A Michigan man gave a deathbed confession, admitting to killing almost a dozen women right before he died of lung cancer.
Detectives are working to see if any of the victims were among 17 women mysteriously killed in Grand Rapids almost 30 years ago.
From a prison hospital in Jackson, Michigan, while struggling to breathe, Garry Artman reached out to detectives and provided details on the 11 murders he said he committed. Among them were the 1996 killing of Sharon Hammack, for which he was convicted, nine other Grand Rapids women, and the slaying of Dusty Shuck, a New Mexico native who was killed on the East Coast.
The 24-year-old Shuck was found beaten and stabbed to death near a truck stop off I-70 in Maryland on May 4, 2006.
DNA evidence connected him to the case.
Artman, who worked as a long-haul trucker, was believed before his confession to have killed Shuck, but due to his terminal cancer prognosis, a prolonged trial was deemed impractical.
Shuck’s mother, Lori Kreutzer, stated Artman was in a coma, on a respirator, and expected to die in mid-December. However, before he died, he woke up and confessed.
“He came out of the coma after the respirator came out and fully confessed to Dusty’s murder,” Kreutzer said, according to WOODTV. “It was a miracle. … divine intervention. So at least he did that.”
Adding, “(He) died the 28th at the hospital, and Dusty’s birthday was the 29th. So, she would have been 42.”
The convicted murderer was 66 when he died.
He was convicted of killing Hammack in September 2023. A Kent County jury took only 30 minutes to come up with a guilty verdict.
Hammack’s pregnant body was found bound, raped, strangled, stabbed, and wrapped in a blanket near a Grand Rapids road on Oct. 3, 1996. The 29-year-old was expecting her third child.
Even though there was DNA evidence, the murder remained unsolved. However, Kent County, Michigan, detectives got a break once forensic genealogy uncovered Artman as a suspect. He was then arrested 26 years later in Mississippi in August 2022 and subsequently brought to trial. Artman was convicted of killing Hammack, but police believed he was responsible for more victims.
At his sentencing in October 2023, he denied killing the woman, saying, “They’re blaming me for what somebody else did. Let ’em. If they get closure, fine, they get closure. But all these other murders, they’re idiots.”
Artman said, after cursing out the detectives, “I didn’t do it.”
Three months later, days before dying, he confessed that he had been a serial killer. Although he said he murdered 11 women, authorities believe there could be more.
Law enforcement is trying to connect the dots between Artman’s confession and other unsolved murders of women between 1993 and 1996 in Grand Rapids. Many of the women were sex workers.
“Our investigative team met with him three times prior to his death to see if there’s any information or case facts they could glean to help solve some of these unsolved murders and missing people,” Kent County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Eric Brunner said.
“What we can say is just that those three times were fruitful, to an extent,” he continued. “And we’re trying to further help bring closure to these families that potentially have been impacted over these last many years by these unsolved cases. So that is our hope, but there’s still a handful of work to be done.”
One of the victims Artman disclosed had been exiting the former So-So’s Lounge on Division Avenue, sporting an arm sling or cast. The description aligned with a woman named Cathleen Dennis, who, at the age of 28, was last seen on July 7, 1995. She would have been 56 by now.
“Interviews with Artman provided enough information to reasonably conclude he was involved in the 1995 disappearance of Cathleen Dennis but that it is very unlikely that Dennis’ body will ever be found,” said a Grand Rapids police spokeswoman, according to WOOD.
They are hoping to link him to more and close some of these decades-old open cases.
Artman’s attorney, John Pyrski, told The Associated Press this week that while he did not know whether his former client committed all the homicides he confessed to, “If he did, I’m glad he made everything right in the end.”
Artman previously served time in Michigan after a 1981 conviction for criminal sexual conduct, the AP reports.
