OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. — Even before their son, Ethan Crumbley, was charged with a murderous rampage at Oxford High School, his parents had left town.
Although James and Jennifer Crumbley were eventually captured days later following a half-day manhunt that ended in Detroit early Saturday morning, what led up to their apprehension has sparked controversy in Oakland County.
Hours after Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald charged them with involuntary manslaughter Friday for what she called their "egregious" role in the school shooting that killed four students and wounded seven others, including a teacher, the husband and wife were nowhere to be found.
The U.S. Marshals Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team, in conjunction with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, issued a reward of up to $10,000 late Friday for information leading to the arrest of both subjects.
That left the Oakland County sheriff and prosecutor trying to explain Friday how the parents of the accused shooter, known to be under scrutiny, could have eluded law enforcement.
Days earlier, however, the Crumbleys left their small northern Oakland County home. They appeared to be in a vehicle when they made a video appearance at the arraignment of Ethan, 15, on Wednesday.
Ethan Crumbley was charged as an adult that day with four counts of murder and several other felonies and was ordered moved from a juvenile detention center to the Oakland County Jail.
"The Crumbleys left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety," said attorneys Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, who are representing the couple. They did not say where the couple had fled to.
On Thursday, McDonald said she would make a charging decision the next day.
Smith and Lehman contacted the prosecutor's office and told authorities that the Crumbleys would turn themselves in for arraignment.
McDonald, at a Friday news conference, said she spoke with the parents before filing the criminal complaint.
"These parents are in deep grief," she said. "But the facts in this case are so egregious."
Prosecutors say Ethan committed the crimes with a gun his father bought him for Christmas on Black Friday, just four days before the attack. They said his mother posted on social media about spending time with her son at the shooting range the weekend before the shootings.
Meanwhile, the Oakland County Sheriff's office expressed frustration on Friday that it was not informed of the charges in advance.
It was first informed that the couple were being charged on Friday by the media, said Undersheriff Mike McCabe. It wasn't immediately clear if the couple had been surveilled during or after search warrants were executed on the family's home on Tuesday night, hours after the shooting.
"This is, honestly, the first time — I've been sheriff 21 years — where charges have been announced before we had someone in custody," Sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN on Friday. "We were absolutely ready. We anticipated we would get a heads up like we always do and we would activate our team to go out looking for somebody if charges were imminent or charges were anticipated."
His department had only heard that a charging decision was imminent, he said, and had not put the couple under surveillance because that would've meant taking them off the investigation.
“The prosecutor’s office doesn’t arrest people,” McDonald told CNN Friday night.
McDonald said she asked an assistant prosecutor a day and a half before Friday's news conference if the police had “eyes” on the parental suspects. She said she was told police knew where the Crumbleys were.
“They will be apprehended, one way or another,” McDonald said Friday.
Even on Friday morning, attorneys assured the Oakland County Sheriff's office that the couple would return for a court arraignment, which authorities scheduled for 4 p.m.
As Friday morning dragged into Friday afternoon with no word from the couple, however, concern began to grow. The Crumbleys were no longer responding to their attorneys, McCabe said.
By 3:30 p.m., the sheriff's department determined that they had fled and issued a news release asking for assistance in locating them or their vehicles.
"The action of fleeing and ignoring their attorney certainly adds weight to the charges," according to Sheriff Michael Bouchard, the release said. "They cannot run from their part in this tragedy."
The family's lawyers maintained they were not on the run, and still would return.
They did not. And in the early hours of Saturday, they were captured at a location on Bellevue Street on Detroit's east side after a vehicle linked to them was discovered, according to police.
———
