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 was 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 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 the state  fire officials reports, depositions and court testimony concerning the arson and  reports that state homicide. 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, a review of my book by Alice (Defrosting Cold Cases) that I wrote in 2018 concerning spending half my life  fighting for justice for my son Mike as well as some newspaper reports on Mike's murder.
    Dec. 2017, Maine Portland Press did an  article on Mike's case. It said that I had "devoted more time to the cold case [Mike's case] than any of the detectives assigned to it. And that a Maine State Police Office had told the paper that Mike's murder case was a "travesty of justice."  
 "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."
 July 2020, an organization by the name of Defrosting Cold Cases did a review of my book and believed there was a cover-up in Mike's case. There had been other newspaper articles written about Mike's murder case. In 1991, Randy Wilson of Maine Times did an article on Mike's case. He reported that I had brought suit against Paul Daniel Pollard and how my attorney walked out on me eleven days  before trial and went to work for the Maine Attorney General's Office. There is also a video of Just a Dog in Maine reporting the unsolved murders in Maine. Mike's case is reported. It asks who will speak for the victim [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 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 in what order he informed Shawn and I of his cover up investigation. But I seem  to remember that he started with Mike being 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. The cottage had burned completely down when Maine State Police Cpl. Allen Jamison and 42-year veteran Fire Marshal William "Bill" Ricker arrived on the scene and found Mike's body. Photo of burned cottage. How could he say that! There is no evidence of Mike's body being found behind a door. The photo shows the burned cottage as it was when the investigators arrived on the scene. Furthermore, Deputy Medical Examiner Ronald Roy was asked during his 1990 deposition testimony "what was the first thing that you recall about what took place at that time?” He replied "It was difficult to identify a body at the scene until it was pointed out to us, and then we were able to recognize a badly charred body lying on its stomach near the front of the building. ... and it was still within the confines of the building, what would probably be a porch area.”

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.


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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 fire was an accident and that the carpeting on the floor in the cottage caused the fire.

 Three State of Maine documents that reports Mike's death as a homicide. The first document is a cause of death supplement by Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Ronald Roy and it reports Mike's death as homicide. The second document is a report on the gas cans containing gas that Ricker took to the lab and the third is a report on a gun found in the fire. The lab reports state Mike's death as arson-murder. As for the carpet Crumb explained that carpeting would cause a severe fire because carpeting is like gasoline but 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 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 death 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.

I sharply responded "I did not! I got those cans from the United States Federal Courthouse." In the information I sent (CCF) / Uncovered I had sent a photo of myself holding the gas cans used in Mike's murder.  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 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 42 years except the state doesn't say Pollard had criminal charges they just say he was scared. Paul Pollard 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 (CCF) / Uncovered Management Superior Cathie Vallas-McKinzie wrote to me  "You can relax a little ... we have your back." Only (CCF) / Uncovered didn't have my back but the State of Maine did have Paul Pollard's back. Pollard didn't have to be scared.

Shuman: July 10, 1986, said he had to talk to DA about Pollard not prosecuted for murder
Shuman: Aug. 29, 1986, testifies and commits perjury to cover for Paul Pollard
I believe the state covered for the murderers to cover for themselves. They did something the night of Mike's death and their DEA drug bust that they needed to cover 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. Mike was in bed when Cormier arrived at the cottage at 3:30 am on Feb. 18, 1981, shortly after Percy Sargent's drug arrest  The chemist report reports Mike's alcohol level at  .01 gms/100 ml and 46 % carbon monoxide but doesn’t give a level of drugs in Mike's blood. 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 (CCF) / Uncovered.  Mike lost his life. Why did he find it necessary to denigrate him?

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."

NOT AN ACCIDENT as (CCF), / Uncovered Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb had told Shawn and I on November 10, 2022.

September 14,  2006, I received another letter ffrom Deputy AG Stokes. He  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 Micheal. 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."
     I am quite confident that that will not happen.

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 42 year veteran Fire Marshal Wilbur Ricker were known as reputable and professional investigators. 

      

















What right did Arson investigator Bryan Crumb have (along with Deputy Executive Director Dean Jackson and Case Management Supervisor Cathie Vallas-McKinzier) to denigrate either of the two veteran fire men. What kind of an organization is (CCF) / Uncovered  that they would make up stories 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 (CCF) / Uncovered 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 an accidental fire and that the carpet in the cottage caused the fire and that the roof fell in and crushed Mike's head.
    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 with both arms and then reaching to 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 nearly 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. Maine law officials have never said that the carpet in the cottage is like gasoline and that was what cause the fire.  What Bryn Crumb, Cathie Vallis-McKinze and Dean Jackson tried to feed me was very, very is insulting. 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 cans (the gas cans used in Mike's murder) 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 that time.  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.