Michele Frank:1984, East St. Louis, Illinois

  

  Michele D. Frank was born on March 6th, 1965 to Sharon and Stephen Frank. She had two sisters and one brother. (Angela, Deborah, and Timothy.)

  In 1984, Michele was 19. Her parents had divorced awhile back. Michele now had a stepmother named Mary E. Frank. 

  Michele’s Mom had remarried as well and her name was now Sharon Alexander. Michele’s stepfather was Danny Alexander. 

  She had a stepsister named Stephanie A. Atkins. They were a big, busy family. Her family and friends lovingly called her “Micki”.

  Michele D. Frank graduated from Bayless High School in 1982. 

  Michele was working at a Jack in the Box restaurant at 4292 Bayless Avenue in Lemay in 1984. I was surprised to see that  that location is still a Jack in the Box. At least it was the last time that the Google Earth car drove by to take pictures. Lemay is a neighborhood south of downtown St. Louis. 

  Michele was closing up the restaurant in the early morning hours of Friday, October 5th, 1984. She was a shift manager and had been working there for a few months. She likely counted the register drawers, got the deposit ready and cleaned and supervised the cleaning of the entire place to ready it for the opening crew. She left around 1 a.m. planning to head to the home she shared with her mother in High Ridge. That’s a small town southwest of St. Louis. It was about a 25 minute drive away. 

   But, Michele did not make it home. Her mother reported her missing immediately but law enforcement did not spring into action. Sometimes that old “wait 24 hours” rule was still applied despite the high rape and murder rates of the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

  Her family again reported Micki missing on Monday, October 8th, 1984. They knew that she was not with a friend or staying at one or the other parents’ homes. It must have been terrifying.

 Micki’s car was found on Sweet Gum Drive in South St. Louis. That’s a residential street just a few blocks south of her workplace. It is also just off Interstate 55 as is the Lemay neighborhood. One modern article states that the brake lines were cut on her 1983 model car. (I am not sure if that is accurate information or just conjecture.)If that is accurate perhaps her killer cut them in advance and followed her south from her workplace. Perhaps he stopped and offered to help. 

  I found it especially sad and poignant that she drove a very new car. Perhaps her family insisted that she drive something new so she’d be safer on the road. Perhaps they even helped her with a down payment. They might have worried about flat tires and engines overheating. She should have been very safe driving that car. But no one expected a diabolical killer would target her. 

  Wednesday, October 10th was the full moon that month. It would have appeared smaller than normal though due to its position near apogee. The weather was nice that week. Low temperatures were 46 degrees Fahrenheit and highs were in the 70’s. (8.33 to 21 degrees Celsius) It was Fall and the leaves would have been showing a beautiful array of Fall colors. 

  Michele was found by hunters on Friday, October 12th, 1984 in a wooded area a quarter mile north of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. It was not yet rifle hunting season but still bow hunting season then. So, these would have been bow hunters quietly making their way into the woods along the levee road.

  Michele had been sexually assaulted and strangled. 

  The killer likely abducted her as she left work. He would have driven across the Jefferson Barracks Bridge and exited I-255. He probably drove north along the Levee Road there. It would have been isolated and very dark. A driver can leave the bridge and drive along the levee road north and eventually re-enter I-255. There are farms along that road and also a spot where workers can park their vehicles and board barges. The Mississippi is still a vital means of transportation for grain, coal and other commodities. 

  I think investigators should look at Jerry Leon Johns for this murder. By 1984 he was a serial killer trucker with a lot of practice and he had been getting away with this for a good long while. In March of 1985 he would attempt to kill a woman after abducting her outside a restaurant in the early morning hours in Knoxville. He approached her claiming to be a police officer. She would survive and testify against him. After that he never left jail again in Tennessee. He has already died but I think it’s incredibly important to continue to work these cases. 

  He grew up and lived in Flat Rock, Michigan. (That’s just north of Toledo, Ohio. I suspect him of several murders there.) One of his victims, Tina Marie McKenney Farmer, left Indianapolis with him in December of 1984 and was found dead off I-75 on New Years Day 1985 in Tennessee. Another Indiana girl was found there with her. Tracy Sue Walker had been abducted from Lafayette, Indiana in 1978. She was found in a skeletal state and it would take decades to ID her. Jerry Leon Johns strangled most of his known victims. I’ve written about him in my blog before and continue to edit it as I find other cases that I suspect he had a hand in. 

  There is another, somewhat similar, murder from 1981 that may be the work of the same killer.  Sharon Marie Hurley was abducted, assaulted and strangled and thrown off the Poplar Street Bridge. I think investigators should look at Jerry Leon Johns as a suspect in both of these.  If it was Johns in 1981, the throwing of Sharon off the bridge seems to be the mistake a less practiced killer might make.  If Johns also killed Michele Frank, he is showing evidence of learning as he does not throw her off the bridge but exits the road to take her to the isolated wooded area.

  I think Jerry Leon Johns left his victims not far from the Interstate each time so that, in later years, as he drove by he could look at the spot and remember the crime. They were landmarks to him. He left Tina Farmer near where he had left Tracy Sue Walker. Did he leave Michele Frank near where he had left Sharon Hurley too? 

  Perhaps someone else killed Michele. What if it isn’t Jerry Leon Johns? What if someone is sitting around thinking they have gotten away with this? Hopefully Illinois investigators will be testing any evidence that they have to identify the killer of both of these young women.

  Michele Frank loved to sing. She loved music and was looking forward to singing in an upcoming concert before she was killed. She had plans and dreams for her future. Michele is buried at Saint Trinity Cemetery in Lemay, Missouri. 

  Rest in Peace Michele. 

  If you have a tip about Michele’s murder please call the Monroe County, Illinois Sheriff’s Department at (618) 939-8651.