Kristine Mihelich was a ten-year-old girl who left her Berkley, Michigan neighborhood on January 2, 1977 to buy a magazine at a nearby 7-Eleven and never returned. Her family reported her missing and searched for nineteen days; neighbors even raised money for a ransom that was never demanded.

On January 21 a mail carrier making his route in nearby Franklin Village found Kristine’s fully clothed body in a snowbank at the end of a dead-end street. Investigators determined she had been held captive during the nineteen days, had been killed by suffocation less than 24 hours before discovery, and had been bathed with clean clothes when placed in the snow.

Kristine’s death was one of several child abductions and murders in Oakland County in 1976–1977 attributed to a figure the media called the Babysitter Killer. Over the years suspects have included Christopher Busch and James Vincent Gunnels; mitochondrial DNA testing linked a hair from Kristine to Gunnels, who denied involvement and was never charged. No arrest or conviction has been recorded in Kristine’s killing.

If anyone knew Kristine, saw her on January 2, 1977, or has information about the Oakland County cases, please come forward with what you know.