Dawn Magyar:Chesaning Michigan

    

   Dawn Magyar had a one year old baby.  She had been married to Donald Magyar Jr. for just about two years. They lived in Chesaning, Michigan. 

   Michiganders tell people where they live by using a left handed mitten basically.  Imagine a left handed mitten.  Chesaning is close to where the thumb meets the rest of the mitten. Chesaning is not too close to Lake Huron but it would be the closest Great Lake to head out to on a hot day. 

  It was not a hot day however when Dawn borrowed her Father-in-Law’s truck to head about 30 minutes south to Owasso to do some shopping. It was January 27th 1973 and Dawn headed first to J.C. Penney for some clothes.  I wonder if she had some Christmas money that she had been saving for this trip. 

   Dawn was a Mom who loved her 1 year old baby.  But I bet she was excited to have a quick shopping trip by herself.  It’s nice to get a little break now and then when you’re a Mom. 

   She bought some clothes at J.C. Penney and then headed back North to the Giant grocery.  She got the groceries and got them into the truck.  But then, she vanished. 

   Her family went looking when she did not make it home.  They were thinking maybe a car accident or car trouble. They found the truck with her purchases in it.  The keys were missing. 

   Police got involved quickly and searches were conducted.  They even enlisted a helicopter to search by air. 

   She was found by the son of a farmer on March 4th, 1973. He was checking their maple trees to see if the sap was running yet. He found Dawn in that grove of trees. She had been raped and shot 3 times in the back of the head. The site was near Ridge Road and Steven’s Road in Brady Township. That is just a few minutes Northwest from where she was taken. 

   Police noticed the similarities between Dawn’s murder and the abduction and murder of another woman.  

    Betty Jean Goodrich was also at the grocery store on August 11th of 1973 when she was seen “getting into a car with a man”.  People who saw it happen didn’t know what they were looking at.  As we have seen in other cases…a kidnapping doesn’t always look like a kidnapping. 

   Betty Jean was found the next day in a wooded out of the way area of Hastings, Michigan.  It’s a short drive Southwest of Lansing. She was stabbed and then strangled with her own belt. 

  Dawn’s murder was solved using DNA analysis in 2001. Jerald Leroy Wingeart is serving a life sentence for her murder.

   Is Betty Jean also a victim of Jerald Leroy Wingeart? Are there other victims of Wingeart out there?  

   Could Betty Jean be a victim of Donald Gene Miller? He was a prolific serial killer in the Lansing area. 

  Betty Jean Goodrich’s murder was linked in the papers to the murder of Irene Waters in 1972.    

   Someone called Irene Waters at home on August 23rd, 1972 and told her that her office was on fire. They said the doctor wanted her to come down and help sort through the files. Her 84 year old Mother told her not to go. But Irene was a diligent worker and committed and responsible. As she headed quickly to her car in the garage out back Irene was stabbed to death.

  Everyone’s address and phone number was in the yellow pages then. She worked at a local doctor’s office. I could not find the doctor’s name or the address of the office. Apparently police looked into patients at the office. Was Donald Gene Miller a patient there? Maybe he had gone there with a family member and encountered Irene in the waiting room. He could have taken note of her name and looked up her address and phone number easily. He wouldn’t have been suspected of this because he didn’t have a record yet. 

   (One rapist, Neil Haynes, who was mentioned as a possible suspect was not a patient there. He had snatched a 13 year old girl off her bicycle at the park and raped her at knifepoint. He was charged with second degree rape but not assault with a dangerous weapon. He had attempted to abduct another woman at that same park. He did not face any really serious charges.)

   Another disappearance from 1972 is that of Diane Osinski.  She was called away from home about a fake babysitting job. She was found in May of 1973. 

  Could Donald Gene Miller be responsible for these early 1970’s crimes?  He was known as the East Lansing serial killer. When there are murders out there that look like the work of a serial killer I like to look back knowing what we know now and look at the probability that the serial killer we know about might have done it. 

   Donald Gene Miller graduated highschool in 1973.  Could he be responsible for rapes and murders when he is that young? I think so. Killers like him sometimes start young.  Steven Timothy Judy raped and nearly killed his first victim when he was 13.  If that rape and attempted murder had been considered a violent enough offense so many other deaths could have been prevented.  Rape was not considered a big deal by the all male lawmakers and the mostly all male juries. Steven Timothy Judy did a little time in a juvenile detention center and then went to a foster home. Then he got kicked out of highschool for cutting a girl’s halter top off. They did not consider this a serious enough assault to do more than school suspension. He went on to commit multiple rapes and murders. The average age for the onset of serial killing is considered to be 27. I humbly disagree with that. 

  If Donald Gene Miller had access to a car and could drive; I think they should consider him for these earlier 1970’s murders. 

  He was very busy in 1976, 1977 and 1978. 

  In 1976 he proposed to his girlfriend Martha Sue Young.  She broke up with him in December of 1976 but they met up on New Year’s Eve and he raped and strangled her to death on January 1st 1977. She was found 10 months later by hunters in October near Bath, Michigan. 

  On June 15th 1978 he attacked Marita Choquette. He stabbed her 17 times and then cut off her hands, and posed the body.

   June 27th 1978 he killed Wendy Bush.  She was a 21 year old Michigan State University student. Her remains were skeletal when Miller led police to them as part of a 1979 plea deal. 

  In August of 1978 Kristine Stuart disappeared.  Donald Gene Miller led investigators to her body as part of that same 1979 plea deal. He confessed to strangling her after seeing her walking home from dropping her car off for service.  She lived at 1300 Basswood Circle.  Donald Gene Miller was said to live about 4 blocks away in a newspaper article. 

  Defense attorneys and reporters at the time liked to say the breakup with Martha Sue Young set him off on a murder spree.  I don’t buy that. This is not her fault. She did not push him off the deep end.  He was swimming in the deep end for years already in my opinion. 

  They also said he was squeaky clean up until the breakup and had a wonderful home life growing up.  I wonder what he was like as a kid.  It would be interesting to hear from people who grew up with him. 

  If it was Donald Gene Miller who killed Irene Waters he had to work hard to create an opportunity to get her out of her house. I wonder if there was a pay phone nearby.  Whoever did that had to make the call and then get into position by the garage.  This might not have been Miller but it was someone close to her home and close to a phone. Maybe he tried an unlocked door at a neighbor’s house and just used the phone? Serial killers don’t think like other people. Almost anything is possible. 

   Could there be any DNA evidence still around that could link a perpetrator definitively to these murders?  That depends on what was saved in these cases and how it was stored.  Betty Jean was strangled with her belt in addition to being stabbed.  Is the killer’s DNA on that belt?

   Were the fingernails clipped and saved from these victims?  Is there any DNA from their killer underneath those nails?

   Did he cut himself on a slippery knife while stabbing anyone?  Are the bloody clothes still around in evidence somewhere? 

   Donald Gene Miller was caught when he raped a 13 year old girl after forcing his way into her home.  Her brother came home and Miller began attacking him. The girl ran from the home naked and with her hands bound and got help to prevent the murder of her brother.  

   That’s a reckless perpetrator.  Someone as reckless as that could have come up with the bold and unusual ploy to get Irene Waters out of her house. It’s the boldness that jumps out. 

   Once caught raping the 13 year old and attacking her brother; Miller then confessed to other murders and bodies were recovered as part of a plea deal. 

   We do know there is no such thing as a part time serial killer. I think they should look at anything that happened once he could drive including the Marie Ann Jackson November 1970 murder. 

   Could Miller or Wingeart be responsible for any of the earlier Michigan murders and possibly even some Northern Indiana unsolved murders like Victoria McDonough in November of 1974, Debra Dusing on October 30th 1973 and Lori Brickley in March of 1974? It is possible.  Serial killers are kind of like sharks; they are always hunting. 

   And what else did that rapist Neil Haynes do in the 1970’s? He was cleared of involvement in the Irene Waters case.  But, he was definitely a threat. 

   Donald Gene Miller is currently incarcerated in Michigan.  

   Jerald Leroy Wingeart served his 20 year sentence for the rape and murder of Dawn Magyar. He was released in 2022. He is 83 now in 2024 as I write this.  83 might seem harmless but I would be wary if I encountered him somewhere. 

   It’s possible that some of these early 1970 cases could be solved. DNA technology has come so far in recent years. 

  Rest in Peace Dawn Magyar, Betty Jean Goodrich, Diane Osinski, Irene Waters, Marie Ann Jackson, Victoria McDonough, Debra Dusing and Lori Brickley. 

  Rest in peace Martha Young, Marita Choquette, Wendy Bush, Kristine Stuart.