In the summer of 1978, the Lansing, Michigan, area was gripped by a series of terrifying events that would ultimately claim the life of Wendy Bush, a 21-year-old female student at Michigan State University. Her story is tragically intertwined with that of Donald Eugene Miller, a man who would come to be known as the East Lansing Serial Killer. On June 27, 1978, Bush disappeared after witnesses reported seeing her on campus with a tall, unidentified white man.
This encounter would be her last.
Wendy Bush was one of four women known to have been murdered by Miller during a spree of violence that began in 1977. Before her death, Miller had already killed his former fiancée, Martha Sue Young, and another woman, Marita Choquette. In his later confession, Miller claimed to have known Bush and had even gone canoeing with her once. He stated that on the day of her murder, he choked her in a parking lot near Spartan Stadium on the Michigan State University campus after she had reportedly rejected his advances. Her disappearance sparked a significant investigation, but her fate would remain unknown for some time.
The break in the case came not from the investigation into the disappearances, but from a brutal attack on two teenagers. On August 16, 1978, Miller broke into a home in Delta Township and assaulted a 14-year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother. The siblings managed to survive and provided information that led to Miller's swift arrest. In custody, the full scope of Miller's horrific crimes began to unravel. He eventually confessed to the murders of four women: Martha Sue Young, Marita Choquette, Kristine Stuart, and Wendy Bush.
As part of a plea agreement, Miller agreed to lead investigators to the locations of his victims' bodies in exchange for reduced charges. He led authorities to a small wooded area in Delta Township at the intersection of Broadbent Road and St. Joseph Highway, where they found Wendy Bush's remains. Due to the plea deal, Miller was never convicted of murder for Wendy Bush's death. Instead, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including two counts of manslaughter for other victims, and was sentenced to prison. The plea bargain, which spared him a life sentence for the murders, caused outrage among the victims' families and the community. Over the years, Miller's potential for parole has been a recurring source of pain and fear for those who remember his crimes.
