Teacher's Disappearance in 1990 is the Longest-Running Cold Case in Michigan's History
Paige Marie Renkoski was a substitute teacher from Okemos, Michigan. She disappeared in the afternoon of May 24, 1990, and was last seen talking to a man on the shoulder of I-96 near Fowlerville, Michigan. Her disappearance is considered one of the longest-running cold cases in Michigan’s History. Her official description presents her as 5 feet and 7 inches tall, blonde, and weighing 125 pounds. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a white silk shirt, an ornate necklace, and loose-fitting, colorful floral patterned pants.
The Disappearance
At roughly 11:30 am on May 24, 1990, Renkoski drove her mother to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and later visited a friend in Canton. She was seen in Canton between 2:30 and 4:30 pm at a store west of I-275, which has closed down since, where she bought a beer, which was later found in her car. The store clerk at the time remembered Renkoski by her colorful floral pants and distinctive necklace. Sometime after that, she was seen on the shoulder of I-96 near Fowlerville, talking to two black men who were standing next to a maroon-colored minivan. According to eyewitnesses, she seemed upset, and one of the men had his hand on her shoulder in a reassuring fashion. A number of hours later, her 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais was found still idling in that spot, with her shoes and purse still inside. Many witnesses claimed to have seen her driving west on I-96, and a number of others believed they had seen her at various places including a rest stop near the highway.
Police found the Oldsmobile at around 6:00 pm, but the scene wasn’t classified as a crime scene as the officer simply believed the vehicle to be abandoned, but the car was undamaged, and the door was unlocked. The car was towed away. They then learned that Renkoski was indeed missing and the car was not truly abandoned. They examined the vehicle and found numerous finger and palm prints, but to date, there is no match on any of them in any database.
Reportedly, Renkoski was engaged at the time, but she and her fiance encountered a number of hurdles in their relationship. His role as a suspect was soon ruled out.
In 2011, police began searching a pond in Handy Township, using ground-penetrating radar. A woman claimed to have seen a pair of cement-covered boots there close to the time of Renkoski’s disappearance. In 2011, police started a large-scale digging operation in Conway Township hoping to find Renkoski’s remains following the investigators’ review of a 1999 case file with a hand-drawn map indicating that the remains were buried there.
The Aftermath
Despite the lack of a body and nobody being charged in her disappearance or death, police have ruled Renkoski’s case a homicide. A reward of $2,500 is being offered by Michigan Crime Stoppers for any information on Renkoski that could lead to a development in the case.
Twenty years on, the case is still open and actively pursued, though inconsistencies are beginning to emerge as witnesses are misremembering what they saw, and descriptions of the sightings vary. In some of the tips received, the man’s minivan is stopped before Renkoski’s car, and in others, it’s stopped behind. In some accounts, the man she’s speaking to is short, and in others, he’s taller. In some, he’s described as black, and in others as Hispanic. Police are going off the information presented by the majority of testimonies.
Further, lack of information as well as confusing physical evidence have raised more questions; was the man, someone, she knew? Was the accident staged? Did someone impersonate an officer and get her to stop? One question came up because of the presence of Renkoski’s shoes in the car: driving without shoes is not uncommon, but why would someone walk out without them, and on a gravel highway shoulder? Another question that arose was why Renkoski stopped on the shoulder of a busy highway when the Fowlerville exit was in sight, and she could find help there.
There is reason to question the validity of the staged accident. Upon inspection of the car, the front was damaged, but not badly. The clincher here is that staged accidents are usually a means to steal money from someone. Renkoski had a fair amount of money in an investment account, but it hadn’t been touched.
There is also reason to doubt that the man was someone Renkoski knew. According to former Police Chief Frayer of the Westland Police Department, the odds that someone you know would spot and recognize you driving at 65-70 mph, and harbor ill intentions, is very low. It’s also a long shot for someone to have spent the day following her to the airport, to her friend’s house, and then back toward Lansing – where Renkoski is from.
Frayer said that there were a number of persons of interest that the police identified, but he believed half of them were dead. In his words, if they can find her, the dominoes will start falling. If they can find out where she ended up, they can find who caused her to go missing.