The terror came to Oakland County, Michigan, in 1976. Authorities would later disagree on body-counts and motives, even the description of their suspect, but there was no argument about the impact that a string of grisly murders had upon the wealthy bedroom communities northwest of Detroit. Someone was killing children, claiming one victim after another with seeming impunity, while police watched helplessly from the sidelines.

The first to die was Cynthia Cadieux, 16, abducted from Roseville on January 15, found naked and dead the next morning, Iying on a rural road in Bloomfield Township. Raped and bludgeoned with a blunt instrument, she had been dragged some distance over snow covered pavement, her clothing piled fifteen feet from the body.

Four days later, in Birmingham, 14-year-old Sheila Shrock was raped and shot to death inside her home. Police made the discovery while checking out a prowler call. Two blocks away, John McAuliffe had been terrorized, bound, and robbed of five dollars by a gunman who invaded his house. Police were left with a description of the killer, but they had no other leads.

On February 13, 12-year-old Mark Stebbins left the American Legion hall in Ferndale, heading homeward shortly after noon. He never got there, and his lifeless body would be found in Southfield six days later, Iying in the snowy parking lot behind an office building. Dead at least 36 hours when found, Stebbins had been sexually assaulted, then smothered, his body cleaned with meticulous care before he was laid out for discovery.

The pattern seemed to break with 13-year-old Jane Allan, abducted while hitchhiking in Royal Oak, on August 8, 1976. Her body was found three days later at Miamisburg, Ohio, with the cause of death listed as carbon monoxide poisoning . Thus far, police saw no link between the four murders, nor could they find a connection with the September 1972 strangulation of teenager Donna Serra, in Ray Township. Unique methods of murder, along with the rape of both sexes, suggested different killers -- at least two, and perhaps as many as four.

The pattern was established in December, with 12-year-old Jill Robinson's disappearance from Royal Oak, three days before Christmas. Her body was discovered on December 26, near Troy in southern Oakland County, laid out neatly in a roadside snow bank. The cause of death had been a single short-range shotgun blast -- another deviation -- but the victim's body had been scrubbed before she died. The coroner could find no evidence of sexual assault.

On January 2, 1977, 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich left her Berkley home to buy a magazine and vanished on the three-block walk. Her body was discovered January 21, in Franklin Village, near the spot where Cynthia Cadieux had been discarded one year earlier. Unlike her predecessor, Kristine had not been raped; instead, she had been suffocated, body washed and laid out in a funeral position, as with victims Robinson and Stebbins.

Homicide detectives were convinced of a connection in at least three cases now, and they did not have long to wait for number four. On March 16, 11-year-old Timothy King disappeared in Birmingham, his case igniting a general panic throughout Oakland County. Witnesses recalled seeing Tim with a shaggy-haired man who drove a blue Gremlin compact, but no one had noted the license number. Appearing on local television, Timothy's mother begged for the safe return of her child, promising that his favorite chicken dinner would be waiting.

The search ended on March 23, with discovery of the boy's corpse in a roadside ditch, near Livonia. Another victim of suffocation, Timothy had been scrubbed and manicured after death, with his clothing cleaned and pressed. Medical examiners reported evidence of sexual assault, but they "detected no proof that the killer was a male." Examination of the stomach contents showed that Timothy had been allowed one final chicken dinner prior to death. The media began to call their man the "Babysitter," after the apparent care he lavished on his victims while he held them captive. Authorities could not agree upon the killer's motives, some suggesting that he scrubbed the bodies to remove incriminating evidence, while others read the act as a ritual exorcism of guilt. The molestation of male victims pointed to a homosexual killer, but why, then, were female victims chosen? The shotgun death of Jill Robinson was another riddle. One source hypothesized that Jill had survived attempted suffocation, suddenly reviving on the roadside; another theory noted that she had begun to menstruate, suggesting the killer had altered his pattern to cope with the only "adult" victim.

On March 27, Dr. Bruce Danto, a Detroit psychiatrist, published an open letter to the "Babysitter," theorizing on his motives, pleading with the man to call for help or turn himself in to police. Among the predictable rash of crank calls, one stood out. The male caller told Danto simply, "The article was wrong. You better hope it doesn't snow any more."

In short order, Danto began receiving letters and calls from a man who gave his name as "Allen," describing himself as the murderer's roommate. According to the caller, he and his friend had soldiered together in Vietnam, the Babysitter returning home with a deep bitterness toward affluent America. Suburban children were selected as the victims, he explained in a twisted effort to "bring the war home" and educate wealthy slackers to the suffering of combat veterans. On one occasion, "Allen" made a date to meet with Danto, but he never showed.

In Oakland County, spring and summer passed without another "pattern" homicide, parents growing apprehensive as autumn turned to winter and the snow began to fall. Aside from cleanliness, fresh snow appeared to be the killer's chief obsession. Safety programs instituted the previous winter were revived, police patrols beefed up in grim anticipation of another crime that never came. To date, there have been no more calls from "Allen," no more homicides attributed to the Babysitter. Whether he is dead, locked up on other charges or at large today, the case remains unsolved.