expensive stuff back here. two boxes of comic books. and it s gone? and they re gone. michael george made a list of stolen comics and estimated their value at $12,600. he d later file an insurance claim for vintage editions of spiderman, green lantern, and iron man, to name just a few. so he s talking about robbery is his likely scenario? his whole scenario was it had to be robbery. at the comic book shop, michael george would tell the detective that he had no idea what had happened to his wife. he d last seen her, he d said, a little after 4 p. m. when she d relieved him behind the counter. he said he d taken the couple s two kids over to his mom s and had remained there, taking a nap on her couch before returning to the store just after 8 p. m. det. steckman asked michael george the questions a cop would when the wife has just been murdered. let s get all this up straight. were there any girlfriends? no. were you having any affairs? no. any probl
if you re gonna show up to more like we know. i ll get a lawyer. because this is [bleep] right now. the next day, he would need a lawyer, a criminal defense lawyer. the michigan detectives and the pennsylvania state police arrested him at his workplace. the comic book store. as he was led away after a later court appearance, he loudly proclaimed that police had nabbed the wrong man. i was with my daughters and my mom. they know i didn t do this. the cold case had turned red hot, michael george was returning to michigan and would stand trial for the first degree murder of his wife. a case prosecutors knew would be hard to prove with the age of csis and show me forensic evidence. that is because there wasn t none. it would come down to a single witness, and his recollection of a solitary phone call, he said he made on a friday the 13th 1990. coming up
severed ties with his murdered wife s family. uncles and aunts back and clinton, michigan, rarely saw barbara s two girls. come the year 2000, was michael george even aware that the longtime chief of police and his former town had passed away? chief robert smith had died without solving the nagging case of the comic book murder. everyone in this town was aware of that crime. and probably myself more so because my dad was the chief of police at that time. chief smithson, eric smith. i had driven by that store 1000 times but with my old man. just about every time we drove by their, there was something he said. still nine? adam there s no question about it. four years after his father s death, eric smith was elected chief prosecutor in macomb county, michigan. he became responsible for all the criminal cases in clinton township and beyond. i can t tell you how many people came up to me and said
a twist in court few would have predicted. did you expect it was possible he was gonna come out and say this cases dismissed, or george s released, we don t have a case here? eventually, and never crossed my mind. and then after five hours you start to worry. it was the toughest moment i ever had as a lawyer. when dateline continues. continues your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield actively shields the enamel to defend against erosion and cavities. i think that this product is a gamechanger for my patients-
knew very well answered the phone. it was michael george, the shop owner. it s not like it s busy. did he say, i m busy, people in the, shop gotta go? no, it was just a short. something you could hear in his voice. we would be us a little bit. and there was no time for bs. the cold case cops had struck gold. micro nods story was the missing puzzle piece the detectives had been looking for for years. if we re not to count is true, it does nothing less then demolish michael george s alibi, that he was napping at his mother s house when barb was murdered around 6:00. we re not s phone call story meant that george was line, and run out was certain that he talked to become a store owner at the shop, and that that brief conversation must have taken place just a few minutes before bart was killed. the embarrassing thing about this nugget of a clue was that microsoft had told the very same story to the police back in 1990, the day after the murder. what looked like a case breaker