Brenda Sue Gere was a 12-year-old girl who was found dead and buried on an Indian reservation more than 30 years ago. This Friday, the Bothell, Washington, girl’s story will air on Investigation Discovery’s Suspicion . The episode that will chronicle Brenda Sue Gere’s case is titled “The Boogeyman.”
According to court records, Brenda Sue Gere was abducted after school and killed by Michael Kay Green. Brenda Sue Gere’s father, Joe Gere, suspected all along that it was Green who took his daughter. It took six years for Snohomish County detectives to solve the missing girl’s case. Today, Michael Kay Green is serving time in a Washington correctional facility. The story of her death is also told in the book Salt of the Earth by Jack Olsen, according to the Spokesman .
THIS IS MY FAVORITE NEW CrEEeEpY SHOW #Suspicion #ID channel…? #SaturdayNightFright pic.twitter.com/fd6a6mlswh
— SP Roussel (@lsusaintswon) September 27, 2015
Suspicion : The Boogeyman
When a local girl goes missing, her parents and community residents suspect a husky, steroid-using bodybuilder of her kidnapping.
https://www.facebook.com/1595940407334250/photos/a.1595948077333483.1073741840.1595940407334250/1706857936242496/?type=3
Washington 1985: Girl Gone
By September of 1985, Joe Gere had spent many years living a normal life with his wife and children. However, that September, his life was about to change forever.
Brenda Sue Gere’s mother, Elaine, had just pulled into the driveway of their home in Bothell, Washington, where she was prepared to pick up her 12-year-old daughter to take her to soccer practice as she always had. But, this time, Brenda Sue Gere was nowhere to be found, and she had failed to answer the telephone as she had most days when she arrived home from school. By evening, sheer panic set in as Elaine and Joe Gere realized that their daughter was missing.
It was suspected that Michael Kay Green knew something about Brenda Gere’s disappearance. Eyewitnesses remembered seeing a strange man in the neighborhood watching the children. Plus, Green was an out-of-work body builder with a criminal record, which included robbery and rape.
Police searched and canvassed the area, but there was no sign of the little girl. The investigation revealed that Brenda Sue Gere had most likely made it to her house since she was last seen on the school bus heading home. Her schoolbooks were also found at the house.
From there, the case went ice cold.
https://www.facebook.com/memoryofangels100/photos/a.1606320339608194.1073742122.1502396300000599/1608095046097390/?type=3&permPage=1
For six long years, the Gere family was desperate for answers. Michael Kay Green was not admitting to having any involvement in the murder, even though he was already serving a sentence for a robbery conviction. Not knowing exactly what happened to his daughter drove Joe Gere, a former police officer and military vet, absolutely insane. By April of 1988, he could no longer live with the despair, and since alcohol wasn’t killing him fast enough, he decided to pick up a gun and shoot himself dead in front of his family.
The police eventually found the skeletal remains belonging to Brenda Sue Gere at the Tulalip Indian Reservation in August 1991. An autopsy report conducted on the bones confirmed that she had been beaten to death. She also suffered two stab wounds to the back. With the discovery of her remains, police began building a case against Michael Kay Green and even had the confession from a jail-house informant who stated that Green admitted to killing Brenda Sue Gere and beating her in the head with his fists.
Once known as a disciplined guy with a nice chiseled body, people who knew Michael Green in high school were somewhat shocked by how his life turned out. In an interview with the Seattle Times , former teammate Jim Champagne remembered the following about Green.
“He was the kind of guy who had to have his workout every day or things weren’t right. A lot of people admired him for his devotion to his body.”
In that same article , teammate Dave Pear remembered Michael Kay Green as a person who was always sure of himself.
“He always did have a lot of confidence in whatever he did, and I always respected him for that.”
The former tough guy cared a lot about his body but cared nothing about taking a human life. Michael Kay Green was later convicted in Brenda Gere’s death and sentenced to life in prison. To see how police brought Michael Kay Green to justice six years later, tune into the new season of Suspicion this Friday, October 14 at 7 p.m. on Investigation Discovery.
[Featured Image by Luis Louro /Shutterstock]