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Former Police Reserve Officer Arrested in West Michigan Cold Case Murder Investigation

Jodi Parrack, a fifth-grader who attended Riverside Elementary School in Constantine, MI was reported missing by her mother, Valerie Carver, on Nov. 8, 2007, after she failed to return home from a friend’s house in the 100 block of East Third Street.

Jodi was last seen at about 4:45 p.m. that day riding a silver Mongoose bicycle near East Third and South Washington Street, wearing a black T-shirt, jeans and black tennis shoes.

Carver reported her daughter missing at about 7 that night and Carver was with friends searching for Jodi at about 10:30 p.m. when they found the girl dead in the Constantine Township Cemetery.

Jodi’s bike was found nearby, and her death was ruled a homicide. Investigators have not disclosed a cause of death in the case.

In 2011, a cold-case team from the Michigan State Police began an intensive look at this case, involving new forensic leads and investigations. After having few results over that time period their focus has landed on a former police reserve officer of Constantine, who was suspended from the Constantine force shortly after the murder, who later resigned. Raymond E. McCann, 46, was arraigned Saturday on one count of perjury (no specifics as of yet as to that perjury) in relation to this case.

McCann has said in the past: "She doesn’t like cemetery, even during the daytime she doesn’t like that." Sounds like a rather odd statement, but one could believe that he may have been looked over by the original investigation due to his connection with the police department. The administrative actions may have shown that he was suspicious, and the lack of conclusive forensic evidence may point to his own possible training in that field leading to some success in covering his tracks.

Here is the story of the arrest, and even if McCann does turn out to be guilty of at least perjury, and perhaps worse, it should not necessarily indict police reserves in general. But consider: a police chief can hire any goober or yahoo as a reserve officer, without any regard to training or mental stability or temperament. If McCann does turn out to be the killer, it would make a good case for State standards to be placed on police reserve officers everywhere in the state.

A Constantine (see map) man was arrested and arraigned over the weekend in the cold case investigation into the murder in 2007 of Jodi Parrack.

On November 8, 2007, Parrack’s body was found in a local cemetery after she disappeared while walking home from a friend’s house. She was 11 years old at the time.

Constantine Police Chief Jim Bedell told FOX 17 News Monday that the person of interest’s son was a playmate of Jodi Parrack. The chief also said McCann was also a former Constantine reserve officer. McCann was suspended from his job when he became a person of interest. McCann later resigned.

According to Michigan State Police records, McCann does not have a known criminal history in Michigan.

Raymond Emmett McCann, 46, was arrested on a perjury warrant from the St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office. He was arraigned on April 19. He will be back in court April 29.

The Michigan State Police 5th District Cold Case Team classified McCann as a person of interest, said a release from MSP.

If you have any information that could help the case, you’re asked to call Silent Observer or the cold case team directly at 269-435-1072.

Constantine Police Chief Jim Bedell worked with MSP on the case and told FOX 17 News in November 2013 that he was confident the case would be solved. At the time, the investigation had generated more than 1,500 tips and 1,000 interviews.

No onehas been charged for the murder.

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Permalink Reply by Willy on April 21, 2014 at 10:10pm

Regardless of what this guy may have done, police reserves should be trained and meet requirements just as full time officers must do. Another thing is what if this guy is innocent. His photo and name are plastered all over the press and internet. It doesn't matter if he's innocent because people will forever link him with the crime. That would be a crime in itself.

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Permalink Reply by XLFD on April 21, 2014 at 10:58pm

I always presume innocence, and believe the police often look for a convenient scapegoat, but more details are coming out that seem to further implicate McCann of at least being untruthful:

"The arrest affidavit says investigators found “multiple inconsistencies” between McCann’s statement about his whereabouts the evening of Nov. 8, 2007 and cellphone records and statements from multiple witnesses.

Police became suspicious of McCann after he suggested to four people that they check the cemetery for Jodi after she disappeared, the document says.

“It should be noted that over the course of nearly an hour and a half of making this suggestion, McCann himself did not ever search this location,” the affidavit reads in part.

Investigators also allege in the document that McCann’s behavior upon the discovery of Jodi’s body seemed “unnatural.”

“Investigators became increasingly suspicious of possible involvement,” the affidavit says.

The affidavit also states that “the victim’s body contained injuries to both of her wrist consistent with the application of handcuffs,” to which McCann would have had access as a reserve officer.

And according to the affidavit, McCann lied to investigators about how Jodi’s DNA could have been discovered in his pickup truck. He allegedly told investigators that Jodi’s mother Valerie Carver had hugged him and sat in his truck to warm up at one point, and he also allegedly said he pulled Carver away from Jodi’s body after it was found in the cemetery. According to the affidavit, investigators found neither of those things were true.

Sources told 24 Hour News 8 McCann failed three polygraph tests that asked questions about who killed Jodi.

“A red flag went up on the person they arrested because they did three lie detector tests on this man, and he failed all three,” Jodi’s grandmother Linda Allbuagh told 24 Hour News 8. “He knows something, and he’s hiding something.”

Police have not yet called McCann a suspect, but said that if he wasn’t involved in Jodi’s death, he needs to tell them now who is responsible. If convicted of perjury, he could spend the rest of his life in prison."