A woman from Canton, Ohio, Lisa Marie Price, had her life violently cut short at the age of 31, becoming the second known victim of a serial killer who haunted the streets of Flint, Michigan. Her journey ended tragically on October 8, 1999, when her body was discovered in a yard on Susan Street, near West Mott Avenue. An autopsy would later confirm that she had been strangled.
Lisa’s death was not an isolated incident, and it soon sent a chill through the community and its
investigators. Just over a year earlier, in May 1998, the body of 34-year-old Patricia "Tresa" Peeler had been found dumped near Avenue A in Flint. Initially, her death was suspected to be the result of a drug overdose. However, a medical examination determined she had likely been smothered. With the discovery of Lisa's body, strangled and left in a similar manner, police began to suspect a serial killer was at work.
The investigation into the two connected murders was painstaking. In both cases, the killer had left behind the crucial mistake that would ultimately lead to his identification: his DNA. Though investigators had the genetic evidence, for years there was no name to match it to in law enforcement databases. The fear in the community deepened when a third woman, 34-year-old Deena Brown, a mother of three, was found strangled outside an academy in January 2001. The killer had used a sweatshirt to end her life, and once again, left his DNA on the weapon.
For years, the cases of the three women grew cold. The break finally came in 2007, years after the string of killings had seemingly stopped. A man named Ivan Lee Page, born in 1969, had been arrested and convicted in 2006 on unrelated drug and weapons charges. While serving his sentence, he was required to submit a DNA sample to be entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). This routine submission resulted in a stunning hit, matching Page’s DNA to the samples recovered from the bodies of Lisa Marie Price, Patricia Peeler, and Deena Brown.
Following the DNA match, Ivan Lee Page was charged with all three murders. The case against him was further strengthened when a former cellmate came forward, telling authorities that Page had often bragged about "choking" and "killing" women. Another witness placed Page with Deena Brown on the night before her body was discovered, stating that Page had become upset with her before taking her into another room, only to emerge alone.
In 2008, prosecutors took Ivan Lee Page to trial, but focused their case solely on the murder of Deena Brown. The evidence from the murders of Lisa and Patricia was introduced during the trial to establish a common scheme or plan. Page's defense argued that the DNA evidence only proved he had sex with the women and that someone else could have killed them. The jury was not convinced.
In December 2008, Ivan Lee Page was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in the death of Deena Brown. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Due to the life sentence, prosecutors elected not to try Page for the murders of Lisa Marie Price and Patricia Peeler. Though he is behind bars for the rest of his life, the legal chapter for Lisa's murder was never formally closed in a courtroom, leaving a painful silence where a full measure of justice should have been.
