Detroit Police Vanish Hundreds of Homicide Victims

by Charlie LeDuff – In Detroit, the corpses don't add up. Nearly 300 more people were murdered during Mayor Mike Duggan's first 10 years in office than the city admits. This is the equivalent of an entire year of homicide in Detroit. Or Los Angeles. Or seven years in Flint. “It's the saddest thing in the world to be treated like a number,” said Chris Frazier, whose son was gunned down at a family barbeque two years ago; a murder that remains unsolved. “ The saddest, except when you're not even a number at all.” While the statistical burying of bodies is a betrayal to the beleaguered people of Detroit like Frazier, it has a positive effect for politicians and police brass. When the murder rate goes down, the praise goes up. “Detroit on track to record fewest homicides since 1966,” brayed a headline from 2018. “Detroit with the fewest homicides since 1966,” bleated a headline from 2023. “Detroit on pace for fewest killings since 1965,” barked a headline from 2024. The truth is more macabre and outrageous. Every murder victim has to funnel through the county morgue. And it is the medical examiner – and the medical examiner alone -- who determines cause of death. I asked the Wayne County medical examiner to prepare a spreadsheet. The findings: from 2014 through 2023, the medical examiner declared homicide as the cause of death in 3,189 cases. Meanwhile, the Detroit Police reported 2,898 homicides to the public. So how did authorities vanish 291 bodies in a decade?

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