Bonus Coverage: Randall Raar's Full Correspondence
He goes in-depth into the numerous story lines which led to him being in jail in Michigan.
Yesterday, I released another article on the winding case which caused Randall Raar to be in jail, likely for life.
He was convicted in 2006 of child sex crimes, but the victim was twenty-one when she testified and only five or six when the crimes would have happened.
The 59-year-old defendant was convicted of sexually assaulting his then five-year-old neighbor in the summer of 1989 or 1990. In April 2006, the police received information that caused them to investigate defendant and canvass his former neighborhoods. At that time, they had contact with the victim, who alleged that defendant had sexually assaulted her when she was four or five years old by digitally penetrating her vagina. At trial, the 21-year-old victim testified that defendant and his roommate, Robert Higgins, lived next door to her family’s home. Defendant and Higgins encouraged the neighborhood children to come to their home and use their above-ground pool. The victim indicated that she and her neighbor, AB, were among the children who spent time at defendant’s house. The victim explained that defendant and Higgins, both dressed in swimsuits, would be in the pool and catch the children as they came down an attached slide. The victim stated that defendant would “catch [them] between [their] legs and put his hands—or try to put his hands up [them].”
Randall believes his own investigations while working for a newspaper led to him being targeted. Recently, I received some psychological notes from shortly after the crimes would have occurred where the victim pointed the finger at her babysitter, Jimmy, and not at Randall.
He was prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General and not a local district attorney.
At the same time, law enforcement leaked to the media that he was suspect in some of the very murders he said he was investigating.
A new tip in the Oakland County child killer case has police investigating.
Michigan State Police raided a Lincoln Park home last week after receiving a tip from a federal inmate.
A task force is working to bring evidence against the owner of the home, Randall Raar, 59, who they said may be linked to the Oakland County child killer case.
Inside the home, police found letters written to serial killers, child pornography, 8 mm film dating back to the 1970s, computer files and a sex slave dungeon equipped with shackles and a jail-like door that locked from the outside, Local 4 reported.
Raar is considered a link in the case, and a task force is currently collecting evidence to eliminate him as a suspect in the slaying of four area children.
Raar's background includes charges of child sexual misconduct dating back to 1970, when police said he impersonated a talent scout for a modeling agency to meet girls. His most recent arrest was in 1984 for having sex with a minor, according to police.
Raar was never charged or convicted of those charges; he did admit to previously having a sexual relationship with a minor in the 1980s.
For 38 years, I worked for the production department of the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, now called michigan.com.
During early 1984, I made a serious error of judgment and had one sexual relationship with April Davenport. I served 6.5 months in the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). Upon my release, I returned to my job situation and was given a check for $25,000 under a 1973 union contract of no firings or layoffs.
He served six months for that crime; he has told me that not only does this make him look suspicious in any other sex crime, but he believes it made him an easier target for an investigation.
In a couple of long emails which I received from July 2022 through JPay, Randall expanded on all this. He refers to an attorney named John Shea. I reached out to Shea for comment but received no response.
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