More on Dead Woman, Missing Man in MI
Maggie
Who killed Maria Willson, and where is Timothy Forshee?
BY ABBEY BROWN, STEPHANIE ESTERS and JANELLE KEEFER
KALAMAZOO GAZETTE
Maria Willson was a vivacious 34-year-old who liked meeting new people.
Timothy Forshee, 39, was a ladies' man who worked in the restaurant around the
corner from the gym where Willson often worked out.
Their paths crossed the night of Oct. 15, when the two were seen together at Mi
Ranchito restaurant in Oshtemo Township, investigators say.Now Willson is dead,
Forshee is missing and police and acquaintances of the two are left trying to
put the pieces together.
Forshee is believed to be the last person to have seen Willson alive, said Lt.
John Woods of the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department. Her nude body was
found in her car the morning of Oct. 16. The car, with the engine still
running, was lodged on a dirt pile in a Texas Township business park.An autopsy
found Willson, an employee of a Mattawan plastics company and the mother of an
11-year-old girl, died of strangulation.
After police apparently questioned Forshee in connection with the homicide, he
disappeared in bizarre circumstances.The manager of Culver's, a Texas Township
fast food restaurant, Forshee left work around 4 p.m. Monday to deposit $9,000
in restaurant receipts, investigators say. The money was never deposited, and
Forshee called his sister on his cell phone about 6:30 p.m., saying he had been
mugged and was disoriented, then called again around 2 a.m., police say.
Forshee also disappeared with a 1998 Chevrolet Blazer that he never returned
after a test drive from a Portage car dealership Monday night.
The Ninth Street neighborhood that both Willson and Forshee frequented was
abuzz with talk on Wednesday. Willson's body was found less than a mile from
the SWAT Fitness Center, where Willson was an avid member, spending hours at a
time working out. Willson had been seen at Culver's, which is around the corner
and a favorite eating spot for people at the fitness center. SWAT employees say
they knew Forshee, both from the restaurant and from the fact that he had his
hair cut in the same building as the fitness center."He was friendly and able
to strike up a conversation," said a SWAT employee, who asked not to be
identified. The employee said that Willson was also very outgoing, and enjoyed
talking with employees and others.Forshee had a 1994 conviction for attempted
rape in Kent County, and was sentenced to four months in jail and 30 months of
probation in the case. But that criminal history was not known to many of
Forshee's acquaintances, including his boss, Bob Flintrop, owner of Culver's,
who hired Forshee when the restaurant opened a year ago.
"I think he was well-liked by customers and employees," Flintrop said. "I think
that's what's so shocking ... I think the customers are as shocked as we are
that something happened so close to home."
Flintrop said he doesn't know what to think.
"My mind is so cloudy right now, it's not even funny," he said. "My first
thoughts are for (Forshee's) family. Regardless of what the outcome is, they
need to know what is going on."
Forshee lived on Ninth Street just south of The Groves business park where
Willson's body was found. Sometimes, he'd bring his landlady ice cream from
Culver's and he offered to help with odd jobs around the seven-acre horse farm,
the woman said Wednesday afternoon.
"To me, he was a very gentle, quiet-to-himself person," said the landlady, who
declined to identify herself. "An absolute clean, immaculate person even in his
dress."
When police came to the farm Friday to talk to Forshee, she asked him about it.
Forshee told her that he had met Willson at Mi Ranchito's one night, sitting a
seat apart from the woman, the woman said.
The landlady said Forshee had a girlfriend, but she didn't know her. A woman
came to Forshee's home earlier this week, apparently distressed by earlier news
reports that he was missing, the landlady said.
Also shocked by Forshee's disappearance were the employees at J.T. Market, a
Ninth Street convenience where Forshee had been a customer for the past seven
or eight years.
"He seems like a really nice guy," said Larry Nichols, the store manager.
"Always impressed me as a ladies' man always flirted with the girls."
In fact, Forshee had had a date this past weekend with a store employee,
according to store manager Brenda Freed.
The talk at both the store and the SWAT gym was that surveillance videos at
Dana Corp., located in The Groves, taped Willson's car going into the business
park on Oct. 16 and a man walking back along the driveway sometime later.
Lt. John Woods, of the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department, would not comment
on that rumor, but has said that investigators have information that Willson's
red Dodge Neon arrived at the business park around 2 a.m. Oct. 16, about eight
hours before the car was discovered by Consumers Energy employees.
The last person to see Forshee before his disappearance Monday was an employee
at Portage's Cole-Gilmore-Pontiac-Cadillac-Nissan dealership. Forshee stopped
there about 5:30 p.m. Monday and asked to test drive a 1998 Chevrolet Blazer,
said sales manager Robert Schauer.Forshee told salesman David Scott he was
going to take the car to a mechanic to get it tested, make a deposit at the
bank and then return the car, but he never came back, Schauer said.
Schauer said if Forshee had never been into the dealership before, he would not
have been allowed to take the car without a sales associate with him. But he
was an acquaintance of several employees and had been in the dealership two to
three times before.
"I asked David if he noticed anything different or strange about him," Schauer
said. "He said he didn't think anything was amiss and that everything seemed
fine."
Maggie
"The same people always urging us to not blame the victim in rape cases are now
saying Uncle Sam wore a short skirt and asked for it." -- Jonathan Alter
Kris Baker
Maggie wrote
>Forshee had a 1994 conviction for attempted rape in Kent
>County, and was sentenced to four months in jail and 30
>months of probation in the case. But that criminal history
>was not known to many of Forshee's acquaintances,
>including his boss, Bob Flintrop, owner of Culver's,
>who hired Forshee when the restaurant opened a year ago.
(snip)
>Forshee lived on Ninth Street just south of The Groves
>business park where Willson's body was found. Sometimes,
>he'd bring his landlady ice cream from Culver's and he
>offered to help with odd jobs around the seven-acre horse
>farm, the woman said Wednesday afternoon.
>"To me, he was a very gentle, quiet-to-himself person,"
>said the landlady, who declined to identify herself.
>"An absolute clean, immaculate person even in his dress."
(snip)
The bells started going off for me, when you posted the
first story, Maggie. They're ringing louder now.
I think we may have a Ted Bundy type here.
Kris
angelam...@gmail.com
ktodd...@gmail.com
steve.sm...@gmail.com
Travis McGee
trying to stir up outrage over ancient joe1orbit and other posts from a
long time ago.
Good luck. No one cares about this stuff anymore, and Joe has been gone
a long time. The onl
