mary fleszar

July 9, 1967

Mary Fleszar walked into her apartment after a long day of sweating from the mid-summer heat. She had woken up at 6:30 to attend morning mass where she frequently played the organ and sang at services; whether or not she did either that day is unknown. Afterwards, she went to work at McKenny Hall, part of Eastern Michigan University’s Building Services office, where she was a secretary. In the fall she was going to return for her senior year studying accounting. 

Later that day, Mary had plans to go swimming with her sister and their cousins, but when she arrived at Silver Lake, she couldn’t find them, forcing her back home to her sweltering apartment.

After changing into an orange polka-dot dress and tan sandals in an effort to cool down, she tells her roommate Nancy DeMasellis she needs to “get some fresh air” and decides to take a walk. 

About a half hour later, a couple witnesses saw her walking alone down the road toward her apartment building. Her neighbors, Nancy and Gerald Durand were sitting on their front porch, presumably attempting to cool off just as Mary was, when they saw her walking alone along the street. Then, what they described as a blue or gray car, driven by a young man, pulled up beside her and offered her a ride, to which she shook her head no and declined. When she kept walking, the car sped up and pulled into a driveway in front of her—aggressively blocking her path. Mary walked around the car, again denying the man driving, and headed toward her apartment building, around the corner, where they lost sight of her. There’s no way they could have known that they would be the last ones to see Mary alive. 

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August 7, 1967

The cornfield where Russell Crisovan Jr. and Mark Lucas were putting gas into a tractor was nondescript and remote, the perfect place for a “lover’s lane” for the students of nearby Eastern Michigan University. When Russell and Mark heard voices and a car door slam in the early morning while they were preparing to plow the cornfield, they just chalked it up to college students messing around. Nonetheless, they followed the noise, but before they saw anyone, the car had pulled away. 

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The men continued toward an abandoned barn, when the foreboding smell of death overcame them. They noticed what they originally thought was a rotting deer carcass—until their eyes adjusted to the horror. They had found a partially decomposed human body. 

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When the medical examiner arrived, the remains were officially determined to be human.  The body was lying naked, face down in the dirt. A later autopsy would determine the victim had suffered 30 stab and puncture wounds, mainly to the chest and abdomen. However, about ten of the wounds were determined to be from animals and insects due to their irregular shape. The victim’s cause of death could not be determined because of the state of decomposition the body was in when it was found. 

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The body had to be identified through dental records. Dental records which ultimately matched to those of Mary Flezsar. 

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The killer had attempted to prevent any possibility of identifying the body. One of Mary’s forearms was missing, as were the fingers from her other hand. Both of her ankles were severed, feet gone. Decay was found at several areas around the site where her body lay, suggesting she had been moved from the spot where her body had been found. It was estimated she had been dead for about a month—which would line up to the time she went missing. Trails in the grass to the site where Mary’s body lay also led investigators to believe that the site was visited multiple times, either by animals or the person who killed her. 

Upon further inspection of the site, detectives found the orange and white polka-dot dress that Mary changed into before her walk, cut down the front. They also found white underwear, ripped at the seam, a white bra with ripped straps, and a single tan sandal. 

It is impossible to imagine the terror must have Mary felt in her last moments. The killer offered no mercy; her death was brutal.

 

And it had only just begun.