FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Farmington Hills police discussed common crime trends at the annual Neighborhood Watch meeting with about 20 attendees.
Watch Darren Cunningham's video report:
The number one issue? Thieves stealing from unlocked cars.
But the topic on everyone’s mind was the May 3rd homicide at Woodland Hills Nature Park.
Previous report: Farmington Hills police launch homicide investigation after body found on park trail
Farmington Hills resident Sheila Branigan told 7 News Detroit, “It’s a very popular park. It’s very wooded. It's trails. It’s mostly people who wanna hike, and so it took me aback that there’d be an incident like that there.”
Investigators said the body of 65-year-old Richard Allen Harris was discovered a half-mile down the trail. He was the victim of blunt force trauma.
Branigan hikes there regularly but hasn't been back since. She feels left in the dark. A sketch released hours before the meeting of a person of interest is the only clue she's seen.
“I’d like to kinda hear it for myself. Taxpayer living in this city... when something like this happens, I kinda want to know what I’m paying for," she told 7 News Detroit.
She broke the ice by pressing the chief for recent updates.
Chief John Piggot told residents, “A situation where we’re not exactly sure of the motive, we can’t rule out that they didn’t know him, but we have to follow each one of those leads in that root, wherever that goes. We have to pull that thread.”
He warned that releasing too much detail too early invites bogus tips that waste valuable time and resources.
“So, already just from the tips that we have asked for since the public has come on, we’ve spent hundreds of hours tracking down people... They pieced pieces of it together, and it sounded just credible enough for us to have to divert all of our resources to track that down," Piggot explained.
The chief reassured residents police are stepping up park patrols.. But urged situational awareness. He says investigative secrecy is critical to seeking justice.
“Some amount of this is that we do ask our residents to trust to an extent that we hold some of this information back for the betterment of the case and for the betterment of seeking justice for the family, but certainly it does get to the point where we don’t want to seem like we’re hiding anything either," he explained.
Anyone with info is asked to call Farmington Hills police at 248-871-2600.
