The murder of Cindy Zarzycki
Eastpointe, Macomb County, Michigan · 1986
Overview
Cindy Zarzycki, 13, walked to the Dairy Queen on Nine Mile Road in East Detroit, Michigan, now Eastpointe, on the morning of Sunday, April 20, 1986, and was never seen again. She had told two friends she was meeting her boyfriend's father, Arthur Ream, who had promised to drive her to a surprise party for his son; the boy's birthday had been in January, and Ream had paid an employee to take him to Texas that weekend. Police treated her as a runaway for eight years. In 1994 the case was reclassified as a possible homicide and one of Ream's ex-wives pointed police to him; in 1995 Eastpointe Detective Derek McLaughlin was handed the file. In 2007 McLaughlin re-interviewed Cindy's friends, who told identical stories, and found a missing-child coupon with her picture in a watch box in Ream's locked-up warehouse. With Ream weeks from parole, prosecutors charged him in January 2008. In June 2008, with no body and no physical evidence beyond the coupon, a Macomb County jury took two hours to convict him of first-degree murder. In the courthouse lockup he told McLaughlin he had panicked and killed her, and weeks later drew a map marking a grave by a river in Macomb Township. On July 9, 2008, searchers found her remains, her purse and her mix tapes. He was sentenced to mandatory life and died of cancer in prison on August 15, 2024, aged 75, a suspect in the disappearances of other girls.
How it was solved
The conviction came first and the confession second, and both were the work of one detective who would not put the file down. For eight years Eastpointe police treated Cindy as a runaway, though two friends had told officers on the first day that she had gone to meet her boyfriend's father at the Dairy Queen. In 1994, after a family vigil on what would have been her twenty-first birthday, Detective Danielle Davis reclassified the case as a possible murder. The boyfriend, 22, was killed by a drunk driver before he could be interviewed; his mother, one of Arthur Ream's ex-wives, then told Davis to look at her former husband, a carpet installer with a 1975 conviction for indecent liberties with a minor. In May 1995 the file reached Detective Derek McLaughlin, who kept it for thirteen years. Ream went to prison in 1998 for sexually assaulting a girl between 13 and 15. In 2007 McLaughlin restarted the investigation from scratch. Cindy's two friends, who had not spoken since 1986, gave near-identical accounts: Cindy had phoned Ream the night before to confirm, would look for his white van between ten and eleven, and believed she was going to a surprise party for his son in Pontiac. A search of Ream's warehouse, locked since his 1997 arrest, turned up a torn mailer bearing Cindy's missing-child picture in a watch box; it expired in June 1995, a year after his son's death. Learning Ream would be paroled just after Christmas 2007, McLaughlin took the circumstantial case to Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan, who approved a warrant. The judge excluded Ream's sexual history and most of an eight-hour post-arrest interview, but a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in June 2008 after two hours. Only then, in the courthouse lockup, did Ream tell McLaughlin he had panicked and killed her. A later jailhouse interview rattled him; about a week afterward his lawyer called to say his client wanted to hand over a map marking an X by a river about 25 feet from a bridge. On July 9, 2008, with Ream brought out in chains and unable to point to the grave, searchers found Cindy's remains, her purse and her cassette tapes in the fifth trench. DNA confirmed the identification in November 2008. Ream never admitted the killing in court; in a videotaped interrogation he said she had fallen from an open elevator at his warehouse.
Sources
- The Case of the Girl Who Never Came Home, Part 2-3 (September 2, 2010)
“Cindy Zarzycki became one of those "Have You Seen This Child" faces on the back of store coupons. Forever 13 years old. She'd walked off to Dairy Queen on a Sunday morning in 1986 and was never seen again.”
- The Case of the Girl Who Never Came Home, Part 4-5 (September 2, 2010)
“The torn paper was an old direct mail sales coupon for a construction glass on one side...and on the other, a Have-You-Seen Me notice for Cindy Zarzycki with her picture and a 1-800 call line for leads.”
- The Case of the Girl Who Never Came Home, Part 6-7 (September 2, 2010)
“But the party was a ruse, later testimony would reveal. Scott's birthday had been in January, not April when Cindy disappeared.”
- The Case of the Girl Who Never Came Home, Part 8-9 (September 2, 2010)
“Then the jury went behind closed doors to deliberate a first degree murder case. And to the surprise of nearly everyone, they were back after just two hours.”
- The Case of the Girl Who Never Came Home, Part 10-11 (September 2, 2010)
“In November, 2008, with DNA lab results finally confirming what everyone knew, Cindy's remains were returned to her family for a memorial service. Hundreds of mourners filled the funeral home in Eastpointe.”
- '86 slaying may be solved (January 3, 2008)
“A man currently in prison has been charged with murdering an Eastpointe girl who was reported missing by her parents more than 20 years ago.”
- Murder charges pending (February 2, 2008)
“The primary suspect in the disappearance of a 13-year-old East Detroit girl in 1986 was bound over Friday evening and will face multiple murder charges when he's arraigned Feb. 11.”
- Killer points police to teen he murdered 22 years ago (July 10, 2008)
“The remains of a 13-year-old Eastpointe girl who was murdered 22 years ago were found by police late Wednesday”
- A sister's statement (August 8, 2008)
“I am Cindy Zarzycki's sister; I speak on her behalf today because the defendant's cruel and evil actions took away her civil rights: her life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
- No new trial for child killer Arthur Ream (October 1, 2008)
“Arthur Nelson Ream will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a judge rejected his attorney's claims that Ream did not receive a fair trial before he was convicted of first-degree murder.”
- Police search for as many as 7 long-missing girls believed buried in Mich. woods (May 8, 2018)
“He later was temporarily released from prison to lead police to Zarzycki's body. He told investigators that Zarzycki's body was buried near a creek. He also drew a map of the site and spent about an hour at the search scene with authorities before being returned to prison.”
- Man serving life for killing Michigan teen girl dies in prison (September 12, 2024)
“Arthur Ream, 75, died Aug. 15 of cancer at a prison hospital in Jackson, Michigan, the state Corrections Department said Thursday.”
- Cynthia Jocelyn Zarzycki
“He was convicted in June 2008, although Cynthia's body hadn't been found. In July, Ream lead investigators to Cynthia's body in a shallow grave in Macomb Township, Michigan.”