Detroit Free Press du lieu suivant : Detroit, Michigan • 137

21 MYSTERY UNRAVELS Detroit free press wwW.freep.com 6 A THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2003 -4 KILLINGS I Fear, rumors still surround case -Kfs('- i i Jyl if i 'X" DECEASED WITNESSES New testimony from witnesses during the past several months helped lead to murder charges in the 18-year-old disappearance of Brian Ognjan and David Tyll. But other witnesses have died during the past several years, eroding the murder case against Raymond and Donald Duvall. Investigators acknowledge that their case could grow weaker with the passage of time. Among the dead witnesses: Gerald who was hit by a train in Monroe in July 1996. The death was ruled accidental.

Drewior was prepared to testify about conversations he had with the Duvall brothers that Implicated them in the murders, said State Police Det. Sgt. Robert (Bronco) Lesneski. Eileen Bolzman Raymond Duvall's longtime girlfriend and mother of two of his children. She was found strangled to death In 1994 on a dirt road In Curtisville.

Bolzman, who left Duvall and remarried, saw one of the brothers In the hunters' missing Bronco truck shortly after the hunters' disappearance, according to investigators and court records. Bolzman's husband Nelson, was convicted of second-degree murder in her death but has maintained his innocence. Police say she was threat- ened by Raymond Duvall not to tell anyone what she knew. Nelson Bolzman, who is serving 18 to 30 years in the Thumb Correctional Center, urged authorities last month to reopen his case in light of Raymond Duvall's arrest, a request they say they are not likely to entertain. Jerry Kllllan, who was married to the sister of Sherman Heilig, now deceased.

Heillg was a suspect in the murders along with the Duvall brothers, according to court transcripts. Killian died In a head-on car crash in Arkansas In late 2001 caused in part by his alcohol consumption. He had told Investigators he had heard the suspects brag about the crime and later was threatened by one of the Duvall brothers never to tell anyone. Days after the threat, he discovered one of his horses' throats had been slit, said Lesneski. Ron Emery, who police said was an eyewitness, was hit by a car and killed near Mt.

Pleasant in 1995. Emery was Intoxicated when he stumbled into the motorist's path, police said. By Hugh McDiarmidJr. 0 I Photos by SUSAN TUSADetroit Free Press Eldon (Orf Flockhart, 67, of South Branch is a former roommate of murder suspect Raymond J.R.) Duvall and said "J.R. was a nice guy.

I don't believe he did it." Flockhart added that Duvall wasn't a violent man, but he liked to drink and "sure could handle his fighting." In this photo provided by the Attorney General's Office, Brian Ognjan straightens his friend David Tyll's tie at Tyll's wedding. They disappeared in 1985. No trace of them has been found. 1 I I From Page 1A This morning in a Mio courthouse ringed by police, a judge will decide whether the Duvall brothers should be tried in those killings. Prosecutors will present evidence from people who say they saw the Duvalls beat the men to death and testimony from people who say they heard them brag about feeding the bodies to pigs.

Defense attorneys say the witnesses are lying or mistaken and note there is no physical evidence. Fateful trip Childhood buddies David Tyll of Troy and Brian Ognjan of St. Clair Shores haven't been seen since they were last spotted shooting pool and drinking in a bar near Mio during a weekend hunting trip. The black Ford Bronco they were driving has never been found. Their disappearance generated a massive manhunt involving scuba divers, ground-penetrating radar, psychics, the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries," three generations of detectives and the help of law enforcement agencies as tiny as the 15-officer Alcona County Sheriff's Department and as expansive as Interpol, the 181-country international law enforcement agency.

It's the stuff of urban legends. But it's real. And now, police and prosecutors from the Michigan Attorney General's office say they have their men the two oldest of a clan of seven loyal brothers. But police don't have a body, a truck, a shred of clothing or a drop of blood that connects the Duvalls to the disappearance. Seymour Schwartz, Coco Du-vall's attorney, said there's a reason for that.

"They weren't there and they didn't do anything and they're an- gry because they think they're being worked by the cops," Schwartz said. Scott Williams, J.R.'s attorney, says all police have are "basically rumors and 1,200 pages of police report with no physical evidence." -j Schwartz said the families of the victims pressured police to clear the books on a case that has baffled detectives. He calls the prosecution's witnesses unreliable many have extensive criminal histories and reasons to hate the Duvalls. But police say they have credible witnesses: people who heard the Duvalls brag of the killing, heard them say they chopped the bodies to bits and fed the remains to pigs or saw them near or in Tyll's Ford Bronco shortly after the disappearance. The witnesses are scared, police say.

Some didn't tell what they knew years ago because the Duvalls threatened to kill them. Some told only part of what they knew. Security will be as tight as it has ever been at the nrodest courthouse in Mio, the county seat for Oscoda County's 9,000 residents. Police say there are rumors that the Duvalls might make a run for it with the help of friends or family. Last month, guards at the Montmorency County jail in Atlanta discovered that bricks had been pried from the jail cell walls and hidden in a commons area.

Only four inmates had access to the area. Two were J.R. and Coco Duvall. If 81st District Court Judge Allen Yenior decides today that there is enough evidence for the brothers to stand trial, a jury will determine whether they spend the rest of their lives in prison. For Helen Ognjan, 77, Brian's mother, a guilty verdict would be a relief, but not closure.

"What can I tell you?" she asked in barely audible voice Monday. She'll be at the court hearing. "It's hard for me to even think about it, much less her voice trails off with the thought of hearing the details of her son's final moments. Code of silence News of the brothers' May 14 I The backwaters of the Alcona Dam near Glennie, where diving and aerial searches have been done to look for the hunters' bodies. AMY LEANQDetrolt Free Press file photo TRAGIC TRAIL rOR HUNTERS Brian Ognjan of St.

Clair Shores and David Tyll of Troy were beaten to death outside a Mio tavern in 1985, according to state prosecutors. fmmtmmtmiwimmmHmmiimimmJ'jnmmvmmmwmmmr film I wpwniwj .1 phi kft Is jjw Jjar -t Tlaka Lakai Michigan fr Hwon 1 INDIANA PTf The former Linkers Lounge, now the Lost Sky Creek Ranch, about 5 miles west of Mio. Witnesses place the suspects and the victims at the bar the night they disappeared. A Mio. Location of bar where Ognjan and Tyll were drinking the night before they were last seen.

West of Mio. Location of bar where the pair were allegedly murdered. Southeast of Mio. Location where suspects are believed to have lived at Few want their names to appear publicly in connection with the Duvalls some because of fear but most because they're following the implicit small-town code: Stay out of other people's business. Standing in front of his battered trailer on a junk-strewn lot in Curtisville, Orf Flockhart said he doesn't believe J.R.

had it in him to kill someone. Flockhart, 67, lived with J.R. "for a couple winters," and later for several years with another Duvall brother, Rex. He said he didn't know Coco very well, "but J.R. was a nice guy.

I don't believe he did it. He was a guy that, if he cut a load of wood for you, he was fair about it." J.R. wasn't a violent man, but he liked to drink "and sure could handle his fighting," recalled Flockhart, who boasts of spending $200 a month on beer himself. "They had their fun," he said of the brothers. "Once they tied up Kenny," the youngest Duvall brother, "with ropes and hoisted him up in a tree and left him there.

But it was just for fun," Schwartz, Coco's lawyer, agreed that his client fought but only fairly: "It was old-time rough-and-tumble, always fist-fights, never weapons. These days, everybody brings their guns, their knives and their lawyers." The Duvall family could not be reached through phone calls to their homes in Monroe, nor through their lawyers. "None of the family has any comment," said a woman who answered the phone at a number listed for Rex Duvall, one of the brothers. Alcona County Sheriff Doug El-linger, said the Duvall brothers' reputation for violence intimidated many people. the two missing hunters.

Nelson Bolzman, 50, was convicted in the 1994 strangulation death of his wife, Eileen Bolzman. Bolzman has maintained his innocence, saying his wife may have been killed by friends or relatives of J.R. Duvall with whom Eileen had a 10-year relationship. She was the mother of two of J.R.'s children. The trial included testimony from J.R.

Duvall and also from one of his best friends, Robert Provost a Vietnam veteran with no permanent address who told jurors he suffered from posttraumatic stress syndrome. Provost, whose tire tracks were discovered swerving around Eileen Bolzman's body on the muddy road, was cleared of wrongdoing by police. In trial transcripts, defense attorney Robert Betz described the area where the killing occurred as "the most dilapidated nasty mess in the world in the midst of what I would call a murderous corner of the world, Curtisville." Betz tried to cast doubt on his clients' guilt by suggesting that J.R. Duvall had threatened Eileen Bolzman not to tell what she knew about the hunters' disappearance. "Why would anyone drive around a body?" he asked jurors, suggesting that Provost may have done the killing.

Provost died several years ago of a drug overdose. The Eileen Bolzman killing is one of several deaths of potential witnesses in the Duvall case. They illuminate a simple truth: The longer prosecutors wait, the tougher it becomes to prove their case. Lesneski carries a shovel in his car trunk and occasionally digs holes looking for the Bronco. "I always ask myself, 'what would I do if it were a member of my own Lesneski said of his motivation to keep searching.

"You've just got to keep going." the time. White Cloud. Tyll family cottage, where the hunters said they were heading. Wixom. Suspects overheard in 1987 allegedly talking about the murders.

Detroit Free Press arrest rekindled rumors and speculation in gathering places like the Curtisville Trading Post and the Timbers Steakhouse in South Branch, a frequent Duvall hangout in the 1980s. Some are certain the Duvalls did it. Others say it's a frame-up by police who have got nothing but a pack of lying witnesses. "If you stopped them, you knew to get backup," said Ellinger, who was a deputy in the one-stoplight county at the time of the hunters' disappearance. "Duvall? That's the magic word," said a patron at the Timbers Steakhouse, who smiled and turned back to his beer.

"No one here is going to talk to you about them." Retired Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Theo Helms said the Duvalls particularly J.R. and Coco were frequent targets of his investigations. "They were criminals, poachers, always looking to do something wrong. They were very assaultive, very aggressive." The two brothers were identified in a 1982 Free Press article as part of a ring convicted of illegally selling salmon eggs. "Lots of people hated them.

But lots of people were afraid to turn them in," Helms said. Det. Sgt. Robert (Bronco) Les-neski, a State Police investigator, said potential informants still fear retaliation from the brothers. "They like to fight.

You mess with one of them, you mess with all of them," he said. "I get a lot of pay phone calls from people who want to stay anonymous." Missing witnesses The lengths to which the brothers allegedly went to intimidate witnesses came out during testimony in a 1995 killing case. Transcripts from the trial suggested that J.R. Duvall used threats to keep an ex-girlfriend who Was later killed quiet about 't 4 Contact HUGH fylcDIARMID JR. at 248-586-2611 or mcdiarmiajrfreepress.com.

Donald (Coco) Duvall, left, and his brother Raymond (J.R) Duvall are accused of two killings in 1985. They face a hearing today..