In the summer of 1969, a shadow of fear stretched across the college towns of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. A series of brutal murders targeting young women had left the community on edge. Among the victims was Alice Elizabeth Kalom, a 21-year-old graduate student at the University of Michigan's fine arts program. On the evening of Saturday, June 7, 1969, Alice left her apartment on Thompson Street to attend a friend's birthday party at the Depot House.
She was dressed in a purple blouse and a white mini-skirt, carrying a new pair of purple dress shoes she had recently purchased. Witnesses reported seeing her dancing at the party until after midnight. She was last seen on the front porch of her rooming house around 1 a.m. on June 8th. When she failed to return home, her friend and photography partner, Benjamin Cologie, reported her missing to the Ann Arbor Police on Sunday morning.
The search for Alice ended in tragedy on Monday, June 9th, when three teenage boys discovered her partially nude body in a field of tall grass off a lane near an abandoned farm in Ann Arbor Township. The scene was one of extreme violence; she had been severely beaten, stabbed multiple times, with two of the wounds piercing her heart, shot in the forehead, and her throat had been slashed. Investigators determined she had also been raped. A short distance away, at a commercial gravel pit, police found what they believed to be the primary murder scene. There they discovered her distinctive multi-colored raincoat, buttons torn from her clothing, one of her shoes, and a pool of blood. The brutality of the crime sent shockwaves through the community and intensified the investigation into what would become known as the "Michigan Murders."
The investigation into Alice Kalom's death was part of a larger, multi-jurisdictional effort to apprehend the serial killer preying on young women in the area. The prime suspect in the string of killings was a 22-year-old Eastern Michigan University student named John Norman Collins. Collins, a popular and clean-cut former football captain, was arrested in July 1969, shortly after the murder of the final victim in the series, Karen Sue Beineman. While Collins was only tried and convicted for the murder of Karen Beineman, for which he received a life sentence, investigators strongly believed he was responsible for the other murders, including Alice's. Years later, advancements in forensic technology would provide a direct link between Collins and the murder of Alice Kalom. DNA evidence found on her clothing was tested and positively matched to John Norman Collins, confirming the long-held suspicions of law enforcement. Despite the passage of decades, the case of Alice Elizabeth Kalom remains a chilling chapter in Michigan's history, a story of a promising young life cut short by a reign of terror that was eventually brought to an end with the capture of a serial killer.
