Rebekah Jane Gay 24yr, last seen 31/10/2012, Mount Pleasant MI (BODY FOUND)

[Northern Rose]

Search underway for missing Mount Pleasant woman
Posted: 10.31.2012 at 8:00 PM
 


MOUNT PLEASANT -- Deputies in Isabella County are searching for a missing woman. Rebekah Jane Gay of Mount Pleasant was last seen at 6:50 a.m. Wednesday. The 24-year-old was last seen at her home on M-20 near Coldwater Road.

Her car was later found parked behind The Barn Door, a bar near her home. Investigators say Rebekah has not been heard from by family or friends since.

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http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/story.aspx?list=~%5Chome%5Clists%5Csearch&id=819925

[Northern Rose]

Report: Police find body in Mount Pleasant; tape off area near missing woman's home in Broomfield Township
November 01, 2012 at 1:16 PM, updated November 01, 2012 at 1:43 PM

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — Police have located a female body in Mount Pleasant and have taped off an area in Broomfield Township nearby the home of 24-year-old Rebekah Gay, who went missing yesterday, Fox 17 reports. 

Michigan State Police found the body and in the area of South Woodroof north of Pickard.

Police taped off another area at Pickard and Coldwater, about a mile from Gay's home, according to the report.

Police said the two areas are related in the same case but have not released additional details. They have not released any information about the identity of the body.

The Isabella County Sheriff's Office will hold a 3 p.m. news conference at the Isabella County Building to provide information about the missing person case.

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http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2012/11/report_police_find_body_in_mou.html

[Northern Rose]

Body of Missing Mt. Pleasant Woman Found, Pastor in Custody  (VIDEO)
1:00 a.m. EDT, November 2, 2012



At a press conference Thursday afternoon, police confirmed that a body discovered is that of a missing woman, and a suspect is in custody for her murder.

The 3 p.m. conference was held by the Isabella County Sheriff's Office and Michigan State Police, who worked together on the missing persons case of Rebekah Gay, 24.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski says Gay was murdered in her mobile home, between 2 and 4 a.m. Halloween morning, while her three-year-old son was there.  Detectives are unsure whether the child saw or heard anything, and say he will be interviewed.  As of Friday at 11:45 a.m., detectives had not gotten a hold of the boy's father to set up an interview.

Gay's naked body was discovered early Thursday morning in a ditch surrounded by a small wooded area on the southeast corner of Coldwater and Pickard in Mt. Pleasant - roughly one mile north of where she lived.  Gay lived just a few houses away the suspect, John Douglas White, 55.

White was arrested Thursday morning and was charged with open murder and first degree murder. The sheriff says initially White denied being involved with Gay's disappearance, but after blood-splattered evidence was found in his home, the victim's home, and his truck, White has given a polygraph test.  He failed, then told detectives the gruesome details about how he killed Gay, where he hid the body, and where he ditched the weapon. 

Investigators White entered Gay's home through an unlocked door, hit her several times on the head with a rubber mallet, then strangled her with a large zip tie.  He took off her clothes, then took her body to the ditch and hid the mallet and some bloody towels a few blocks east of where the body was found near Pickard and Woodruff.

According to the sheriff, White went back to Gay's home, tried to clean up. and took care of the little boy. White even dressed the child in his Halloween costume and drove him to Meijer to meet up with his father.  (Gay and the boy's father are not married and shared custody.)  Police say this was not unusual, because White often helped drive the boy around, especially when Gay was working. Police do not believe the boy was ever in danger.

At some point, the sheriff says, White threw Gay's cell phone in a dumpster in their mobile home park and drove her car to the Barn Door, a nearby bar, and left it there.  In all, seven separate crime scenes were discovered and processed.

White is a pastor at Christ Community Fellowship Church in Mt. Pleasant, and was dating Gay's mother Sally, according to the mother. She told FOX 17 that White seemed like such a good man, he helped so many people through his ministry, and even once gave the shoes he was wearing to another man on his way to an interview

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http://www.fox17online.com/news/fox17-police-search-for-missing-24-yearold-20121101,0,5929280.story

[Northern Rose]

Mount Pleasant man arrested in death of Isabella County woman
Updated: 4:59 pm, Thu Nov 1, 2012.

A 55-year-old Mount Pleasant man was charged Thursday afternoon in the death of Rebekah Jane Gay, an Isabella County woman whose body was found Thursday morning in a deep ditch off Coldwater Road near Pickard Road in Broomfield Township, according to Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski.

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Mioduszewski said White told detectives he “fantasized” about Gay, and “he knew her and she knew him.”

Mioduszewski said Gay’s 3-year-old son was home at the time and it is unknown if he heard of saw anything, and that the boy will be interviewed.

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article_659b3c6e-245b-11e2-b6a0-001a4bcf887a.html

[Northern Rose]

Updated with Video: Arrest Made In Brutal Murder of Isabella County Woman
CREATED Nov. 1, 2012 - UPDATED: Nov. 2, 2012 | 9:34 AM

http://www.fox47news.com/news/topstories/176837921.html

[Northern Rose]

Mt. Pleasant murder suspect convicted of Kalamazoo slaying in 1994
 updated November 02, 2012 at 9:36 AM

KALAMAZOO, MI – A man charged with beating and strangling a 24-year-old Mount Pleasant woman to death on Wednesday faced similar charges in 1994 in Kalamazoo.

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Police in Isabella County found Gay’s body in a large ditch behind tall pine trees about a mile from her home.

The circumstances of Gay’s slaying are similar to that of Vicky Sue Wall, a 26-year-old Comstock Township woman who disappeared in July 1994, according to MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette archives.

White was arrested in connection with Wall’s death and initially charged with murder. He later pleaded guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 8 to 15 years in prison.

Wall’s badly decomposed body was found in September 1994 in a wooded area in the 7400 block of East H Avenue. Kalamazoo County sheriff’s investigators later arrested White and charged him with Wall’s murder, alleging that he strangled her and dumped her body about two miles from the Meijer store on Gull Road.

At the time, investigators said security cameras at the Meijer store showed that Wall got into a truck owned by White on July 11, 1994.

Police alleged at the time that White, who was married, killed Wall because she was pressuring him over an affair the two were having. They had met each other while working together at a business in Oshtemo Township.

White checked himself into the Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital hospital shortly after his meeting with Wall at the Meijer store and was arrested at the hospital in September 1994 about a week after Wall’s body was found.

At the time, investigators said Wall’s body was so badly decomposed they could not determine exactly how she died.

At his sentencing in May 1995, White said Wall’s death “was a tragic accident.”

“I love Vicky,” he said.

Prior to Wall’s death, White pleaded no contest in 1981 to a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm for repeatedly stabbing a woman in Calhoun County.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/11/mt_pleasant_murder_suspect_cha.html

[Northern Rose]

Murder suspect has hurt women before
John White now charged in Rebekah Gay's murder
Updated: Friday, 02 Nov 2012, 11:09 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 01 Nov 2012, 8:26 PM EDT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A man who court records show admitted to beating and strangling his neighbor and then dumping her naked body in a wooded area has a criminal history of hurting women that dates back to 1981.

John White, 55, now faces two murder charges in Isabella County, where he allegedly beat 24-year-old Rebekah Gay with a rubber mallet and then strangled her with a zip tie with her son in the other room of her home.

In 1981, White was found guilty of felony assault with intent to murder.

White was 22 in March 1980 when he stabbed a 17-year-old girl 14 times in the back and chest, according to newspaper articles from the time.

White attacked the high school student, who was his neighbor, at his Battle Creek home after showing her a slot-car racing layout in his basement, the articles show. Authorities called the attack unprovoked at the time.

White served two years of his five- to 10-year sentence in that case.

In 1995, he lived in Galesburg before pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of 26-year-old Vicky Sue Wall of Comstock Township, according to a May 9, 1995 article from the Kalamazoo Gazette.

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http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/central_mich/murder-suspect-john-white-criminal-history

[Northern Rose]

Report: Man charged with murder told police he fantasized for weeks about killing and having sex with victim
November 01, 2012 at 9:06 PM, updated November 02, 2012 at 9:50 AM

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — John Douglas White, 55, told police that he has fantasized for two weeks about killing his 24-year-old female neighbor and having sex with her body, The Morning Sun Reports.

Chief Judge Paul Chamberlain ordered White be held without bond after a video arraignment Thursday, Nov. 1, in Isabella County on charges of open murder and first-degree premeditated murder in the homicide of Rebekah Gay.

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White told police that he had four or five 24-ounce beers before going over to Gay's mobile home about 2 a.m. Gay and White both lived in the Broomfield Valley Trailer Park south of M-20 on Coldwater, according to the report.

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White told police he dragged the victim's body to the kitchen and undressed her, but he doesn't recall having sex with her, the report said.

White said he put Gay's body along with the mallet, her clothes and bloody rags in the back of his truck, according to police at the press conference, dumping her body at the corner of Pickard and Coldwater leaving the rest of the evidence at Woodruff near West Pickard.

White told police he then returned to Gay's home and drove her truck to the Barn Door bar to make it appear she had been kidnapped, throwing out her phone, car keys and purse in a dumpster at the trailer park, Mioduszewski said.

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http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2012/11/report_man_charged_with_murder.html

[Northern Rose]

WITH VIDEO: Murder suspect held without bond
Published: Friday, November 02, 2012

A 55-year-old Broomfield Township man who watched violent pornography and fantasized about killing a neighbor was ordered held without bond by an Isabella County judge on charges of killing her.

Chief Judge Paul Chamberlain made the decision after looking at John Douglas White’s criminal history and the likelihood of a conviction in the murder of Rebekah Jane Gay, 24.

During the video arraignment in Chamberlain’s courtroom from the Isabella County Jail, White told the judge he had already made a plea agreement with the Isabella County Prosecutor’s office.

Chamberlain told White, who lives in the Broomfield Valley Trailer Park just south of M-20 on South Coldwater Road, that he must talk about any plea agreements with his court-appointed attorney.

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Wearing a suicide prevention suit at the jail, White, who said he had worked at a church until Wednesday, sighed and repeatedly closed his eyes, but answered “yes sir” to Chamberlain’s questions.

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http://www.sourcenewspapers.com/articles/2012/11/02/news/doc5093c9ad72661601105501.txt

[Northern Rose]

Loved ones remember victim, Bullock Creek graduate; vigil planned
Friday, November 2, 2012 11:00 am | Updated: 1:16 pm, Fri Nov 2, 2012

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A Facebook page called “In Memory of Rebekah Gay” advertises the vigil in her memory, which is being conducted at 8 p.m. tonight at the flagpole in front of the Bullock Creek High School. By 9 a.m., 225 people had confirmed they would attend.

Through that site, donations also are being collected to help Gay’s family support her son.

In the meantime, officials are continuing the investigation with an autopsy to be conducted soon.

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http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article_654ff1cb-907d-55f1-8759-06e526a7c259.html

[Northern Rose]

Pastor Charged In Murder Of Fiancee’s Daughter
Posted: November 2, 2012


A Michigan pastor has been charged with the murder of his fiance’s daughter.

According to Fox News, ex-convict and current pastor John D. White confessed to police that he had killed 24-year-old Rebekah Gay in her trailer in central Michigan. White, who is engaged to Gay’s mother, was reportedly fulfilling a sexual fantasy when he beat and strangled the young woman.

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Donna Houghton, a 76-year-old who was partly responsible for hiring White at the Christ Community Fellowship Church, said that she was “absolutely floored” to learn about the pastor’s confession.

The shock that Houghton experienced may have come from the fact that White organized a prayer service shortly after Gay went missing. Houghton said that White called her up and asked the 14 members of the church to start a prayer chain to help find the missing girl.

Houghton said that the church was aware of White’s criminal past when he became a pastor. According to the Associated Press, White was released from prison in 2007 after serving a 12 year sentence for the manslaughter of a 26-year-old woman.

Houghton said that White found the lord and turned away from sin. The devil, however, had other plans for the pastor.

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http://www.inquisitr.com/385512/pastor-charged-in-murder-of-fiances-daughter/

[Northern Rose]

Pastor, 55, 'strangled neighbor, 24, after fantasizing about having sex with her dead body then helped her son, 3, get ready for Halloween'

PUBLISHED: 17:05 GMT, 2 November 2012 | UPDATED: 17:06 GMT, 2 November 2012

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According to an affidavit that was used in his arrest warrant, White admitted that for two weeks he thought about killing Rebekah Gay and having sex with her dead body.

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A judge appointed a public defender to represent White, who is scheduled to return to court on November 8.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226970/Pastor-55-strangled-neighbor-24-fantasizing-having-sex-dead-body-helping-son-3-ready-Halloween.html

[Northern Rose]

November 2, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Mid-Michigan church shocked as pastor accused of killing woman in sex fantasy


Broomfield Township — Congregants of a small mid-Michigan church were shocked this week after their 55-year-old pastor was arraigned on charges of beating and strangling a neighbor to fulfill a sexual fantasy.

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"We are all absolutely floored," said Donna Houghton, 76, who had a role in hiring White to be pastor at the 14-member Christ Community Fellowship three years ago. She said she protested his innocence until she heard he had confessed.

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Gay and White lived in the same trailer park in Broomfield Township, near Remus and about 85 miles northwest of Lansing. White said he was engaged to Gay's mother, who was a regular at his Sunday sermons, Houghton said. She said the pastor often watched Gay's son while she was at work.

After using his pickup truck to move Gay's body, a mallet and bloody towels, White returned to her trailer, the sheriff said. He said White took care of the boy in the morning, dressed him in his Halloween costume and took him to an area Meijer store to be picked up by his father, a Midland resident.

White "really liked this young man," Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said.

Houghton said that before White was arrested, he had called her to ask that she contact other church members and start a prayer chain for Gay, who was still missing at the time.

"He was pretty shook up. He said the police were giving him a hard time," Houghton said.


She said the tiny congregation was aware of White's criminal past when he joined the church. He was released from prison in 2007 after serving nearly 12 years for manslaughter in the death of a 26-year-old woman in Kalamazoo County, according to the state Corrections Department.

White also was sentenced to probation for choking and stabbing a 17-year-old Battle Creek girl in 1981.

"He was absolutely contrite," Houghton said. "All kinds of people turn around and meet the Lord and they are a different person. He was doing a lot of good in the community. ... He was doing a lot of good and Satan did not want him doing good, and Satan got to him."

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121102/METRO/211020409/1361/Michigan-man-admits-killing-woman-in-sex-fantasy

[Northern Rose]

WARNING GRAPHIC!

Rebekah Gay homicide: John White says he watched necrophilia porn before attack
November 02, 2012 at 1:40 PM, updated November 02, 2012 at 2:24 PM

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — John Douglas White, 55, told police he watched necrophilia pornography before beating his 24-year-old neighbor over the head with a mallet, strangling her with a zip tie and undressing her body.

White also admitted to thinking about killing Rebekah Gay for about two weeks before walking into her mobile home about 2 a.m. on Oct. 31, according to the affidavit filed in Isabella County Trial Court by County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. David Patterson.

White told the detective that he had viewed online pornography that shows killings and sex with corpses, the affadavit reports.

"He stated he has been having bad thoughts for about two weeks about killing Rebekah Gay and then having sex with her dead body," Patterson wrote in the affidavit summarizing White's statement.

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White told police he struck Gay on the head with the mallet several times until she was unconscious, then tightened a large zip-tie around her neck until she stopped breathing, court documents state.

While hitting Gay over the head with a rubber mallet, White said he heard the woman say, "I know you," court records state.

White said he then undressed Gay's body and touched her, though he said he does not remember if he had sex with her, according to the affidavit. He told police he tried to get an erection but couldn't, according to the court record.

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http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2012/11/rebekah_gay_homicide_suspect_t.html

[Northern Rose]

Church member: Pastor planned to marry mother of woman he strangled to fulfil sexual fantasy
November 2, 2012 11:30 AM

http://www.theprovince.com/news/world/Church+member+Pastor+planned+marry+mother+woman+strangled+fulfil/7490393/story.html

[Northern Rose]

Murder suspect’s history troubled prison officials
Posted: 11/02/12 02:15 pm

John Douglas White’s mandatory release from prison five years ago so worried prison officials that they warned law enforcement officers.

White, 55, jailed on charges of murdering Broomfield Township woman Rebekah Jane Gay Wednesday, was held in prison as long as possible following a 1995 conviction of involuntary manslaughter.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said Friday that the state’s parole board denied White release and kept him behind bars for his maximum eight to 15 years for killing a 26-year-old woman in Kalamazoo County in 1994.

Not only was White denied parole, MDOC officials sent warnings to sheriff’s departments and state police posts in Kalamazoo County, Calhoun County, Battle Creek, Jackson and Paw Paw, Marlan said.

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http://www.dailytribune.com/article/20121102/NEWS03/121109933/murder-suspect-s-history-troubled-prison-officials

[Northern Rose]

Body of Missing Mt. Pleasant Woman Found, Pastor in Custody  (VIDEO)
1:00 a.m. EDT, November 2, 2012

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White is a pastor at Christ Community Fellowship Church in Mt. Pleasant, and was dating Gay's mother Sally, according to the mother. She told FOX 17 that White seemed like such a good man, he helped so many people through his ministry, and even once gave the shoes he was wearing to another man on his way to an interview.

Sally Gay says White talked a lot lately about how beautiful her daughter was and made dinner for Rebekah the night before her murder.  Police say that White admitted to sexually fantasizing about Gay over the past few weeks; now that attraction is considered a motive.

Sally says that after her daughter was reported missing on Wednesday, White called her and told her Sally was the love of his life and he's sorry for what happened to Rebekah.  When Sally asked if he knew what happened to her, she says he replied, "It'll get taken care of."

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http://www.fox17online.com/news/fox17-police-search-for-missing-24-yearold-20121101,0,5929280.story

[Northern Rose]

Isabella County Community Struggles With Rebekah Gay's Murder (VIDEO)
Posted: Nov 01, 2012 11:47 PM MDT
Updated: Nov 02, 2012 5:33 AM MDT

People living in Rebekah Gay's community are shocked, wondering why someone would kill their 24-year-old neighbor.

Police say a Mt. Pleasant Pastor, John Douglas White, admitted to beating and strangling Rebekah early Halloween morning, while her 3-year-old son was in the home.

He then got the boy dressed in his Halloween costume and dropped him off at his father's home.

Police found Rebekah's body in the woods, near the corner of Pickard and Coldwater Roads, near Mt. Pleasant yesterday morning.

9&10's Kyle Mitchell spoke with neighbors last night and has more details.

http://www.9and10news.com/story/19982298/isabella-county-community-is-shocked-at-24-year-old-girls-murder

[Northern Rose]

Press conference on Rebekah Gay homicide, 11-01-2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXyMWrNAML0&feature=youtu.be

[Northern Rose]

Mom beaten, strangled with son in home
Rebekah Gay's body found near Mt. Pleasant Thurs.
Updated: Friday, 02 Nov 2012, 10:27 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 01 Nov 2012, 11:58 AM EDT


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John White is a pastor at Christ Community Fellowship in Mount Pleasant. Church elder Donna Houghton told 24 Hour News 8 she let police search the church Wednesday evening after Gay was reported missing.

"The pastor (White) had called to put her on the prayer chain earlier," said Houghton in a phone interview.

At first, Houghton said, she couldn't believe that White had done it.

"It seems beyond the character that I would recognize," she said.

Then 24 Hour News 8 informed her that court documents showed he had confessed.

"Good heavens," said Houghton. "Well, that must be my irrefutable proof."

She then commented on White's two sides.

"It certainly is an even split, because it certainly wasn't obvious from one side," Houghton said.

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http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/central_mich/mt-pleasant-woman-rebekah-gay-24-missing-110112