A Flint police detective says he believes more than one person knows where the body of Coral Hall is hidden, and says he won’t stop looking — even if the girl’s grandmother is convicted of having killed her.
“I will not close this investigation until Coral is found,” said Detective Sgt. Greg Hosmer. “I will continue to follow up … to find her remains (regardless of) the outcome of this case.”
Police and prosecutors believe Lois Janish, the grandmother of Hall, killed her when Coral was just 14 years old and have charged her with open murder in a case that’s scheduled to go to trial in December.
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Hall disappeared from her grandmother’s home in Flint in September 1998 and has never been found or heard from since.
Hosmer, a cold case specialist, has led five searches since that time for Hall’s body, twice in locations he said Janish, 73, told him he should search.
Police have made use of canine cadaver dogs, received help from the city’s building inspectors, the Genesee County Land Bank and forensic anthropology students from Michigan State University, but Hall’s remains missing and her body unrecovered.
Earlier this month, Hosmer traveled out of state to follow up on a tip and said Monday, Oct. 28, that he believes “there’s others out there who do know something but will not cooperate.”
“I think at least two individuals out there haven’t been forthright” about Hall’s disappearance, he said.
Hosmer said Crimestoppers has become involved in the case, offering a $1,000 reward information that will lead to to the recovery of Hall’s body.
Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers at 800-422-5245 or Hosmer at (810) 237-6945.
Police and prosecutors arraigned Janish earlier this year in Flint District Court on a single charge of open murder after authorities say she killed Hall in 1998. Janish allegedly told investigators she killed the girl with a hammer then dismembered her body before scattering her remains, but she later recanted that story.
In August at a preliminary exam, a 42-year-old man testified he smoked crack with Hall and said Janish had offered him “time alone” with Hall in exchange for drugs.
Although Hall’s body has never been found, Hosmer said investigators believe she was killed and her body hidden, in part, because she never again contacted friends or family, never used her Social Security number and never surfaced despite her case having been featured in missing children campaigns.
