeled and endlessly helpful. Sheila, by contrast, was at war with almost everyone. Over three years the police were called to the neighbourhood 54 times, at least 13 times in 2016 alone, over ducks, dead chickens, alleged rabbit poaching, stakes in the wrong place, snow blown onto cleared driveways and above all the gravel easement. In November 2017 Sheila drove past 81-year-old Donetta Gould and told her she hoped she would fall and break her hip; Gould gave her the finger and Sheila gave her two back. Mark Meurer filmed her dancing in his hay field and slapping her backside at him.
On Christmas Eve 2017 the s were served with a subpoena to testify in the Meurers' property dispute. He put her snow blower away, loaded her body onto a camouflage hunting sled, dragged her into the wood lot behind his house, stripped her, burned her clothes in a burn barrel and left her in the snow. He then drove to a bridge over the half-frozen Grand River and threw the gun in.
Her family reported her missing. Divers could not find the gun.
Mark Meurer testified that Sheila was relentless; Wayne Holman said the neighbours antagonised her. Sheila was cremated.
December 26, 2017 / the gravel easement in front of the house, three miles south of Nunica, Michigan
As told in the episode, on 28 September 2024.
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
home
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