Shawn Raymond was last seen alive July 21, 1983. He simply vanished. It wasn't until years later that his family learned he had died — murdered.
www.thetimesherald.com
Family prays for answers 35 years after Algonac man went missing
Liz Shepard, Times Herald Published 10:13 a.m. ET Aug. 1, 2018 | Updated 12:15 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2018
Thirty-five years ago, when her big brother was graduating from Algonac High School, 14-year-old Kit Coyners slipped a card under his bedroom door.
She idolized her brother, the guy who got along with everybody and every girl wanted to know.
Shawn Raymond opened the door to find his little sister crying outside. "Every Breath You Take," by the Police was playing on his stereo.
"He said, 'I'm only graduating, I'm not going anywhere, I'll always be there for you,'" Coyners said. "And less than a month later he was gone. That song can still bring tears to my eyes."
Coyners, who now lives in Florida, said she has been speaking about the case recently in hopes of unearthing new leads and finding answers to what happened 35 years ago.
"I feel we're supposed to know the end of his story," she said.
Shirley Raymond, their mother, said she needs to know what happened.
"Yes I’m angry, yes I’m emotional, yes I miss my kid more than anything in the world. But somebody out there’s got to know something," she said. "And it's not closure until I get it and I hope I get it before I die, but I’m 86 already."
He simply vanished. It wasn't until years later that his family learned he had died — murdered.
Shawn, 19, worked at a restaurant in Algonac. On the last day he was seen alive, he had plans to go to a gay bar in Detroit with friends. Coyners said being gay or bisexual in a small town in 1983 kept many people quiet when investigators started looking into why Shawn hadn't come home the following day.
"In 1983, you just didn't talk about stuff like that," she said.
Coyners said some of Shawn's friends hired lawyers, some took polygraphs, some refused, some passed, some failed, and more lawyers got involved.
"I don't understand if you had nothing to do with anything or no knowledge of anything, why would you not want to talk to the police if that was your friend," she said.
They didn't find Shawn. They didn't find his car. For 21 years, there was nothing.
"For that 20, 21 years we had no idea," Coyners said. "We lived a nightmare for that long, so there was always this little sliver of hope that maybe he was still alive, just whooping it up somewhere. But I knew in my heart he wouldn’t do that my mom, to the family."
Shirley Raymond said her son was compassionate and caring and kind to everyone.
"Well, he was the greatest kid you could ever want to have," she said.
An unidentified skull
The first break in Shawn's case came in 1992.
A skull was found in material dredged out of the Clinton River in Harrison Township. But it wasn't identified as Shawn's until 2004.
Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Sarah Krebs is a forensic artist and was a road patrol trooper when she received the skull after it had been sitting in a Macomb County Sheriff Department evidence room for years.
"That case has definitely formed a foundation for what I do today," said Krebs, who now runs a statewide missing persons unit.
While the family didn't recognize the face she reconstructed by layering the skull with clay, someone did, and Shawn was identified through dental records.
Krebs said the case was her first identification through forensic art.
"It really made me a victims' advocate for the family members of missing persons," she said.
While Krebs' job doesn't usually allow her to see cases full circle, she is still in contact with the Raymond family.
Shirley Raymond credits Krebs and the original Michigan State Police investigator on the homicide, Patrick Young, for going beyond expectations for Shawn.
"These two who worked on this case, Patrick Young and Sarah Krebs, they couldn't have done anymore," she said.
Raymond said she was devastated when she learned the skull was her son's, and also angry that it had taken so long to discover.
"Nothing happened until the Michigan State Police got into it," she said. "And I thank God that the lord sent Patrick Young and Sarah to us or we never would have known nothing — nothing at all."
Young, now commander of the Michigan State Police Major Case Unit embedded with the Flint Police Department, said he still believes the case will be solved.
"Absolutely, somebody knows, there is somebody or more than one person out there that knows exactly what happened, no doubt in my mind," Young said.
He said the case has regularly been discussed between himself and a detective at the Michigan State Police Lapeer Post.
"As many homicides as we get in Flint, a case like Shawn Raymond, I can't forget it," Young said.
Time hasn't eased the pain
"For me, I can't set this down and walk away and not ever think of it again.”
The pain of losing a child and not knowing what happened hasn't eased for Shirley Raymond as the years have moved by.
"It just makes it more devastating that you don't know what happened, or why," she said. "Why couldn't they put his body in the car and parked it some place so we would know right away. Why did they have to dump it in the river weighted down?"
She and Coyners both believe more information has to be out there and the case isn't closed.
"Obviously people know something, people were afraid to talk, I just pray that it has been so long, maybe its been weighing on someone's heart," Coyners said.
Shirley Raymond said she can feel the presence of her son around her.
She hopes people will talk to police.
"Even something little, something they can grasp on to," Shirley Raymond said.
"The contractor that was dredging the river, they piled the dirt up on the side and he said it started to rain so hard, so he left and went home, and it rained like that for three days, and he said when he came back to finish the job, Shawn's skull was sitting on top and he said he’ll never forget that feeling in all his life because it was like somebody crying out for help."
Anyone with any information about what happened to Shawn Raymond is asked to call the Michigan State Police at (855) 642-4847 or email at
Msp-missingpersons@michigan.gov.
"For me, I can't set this down and walk away and not ever think of it again," Young said.
