Lois Janish Charged w/ Murder of 14 yo Granddaughter Coral Hall, Last Seen 1998

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wafb.com/story/22979738/woman-charged-with-granddaughters-cold-case-disappearance
Police: Grandma admits killing, dismembering teen
Posted July 31, 2013, Updated August 2, 2013


Coral Hall

FLINT, MI (WNEM) -
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has charged a Flint woman in the nearly 15-year old cold case death of her granddaughter.
Leyton said Lois Arlene Janish, 74, is charged with open murder related to the 1998 disappearance of her granddaughter, 14-year-old Coral Hall.

According to the cold case investigation led by Detective Sergeant Gregory Hosmer of the Flint Police Department, Hall was last seen or heard from on September 22, 1998.

Authorities said on that date, Hall had allegedly called a friend asking if she could stay at the friend's home. The friend told police that the two were to meet at a pre-arranged location but that Hall never showed up.

Another childhood friend of Hall's made a similar statement that Hall had called her also around that time to say she had been fighting with her grandmother and wanted to come over to stay at that friend's house. That second friend also said Hall never arrived.

Other friends of Hall told investigators that around that same time, Hall was never seen again by any of them.

Leyton said Hall had been living with her grandmother and her grandmother's boyfriend on Ann Arbor Street in Flint at the time of her disappearance. The boyfriend has since died. Hall's body has never been found and nobody has reported seeing or hearing from Hall since September 22, 1998.

A detective says Janish admits beating her teenage granddaughter to death with a hammer, then dismembering and scattering the remains 15 years ago. She says she and her now-dead boyfriend dismembered her.
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[MuffyBee]

http://www.minbcnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=928742
Grandmother of missing Flint girl charged with her murder
August 1, 2013

Appearing on video, 73-year-old Lois Janish gave matter-of-fact replies as Judge Nathaniel Perry read the charge - open murder in the 1998 death of Janish's granddaughter, Coral Hall.
 
Coral Hall, who lived with Janish and Janish's boyfriend, was last seen on Sept. 22 1998, a day after her 14th birthday.

Prosecutors say the teen went missing after calling a friend from a pay phone near the White Horse Tavern asking for a place to stay.  She had also told the Department of Human Services she was being abused.

Leyton said, “We're convinced that she's dead and we're going to proceed with this case against the grandmother."

Leyton said there have been no sightings of Coral Hall after years of investigation.  He said it won't be an easy case but he has enough evidence against Janish.

"She's been a suspect right along, as is her now deceased boyfriend,” Leyton said.

"What you hope to do is bring closure to the victims of these horrible crimes,” he added.

Janish is being held without bond.

Judge Perry will appoint a lawyer for Janish.  A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 6 in Judge Herman Marable’s courtroom.

Video at link.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2013/08/grandmother_of_flint_teen_miss.html
Watch grandmother of Flint teen missing 14 years get arraigned on murder charges
August 1, 2013

FLINT, MI -- A Mt. Morris Township grandmother made her first court appearance on an open murder charge more than 14 years after her granddaughter was first reported missing.
Lois Janish was ordered held without bond during her arraignment Thursday, Aug. 1, in front of Flint District Judge Nathaniel Perry III. Janish is charged with open murder in the death of Coral Hall.

Janish told Perry she understood the charges against her but didn't make any other statements. No attorney was in court for Janish's video arraignment and Perry said he would appoint one in the case.

Hall was 14 years old when she went missing Sept. 22, 1998, and her body has never been found. Her last known location in the Flint area was a call from a pay phone near the White Horse Tavern to a friend in the Thumb area.

Janish could face live in prison without parole if convicted.

The grandmother, who previously told Mlive-Flint Journal she was fighting with her granddaughter about missing school before she turned up missing, remained quiet throughout the hearing only speaking to answer Perry's questions.

A friend of Halls had said there’d been trouble inside the home and she needed to get out of the city. When Hall’s friends arrived in Flint the same evening, she was gone.

After more than a decade, the cold case was turned over to the Flint Police Department’s Violent Crime Task Force.

Police and prosecutors have remained mum on why they now decided to file charges against Janish.

"All of (the grandmother’s) statements over the years have been inconsistent," Flint police Detective Sgt. Greg Hosmer said. "Trying to sort them out just didn’t make any sense. We just followed up on all of that.”

 

Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2013/07/it_just_feels_like_a_dream_chi.html
Childhood friend of Flint teenager Coral Hall says 'It feels like a dream,' following grandmother's arrest on murder charge in 14-year-old case
July 31, 2013


Lois Janish, 73, has been charged with open murder in the death of 14-year-old Coral Hall, who went missing more than 14 years ago from the City of Flint.
Courtesy Photo

 
“We’re pretty convinced she has died,” said Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. He said there has been no trace over the years of Hall's Social Security information or credit cards issued in her name.

He noted the grandmother and her boyfriend, who is now dead, are believed to have been involved in Hall’s death, stating, “The grandmother has been a suspect all along. We have probable cause.”

Leyton called the situation “a bit of an unusual case,” as Hall’s body has not been found. In cold cases, he said evidence is presented “From time to time and we tell the investigators where we need additional evidence.”

“It’s never the first time you’ve heard the case,” he said when a charge is brought, while declining to get into specifics of this investigation. “There are multiple meetings required.”

The absence of a body, Leyton said, is “not overwhelmingly damaging to a case,” with the office building a circumstantial case against Janish. He said an open murder charge allows for flexibility in the case, with the potential for a charge of first-degree murder that would carry a life sentence with no chance of parole.

Having worked closely with Hosmer, Leyton said, “He is doggedly determined and never gives up,” while noting “He was even surprised when we brought up charges.” Hosmer gave credit, however, to two people in particular -- Hall’s childhood friends Melissa Jackson and Tanya Boillat -- for their constant attention to the case.

“They were the best friends anybody could ask for,” he said. Jackson said Hosmer came to her home Wednesday to let her know of the charge in the case.

“It’s been a flood of emotions for me today,” said Jackson. “I’m happy, “I’m angry, I’m sad about the situation… but I knew someday her case would go somewhere and find out what happened to her.”

Jackson met Hall while they were children in the Atherton school district and recalled “She was like my best friend. She was like my sister.”

“She was very loving, she was very kind. She’s the type of person that would do anything for you,” said Jackson. “She was funny, she had a great sense of humor, a wonderful friend. I still remember her laugh.”

“To me, it was heartbreaking. I couldn’t let it go,” she said following Hall’s disappearance. “I did everything I could to help with the investigation, so it wasn’t moved on and forgotten about like so many missing people in Flint.”

Janish called police following her granddaughter’s disappearance, saying Hall was going to return a book to a neighbor and never returned. Janish previously told The Flint Journal in 2008 she’d submitted to a lie detector test in the case and had been fighting with Hall about missing school prior to her disappearance.

Police initially received tips, including potential sightings of Hall in northern Indiana, Utah, Pontiac, along with Janish stating two men living in her home had mentioned taking Hall to California.

Hall moved in with Janish after a Genesee County probate judge ruled Sharon A. Jones, Hall’s mother, was not able to care for her daughter, according to MLive-Flint Journal records. Jones died in December 1996 from a drug overdose, and Hall moved with her grandmother to several different places in the community.

Boillat said no matter where Hall moved,  they would always keep in touch with Hall who despite her small stature wasn’t scared of anything that came her way.

“It was always me, Melissa and Coral,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “Just play stupid games and having a good old time. We miss her to pieces.”

After her disappearance, Boillat said, “We went looking for her on foot, wandering around neighborhoods trying to find her. Boillat recalled Hall discussing personal issues at home, with the group sneaking away to the woods to eat cookies during some of those troubled times.

“No matter who I see, or where I’m at, I always mention Coral,” Boillat said. “I had this really good friend and one day she vanished.”

Boillat and Jackson would travel door-to-door asking people if they’d seen their friends, and the pair also went through the phone book calling all the Halls listed to see if anyone knew of her whereabouts.

Multiple calls for comment on the case by MLive-Flint Journal to Robin Wheaton, Janish's attorney, were not returned Wednesday.

During the early course of the investigation, Boillat said felt she was ignored because of her age at the time, noting, “It wasn’t until Hosmer. Hosmer was very happy to talk to us, as we were to talk to him. It seems like he really cared and had heart.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/lois-janish-granddaughter_n_3695829.html
Lois Janish Accused In Murder Of Coral Hall, Granddaughter Who Disappeared 15 Years Ago
August 2, 2013

Police say a Michigan grandmother who once falsely told authorities her missing granddaughter had returned home has now allegedly admitted to killing her.

Lois Janish, 74, is facing charges of open murder in the death of Coral Hall, who disappeared in 1998 at the age of 14, WNEM 5 News reported.

The teen vanished shortly after a heated altercation with her grandmother. Hall called a friend from a pay phone to arrange a sleepover, but never showed.

Hall was never heard from again, and her body has never been found.

At the time of her disappearance, Hall was living with Janish and Janish's boyfriend, who is now deceased after complications with alcohol, a report from the Daily Mail said.

Over a decade later, investigators in the case have arrested Janish, who police said never gave them straight answers.

 

Childhood friends of Hall tried to see their long-lost friend after Janish once claimed her granddaughter had returned. But after not being allowed to see her, Hall's friends turned to Detective Sgt. Hosmer, according to a report in the NY Daily News.

Hosmer said Janish made numerous "incriminating statements" and constantly changed her story.

One version of Janish's story involved telling investigators her granddaughter moved down South to live, while another version involved Hall fleeing to California with an older man. At one point, Janish allegedly even said that Hall was found raped and stabbed to death in California, according to a report by MLive news.

Hosmer told a judge that Janish actually admit that she and her boyfriend dismembered Hall, but recanted her story after hiring an attorney. She told investigators she made the stories up.

In 2011 and 2012, Janish admitted in a polygraph test to smoking crack cocaine.

Hosmer told the judge he interviewed three women lodged at the jail at the same time as Janish. The women described her as "scary" and allegedly told Hosmer that she giggled as she told them she killed Hall by hitting her in the head with a hammer and scattering her remains.

 

There is no bond for Janish because she faces an open murder charge.
 
Janish could face life in prison without parole if convicted.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.examiner.com/article/lois-janish-coral-hall-14-year-old-cold-case-solved
Lois Janish-Coral Hall murder: 15-year-old missing persons case solved
August 2, 2013

 

Coral Pearl Hall missing-murder timeline

1996:

Coral Hall's mother dies from an overdose. Coral goes to live with her grandmother and her boyfriend. The household is chaotic and abusive. Social workers visit the location several times over the next two years.

1998

September 21: Coral P. Hall turns 14 years old. She lives with her Grandma Lois.

September 22: Coral P. Hall is having problems at home. An older friend, Melissa, takes her to Human Resources to file a complaint.

That night, Coral Hall leaves her home to find a pay phone to call her friend because she needs a place to stay, according to The Charley Project.

Melissa's uncle and boyfriend drive to pick her up, but by the time they arrive, she has vanished, according to the Flint Journal.
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[Nut44x4]

I remember studying this case.  TY Muffy for bringing it in   

[MuffyBee]

I remember studying this case.  TY Muffy for bringing it in   

I remember this case from long ago too, Nut.   Although the wheels of justice seem have been almost at a stand still over the years and going into a cold case category, I'm really glad to see Lois Janish may still have to answer for her crimes against Coral Hall. Hoping and praying for justice for Coral Hall!