In the spring of 1969, a shadow of fear stretched over the communities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a string of brutal murders of young women instilled a deep-seated panic. The fifth victim in this terrifying series was a 13-year-old Caucasian female named Dawn Louise Basom. An eighth-grade student at West Junior High School in Ypsilanti, Dawn was last seen alive on the evening of April 15, 1969.
She had been visiting a friend and was walking the short distance home along the Penn Central Railroad tracks, a common shortcut for locals. Her mother reported her missing on April 18th when she failed to return home. The following morning, her partially clothed body was discovered on a desolate road in Ypsilanti, her blouse and bra pushed up around her neck.
The investigation into Dawn's death revealed a scene of horrific violence. She had been strangled with a two-foot length of electrical cord that was left knotted around her neck, and a handkerchief had been stuffed in her mouth, likely to muffle her screams. Her body bore the marks of a savage attack; she had been stabbed numerous times in the chest and genitals, with additional slash wounds across her torso, breasts, and buttocks. While there was no conclusive evidence of sexual assault, the nature of her injuries pointed to a sadistic killer. Investigators believed she was killed at another location and her body was then dumped by the roadside. Her sweater and other articles of clothing were later found in a nearby abandoned farmhouse, which police suspected was the primary crime scene. This location yielded further evidence when an earring belonging to a previous victim, Maralynn Skelton, was also discovered, officially linking the cases.
The murders of Dawn and the other young women led to a massive investigation involving multiple police agencies. The similarities between the victims, all of whom were brunette Caucasian females and menstruating at the time of their deaths, and the consistent method of using a ligature around their necks, helped investigators to profile the killer. The prime suspect who emerged from the investigation was John Norman Collins, a student at Eastern Michigan University. Collins was known to be acquainted with several of the victims. A former girlfriend confirmed that Collins had met Dawn Basom on multiple occasions, as the girlfriend lived in the same apartment complex. Furthermore, Collins lived directly across the street from another victim, Joan Schell. Following the murder of the final victim, Karen Sue Beineman, Collins was arrested. Although he was only tried and convicted for Beineman's murder, for which he received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, the murders stopped after his incarceration. Authorities are confident that John Norman Collins was the man responsible for the reign of terror that gripped the Michigan communities and for the brutal death of young Dawn Louise Basom.
