Kimberly Louiselle was 16 when she disappeared on March 20, 1982, after leaving her boyfriend’s home in Livonia and being dropped at Eight Mile and Merriman roads. It is believed she tried to hitchhike the rest of the way and made several calls from a nearby gas station seeking a ride; she never returned home. On April 14, 1982, a couple walking a dog in Island Lake Recreation Area in Green Oak Township found her body. An autopsy showed she had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled.

The case went cold for decades. In summer 2022 Michigan State Police’s First District Cold Case Unit and students from Michigan State University reopened the investigation. After forensic genealogy identified Charles David Shaw in an unrelated 1983 murder, investigators resubmitted Kimberly’s evidence for DNA testing in June 2023; the DNA matched Shaw. Shaw was 26 at the time of Kimberly’s death and had a 1981 arrest for attempted abduction; he died in November 1983.

Did anyone in the community know Kimberly’s movements that night or recall seeing a vehicle near Eight Mile and Merriman on March 20, 1982?