Six Arrested for Crime in 1979

[Catherine Vincent]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/09/21/1979.killing.ap/index.html

Six held in brutal 1979 sex slaying
POSTED: 11:07 a.m. EDT, September 21, 2006

HOLLAND, Michigan (AP) -- For more than a quarter century, the brutal sex slaying of Hope College student and hotel clerk Janet Chandler baffled law enforcement officials. As the case grew colder with each passing year, it became less likely that whoever was responsible would be brought to justice.

Then, a few years ago, a film class at Hope produced a documentary about the unsolved mystery that sparked new interest in the case. After the film aired on a Grand Rapids television station in January 2004, investigators started getting tips again. (Watch why the D.A. thinks there was a party before Chandler's death -- 1:32)

Following up on the new information, they arrested Robert Lynch, 66, of Three Oaks, in February of this year and charged him in connection with the 1979 homicide.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced Wednesday that five more arrests had been made, including four men and a woman who was the victim's roommate and boss. They were taken into custody Monday and Tuesday in Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

"It has always been the mission of all parties involved in this investigation to ensure that the family of Janet Chandler sees justice. That day is now coming closer," Cox said during a news conference. The five men, including Lynch, were working as security guards for the same company at the time of the killing and were in Holland because they were on assignment at a local labor strike. The victim's parents, James and Glenna Chandler, of Muskegon, attended the news conference but declined to speak to reporters.

Authorities said Janet Chandler was working her job as a clerk at the Blue Mill Inn on January 31, 1979, when she was kidnapped by the six suspects and taken to a house where she was beaten, raped and strangled.
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There will finally be justice for this one family. It baffles me that some people can commit a crime and walk the earth for all these years with no guilt.

[madmusic]

1. A "teach her a lesson" party?

Anyone who committed a violent crime years ago must be sweating blood because of DNA evidence and the solving of more and more cold cases. Evidently, this wasn't a DNA case though, so why couldn't they solve it then? That's not clear.

And the woman defendant encouraged the rape and murder? No woman or anyone else could ever talk me into that.

What a waste. If they got the right people, good, and good for those filmmakers.

[rman]

4. To teach the local community a lesson, i think

"The five men, including Lynch, were working as security guards for the same company at the time of the killing and were in Holland because they were on assignment at a local labor strike."

In my mind, that says it all.

[madmusic]

5. So you think it was politics?

Could be. Seems more personal to me, as if the woman defendant had a grudge. Too soon to know for sure. We don't even know if these 5 are guilty.

[EST]

2. For those of us who are gifted with the burden of guilt,

the idea of being able to commit some heinous crime and then go on as though nothing has happened is, indeed, baffling.

I took this idea to the point of talking to quite a number of people who were sitting on what to me seemed like an overwhelming load. The result was, for most of them, they always had an explanation and a story about being forced by circumstances.

Even stone killers justify their actions by insisting their victims brought it on themselves.

What I find troubling is envisioning these sad husks of human beings as the cute, bubbly babies they once were.

The real worry is that there are horrid, anti-social people in every large organization, churches, government organizations, community centers, on and on.

The demands (to do things that are fundamentally unfair) that people have to satisfy in order to climb to high office, I think, assures that an even greater number of "conscienceless" humans wind up in politics.

[noonwitch]

3. I'm glad they caught them

Holland is a small, conservative town where very few murders occur in any given decade.

These guys should be grateful that we don't have the death penalty in Michigan, although mandatory life in a place like I-Max is probably worse than death. 23 hours in a box, 1 hour in an outside cage for fresh air.