1829
Branch County was laid out in 1829; in 1830 towns including Coldwater, Bronson and Quincy began springing up.
about 0:04:00The story
Marilyn Lee McLenahan was born in Detroit on 24 January 1941, the daughter of Dallas Arnold McLenahan and his wife Betty. She studied at Michigan State University and Wayne State University, then became a guidance counsellor at Coldwater High School in Branch County, Michigan, where she was well liked. They married within about eighteen months, bought a house in a quiet, tree-lined neighbourhood and had three children: Jennifer Dawn in 1974, Julie in 1976 and Scott about 1982.
The divorce was final in December 1989. Marilyn changed the locks, but he let himself in when the house was empty and rifled through her papers.
Julie refused to go, and eight-year-old Scott also said he did not want to go. He carried her up, put her in the passenger seat of his 1984 Chevrolet van and told the children he was taking her to hospital. Jennifer ran to a neighbour's house and called the police.
Somewhere on the road he put a .357 to the back of Marilyn's head and shot her. Ray and Marie Thornton, who were on their regular Sunday drive, saw the van pass them aggressively and Marie noted that its number plate began with GZ. A few minutes later they saw a man behind the schoolhouse struggling with a bloodstained white sheet near a hole. Further on the van pulled in behind them and followed for several miles. When Ray turned off, the van stopped, and as they drove back past it they saw the driver crouched down changing the rear plate, with the passenger door open and the interior covered in blood. They returned to the schoolhouse, found the sheet in the hole and called the Michigan State Police, who found the sheet, pools of blood and tyre tracks.
Police at the family home called every hospital within 50 miles; Marilyn had not been admitted anywhere. On 16 April 1990, highway workers found her body beside a deserted road in Bethel Township, about halfway between the house and the schoolhouse. She had been beaten and shot once in the back of the head.
About two weeks after the killing, letters began arriving, postmarked from Virginia, Iowa, Oklahoma and elsewhere. He sent 17 in all, blaming Marilyn, her lawyer and the school staff, and quoting scripture. A 13-page letter followed after three months, and an 11-page unsigned letter to the Battle Creek Inquirer, postmarked Des Moines, called the killing a life for a life and said it was his final communication. After about eight months the letters stopped.
He had gone to Dallas, Texas, where he obtained documents in the name of Hank Queen. He met Mary Blizzard at a Halloween party at a Dallas nightclub, and by Christmas 1990 he had moved into her house in Grapevine. He told her he had graduated from Michigan State and worked as an illustrator for a publishing company. A friend of Mary's recognised him, and Mary produced the number plate she had written down when they met.
Four hours after the tip, Louisiana state troopers spotted the van on Interstate 20 heading towards Mississippi. He refused to stop and led a 15-mile chase across state lines, running two road blocks. Officers shot out his tyres, and at 4 a.m. on 21 March 1991 the van stopped on the streets of Vicksburg. He was found slumped over the wheel with his thumb on the trigger and $16,000 in his pocket. Bloodstains in the van were later identified as Marilyn's. He was buried in LaGrange County, Indiana; Marilyn was buried in Oakland County, Michigan. The opening of the 2001 film Jeepers Creepers was based on the Thorntons' account.