Where The Body Is Buried

The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board has affirmed a panel’s one-year suspension of an attorney convicted of felony possession of an unregistered machine gun.

The Grievance Administrator had sought disbarment.

ABC12.com had a story about the criminal case

The family of a murdered Mid-Michigan woman is speaking out after a shocking court confession this week.

Former attorney Michael Hoy admitted he helped bury their loved one’s body.

Hoy didn’t come clean on his own. He was in federal court for sentencing on a gun charge.

As ABC12 reported Tuesday, the judge brought up Katie Cook’s 2005 murder.  There was mention of it, and Hoy’s involvement, in his pre-sentencing report.

What didn’t come out in court was how Hoy came to be implicated. Federal court documents detail that information.

Out of all the things that could have cracked Cook’s murder case wide open, it came down to a state probation officer smelling marijuana during a home visit at Hoy’s brother Gerald Hoy’s place in Shiawassee County.

Federal court documents show police found a grow operation and guns – a number of them fully-automatic machine guns.

Published reports point to a federal search warrant in which Gerald, a convicted felon, said he got the illegal weapons from his brother Michael.

“When I was contacted by the feds about someone who possibly knew information, I’ve got that phone call a hundred times,” said Mt. Morris Township Police Chief Scott McKenna.

But McKenna said that call about Cook’s murder was different.  Police focused on Michael and executed a search warrant at his Genesee County home last July. They found machine guns and materials needed to convert the weapons.

A 15 day dig uncovered Cook’s remains, in a Gaines Township cornfield, almost exactly seven years after she went missing from Mt. Morris Township.

The state’s case against Michael was eventually dropped while his federal case continued.

He pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an unregistered machinegun. He was sentenced, Tuesday, to one year in federal prison and three years probation.

Michael confessed, after nudging from the judge, that he helped a mentally ill acting friend bury a woman’s body, scared that friend would hurt him if he didn’t. 

“Everybody’s going to present a story that benefits them in some way,” McKenna said.  “There’s tons of things that had to fall into place for us to find Katie’s body. I don’t care how they happened. I just care we got here and that her family has her today.”

Michael’s said he has a written agreement with Genesee County prosecutors to testify against that friend. The agreement includes a misdemeanor charge, according to what was said in federal court Tuesday.

McKenna confirmed there is an agreement in place, but said he is unsure of the exact details. 

Michael’s brother Gerald is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court next month.

While Cook’s family finds some relief in Michael taking some responsibility, her sister says they don’t believe the man suspected in her murder was mentally ill and they don’t believe Michael was scared of him.

“We can not wait for all of this to be over. He’s just one small step in this. We’re waiting to get the big fish,” said Jenni Cook.

The suspect, Cook’s boyfriend at the time, remains in jail in Missouri charged in a 2010 Christmas Eve attack on his wife.

Marie Hunault says she is that victim and is in the process of divorcing Joseph Hunault.

Police and prosecutors have not publicly named him as the suspect.

“We were driving home Christmas Eve to see family,” Marie said Wednesday.

Marie said she and Joseph, who’d been married one month, were arguing, things got physical and then very violent.

“He stabbed me right here,” she said pointing to her neck.

Marie said Joseph ditched her, bleeding and nearly dead, on the side of the road, but returned.

ABC12 asked her if she thought he was coming back to kill her. “Oh yeah,” she said. “To finish it.”

Police arrived, Joseph was arrested and charged.

“If he’s found guilty, it’s 10 years to life,” Marie said.

Marie said she did not know Cook, but confirms a connection between Cook and Joseph.

“He’d bring her name up,” she said.

Marie said Joseph would threaten her and hint it wouldn’t be the first time he had hurt a woman.

Marie said she also knew Michael well, adding he was through law school at the time sometime in 2006 when she first started dating Joseph.

Hoy was a close friend of Joseph’s and frequently at their home, she said. 

Here, the board found that the record was “devoid” of evidence of a sinister intent. (Mike Frisch)