Donald Gene Miller (born December 28, 1954), known as The East Lansing Serial Killer or simply Don Miller, is an American serial killer and rapist who committed a series of six attacks in East Lansing, Michigan from 1977 to 1978. Four of these resulted in fatalities, to which Miller would later plead guilty and received a lengthy prison sentence with a chance of parole.
Biography
Donald Gene Miller was born on December 28, 1954, in Lansing, Michigan, one of three children of Gene and Elaine Miller. His parents, who lived in a middle-class neighborhood of East Lansing, were considered upstanding and law-abiding citizens who took good care of their son.
Throughout the early 1970s, he attended East Lansing High School, where he was regarded as a good student who played the trombone in the school's marching band, was a youth minister at his church and was considered popular. During this period, he met a girl named Martha Sue Young, who would later become his girlfriend. After graduating from high school in 1973, Miller enrolled at the Michigan State University, where he studied criminal law. He continued his intimate relationship with Young and, in his spare time, worked part-time as a construction worker.
Murders
In late 1976, Miller proposed to Young, which she accepted. However, in December, she broke off her relationship with him and refused to marry him. Three days later, she met with Miller on New Year's Eve. During the early hours of the morning, he assaulted and strangled her.
After Young did not return home, her parents contacted the police, who began an investigation. They eventually located witnesses who claimed that Miller was the last person to see her alive, whereupon he was detained for interrogation. During the procedure, Miller admitted that he had indeed spent the night with her, but insisted that he drove her to her doorstep at around 2 AM before he headed back home. Since Young's body had not been found at the time and there was no evidence to implicate him in a crime, the authorities released him. On October 20, 1977, two hunters found Young's clothes and purse near a lake in Bath. The girl's underwear was found neatly folded underneath her clothes, leading police to believe that her killer had posed the body and clothes after the murder.
On June 15, 1978, Miller attacked 27-year-old Marita Choquette, an assistant editor at WKAR-TV, whom he stabbed 17 times. After killing her, he again posed her body and cut off her hands. He then transported the body to a property in Alaiedon Township, where he covered it with cinderblocks.
On June 27, he killed his third victim, 21-year-old MSU student Wendy Bush. While investigating her disappearance, authorities found witnesses who claimed that they had last seen her on campus with a young, tall white man who was unknown to them.
His fourth victim was 30-year-old school teacher Kristine Guske Stuart, whom he met on the street during a walk home from the campus' auto shop on August 14. During the attack, Miller strangled Stuart, then loaded her corpse into his car and drove outside of town, where he dumped it.
Final attack and arrest
On August 16, 1978, two days after Stuart's murder, Miller knocked on the door of a random house in Lansing, asking to use the phone. The door was answered by 14-year-old Lisa Gilbert, and upon realizing that she was home alone, he decided to attack her. After asking the girl for a pencil and paper to write down the number, he was allowed inside, whereupon he tied up, beat, raped and assaulted her. In order to get rid of any witnesses, Miller attempted to kill Lisa's 13-year-old brother, Randy, who had just returned home from a walk. However, Randy instead confronted the assailant and allowed his sister to flee outside. Since she was only wearing nylon stockings tied around her wrists and her father's necktie, which Miller had used as a gag, Gilbert immediately attracted the attention of passers-by and motorists. In the meantime, Miller had managed to choke Randy into unconsciousness and had stabbed him three times, but despite his extensive injuries and blood loss, he survived the ordeal.
Following the attack, Miller attempted to drive away in his brown 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass, but numerous witnesses managed to remember his license plates and appearance. After providing this information to police, it subsequently led to his arrest at his own apartment mere hours later, with Miller being charged with the attempted murders.