The Machett Investigation

October 1980 was a very interesting month.

Fellow television sports commentators Brent Musberger, then 39, and Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, 61, almost came to blows at a mid-town New York watering hole. Authorities in Atlanta requested the assistance of New Jersey psychic Dorothy Allison to assist in the serial murders of young boys, later pinned on Wayne Williams. In Jefferson County, Wisconsin, investigators discovered the skeletal remains of Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew, both 19 years-of-age, in an Ixonia field.

On the Milwaukee crime front, October of 1980 was a bizarre month as well. Police arrested Former county supervisor and city building inspector William Nagel for indecently touching an under cover officer during a sting at Estabrook Park. With violence on the rise, Police Chief Harold Breier sought 45 additional police officers. From my perspective as a relatively new officer working the graveyard shift at District Five, events proved the chief's request timely indeed.

At 10:30 PM on October 25, Sandra Morrical contacted the Milwaukee Police Department regarding her 10-year-old missing son, Brad Machett. Two of the young boy's friends last saw Machett near the corner of N. Weil and E. Center Streets at about 6:30 PM, five blocks south of the young boy's destination -- his grandmother's tavern, The Aid Station, located at the corner of N. Bremen and E. Burleigh Streets.

Even though Machett had previously ran away from home, Inspector Kenneth Hagopian told the Milwaukee Sentinel that detectives began working the case "as soon as the report came over the teletype at 12:24 AM" on October 26. The young boy was 4 feet 5 inches tall, weighed 80 pounds, had long blond hair, and was last seen wearing a blue jacket and tan trousers.

Officers and detectives fanned out to search the vicinity, known as the Riverwest neighborhood. The winding Milwaukee River borders this area to the south and to the east. Hagopian told the Milwaukee Sentinel that officers searched the river's shoreline but the department would not deploy divers unless "we have something more solid to go on."

Officers at District 5 roll calls received a two-year-old black and white photo of Brad Machett. Over the years, I held on to this photo of the smiling young boy sporting a white and black sweater. A picture in the October 28, 1980 Milwaukee Sentinel depicted the boy with longer hair and a slightly mature face.

The search for Brad Machett quickly turned cold. For the next six days, officers continued to search the area and pounded on doors in an effort to locate the boy.

Then, on Halloween, two brothers, Daniel and David Laabs, cut through a field on their way to school in the Town of Grafton -- 20 miles north of Milwaukee -- and stumbled across a body. The boys, ages 13 and 8, raced home and contacted the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Department at about 9:15 AM.

"I saw the little fellow," Ozaukee County Deputy Leroy Dahm told the Milwaukee Sentinel. "I hated like hell to see him there. His head was in the field and his feet were facing the road." The body of Brad Machett was found about 50 feet north of Lakefield Road. Deputy Dahm reported that a tire mark at the scene indicated that a car had accelerated quickly.

Next: the twists and turns of the Machett investigation.
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Steven Spingola is a retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective and the author of The Killer in Our Midst: the Case of Milwaukee's North Side Strangler.

Copyright, Steven Spingola, Milwaukee, WI 2009