High school friend gave statement to police, never heard back.
JEFF ROMIG
Tribune Staff Writer
CASSOPOLIS -- In 1991, 20-year-old Mark McCusker
didn't have a wife, children or even a college degree.
All he had was a story that his high school friend, Michael Dunnuck, had
confessed to murdering a man with the last name of Whittaker.
In January of that year, police listened to him, took his statement and then
sent him on his way.
McCusker never heard back.
He saw Dunnuck at their five-year high school reunion in 1994, at their 10-year
reunion in 1999 and at their 15-year reunion in 2004.
By 1997, the investigation into the March 1990 murder of 42-year-old William
Whittaker had gone inactive.
It was officially a cold case.
When it was re-opened in January 2005 -- 14 years after McCusker gave his
original statement to police -- the case's new investigators found a use for the
34-year-old elementary school principal with three children and a wife of more
than a decade.
In turns out McCusker, who testified against Dunnuck Tuesday, kept a journal in
1990 and wrote about his phone conversation with his high school classmate
shortly after the phone call.
That journal was entered into evidence Tuesday.
On the stand, McCusker recalled that in November 1990, Dunnuck called him and
instead of talking about sports -- which was their conversational routine -- he
said there was something he wanted to tell McCusker.
"He was dropping hints about something very serious, and it made me feel
uncomfortable," McCusker said.
Dunnuck asked his friend -- who had recently become a stronger religious person
than in high school -- if "there was anything a person could do that they
couldn't be forgiven for."
Then, McCusker said Dunnuck made him promise not to tell anyone what he was
about to reveal.
Then, it happened.
"He told me that he'd killed someone," McCusker told the court.
McCusker said he sounded scared and nervous.
"It bothered him that he would do it so easily and quickly," he recalled.
Then, McCusker said he told him he'd "covered up" the killing by letting people
know that he'd found the body.
Following the call and his recollections in his journal, McCusker contacted his
pastor at the time, Scott Payne, and told him what Dunnuck had said and asked if
he'd speak to his friend to encourage him to turn himself in to police.
So, the next night, according to testimony given Tuesday by McCusker and Payne,
the two men called Dunnuck from Payne's house.
"He talked to me about why he did not want to talk to the police," Payne said on
the stand. "I told him I'd give him 24 hours to turn himself in, and then I
would call the police."
The following day, Payne called Niles police and left his name, but was never
contacted by police until 2005.
The Dunnuck trial will continue today at 9 a.m.