On October 8, 1980, the body of 26-year-old Betty Jean Rembert, an African American mother of three from Myrtlewood, Alabama, was found under hedges in a vacant lot on East Boston Boulevard in Detroit. She had fatal crushing injuries to the head and a stab wound to the neck. Family members in Alabama were reportedly unaware of the full extent of the difficulties she had faced after moving to Detroit.

The investigation produced a wrongful arrest when 23-year-old girls basketball coach David J. Payton confessed under intense police interrogation and was later exonerated. Attention then turned to 36-year-old Donald Murphy, a convicted sex offender and bank robber, after another assault victim described him and his vehicle. A pickaxe handle in Murphy’s car yielded hair that matched Rembert’s, and Murphy confessed to multiple murders, including Rembert’s, with details authorities said only the killer would know. Murphy was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and given concurrent sentences of 15 to 30 years for each count.

Does anyone have memories or information about East Boston Boulevard in 1980 or about Betty Jean Rembert that could help clarify gaps in the case?