On May 23, 2019, 42-year-old Eugene Bass Jr., a father of seven from Lansing, was seen in Pontiac on North Midland Street near Auburn Avenue. Witnesses say he got into a silver Chevrolet Equinox with another man and that gunshots were heard from inside the vehicle before it sped away. That was the last confirmed sighting of Bass alive.

Police located the Equinox at a Palmer Drive residence believed to belong to 46-year-old Paul Anthony Hall. Investigators found a large amount of blood in the SUV that had been partially cleaned; a spent shell casing was recovered on North Midland Street. The blood later matched Bass by DNA. Hall, whose record includes convictions for controlled substance delivery, fleeing and eluding, aggravated assault and domestic violence, was charged on July 23, 2019 with open murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, and two counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony and was denied bond.

For almost a year Bass’s body remained missing. On May 18, 2020 detectives following a tip found skeletal remains in a wooded area of Galloway Lake Park in Pontiac believed to be Bass while identification was pending dental records. Did anyone in the area see that Equinox or notice activity near Galloway Lake Park in spring 2019?