COLD CASE FOUNDATION - UNCOVERED  INVESTIGATES  MIKE'S  MURDER
AND CAVES TO THE COVER UP
On November 10, 2022, Shawn and I went to his office in the basement of his home shortly after 12:00 PM to wait for the Cold Case Foundation (CCF) / Uncovered investigators to come on the computer screen for the zoom meeting scheduled for 12:30 pm  This meeting had been scheduled to give Shawn and I an update on their five month investigation of Mike’s murder. But at 12:11 pm I received an email from Zack Scott (zach@coldcasefoundation.org) saying that "Cathie wanted me to clarify that the meeting starts at 1 pm EST." I knew that was not the time she had written to me in her October 30 email. It confused me as to why she changed the time at the last minute. I was so nervous during the wait for the meeting to start and Zack's email intensified my nervousness. As I waited something didn't feel right. I had to ask for the link for the zoom meeting the evening before the scheduled meeting and now I was being told that the meeting time was extended. But I certainly never imagined what they were going to tell me. Cathie had been so kind and the things she said to me in her emails caused me to believe that during Cold Case Foundation"s investigation they had certainly uncovered some of the injustice that had happened in Mike's murder case.
     There were five team members on the November 10, 2022 zoom meeting, there were Executive Director Dean Jackson, Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb, Advocacy/Case Management Supervisor Cathie Vallas McKinzie, and two others, a woman and a man. I don’t remember their names. The meeting started with Cathie saying they had never received the amount of information from another person they had worked with. She praised me for all the work I had done on Mike’s case and thanked me for all the documents I had sent to them.
      Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb then gave a rundown of his arson investigation of Mike's death. He said  that Mike was NOT murdered that his death was an accident. It was the carpeting in the cottage that caused the fire and carpeting is like gasoline and the gas cans were fuel for the oil furnace. Crumb disagreed with state official reports that stated homicide or arson-murder. He told Shawn and I that the fire investigators (32 year veteran Fire Chief Norman Herrin,  42 year veteran Fire Marshal Wilbur Ricker and Maine State Police Allen Jamison) didn't do a good job investigating the arson and Mike's death.

My rebuttal to The Team's  investigation is below:
    
First,  I want to say that there were reporters who wrote articles about Mike's murder and they were not afraid to call his death a murder.  They also didn't report it as an accident.
   
December 28, 1986, John Lovell a reporter at the Maine Sunday Telegram, did an article titled Mother Haunted by Son's Murder, 5 years after Mike's murder.  He did a run down of what had happened after Mike's murder up until  1986.  November 29, 1991, Randy Wilson reporter at Maine Times did an article on Mike's murder titled Up Against the System, 10 years after his murder. Wilson  reported that I had brought suit against Paul Daniel Pollard and  my attorney walked out on me eleven days before trial to go to work for the Maine Attorney General's Office.  Dec. 3, 2017, Eric Russell reporter at Maine Portland Press did another article titled This is My Struggle, 36 years later.  He wrote that I had devoted more time to  Mike's cold case murder than any of the detectives assigned to it. And also reported that a Maine State Police Office had told the paper that Mike's murder case was a "travesty of justice."  I am including a letter written to the Board of Overseers of the Bar  by a defense attorney who represented Richard Sargent when he was indicted for Mike's murder.
 "Kenneth MacMaster, a former Maine State Police detective who wasn’t assigned to the Cochran investigation but knew the victim and many of the people involved, agreed with the victim’s mother that the case was mishandled. In an interview last month, he called the case a “travesty of justice,” and said the details were etched into his memory. After MacMaster offered to share those details, though, he stopped returning a reporter’s calls and emails."
 I wrote a book in 2018 concerning spending half my life fighting for justice for my son Mike. A review of my by Alice at Defrosting Cold Cases believed there was a cover-up in Mike's case. . There is also a video of just a Dog in Maine reporting Mike's murder and asking who will speak for Michael Cochran?
     Det. Ralph Pinkham told me the first time I met him after Mike was murdered that Percy Sargent sent a phone call to have Mike taken care of and that Paul Pollard's brother, Lionel Cormier, killed Mike. Less than a month later he looked me in the face and said he didn't tell it to me. This was the beginning of the cover-up. But they ARE the men who killed Mike including Paul Pollard. But I have never found out why the state wouldn't investigate the men. They covered up for them. So I was really hoping that (CCF)/ Uncovered investigators would find out why the state refused to investigate the men who murdered Mike during their five month investigation.  I was so anxious to speak with them while Shawn and I waited for 1:00 pm.
    I don't remember the exact order the Cold Case Foundation team told Shawn and I the facts of their investigation but I seem  to remember that Crumb started with how surprised he was that Mike was found behind a door.

Crumb told Shawn and I that he was surprised to see that Mike’s body was found behind a door.

There is no information concerning Mike's body being found behind a door.  When Maine State Police Cpl. Allen Jamison and 42-year veteran Fire Marshal William "Bill" Ricker arrived on the scene they found the cottage completely burned down. A Photo of the burned cottage shows the cottage completely burned down. How could he say that! There is no evidence of Mike's body being found behind a door.  I didn't ask him if Mike had been found behind a door why that was so surprising to him.  I know from all he said during the meeting that he was trying to say that it proved Mike wasn't murdered.

Crumb told Shawn and I the glass that was blown out was all jagged.

Maine State Police Cpl Allen Jamison stated that the glass was "even and not jagged" according to his report.



Crumb told Shawn and I that the fire caused the small piece that holds the hydraulic storm door open to be locked in an open position as well as the hinges to the outside door.

Fire inspector Ricker's testimony disputes Crumb's information. Ricker said the fire couldn't slide the little piece across to keep the storm door in the open position nor could the fire cause the hinges to the outside door to change. Maine State Police Allen Jamison's  report also says that the door was propped open.


Crumb told Shawn and I that the gas cans sitting beside the burned down cottage were fuel for the oil furnace.

On July 25, 2022, Cathie wrote me asking "Were you able to find any of the oil inspector reports?" I sent many copies of oil inspector reports to Cathie. In December of 1980 there had been a fire in the small outside building that housed the oil fired hot water boiler.. The hot water boiler didn't use gasoline.  I have copies of Fire Inspector Bill Ricker's deposition testimony about the gas cans that totally differs from   Arson Investigator Crumb's fuel for the oil hot water furnace version. 
    Fire Inspector Ricker delivered the gas cans to the Maine crime lab in Feb. 1981. He later took them home and stored them in his barn until Feb. 1990, 9 years. When I sued Paul Pollard for Mike's murder Ricker brought the gas cans to US Federal Court as exhibits. They were left there. The court contacted me asking me to pick them up. I had the gas cans for 12 years when a new detective, Gerald Coleman, was assigned Mike's homicide in 2002. He asked me for the gas cans and gave me a receipt for them.  There were also a couple of Ricker's photos left at court. One was a photo of a third can that he found on the ground below the back door with fire debris on and around the can.
     Arson Investigator Crumb had read the many documents I sent the organization and the many documents on my website.  How then could he say to me that Mike's death was an accident, the carpet in the cottage caused the fire and the gas cans were fuel for the oil furnace?. Deputy Executor Director Dean Jackson listened to this and didn't contradict Crumb.

Crumb told me "The cans you are holding you took from a barn.

In the information I sent (CCF) / Uncovered I sent a photo of myself holding the gas cans used in Mike's murder. Crumb said the photo of me holding the gas cans I took from a barn. I sharply responded "I did not! I got those cans from the United States Federal Courthouse."  I felt  like Crumb was laughing at me when he said "You got the cans from a barn." I had sent (CCF) / Uncovered all my years of work on Mike's murder and now they were laughing at me.  In Cathie's Oct. 10, 2022 email she said "My respect for you is immense." But now, one month later there was no respect for me. I was in shock.

Crumb told Shawn and I that the fire was an accident and that the carpeting on the floor in the cottage caused the fire.

I am showing four State of Maine documents that reported Mike's death as a homicide. The first document is a 2/19/19 81 report on the gas cans Ricker took to the lab, the second is a 2/25/1981 Crime lab analyst report concerning the autopsy and the third is a 3/6/1981 report on a gun found in the fire. The fourth is a 6/1/1981 cause of death supplement by Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Ronald Roy and it reports Mike's death as homicide. They all report Mike's death as arson-murder or homicide. As for Crumb saying that carpeting would cause a severe fire because carpeting is like gasoline he didn't explain what caused the carpet to catch fire. He said when Pollard opened the back door it gave a draft for the fire. furthermore,  Mike's death  is listed as an unsolved murder on the State of Maine unsolved homicide website as well as an unsolved homicide on the cold case/Uncovered website. 

Crumb told Shawn and I the reason Pollard ran was because he had criminal charges against him and he was scared.

That is the same story the Maine Attorney General's Office has been telling me for 43 years except the state doesn't say Pollard had criminal charges they just say he was scared. Paul Pollard said he was scared when he woke to find the cottage on fire and when he heard the fire trucks coming he was scared of them so he ran into the woods away from them. Pollard was the only person in the cottage with Mike when he was murdered and Ricker didn't think a man fleeing into the woods away from a raging fire was normal. He said they usually run to them.  I repeat what Cathie Vallas-McKinzie wrote me "You can relax a little ... ."  (Col Case Foundation / Uncovered didn't have my back but the State of Maine did have Paul Pollard's back. Pollard didn't have to be scared. Det. July 10, 1986, Det. Shuman under oath said he had to talk to County DA about Pollard not being prosecuted for Mike's murder. During Shuman's Aug. 29, 1986 testimony he committed perjury when he said he didn't arrest Pollard for reckless conduct (shooting 5 bullets into a famiy's home)  and that the Waterville Police arrested Pollard for a traffic fine and he also testified that he had no knowledge of armed robberies when he already had knowledge.
    I believe the state covered for the murderers to cover for themselves. They did something wrong during their Feb. 18, 1981 DEA drug sting that caused Mike's murder and they needed to cover it up (i.e. trying to convict 3 innocent men for Mike's murder) and the murderers knew it. Cormier made a couple of comments to Richard Sargent during his and Richard's taped conversations concerning Det. Shuman's corrupt investigation of Mike's murder.  In their conversation Cormier said to Richard "Now you tell me he is not in on it."
Feb. 20, 1986

Cormier: We know more about this thing than anybody else. Seems, we definitely know more about it than the pigs.
Richard: I don’t know, I think they’re on to something now, though...
Cormier: What can I say, every man for himself here, right. Going to have to turn state evidence against him. Now how is he going to say, he’s ...little a** hole unless, Shuman, you know, Shuman, he’d do anything to bust us on this one. ...You know that more than I ... he stepped over the line to try and bust you.
Richard: Really, you know, intimidating witnesses, bribery. Tampering with witnesses.
Cormier:: "Now you tell me he’s not in on it?"
Richard: So you think Paul’s going to do it?
Cormier:: He’s going to spill his guts, that’s what my lawyer says. ... now if he spills his guts that means everything. Murder, robberies, everything.
Richard: How else can he get around that murder except for putting it on you?
Cormier: Can’t blame it on Cochran. He’s the f****** simpleton that got wasted.

June 4, 1986

Cormier: ...Well the whole thing is if I do go to court on the aggravated assault I’ll get five years. That’s for everything.
Richard: Is that what she said?
Cormier:: Yup. Not Christopher Almy, the f******, the Attorney General here. Tom Goodwin. I’ll sing like a f****** bird.
Richard:: Think they’ll be able to convict him of murder.
Cormier: I don’t know. I don’t think so but you know what it is f****** everybody’s got egg on their face from this f****** Cochran thing. And they’ll do anything, anything Dick. Anything to f****** do it in.

 Crumb told Shawn and I that the blood near the woods wasn’t tested and that it could have been from someone else.

David Dupray, co-owner of the cottage, told me that there was blood outside the cottage near the wooded area. The sleazebags involved in Mike's murder talked about Mike being shot. Richard Sargent (not involved) brother to Percy Sargent (man who sent call to have Mike taken care of) gave me tape recording of his conversations with Lionel Cormier (man Det. Ralph Pinkham told me killed Mike). Richard knew Cormier was guilty and he recorded their conversations. The first conversation was recorded on Feb. 20, 1986. During this conversation Cormier told Richard "[Pollard] Grabs a gun and comes out and wastes him. Flips out that he did it, goes out gets the gas, comes in burns the place down, then splits, waits until the place is burned so bad before he leaves." Mike's brother, Derry, recorded a conversation he had with Percy while Percy was in prison for rape. He asked Percy if Mike was shot and Percy said he believed so.
     Richard also recorded a conversation with his brother, Percy, on April 14, 2086 six days after Percy wrote his April 8, 1986 letter to me. Percy told his brother that Cormier was at the cottage before Mike's death. "What I understood [is] that Cormier had been there and talked to Cochran and Cochran was trying to get him to take him down out of the camp too and he wouldn’t say too much about it. But he was down there I guess, before the fire. … but someone went down there cause Cormier was down there. … It was just that Lionel had come down there to pick him [Pollard] up and Cochran wanted to go with them. Cochran went no place with nobody."

Crumb told Shawn and I that Mike was on drugs.

Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb said Mike was on drugs.  The chemist report reports that Mike's alcohol level at  .01 gms/100 ml and 46 % carbon monoxide. The report states that there was Cocaine and nicotine in the blood but does not give the level."  Why I wonder? I know Mike did drugs but what did Mike being on drugs have to do with Crumb's accidental fire? Crumb doesn't mention the criminals who were named in nearly all the material I sent to the investigation team.  Mike lost his life. Why did Crumb find it necessary to denigrate Mike and not the armed robbers?

Crumb told Shawn and I that the fire was an accident and all hearsay with no proof.

September 5, 2006, I received a letter from Deputy Attorney General William Stokes that said "I understand that you spoke to Mary Farrar, one of the Victim Advocates in our office, regarding the case involving the homicide of your son, Michael. Another  letter from Stokes on September 14,  2006, Stokes  said "Detective Coleman is one of the finest detectives in the Maine State Police and I know that he is strongly committed to the unsolved case involving your son Michael. I know that you have suffered greatly by losing your son, and I also know that you have been persistent in your efforts to make sure that the police and the prosecutors involved in this case do not forget that your son was, in fact, murdered." Why would the Cold Case investigators, especially Crumb,  tell me that Mike's death was an accident?

Crumb told Shawn and I that the arson investigators  didn’t do a good job of investigating the arson.

32 year veteran Fire Chief Norman Herrin and 43 year veteran Fire Marshal Wilbur Ricker were known as reputable and professional investigators. 

      

















What caused Arson investigator Bryan Crumb,  Deputy Executive Director Dean Jackson and Case Management Supervisor Cathie Vallas-McKinzier) to say that 32 year veteran Fire Chief Norman Herrin and 43 year veteran Fire Inspector Wilbur Ricker didn't do a good job of investigating the arson?  What kind of an organization is Cold Case Foundation that they would make up a story to tell a heartbroken old mother about her murdered son. I believe  they thought they could feed this 86 year old crazy woman a story and she would believe it.
What had the Cold Case Foundation Investigative Team uncovered while speaking with Maine law enforcement? Their website states "Our investigative services team strives to provide our law enforcement partners with resources for their investigation and for the victims they work with." I believe they ran into the cover up of Mike's murder in Maine and had to find a way to get themselves out of the situation. So they came up with a story to fed me, the gas cans that Ricker took to the lab to be tested was cans used for fuel for the furnace,  and the carpeting caused the fire because carpeting is like gasoline, the fire investigators didn't do a good job because it was just an accidental fire.
    They helped another family that claims there is a cover up in their case. https://uncovered.com/cases/dawn-pasela  So why did they make up stories in Mike's case?

Crumb told me that I need to move on and find something else to do with my life.

After Crumb was finished telling Shawn and I what his investigation revealed, Cathie then demonstrated by reaching out to the right and the left with both arms while saying “we tried to put it all together but it didn’t fit.”

The last one to speak before they signed off was Deputy Executor Director Dean Jackson. He also told me that Mike's death was an accident and that I need to move on and find something else to do with my life. What a thing to say to me! I was 45 years old when Mike was murdered. I have spent half my life fighting for justice for my son Mike and I will never give up until my last day on God's green earth.  Mike was my son and no one had the right to take his life.  What Bryn Crumb, Cathie Vallis-McKinze and Dean Jackson tried to feed me was very, very insulting and cruel. I was so shocked that I was unable to answer them. The only thing I remember saying with a passion was when Crumb said "you took those gas cans  from a barn." I said "I DID NOT!  I got those cans from the United States Federal Courthouse in Bangor." He didn't answer me. I have been very hurt and have cried so much since my experience with this organization. Cathie had been so kind I expected them to help me. I wish I had never contacted them because of the way they hurt me.
    Cold Case Foundation/Uncovered's website still lists Mike's death as murdered and the Maine State Police website lists Mike's death as an unsolved homicide.