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Sharon Hammack and Dusty Shuck Part 2 of 2
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Episode 146 Sharon Hammack and Dusty Shuck Part 2 of 2 This is part 2 of the Sharon Hammack and Dusty Shuck episode. If you have not yet listened to part 1, please stop now and go back and listen to part 1 first. To listen to every...
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- [00:00]
Jessica Bettencourt
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Narrator / True Crime Host
When Detective Tynhoff got Artman's name from Ms. Doyle, he started researching Gary Artman. He issued search warrants and subpoenas to Facebook, Apple, Google, Yahoo trucking companies Artman had worked for, and PeopleNet for truck GPS data. Detective Tynhoff later wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit, quote, only one son had any ties to Michigan, and that was Gary Dean Artman. Artman, by his own admission, was living and working near the murder scene and was present in the state of Michigan when the homicide was committed. Gary Artman lived in Grand Rapids when Hamac, who worked as a prostitute was killed. Sharon had last been seen in Grand Rapids, end quote. Then Tynehoff went on to address the Dusty Schuck case. He wrote, quote, further investigation revealed that shortly before the homicide victim was found in Maryland, she was in Ontario, California. It was found that around the same time Gary Dean Artman was within 20 miles of Ontario, California when he was cited by local authorities, end quote. This minor traffic citation, to which Gary Artman probably did not give a second thought, provided the connection police needed to the Dusty Schuck murder It was time to arrest Gary Hartman. On August 16, 2022, Detective Andrew Hines, Detective Paul Van Re and Detective Day obtained an arrest warrant for for Gary Artman. Artman was working as a flatbed trucker with Dixie Transport out of Alabama. They contacted his employer and obtained information about his trucking schedule and upcoming routes. The Columbia County, Florida Sheriff's Office and Mississippi Highway Patrol surveilled him to observe his trucking patterns. They learned Artman was driving a Dixie trucking semi, likely pulling a flatbed trailer, and they had the plate number. Artman was arrested by the Mississippi Highway Patrol on I59 south near Highway 98 at 7:50pm he was charged with homicide, felony murder and criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. At 8am the next morning, the seventh, the Kent county detectives arrived at the Forest County Jail in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. They obtained a search warrant for Artman's DNA and for the search of his semi. Artman willingly cooperated with the buccal swab, which was mailed to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab. And the Michigan State Police Crime Lab expedited the DNA processing. They had results in 48 hours. A crime lab report from analyst Catherine Meredith, a forensic scientist in the biology Unit, dated August 18, 2022, stated that based on the DNA typing results obtained from a cutting of the white blanket fraction two, it was approximately 770 trillion times more likely that the DNA on the blanket came from Gary Artman than from anybody else. Well, that was that. I'd like to point out here that unlike in every other case I've covered, the police did not get a surreptitious or voluntary DNA sample from Gary Artman to ensure he was the suspect they sought. We've all heard that arrests are not made on IGG leads alone. This case is a bit of an exception as no STR sample was obtained prior to arrest. I will state, though, there were ample reasons for skipping that step, which I will come back to. Wood TV did a long expose on Sharon's case and her family's reaction to the arrest. After Artman was put in cuffs, both of Sharon's parents, Jacob and Lois Gross, had died. Tina, Sharon's sister, said, quote, it's just a flood of emotions. I'm happy, but I'm sad, too. She addressed her mom up in heaven. Mama, we got justice for her. I'm sorry it didn't happen before the good Lord took you, but justice will be served. You can celebrate with her up there. Terri, Sharon's other sister, said, quote, it wasn't right for any of the girls to have this done to them. Just terrible. Sharon was a loving sister, a loving daughter and a loving mother to two children, and we miss her so bad. I think about her all the time. What a wonderful sister she was. She was just so loving. This all from Wood TV Hamac's biological son Eric Harrington reached out to newsaid after reading about Artman's arrest. I'm baffled, really, said Harrington in an interview with Newsaid. Why? Why would he even do it? Harrington, 32, was 6 years old when his mom gave him and his sister up for adoption. When my mom was around, she was always so happy she was involved, recalled Harrington. I knew she loved us. I knew she wanted to be there. But other things in her life made her absent. Harrington has few precious memories of his biological mom, but he clings to them. I'm afraid most of the time that life will drown out my memories of her and I don't want that to happen, he said. She was the sweetest person on earth. Harrington said he knew his mom struggled with substance abuse after enduring trauma herself. I believe she loved us very much even when we were given up for adoption. I don't believe she wanted to. I don't think she wanted to at all. But I think in her heart she knew she couldn't give us the best, so she wanted to allow someone else to give us the world, said Harrington. We were very fortunate, he said, referring to him and his sister and their adoption by a wonderful family. Sharon's brother Joe Gross spoke with Grand Rapids ABC affiliate WZZM saying, quote, I'm glad they caught the guy and he's coming back to Grand Rapids. I'm happy that he's going to rot in prison for it. End quote. So who was the 64 year old man arrested for Sharon's murder? Gary Dean Artman was born on December 13, 1957 in St. Clair County, Michigan to parents Wilfred and Donna Rumps Artman. As we heard, he had three brothers whom I'm not naming. He also had two sisters. Wilfred and Donna divorced in 1958, with Wilfred being awarded the divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty. Custody of Gary was awarded to Donna, but his older three brothers were sent to live with their dad. I don't have any information on Artman's relationship with his mother, but it is interesting that he was the only one of the brothers raised by their mom and he's the only one who turned out to be a rapist and murderer. Artman attended Port Huron Central High School as far as we know, he was never married. As we'll hear, he wasn't the marrying type. Artman was a licensed commercial truck driver and had been previously employed by Sky Runners Transport in Grand Rapids. According to his Facebook page, he identified as single, was employed as a flatbed driver at DMT Trucking and resided in White Springs, Florida. Once Artman was arrested, investigators descended on his room, vehicles and storage unit in his GMC canyon located at Dixie Trucking in Birmingham, Alabama. They found an orange knife in the driver's side door, a buck knife in the back seat, a black and silver knife under the backseat, ties and laces behind the driver's seat, and a road pro knife under the backseat. While the investigators were on the ground at Dixie Trucking, the vice president approached the investigators and said he was friends with Artman's previous boss and was told about an unsettling statement Artman had made at his exit interview in April 2022. Artman had had no issues at work. He was simply leaving for a job which would pay more. A female manager at his exit interview jokingly said to him, so you're leaving me after three years? And Artman's response was, I think it's best we part ways before something bad happens. As he said this, he stared at her, unsmiling. Everyone in the meeting felt awkward and uncomfortable. They ended the meeting and saw Artman out in the semi. Artman was driving when he was arrested. Police found, among other things, a plastic container containing ties, a jacket with a knot tied in it, a stuffed bear in the truck passenger seat wearing an earring, a buck knife to the left of the driver's seat, a prayer binder in the truck bed, journals and a bible on the truck shelf, a lockbox containing a knife in the back of the truck, and a wooden club behind the driver's seat. The real treasure trove was found in Artman's storage unit, though Artman wasn't really living much of anywhere, so he kept a lot of his stuff in his storage unit. On August 30, 2022, investigators from the Kent County Sheriff's Office in Michigan executed a search warrant on a storage unit in Lake City, Florida, registered to Ertman. They used bolt cutters to access the unit. I'm leaving out a whole bunch of innocuous stuff, but suspicious stuff investigators seized included lots and lots of rope, twine, cord, and ties of all sizes and lengths, one of the ropes with an S hook in it, shoelaces with knots, condoms, many, many notebooks and journals filled with writings, lots of records, documents, receipts and tax documents, a DVD entitled Wages of Sin, various hard drives, tablets, iPhones, video cameras, work gloves, six to eight knives and a pair of brass knuckles, and more than a dozen pairs of women's underwear, along with bras and other pieces of lingerie. Many of them had the tags cut off. All were stuffed in a cooler at the back of the storage unit. Kent county authorities held a press conference announcing the arrest of Gary Artman in the Sharon Hamack case. Sharon's sisters Terry and Tina were present, visibly wiping tears. Kent County Sheriff Michelle Lajoy Young said, quote, since the 1990s, we have had various task forces that have worked to try to resolve cold cases, cases that for whatever reason, technology or lack of witnesses or lack of resources were not able to be solved. We remember the person whose life was cut short and the impact they still have on their family, on their friends, on the people around them. That's why we continue to work cold cases to the best of our abilities throughout all these years. End quote Joel Schulze, forensic DNA supervisor for the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, explained that his agency had received a federal grant to start an IGG pilot program to pay for private labs to perform DNA analysis necessary to create SNP profiles. In this case, the SNP profile was provided to Identifinders. Lt. William Marks of the Kent County Sheriff's Office said, quote, Mr. Artman would never have been identified without Identifinder's forensic genetic genealogy expertise. End quote.
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Jessica Bettencourt
All.
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- [13:38]
Narrator / True Crime Host
After the press conference concluded, Tina and Terry went to place flowers on Sharon's grave. I hope he rots in hell for what he did, terry told Wood tv. He's a monster. Tina had concerns about her ability to be in the same room with the man who killed her sister. I don't know if I can face him, she said. I have so much anger over what he did to her. Once he was in custody and the DNA results were verified, Artman was read his rights and agreed to waive them and speak with the Kent county investigators. With several smoke breaks over the course of the interview, he confirmed that he'd grown up in Port Huron, Michigan, but he had moved out of Michigan in 2012 to Madison, Alabama and was now living in a motel in White Springs, Florida. Artman had served time in prison in Michigan, which I will get to while he was living in Michigan. After being released from prison, he obtained his Class C driver's license. Over time, he worked his way up to Class A. He drove for a Walker based trucking company to locations in Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, all over the place. Before driving for Dixie, Artman worked for a trucking company out of Florida. The investigators asked Artman where he lived In Grand Rapids. He said he lived in an apartment on 44th street, at a motel, at an apartment in Kentwood, and then at an apartment on South Division. Investigators noted with interest that Artman admitted to living on south division in 1996 when Sharon was killed. After being seen there, they asked Artman about sex workers. Did he patronize them? He did. He admitted he picked them up on South Division or at truck stops. He also said he occasionally picked up hitchhiking women. He told the story of one older teen who had spent a week with him driving around in his truck. Investigator Paul Van Re asked Artman how he viewed women who did sex work. He replied, you want the truth? A piece of meat. Business. It's a piece of meat. Here's the money. Get me off. Van Reed told the jurors all about that at Artman's trial. He later said, they're a commodity, a piece of meat. That's what he used them as. F them, Pay them. Get out. When they asked him, Artman said he never got violent or rough with any of the sex workers, ever. He might have accidentally left a bruise, but that was it. He was too afraid of going back to prison. Detective Tienhoff asked him about DNA. He knew what it was and that it was unique to each person. He said he always wore a condom, which, given his semen, was found inside. Sharon, that was a lie. Detective Heinhoff told Artman that a sex worker had been murdered in 1996 and they were working her case. Artman said, okay, and my DNA was found? Yes. Where? On her person. Artman wanted to know whether it was semen and was told yes. A quote from Tynhoff's report. When I asked about how his DNA would be found, Gary did not give an answer. He said he has never assaulted a woman and the ones that he did, he went to prison for and did his time. I then advised Gary that there are multiple victims found with his DNA. He wanted to know the locations of them. I reiterated that we have found multiple girls, all of which were prostitutes, all of which were cut up, all with his DNA associated. Gary responded with silence and a sigh. After further discussion, Gary continued to say he didn't kill anybody and he is not going to take responsibility for something he did not do. I'd like to clarify here. The investigators seem to have been bluffing about more sex workers being found with Artman's DNA. Of course we know he killed Dusty Shocker, but she wasn't a sex worker. They talked about his time in prison. Artman said he had a lot of anger when he was in prison, but he felt he deserved the punishment. This is a quote from Tynehoff. I asked him what caused him to make the decisions that got him in trouble. He said it was wanting to be held and wanting love. He just wanted a relationship. He knew it was wrong to force, but he just could not think back. Then after prison, he was able to reason. He said then the Investigators showed him photos of his known victims. Artman said he did not recognize Sharon's photo. He also didn't recognize Dusty. He asked to see Sharon's photo again and said maybe she was familiar, but she had a pretty common face. When showed autopsy photos, he said that was not him. He did not do that. He continued to maintain he did not do those things and he could not explain how his DNA was found. He basically said, I f'd some women, and after that it ain't my problem. After another smoke break, Artman immediately stated he didn't know Sharon, and if he did, he didn't leave her like that. Detective Tynehoff again quote, I asked Gary how he can explain that his DNA is also on the items used to strangle her. He said, if we wanted answers, we needed to look elsewhere, end quote. The next day, they conducted another interview. They read Artman his rights again and he continued to say he had no explanation for why his DNA was on Sharon. He continued to deny his involvement in the deaths. Detective Tienhoff tried a direct tactic, saying, gary, you killed this girl, okay? Just like you killed another girl with your DNA on her. Artman didn't respond and only sighed. He said the interview was going nowhere and he was not going to admit to something he did not do. Then he asked to speak to a lawyer and the interview was terminated. On August 28, Artman was extradited to Michigan. He was placed in front cuffs with a belly chain and all the restraints were concealed under something wrapped around all the cuffs. Then he was accompanied on a commercial flight to Michigan. Once he landed at Gerald Ford Airport, he was double cuffed with his hands and back and driven to the Kent County Jail. The Kent county investigators contacted and interviewed a woman Artman had lived with. They had met on a farm in Caledonia and found they both loved fishing. They lived together for two years. This woman's name was Tammy. Tammy said on two occasions she and Artman had talked about his patronizing sex workers. He said he had never hurt any of them. But then he admitted he had and said if she ever told anyone, he would kill her. She moved out soon after that. Tammy recalled that when Sharon Hamack's body was found, Artman was excited to tell her about it and they drove through the area several times so he could point it out. Tammy said Artman told her he was into satanic worship, the occult and ritual abuse. He liked a series of books about Mac Bolan executioner, and he was obsessed with the game Dungeon Masters. Next, the investigators turned to the couple Artman had said he was living with down in Florida. This wasn't really true. He used their Lake City address to get his mail and came by once in a while to collect it and visit. He actually lived out of a Super 8 motel when he was in town. The male half of this couple had met Artman at work in 2011. He said Artman never spoke about women or his family. He had never known him to have a girlfriend. He was fairly religious. The only hobby he knew of that Artman had was building Legos, which, I'll be honest, I didn't know adults did. The wife half of this couple had a little bit more to relate. She was very surprised that Gary had been arrested and asked if they were certain that they had the right person. She said he was always decent toward her. He was friendly and personable, although she didn't know him to have friends. And he didn't seem close with his family. The investigators interviewed the female manager at the Super 8, who said Artman had been staying there for five years. Whenever he wasn't on the road for his job, he was always nice and friendly. They never had any problems with him. She said he had one girl stay with him a few times years ago. She suspected was a sex worker, but he was almost always alone. Gary liked to smoke and drink. He always got a smoking room. Remember, I said that Artman had mentioned to police that a teenage girl had spent about a week with him, riding around in his truck. That sounded very worrisome, but police found her alive. They interviewed her, and she said she met Artman at a motel around 2008, when she was just 16 or 17. They had just traveled around together. She even met his family in Indiana. How very odd. I'm sure this woman was traumatized to realize just how close she had been to becoming a victim. Her Then the Michigan detectives uncovered some very important information. On December 21, 2022, Detective Tienhoff went to the Bellamy Creek Prison in Ionia to interview a prisoner about Sharon and an incident that had happened in late 1995 or early 1996. This prisoner was Andrew, the man who was friends with Sharon and was driving her around on the night she was killed. Andrew told Detective Tienhoff that one night he met Sharon at a Hotel on 28th near the highway across from the Holiday Inn. It was a dive motel where sex workers hung out. It was cold outside, but he couldn't remember if it was the fall of 95 or the spring of 96. Andrew said Sharon and her friend borrowed his truck to go purchase some alcoholic drinks. When they came back, quote, Sharon came back to the room and mentioned the name gary. The room phone then kept ringing, and Sharon told him that it was gary and not to answer it. Andrew specifically remembered that Sharon would not go anywhere with gary because Gary was a creep who would get rough and force girls to do things they didn't want to do. End quote. Sharon called this guy gary the truck driver. She had serviced gary in the past when he chose to pay for specific sexual acts which did not include intercourse, but now she was afraid of him. Andrew later testified, quote, sharon asked me if I'd go to gary's room with her. He keeps bothering her. Says he's got a gift for her. I guess it's like the third time he's seen her and said he had this gift for her. She said now that he knows what room she's in, she just wants to go over there to see what he's got so he has no excuse to come over to her room because she wanted nothing to do with him. End quote. Andrew said that when he and sharon got to gary's room, There was another dude in there with them. Quote Gary and the other guy whispered something to each other, and then Gary went, it's over here, sharon. Come on over. Then the other guy came over to me and wanted me to run to the store to get something to drink, to get some alcohol. I told him I was fine. I had my drink right here. The other guy was trying to get me to leave the room, and I said, I'm not leaving the room. And I said, come on, sharon, let's go. And I held open the door with my foot, and she came over and we left. End quote. Andrew said when he heard on October 4, 1996, that Sharon had been killed, the first person he thought of was gary, the truck driver. He said. Now, after gary's arrest, as soon as he saw him on television, I knew it was him. And there was the proof that artman and sharon did business together until sharon cut him off because she feared him.
- [23:49]
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Many, many notebooks filled with writings by Gary Artman were recovered from his vehicles and storage unit, and they contained allusions to deviant, violent and criminal acts committed by the writer. There were books about demonology. Stories found contained titles like Sonnets of Blood. In his journal, Artman wrote about the woman police had interviewed, Tammy, who he lived with in Grand Rapids and who did not share his romantic interests. Artman wrote in the journal that he denied to Tammy that he had killed anyone, but later said he had, but only as part of a Ritual. His master restrained him around Tammy, so he never hurt her. He wrote, if I lie to her one more time, then it's over between us. Three external hard drives and five thumb drives were seized from Aardman's storage unit. Detective Gerald McCarthy, a forensic computer analyst for the Michigan State Police, found four videos in a recycle bin on the hard drives. Some of the videos, which were pornographic in nature, included the word kidnapping in the title. The videos showed a female. She was continuously, brutally beaten, tortured, bound. She was tied up. She was raped by a male individual. These were very graphic videos. McCarthy later testified there was one more thing. Once Artman was arrested, investigators were interviewing his family members. They learned something startling from his sister. Artman had shown up at her place to help her move and she said when he arrived, he looked as though he'd been in a fight. When she asked him what had happened, he said something very cavalier about having had to kill a sex worker. Before we get into Artman's trial, we need to talk about his other known crimes. Gary Artman enlisted in the Marines in June 1976 and was stationed in Annapolis, Maryland. Several of his siblings were also in the military, so this was a logical life choice for him. On December 7, 1979, 22 year old Gary Artman offered a ride to a 17 year old girl in Port Huron Township, Michigan, his hometown. Once she was in the car, he sexually assaulted her at knifepoint. Artman was arrested and charged in St. Clair county with criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. But he was bonded out at only $15,000. While out on bond in October 1980, Artman attacked two teenage St. Clair county girls. Artman attacked two teenage St. Blair county girls. The two girls were heading home late one night when they decided to ask Artman, a stranger, if he had a joint. Artman said he would help them get one, but once he was in their car, he pulled out an 8 inch long jackknife and threatened to kill them unless they acquiesced to his demands. The 16 and 17 year old girls were forced to engage in oral, vaginal and anal sex with him for hours in the car, which had gotten stuck in a ditch. When Artman was done raping them, he told the girls they had better not tell anyone what had happened. He said he would rescue them from the ditch, saying, I'm going to see if I can get help. If you tell anybody about this, I will find you, I will come back and I will kill you. One of the survivors, Don D. Told Wood tv quote, so as soon as he got out of the car, we locked the doors and we sat there crying and hugging. Sat there scared to get out of the car because we didn't know where he was. So we waited for a while, a little while. I don't know how long. It seemed like forever, but maybe not long enough. I don't know. We just took a chance and ran. That's when we ran to the house and had a lady call police. Dawn testified at Artman's trial about this horrific assault. Quote, I don't remember the exact odds because I blocked them out. She told the jury, my survival mode was to go into another zone. So when something like that happened, I just went somewhere else. I don't remember that part. I remember before. I remember right after. I remember running to the lady's house. I remember going to the hospital and I remember going to court to put him away after this. Double aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment. Artman was arrested and held on $50,000 bond at a hearing on October 4, 1980. He was charged with five counts of criminal sexual conduct. I don't know how he paid his bond, but once again, Artman was let out and he did it again. While out on bond for the October 1980 charges, Artman was arrested on a charge of assault with the intent to commit sexual penetration for an assault he committed on December 30, 1980. The judge set a $15,000 bond. Artman ended up pleading guilty to just one charge of criminal sexual conduct and in August 1981, and was sentenced to 16 to 30 years in Michigan State Prison. He was released In June of 1992, just four years before Sharon Hamack was murdered. In preparation for trial on September 20, 2022, Detective John Tynhoff submitted evidentiary items to the Michigan State Police crime Lab for reanalysis. These included all three cigarette butts found in the vicinity of Sharon's body. Scrapings from under her fingernails, the vaginal swabs, the four cords around her body and the blanket, the two shoelaces, DNA extracts from vaginal and rectal swabs, and a number of items from Artman's storage unit, including the brass knuckles and knives. Artman pleaded not guilty at his August 29th arraignment to charges of open murder, felony murder and first degree criminal sexual conduct. This from Fox 17. When Judge Smolensky asked Artman if he had any questions, he asked, what? What's going to happen? What's going to happen? Says Smolensky, repeating Artman's question. You're doing Everything you can to get rid of me, said Artman. The judge did not like this. She set Artman's bond at $1 million cash. He wasn't going anywhere. At the preliminary hearing on October 7, 2022, the prosecution presented evidence about the identification of Artman through DNA testing, the fact that he lived in Grand Rapids in 1996, the journals that seemed to address murders he committed, and his own admission that he frequented sex workers in the area where Sharon had worked. The defense argued that Artman admitted to frequenting sex workers, so that explained his semen being found on Sharon. That did not mean he killed her. It appears that she fought and she lost the fight and she lost her life, and no one should ever have to go through what she went through. 63rd District Judge Sarah Smolensky said she told the victim's family, quote, I'm sorry for what you've had to go through. But her voice is now being heard. At the close of testimony, Judge Smolensky ordered Artman bound over for trial in Kent County Circuit Court. According to an mlive reporter in the courtroom, as Artman was escorted out, a family member of Sharon's quietly called him sick and said he could rot in hell. The expedited trial of 65 year old Gary Artman began with the seating of a jury on Monday, September 25, 2023. They were moving more swiftly than they otherwise would because the defendant had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. It had been found in June when Artman had a bout of pneumonia and was sent to the hospital. Prosecutors wanted to complete the trial before he died, leaving Sharon's family with no resolution. With a literal death sentence hanging over Artman, the trial was largely symbolic, but it was a symbolism that was deemed very worthwhile. Prosecutors requested and received permission for an expedited trial. The judge just had to ensure that the defense had ample time to prepare their case. And he must have felt they did because the trial proceeded just one year after Artman's arrest. In her opening statement, Kent county assistant prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett told jurors the evidence would show that Artman, who had previously served time in a Michigan prison for rape, had a strong hatred of women and didn't like rejection. You're going to see through the mind of a killer, she said. But it's not really murder when these women deserved it. That's the mindset he has. Bartlett quoted Artman's journals when he wrote about raping those Port Huron girls. He had written, I wanted to get back at all those girls in high school. The Strange thing is, I never felt guilty about raping them. Bartlett addressed the jury. Ladies and gentlemen, those are the words of a rapist, of a murderer. Those are the words of Gary Artman. Prosecuting Attorney Bartlett also read aloud a note found among Artman's things. It said, a corpse cannot participate in dialogue. The charge against them, murder by mortality. Their sentence, death. There's only one way to even out that kind of score in blood. Artman's defense attorney, John Persky, rebutted, telling jurors, there's no date on those quotes. We're not sure it's him who wrote it. He pointed out that there was a lot of other stuff in this storage unit that could have belonged to anyone. Persky also said that because Sharon was a sex worker, it was very possible she had consensual sex with Aardman. She was a prostitute. Persky told jurors Artman's DNA could have been put there consensually. No one is going to be able to point the finger at him and say he forced her to do that. Prosecutor Bartlett rebutted, saying a witness, Andrew, would testify that Sharon was scared of Artman after previous sexual encounters and had cut him off after her sexual encounter with him. She decided she would not allow that to happen again because she feared him, said Bartlett. But this is a man that does not take rejection. He found her.
- [35:03]
Jessica Bettencourt
He.
- [35:04]
Narrator / True Crime Host
He abducts her. She is stripped nude. There's a cord wrapped around her neck. Her hands are bound behind her back. Her ankles are bound so she can't move. Then she was raped. Then she was strangled. There will be no question in your minds that there was the intent to commit murder, bartlett said. And she told the jury Sharon was pregnant in her second trimester with a baby boy. Tina DeYoung, Sharon's sister, was the first witness to take the stand. She told the jury Sharon, just 13 months older, was her best friend. She was a loving sister, mother, daughter. She loved life, tina said in tears. She explained her sister's choices, saying she had an addiction and it led her down the wrong path. All in all, Prosecutors called about 14 witnesses. They called Richard and Russ, the two delivery drivers who found what they had said they could tell with a body in a blanket. On October 3, 1996, Kent County Medical examiner Dr. Stephen Coley, who had performed the autopsy in Sharon way back in 1996, showed autopsy photos and told the jury about Sharon being hogtied and tied up in the electric blanket. He also showed photos of the imprint on Sharon's throat of the pearl necklace that she was wearing when she was strangled. He told the jury, Sharon was alive when she was stabbed in the head and it would have taken her two to four minutes to die from the strangulation. Defense attorney John Persky got Dr. Coley to admit that he could not say whether the DNA the semen had been deposited via rape or consensual sex. On day two of the trial, Michigan State Police Detective Gerald McCarthy, the electronics expert, told the jury about the four pornographic videos that depicted a woman being beaten, tortured, bound and raped while she screamed and pleaded for help. This from Wood TV. QUOTE McCarthy testified he also found a folder on a hard drive titled My Stories. In the folder, McCarthy told jurors he discovered several documents that contained stories, one of which was about rape, sex, blood and violence against women. It was eight pages long and ends with the word misogynist hatred of women, McCarthy said. According to McCarthy, one of the documents talked about masters, slaves and sex and another referenced an abduction. End quote Artman was one Sick Dude.
- [37:17]
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This next part is crazy. A quote from Wood TV quote Kent County Sheriff's Office Detective Tanner Day testified Tuesday that when investigators searched the commercial truck Gary Artman, now 65, was driving upon his arrest in August of 2022, they found a giant stuffed bear in the front passenger seat. Day told jurors one of the bear's ears had an earring in it, and there was a hole in the bear's rear end with stuffing coming out of it. End quote. Why does it seem so shocking that this sicko who raped and murdered living women would put jewelry on and anally rape a teddy bear? Detective Day also told the jury about the creepy and concerning things they found in Artman's storage unit, including the dozen pairs of women's underwear, knives, ropes and shoelaces with knots. On cross examination, defense attorney John Persky asked, when you cataloged, documented all the items that were found in the storage unit, you weren't able to identify who they all belonged to, were you? No, day admitted. No further questions. Persky said Sharon's friend Andrew took the stand and told the jury about how Sharon was scared of Gary the truck driver. I don't know if Andrew was asked to identify Artman in court, he only saw him once more than a quarter century earlier, at night when he had been drinking. And I'm going to be honest, Artman had not aged well, so I think it's unlikely that they relied on his eyewitness identification. On the third day of trial, Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick was called to the stand to explain how the IGG led identifinders to report the Gary Aardman lead to the Kent county authorities. Catherine Meredith, a forensic DNA examiner with the Michigan State Police crime lab, told the jury about advancements in DNA testing and how lab analysts can detect DNA profiles with much smaller samples than were required in 1996. She commenced testing on evidentiary items from the case in 2019 and was able to identify Artman's DNA on vaginal and anal swabs from Sharon, in fingernail clippings taken at autopsy, and on the outside of the blanket that Sharon was wrapped in. She related the number she had come up with. It was 770 trillion times more likely that the DNA had come from Artman than from anyone else. Defense attorney persky cross examined Ms. Meredith, asking if Artman's DNA was found on the pearl necklace or on the electrical cords that bound her. No, was her answer. Artman's ex girlfriend, Tammy, testified about how Artman had told her he had hurt someone in his past. Artman had backed up her statements himself by writing in his journal that he initially denied to Tammy that he had killed anyone, but later admitted he had. She has supposedly caught me in line that when she asked me if I murdered anyone, I said no. I then weeks later told her I had. By ritual, he wrote. Dawn D, one of the two then teens from Port Huron whom Artman had raped at knifepoint in 1980, testified about the rape and that Artman threatened to kill them if they told anyone what happened. She and her friend were partially responsible for putting Artman away back then. Sharon and Dusty would still be alive if his crimes had been taken a bit more seriously and he had not been given such a light sentence for such violent crimes. Kent County Detective Paul Van Re was called to the stand to testify about Artman's writings. Excerpts from letters he had written his brothers from prison when he was incarcerated in the 80s were read aloud. They said, all the girls I wanted to have and couldn't when I was growing up in high school, I can now get. I thought about why I raped all those girls. I mean, the real deep down underlying motive. I always come up with the same thing. I wanted to be loved, to be held, to be touched by someone. Between you and me, nobody else knows this. There has been 152of those assaults by me as of this writing. Not anything I'm proud of, But I still did it. And that means it's a part of me for the rest of my life. Then there were the journals, writings no one else was intended to see. In those, Artman wrote Quote, you ask yourself, who you are here is who you are. You are death itself to those who deserve it. Artman's lawyer questioned Van Re about whether they had proof positive that Artman had written the journals. All they had was similarities of the handwriting to the letters he had signed from prison and the fact that the journals were found in his private possessions that no one else had access to. It was enough. The defense didn't call any of its own witnesses. The defense attorneys did their best to undermine the evidence presented by the prosecution. But as senior Assistant prosecutor Blair Lockman later said, there wasn't much the defense could do. The evidence was pretty overwhelming. Prior to closing arguments, Artman's attorney moved for a directed verdict, dismissing the charge of open murder. The defense argued that the state had proven only that Artman had sex with Sharon and had not proved that he killed her. Of course, his DNA on the blanket that was bound around her dead body was an inconvenient fact for Artman. And it sounded as though District Court Judge Scott Noto was not buying it. He ruled, in looking at the DNA in this case, particularly the DNA on the blanket wrapped around Ms. Hamack, the DNA under her fingernail clippings, the DNA found in her vaginal and rectal areas, all of which correlate with the defendant, Mr. Arm, I consider how she was tied, naked and hogtied. The defense motion is denied. It was time for closing arguments. Senior Assistant prosecutor Blair Lockman hammered home the points in the prosecution's favor. Sharon's DNA was not found anywhere on the outside of the blanket, only the parts that touched her wrapped up body. That meant she had not wrapped herself up in the blanket. Artman's DNA was found on the outside of the blanket because he had left his semen on it. So he had to have had contact with the blanket and Sharon was found hogtied and murdered inside it. His DNA was on Sharon too, meaning he had had contact with her, which had to be before she got into the blanket. It was a slam dunk. Lockman wanted the jury to focus on just how brutal this murder was. He set a timer for two minutes and told the jurors that was the minimum amount of time it would have taken Sharon to die. Two to three minutes is a lifetime to think and stop and contemplate. There is no question about what Mr. Armon was doing and what he was thinking, he said. Citing the journals and letters, lockman said, quote, Mr. Artman has decided he is judge and executioner. He's deciding who he wants to Kill. Prostitutes are an easy target because, number one, he thinks they're sinners and number two, nobody cares they're prostitutes. That's his thinking. Lockman told the jury that Artman learned from his 11 years in prison in the 1980s. He said when he gets out in 92, the plan is in place. He's gone from a rapist to a killer, and he had gotten away with it. Mr. Artman, 27 years later, thinks there are no consequences. Lochman concluded there are consequences. Today is the day he needs to face those consequences. The jury got the case at 11:44am they were back in the courtroom before 12:30. Gary Artman was found guilty of first degree criminal sexual conduct, first degree felony murder and first degree premeditated murder in the death of Sharon Hamack. Artman stared straight ahead as the verdict was read. He knew that pursuant to Michigan law, a first degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He will never see the free world again. He will never be a risk to another woman out there, assistant prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett said. Blair Lockman said he felt, quote, relief, but still feel a little bit unfinished because I feel there's more out there that he's not telling us. Terry and Tina spoke to Wood TV after the verdict. Justice was served. Terry said she finally gets to be laid to rest in peace. Tina added she deserves that after all this time, what that monster took. Juror Jacqueline Campbell embraced Terry and Tina when it was all over. She told Target 8, which is Wood TV. Gary Artman, to me, after everything I saw and heard is truly proof that evil can exist on earth. Unfortunately, that came at the cost of a young mother's life. And that's tragic and heartbreaking and I don't think justice came soon enough. But at least it came. There was a bit of a kerfuffle prior to the sentencing hearing when Judge Scott Noto sent an email to the prosecutor's office saying that any victims impact statements delivered by Sharon's family had to be delivered to the judge, not the defendant. Family members could not address Artman directly, nor could they wear shirts or carry any signs or anything else with Sharon's image or name on them. The goal, said Nodo, was to preserve decorum in his courtroom. He was trying to prevent his courtroom from descending into a Jerry Springer type scream fest and brawl. Intentions were good, but still it sort of deprived the family of their right to tell Artman to his face that he was a positive. But at the sentencing on October 12, Judge Noto did an about face. I don't know what changed his mind, but he gave Sharon's family free rein to speak as long as they wanted and to direct their comments to anyone they liked. An M. Live reporter was in the courtroom, and much of this is available on video. Sharon's sister Terri angrily leaned toward Artman, yelling, you're not a man. You're not a person. You're nothing but a piece of garbage. I hope you get everything that's coming to you. You killed her and my nephew. That was inside her body that we never got to see. Tina added, you took that. What gave you the right? You're a monster. I hope you rot in hell. They both begged Artman to tell them why, but of course, there was no why. Artman sat there looking at them with zero expression on his face. Blair Lockman, the prosecutor, said, quote, there have been at least 11 more homicides like this. Mr. Artman has lived a selfish life, only focused on himself and. And taking from others. What we're asking is for the first time that he give to somebody else. Give to others by letting the families know what happened to their loved ones. End quote. Lachman was referring to the other unsolved Grand Rapids murders of women in the late 1994 to late 1996 timeframe. To the surprise of everyone, Artman agreed to speak in court. He said, I've talked to enough hookers. Quite a few. And they all say the same thing. Daddy dearest wasn't so dear, especially when drugs were involved. I don't know what happened to her. He meant Sharon. That's the truth. They're blaming me for what somebody else did. Let them. If they get closure, fine, they get closure. But all these other murders, they're idiots. You detectives right there, he looks over at them, are fucking idiots. Why? Because you keep looking at me and I didn't do it. The mlive reporter noted that someone at the prosecutor's table, off camera, said, yes, you did. Why don't you do your job and maybe you'll find out who did it? Artman responded. Judge Noto had had enough of Artman's meaningless ramblings. He sentenced him to life at a state correctional facility without the possibility of parole. When it was all over, the prosecutors gave Sharon's sisters her pearl necklace and matching earrings.
- [50:26]
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- [51:17]
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Isn't that a thing already? It gets a lot worse, honey.
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Artman was next intended to face charges for the murder of Dusty Shuck. The plan was to extradite him to Maryland to stand tr The Michigan prosecutor Blair Lockman called the Maryland case against Artman very strong, with evidence placing him in the state at the time Dusty was murdered. And of course the DNA. But that trial did not happen. Artman's health took a turn for the worse and he was hospitalized. He sent a kite, which refers to a message to the Michigan Department of Corrections which was passed on to the Michigan State Police. Artman wanted to talk about bodies he was responsible for. Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Todd Waite interviewed Artman and obtained some information before Artman slipped into a coma. The investigators were told that Artman would likely pass away and they could not expect him to regain consciousness. But he did. In December 2023, Dusty Schuck's mom, Lori Kreutzer, was told Artman was on his deathbed and she had been warned the trial for the murder of her daughter would likely never happen. She told Wood tv quote, and he did not die. He came out of the coma after the respirator came out and fully confessed to Dusty's murder. It was a miracle, divine intervention. So at least he did that. So how did this confession come about? On December 13, 2023, Detective Van Reed, Detective Tynhoff and Grand Rapids Police Detective Weston went to the Department of Corrections Henry Ford Hospital in Jackson and visited a very ill Artman in his fourth floor room. From Detective Tienhoff's report, quote, Gary apologized to me and said he was sorry for what he did. Sorry for all of it. Quote Gary believed that he killed 11 Grand Rapids prostitutes in the mid-1990s. End QUOTE Gary told the detectives that he was trying to remember details, but the faces all blended together. His hunting territory was on South Division where the high class call girls were located. Remember, records showed that Artman lived within five miles from where Sharon worked the streets. Artman said several times, I am a monster. Hard agree. He told the investigators that he initially made the mistake of leaving his bodies out in the open to be found. But after a while he started putting the girls in dumpsters where they were never found. He said it did not matter to him whether the girls were black or white. Gary described one sex worker he killed at Riverside park in Grand Rapids. Quote Gary told us he met a female on Division and he fucked her and killed her. He took her back to the old Riverside Drive and put her in a dumpster. End quote. He said he killed her by a knife to the throat. Quote we brought up with Gary how he dumped Sharon Hamack along a roadway and he replied that he was sloppy. Gary advised that the females he killed were after 1992. As an aside, remember, Gary got out of prison that year. The last one he killed was in Maryland. And speaking of Dusty Shuck, quote, when Gary drove across the country in his semi, if a girl wanted to ride, it was known that they would have to fuck. The one he killed from California drove with him across the country. He killed her because she didn't want to fuck anymore. This was described as Dusty Shuck, who is the Maryland victim. Gary said he killed in Michigan and admitted to Maryland as well. He said he did not kill in any other states besides those two. I asked Gary about his statement to the Michigan State Police where he said he killed 71 people and he advised that that was not true. He wasn't sure of the exact number of people he had killed. He said he did not kill a male like he told the Michigan State Police. He was lying about that. His preferred method was using a knife, but he has also strangled females, end quote. Just to explain here, in his interview before he went into a coma on Artman had told Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Todd Waite that he had killed 71 people, including a man. He didn't mention any names, but he said he killed sex workers and 11 of them were from the Grand Rapids area. During that interview, Artman also confessed to the murder of Dusty Schuck. In his interviews with Kent county investigators, Artman downgraded from 71 to 11 or 12 if you include Dusty Shock, who was not from Grand Rapids. Artman mentioned two other specific women he had killed, neither of whose name was provided to me. One was an older, attractive brunette sex worker who had been in the movies in the 40s. Artman told the investigators her name but was very vague about her and where he left her body. He simply said, I killed her. Another was a woman he had killed near his apartment building in Marne. He put her body in a dumpster right outside his apartment building. A Grand Rapids police spokesman told the Herald Palladium newspaper. Quote, interviews with Artman provided enough information to reasonably conclude he was involved in the 1995 disappearance of Kathleen Dennis. But it is very unlikely that her body will ever be found. End quote. 28 year old Kathleen vanished on July 7, 1995, leaving behind a 7 year old son. Artman told police he picked up a woman who was leaving the old so so's Lounge on Division Avenue. She was black and wearing a cast or sling on her arm. This description matched Kathleen Artman killed her and put her in a dumpster. It really makes you wonder how many bodies are in America's landfills. Investigators seem pretty certain that Artman indeed killed Kathleen Dennis. This from the Daily Beast, quote, the family of Kathleen Dennis who was 28 when she vanished in 1995, said they had been told by detectives that Artman was likely behind her murder. At least it provides some kind of closure, her son Tommy Dennis, said. On December 14, after Artman had time to rest, the investigators went back and spoke with him again. He was rambling and almost incoherent. He said he hunted his victims on South Division and that they needed to die, but he couldn't explain why they needed to die and said again that he was a monster. Artman spoke about one woman whom I believe was Sharon. He said that he took her back to his house and made her worship him. He said it was the sickest thing he's ever done. He made her worship him and call him master. He recalled putting Sharon in a tan blanket after he killed her. She was the only one of his victims that was written about in the news, he said. However, the sex workers told him about other sex workers being killed, but he never told anyone about what he had done. Artman died of lung cancer on December 28, 2023. A press release after his death stated, quote, ultimately, during our extensive interview with Mr. Artman, it was difficult to talk to him due to his current medical state. He was unable to provide us with articulable, substantiated facts that could link him directly to a murder. Kent county investigators believe he was responsible for other murders in the 1995-1996 year range and will be working with the Grand Rapids police on the interview statements to see if they match any particular homicide. There were A total of 17 disappearances and murders of women in the Grand Rapids area between early 1993 and and the end of 1996. Artman said he was responsible for 11, but investigators could not take his word for it. Dusty Schuck and Sharon Hamack were the only two they were certain of. A press release was also issued in Maryland where Dusty Schuck's case had been open since she was found in 2006. Quote during interviews with police, Artman claimed responsibility for several more heinous crimes and provided very little details Due to his transient lifestyle as a truck driver who traveled throughout the country and the information he provided. Police are searching for leads that may connect Artman to additional unsolved cases. Anyone with relevant information that could aid in the continued investigation is asked to call the Maryland State Police homicide unit at 410-996-7881. Maryland State Police are working with the FBI and law enforcement partners in Michigan to ensure safety in communities nationwide and seek justice for any potential victims. The investigation continues. So was Artman telling the truth about having more victims? It certainly seems likely that he did indeed kill more women. But 11? This from Wood TV. He may have claimed 11 as his victim count only because a Kent county prosecutor mentioned that number when he talked about unsolved cases during Artman's October sentencing hearing. So we may never know. Okay, here's where I usually wrap up and say, thank goodness for Igg. The killer was not in the case file. The case never would have been solved without investigative genetic genealogy. But I'm not going to say that Artman was in the Sharon Hamack case file. I think it's even safe to say that he was a potential suspect. Detective Sergeant Mike Mori of the Michigan State Police cited a report dated November 4, 1993, three years before Sharon was killed that read, quote, the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department was investigating a sexual assault and attempted murder from October 31, 1993. I was notified by a few employees from the Department of Corrections in Ionia that a possible suspect would be an inmate that was released in June 1992. The inmate was apparently threatening to many Department of Corrections employees, especially females. He is quoted as saying just prior to his release in June 1992 that the next time he would not leave any witnesses to his crime, end quote. That inmate's name, Gary Dean Artman. This Michigan State Police detective actually interviewed Artman, likely in 1993 when he received the name. A warrant written by a Kent county sheriff's detective stated, quote, the Michigan State Police detective who interviewed Artman noted that he believed, based on Gary Artman's past, that he had a high potential for sexual assaults, end quote. Okay, so Artman's name was brought up in connection with a late 1993 murder of a woman, primarily because he had been released from prison just a year earlier and was known to be violent and aggressive toward women. Three weeks after Sharon was killed. Detective Sergeant Mori passed this information about Artman along on October 23, 1996, in a tip referred to as Tip 128. Tip 128 was submitted to the task force investigating the murders of sex workers in Grand Rapids. According to a 2021 search warrant filed in connection with the Sharon Hamack murder case. Quoting notes written up on tip 128, quote, women the prison were scared of him. He made claims that the only reason he got convicted was because he left his victims alive. He liked to do it in the car, used knife exhibits, antisocial Personality, no morals, no remorse. End quote. This all from Wood TV. On March 3, 1997, five months after the October 1996 Artman tip was submitted, a member of the task force investigating the string of murders interviewed Artman at his home on 54th street between Claudia and Pine Brook avenues in Kentwood. Quote Gary Artman admitted that he had a prior problem looking at girls as objects for his pleasure, a detective wrote up in the search warrant filed August 25, 2022. Quoting notes from the 1997 interview, Artman admitted to using prostitutes for sex. From June of 1992 through November of 1996, Artman was shown pictures of the deceased women working as prostitutes in the Grand Rapids area and denied recognizing them while or harming any of them. Artman stated In October of 1996 he was employed as Sky Runners at 4323 Patterson Avenue Southeast in Grand Rapids as a long distance trucker. End quote Sky Runners was located four miles from the ditch where Sharon's body was discovered off 76th street west of Craft Avenue. Sharon had been last seen on foot near Division Avenue Southeast between its intersections with banner and Burton, five miles from Artman's 54th street home. Artman moved to Grand Rapids in June 1992 upon his release from the prison in Ionia, living in a room at the Herkimer Hotel on Division Avenue South. This was just five miles from where Sharon was last seen and eight miles from where her body was found. All of that circumstantial evidence strongly supports Artman's confession and the DNA evidence connecting him to Sharon's murder. But what do they have connecting him to Dusty's? On August 17, 2022, Sergeant Christopher Taylor with the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit received a phone call from a detective with the Kent County Sheriff's Office in Michigan. A suspect, Gary Artman, had been identified in a 1996 cold case involving the death of a Michigan woman. The DNA sample from her crime scene had connected Encodis to The DNA from 2006 Maryland murder victim Dusty Schuck. Investigators from the Kent County Sheriff's Office provided Maryland State Police investigators with a DNA swab taken from Artman after his arrest, which was then compared to DNA and evidence in Dusty's case by forensic analysts from the Maryland State Police Crime Lab. Their results confirmed the match with Artman. An arrest warrant for Gary Artman was issued by Maryland authorities on September 12, 2022. The charging documents charge him with both first and second degree murder and first and second degree assault for what he did to Dusty Schuck on May 4, 2006. I will say this was an unfortunate oversight by the Maryland State Police. Lori Kreutzer, the mother of Dusty's Schuck, had been notified back in 2008 when male DNA taken from Dusty's body had matched in CODIS to DNA from an unknown offender, the man who had killed Sharon Hamack in Michigan. But in 2022, no one bothered to call her. When Gary Aardman was arrested, I was horrified to learn from a nexstar Media article that Lori found out about Artman's arrest from a reporter who texted her eight days afterward. She immediately called Wood TV reporter Susan Samples and asked, is this about Dusty? Laurie had not heard a peep on her daughter's case in years. It was, of course, a mixture of everything, Lori told Wood tv, referring to the moment the reporter shared the news. It brings back everything. The emotions inside me are both grief and relief. I'm just happy he's not going to kill anyone anymore. He's gotten away with it for so long. It's a miracle, she told the reporter. Modern science is a miracle. It was just time for that family, Sharon's, and time for our family, and time perhaps for others, too, because it didn't stop with those two. I'm sure this man has been killing for decades and got away with it and became very good at it. On September 19, 2022, the Maryland State Police issued a press release announcing that they had charged Gary ARTMAN with the 2006 murder of Dusty Schock. Investigators from the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit traveled to Michigan to conduct interviews and gather additional information relevant to their investigation. And then Artman died, and the Maryland prosecution along with him. To be clear, the Maryland authorities had a strong case against Artman that likely would have resulted in a conviction. Of course, they had his sort of confession, but they also had significant physical evidence. Not only did they have Artman's DNA on Dusty's sexual assault kit samples, they had also found his DNA on Dusty's right knee, on the waist and hip area of her black sweatpants, on both ankle areas of her sweatpants and and on the front exterior waistband of her blue sweatshirt. In other words, his DNA was all over her. Was there any proven connection between Gary Artman and Dusty Schuck other than the DNA? We don't know very much. I submitted a records request to the Maryland State Police, who told me they have no records relating to the Dusty Schuck case. That's impossible to believe, considering I have the arrest warrant and supporting affidavit of probable cause signed by Maryland State Police Sgt. Christopher Taylor. The Frederick County, Maryland Sheriff's Department said they had no records pertaining to the case and I needed to talk to the Maryland State Police. Kent county did not give me any materials relating to Dusty Schuck's investigation in their response to my records request. But I was able to find out that an owner of a trucking company where Gary Artman had worked from July 2004 to July 2006 told police that trucking company records and credit card transactions placed Artman in a town called Savage, Maryland around May 6, 2006. Dusty Schuck was dumped 30 miles from there on the 4th. And remember the Michigan charging document Tynehoff wrote, quote, shortly before the homicide victim was found in Maryland, she was in Ontario, California. It was found that around the same time Gary Dean artman was within 20 miles of Ontario when he was cited by local authorities, end quote. It wasn't a lot, but records in both Maryland and California put Artman in the same locations as Dusty within days of her being in those spots. I mentioned earlier that I would revisit the fact that Michigan investigators decided to arrest Gary Artman without a confirmatory structure DNA sample. This is something I've never seen done before in an IGG case. And I'll be honest, two very experienced IGG prosecutors I talked to about it did not like it at all. But the Michigan investigators felt that there were exigent circumstances necessitating an immediate arrest. They knew Artman's history of violent sexual assaults and that he had said his big mistake was keeping his victims alive. They knew that there was other evidence backing up the IGG identification, such as Artman living in Grand Rapids when Sharon Hamack was killed. They knew in fact that he had been interviewed on Sharon's case after tip 128 came in. And they knew that he continued to work as an over the road trucker and could very possibly still be actively killing women all over the country. For these reasons, they decided to move. And in the end, it turned out to be the right call. I think we can all agree that the chance that Gary Artman did not kill any more women on his over the road trucking travels across the US Are zilch. The chances that he killed no one in the 10 years between Sharon's and Dusty's murders are zilch. And the chance that we will ever know the identities of all his victims are zilch. For once, Gary Artman was a killer who truly knew himself and recognized himself for what he was, a monster. I can't decide whether on his deathbed he was truly trying to confess and age, illness, depravity and disorientation prevented him from recalling the details the police needed, or whether he was a monster to the end, withholding the very information that would allow others to find peace the way he never did. May Dusty and Sharon and all his other victims rest in peace after 26 and 16 years, respectively. The cases of Sharon Hamack and Dusty Shuck are closed thanks to igg and if you are one of the bad guys, they are coming for you.
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