Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances (10 page)

State Police at the Manistee Post said a twin-engine Piper Apache, en route from Grand Haven to Escanaba encountered a severe thunderstorm around 8 p.m. (EDT) and crashed in a wooded area 1½ miles northeast of Free Soil in Mason County.

The dead were identified as the pilot, Michael J. Reich, 23, of Norton Shores, and passengers, Walter D. Thompson, 36, of Spring Lake; George H. Schamber, 36, of Muskegon Heights and Edward J. Bropok, 23, of Grand Rapids.

Authorities said witnesses told them the plane “broke apart” in the turbulence and fell from the air in several pieces.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were to be on the scene today conducting an investigation.

State Police also reported a tornado touched down just before midnight in Genesee County 1½ miles east of Michigan 15 on Mount Morris Road and overturned at least 14 trailers in a trailer park. Two of the mobile homes were demolished. No injuries were reported.

The State Police at Lapeer said four mobile homes were overturned and 12 others were moved off their foundation in Lapeer County. In Montcalm County, one house was destroyed when a tree was blown into the structure.

In Mount Pleasant, the airport was hit by high winds and a hanger, large enough to hold 10 to 12 airplanes, was demolished. A single-engine plane was also flipped upside down by the strong winds.

Several other planes, authorities said, were damaged by the severe winds.

In other parts of Isabella County, many trees and limbs were down and Shepherd, a community of about 1,200, had widespread power outages due to downed electrical wires, according to Consumers Power Co.

Much of the southern Lower Peninsula, including Oakland and Macomb counties, were under a tornado warning for more than an hour Monday night. Funnel clouds were also reported just south east of Hemlock in Saginaw County, at Zilwaukee and along Interstate 69 at Owosso, according to authorities.

A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until dawn for several counties, including Washtenaw, Wayne, Monroe, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and St. Clair.

Winds reached 70 miles per hour, according to State Police, at Clio.

Temperatures during the day reached into the 90s in the Lower Peninsula and the 80s in the Upper Peninsula.

The National Weather Service said highs in the 80s were expected again today in the Lower Peninsula and to near 80 in the Upper Peninsula with skies being partly cloudy. Lows tonight were to be mostly in the 60s in the south and 50s in the north.

Deputy Noble and Deputy DeYoung of the Missaukee County Sheriff’s Department in Lake City, about 60 miles southwest of Luzerne, confirmed a ground check of all airports in their County that day. They reported no signs or sightings of the Blocks or their aircraft anywhere.

Other newspapers around Northern Michigan took up the story.

Articles concerning the missing plane began appearing in newspapers throughout the region, such as this untitled article dated July 5, 1977, which is from John Block Jr.’s research collection:

Michigan officials and the Civil Air Patrol are searching two areas of the state today after reports of missing planes.

In Charlevoix County, deputies are looking for a plane they believe may have crashed last night near Horton Bay.

Officials say the plane could be a twin-engine craft from Minnesota that was reported missing while crossing Northern Lower Michigan.

They say it may also be a single-engine plane carrying two East Detroit residents.

And this similar untitled article, also from the collection of John Block Jr.:

Michigan officials and the Civil Air Patrol are searching two areas of the state today following reports of missing planes.

One of the planes is from Macomb County Airport. It left yesterday headed for Oscoda County, but never arrived.

Charlevoix County deputies say also they had a report of a missing plane from Minnesota.

But the Air Force search and Rescue Service in Illinois says it has no report of a Minnesota plane missing.

July 6th started much like July 5th. It was a warm summer day. The Block brothers, operating on very little sleep, kept working leads and contacting anyone they could think of for help. Leads popped up, were investigated, and then discounted. It was a viscous cycle. Every time the phone rang, the tired brothers thought they would receive the message that their parents were found. But with every hour that passed by, their hope of finding their parents alive diminished. The
Ogemaw County Herald
published the following article dated July 6, 1977 Article:

WEST BRANCH - The Civil Air Patrol and local officials are still searching today for a missing plane carrying two East Detroit residents.

A team of ten planes and six land rescue teams is combing the area around West Branch for any trace of the missing craft.

The plane left the Macomb County Airport Monday headed for Southwestern Oscoda County, but never arrived.

John Sr.’s brother, Donald Block, also known as “Uncle Don” by the Block sons, flew up to Traverse City to help in the search. He would spend the next couple of weeks in the passenger seat of a CAP aircraft as a spotter, looking for wreckage in the heavily forested areas along the Block’s supposed flight path.

Uncle Don, who retired from the U.S. Army, fought in World War II, as well as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, huddled with the Block brothers whenever possible to give them the moral support and love they so desperately needed.

By July 7th, the Block brothers realized that the chance of their parents being found alive was decreasing. If their parents were so injured in the crash, that they couldn’t walk a short distance for help, then they probably would have succumbed to their injuries, if they even survived the impact at all.

The following Newspaper article dated July 7, 1977, which the
Associated Press
put out on its wire service and it was picked up by various newspapers around the Detroit and thumb areas, made the stunning revelation that the Blocks were seen at another airport, many miles off course:

CAPAC - Bolstered by a new lead, searchers for a small plane carrying a warren couple missing for a week have turned their attention elsewhere after a search around saint Clair County today failed to find anything.

A spokesman for the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois says a pilot at Beach Airport at Charlotte—about half way between Lansing and Grand Rapids—had talked with 56-year old John Block of Warren and his 53-year-old wife Jean the day the plane disappeared.

That airport is 60 miles off course and it had not been known before that the aircraft had been there.

The pilot has identified the Blocks from photographs. An air force spokesman says Block did not refuel.

Eleven civil air patrol planes and 58 volunteers are being mobilized to search the area from Charlotte to the missing plane’s destination.

Block and his wife left Macomb County a week ago on a flight to Oscoda County.

Civil air patrol searches in the past week have been concentrating in the Bay City area.

Mike Block located the pilot and drove to his home to interview him personally. The Block brothers decided early on to interview witnesses in person, so they could gauge the credibility of the individuals. The Block brothers decided not to give the sighting much credibility, a decision that still haunts them to this day.

Later that day, Richard Tompkins of the Traverse City Fire Department reported to an officer that on July 4 at 2 p.m., he was on the Lake Michigan beach at the end of Esch Road, south of Empire, when he saw a small plane that was white and some other color following the shoreline heading north, toward Sleeping Bear Dune. It was very foggy, visibility was very poor at that time and the plane was flying quite low. No wreckage was found in that area

On July 9th, Deputy Wally Flanau, of the Allegan County Sheriff’s Department’s Marine Division, recovered an unidentified female body from eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The body was determined not to be that of Jean Block’s.

On Monday, July 11, the missing couple’s sons crafted a press release, and sent it to every news outlet in the Michigan Region they could think of.

PRESS RELEASE

On Monday July 4, 1977, a two place Cessna 150, green and white with tricycle landing gear, tail number N50935, was reported missing on a VFR flight between Macomb Airport in Macomb County near Mt. Clement MI. and Lost Creek Sky Ranch, Luzerne, Michigan near Mio, MI.

The aircraft reportedly left at 1100 hours from Macomb en route non-stop with a full fuel to Lost Creek Sky Ranch.

However, at 1300 hours the aircraft landed at Fritz-Beach Airport, Charlotte, Michigan in Eaton County south west of Lansing and left the ground without refueling shortly after, last seen headed north towards original destination. No flight plan was filed. An ELT was aboard in operating condition.

The pilot, John B. Block, 57 yrs. and his wife Jean, 55 yrs. usually flew along Interstate I-75 to Luzerne and were to fly to Acme, MI. near Traverse City on July 5, 1977, via M-72. It is believed they became confused and followed a Major highway West instead of North.

Any information concerning the above aircraft would be greatly appreciated. As of July 10th, the aircraft has not been located by the Civil Air Patrol. Assuming the Pilot became lost again, no area of Michigan should be eliminated.

By the time July 13 came rolling around, John and Jean Block had been missing 9 days. By this time, all hopes of finding them alive had been extinguished. John Sr.’s next in command at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant, Assistant Fire Chief Maurice Holman, wrote a number of articles concerning the Block’s disappearance which appeared in
The Tank Auto
, the newspaper of Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant. The first of these articles appeared on this day:

FIRE CHIEF MISSING IN HIS
PRIVATE PLANE

TARCOM Fire Chief John Block, 57 and his wife, Jean, 55, vanished on the Fourth of July while flying 200 miles from a Macomb County airport to a small resort in Oscoda County near Mio in northern lower Michigan.

Block, who had been flying planes for almost 40 years, took off from Macomb Airport at 11:10 a.m. July 4 in a two place green and white Cessna 150.

According to relatives, the Blocks were en route to a small landing strip at Sky Creek Ranch, a remote resort in the dense forests west of Mio. They were to meet a son, John, who is a deputy sheriff in Grand Traverse County, for a few days of vacation.

The weather was reported clear all day, although severe thunderstorms moved across the area at nightfall.

State Police at the West Branch Post, near Mio, said Block’s time of arrival at Sky Creek Ranch should have been about 12:45 p.m.

For miles around the Ranch, the area is thickly forested and full of swamps, which state police said are accessible, in many cases, only when they freeze over in winter.

State police and civil air patrol planes set up a search headquarters at West Branch airport and were assisted in the search by Coast Guard planes from Traverse City and numerous ground patrols including many CB’ers. CAP planes from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio joined in the search this past weekend.

At press time of this newspaper no sighting of the missing plane had been reported.

Block has been licensed to fly a plane since 1937 and had flown all types of small planes.

During World War II he was a fireman in the Army Air Force.

He came to TARCOM as a fireman in 1945 and in 1970 became chief of the firefighting and first aid force here.

Active in civil defense work, Block is a member of the Macomb and Southeastern Michigan firefighters associations.

He is quiet and extremely efficient man, highly regarded by his employees and everyone with whom he came in contact. He is constantly urging his men to take classes at Macomb County College in firefighting science.

In addition to John, the Blocks have another son, Mikey.

Around this time, the brothers returned their parents car to their home and secured the premises. They set about doing the arduous task of removing all the perishable foods from the refrigerator, pouring the milk down the drain to keep it from souring, rinsed the carton and threw it in trash with the rest of the assorted fruits and vegetables, bread, etc. The trash was put in the can and set by the street, for its final pick up. While searching his parent’s residence, John Jr. found the Cessna’s wheel skirts in the basement, which John Sr. had removed for repainting.

On August 16, a Tuesday, the world was shocked by the passing of Elvis Aaron Presley, the iconic singer with those swiveling hips, who was discovered dead in the bathroom of his mansion, “Graceland.” Newspapers were clogged with articles about “The King.”

Among them was an interesting article published that day, adding a new twist to the now more than a month old mysterious disappearance: Psychics! The Morning Sun article dated that Tuesday said this:

PSYCHIC CLAIMS AIRPLANE
CRASHED NEAR MT. PLEASANT