By Chuck Hustmyre
(Continued)
Janet Chandler was a senior at Hope College and worked as a night clerk at the Blue Mill Inn. Laurie Swank, who was 21 at the time, was the hotel manager. She was also Chandler's roommate.
Chandler disappeared shortly after midnight on Jan. 31, 1979 while working the overnight shift.
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| Blue Mill Inn |
According to police, the six suspects lured Chandler away from the hotel by inviting her to a late-night surprise party, but when Chandler arrived at Paiva's guest house there was no party, only a nightmare.
"Janet's arms and feet were bound and her eyes were duct taped," Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said at a press conference Wednesday. "While she was bound and her eyes duct taped...James Nelson, Arthur Paiva, Freddie Parker, Anthony Williams, and Robert Lynch repeatedly beat, choked, tortured, and raped Janet Chandler. She was assaulted sexually and physically in a variety of ways and brutalized for a number of hours."
Chandler's tormentors eventually strangled her to death with a belt.
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| Janet Chandler |
The next day a snowplow operator found Chandler's naked body lying beside Interstate 196 near the town of South Haven, 30 miles from Holland.
"It was a horrific crime," Holland Police Chief John Kruithoff told Crime Library, "and we have now solved that crime."
Very little was said Wednesday about the motive for the brutal killing. Officials suggested there was tension between Chandler, her roommate, Swank, and the five security guards, all of whom were friends.
During Wednesday's press briefing, Chief Kruithoff congratulated the four detectives and said, "The work of all the parties involved shows that although justice may be delayed, it will not be denied."
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