You are listening to the already gone podcast sharing stories of the missing, the

murdered, the mysterious, and the lost.

This episode came about in an unusual way.

You see, Byron Hoffmeister attended Berkeley High School. I'm guessing he graduated in

1965, which means he went to school with my uncle. They may have known each other growing up. In talking with

my dad one day, he mentioned that when I was a kid, my uncle used to mention this guy,

Byron Hoffmeister, saying something like, well, that's a bad

guy, but he's no Byron Hoffmeister.

Dad and I knew Byron Hoffmeister had killed someone, but we figured it was in a bar fight, or maybe the hickular homicide, not the brutal stabbing of a 17-year-old girl on the side of the road.

So let's return to the summer of 1971, when a high school senior outperforming good deeds

crossed paths with an unrepentant monster.

Wait, no, we can't start there.

Not in 1971.

Because that's not when the story began.

It began years earlier, and had Hofmeister not taken a plea deal?

The story may have ended there.

So today's story begins in January of 1968, and it starts behind the wheel of a 1964 Chevy.

Now, the details here are sketchy.

Police kept only a thin file of documents, perhaps 10 pages and all, and because a

plea deal was arranged, the courts don't have much information either. Byron Hoffmeister is in his hometown of Berkeley, Michigan, and he's near the ice arena on

Robina Avenue where he picks up two children, a boy and a girl.

She was perhaps 14, and her brother about eight years old.

...