Eric Franks went missing in March of 2011
SAGINAW, Mich. (WJRT) - New audio tapes recently released give details about a cold case in Mid-Michigan.
Recordings of police interviews bring to light how police were lied to when they first started their investigation of Eric Franks.
"She was pretty adamant, and she was furious every time I brought it up," says the daughter of Eric Franks, Emily.
She was the reason Franks left his Ohio home and headed to the Saginaw area in 2010.
His old girlfriend, Kendra Firmingham, had informed him that Emily was his child.
In March 2011, Eric and his car vanished.
Kendra Firmingham, her husband and Emily were all questioned by then-Buena Vista Township Police Detective Sean Waterman in 2012.
He asked Firmingham's husband if he knew what happened to Eric.
"He just kept telling me, go ask Kendra, go ask Kendra," Waterman remembered.
So he did.
"So eventually the question became, somewhere in the interview, did you do this," asks Waterman. "Did you kill him? Of course, her answer was no, no."
The family had moved to Florida shortly after Eric disappeared.
Kendra Firmingham died of cancer in 2016.
The next year, a Florida police detective interviewed Kendra's husband and Emily.
For the first time, we are hearing the recordings of those interviews, and Emily says her mom told her to lie to mid-Michigan police back in 2012.
Emily would have been 16 years old at the time.
"Don't tell them how many times you saw Eric," Emily told the Florida detective. "Tell them you only saw him two or three times at the mall. That is it."
Emily told the Florida detective she saw Eric about eight times.
"I think when I hear that interview in Florida, and then look at my interview, and how nervous she was and how guarded she was, she had been prepped," says Waterman. "She had been told by Kendra that police are probably going to talk to you, and this is what you are going to say."
Police also wanted to find Eric's cell phone.
"The evidence of the phone log was pretty clear that the phone was used after he was missing," Waterman remembered.
Emily says she found a cell phone in 2012 in a purse that belonged to her mom. She showed it to Kendra.
"She lost her mind, screaming, throwing things, threatening me. You are not going to leave my house. Don't go through my stuff," Emily told police on how her mom reacted.
Kendra's husband was also interviewed.
"We both speculated that it could be Eric's phone," Kendra's husband told the detective.
But for some reason, they never called the police. Kendra's husband, who we are not identifying by name, also told Florida police that after Kendra died, he gave Kendra's two guns to Emily with a condition.
"Don't ever sell them because just in case a body turns up and there is a bullet hole, they might say that might be the murder weapon," he explained. "Never sell it."
Kendra Firmingham told police in mid-Michigan that she last saw Eric driving away from the Miller Motel in March of 2011 and that he said he was leaving town. In 2020, police got definite proof that was a lie.
"I think finding the car confirmed what we thought we knew about the person that was most assuredly involved, being Kendra Firmingham," says Chad Baus, Eric's brother-in-law.
Eric's car was found in Sept. 2022.
A man had purchased it from an estate sale after the passing of an incapacitated adult, Gerald Rutledge, who lives on Mason Street.
Eric's car had been in his garage all those years. Firmingham was a caretaker for Rutledge, and neighbors say they saw Firmingham and her husband at the house several times.
Court papers indicate there were questions over Kendra's handling of Rutledge's money in March 2011. Rutledge had about $2.7 million.
"That is the month and the days when Eric turned up missing," says Waterman. "I guess one could assume that could be about the time when that car was moved to Rutledge's house."
Did Kendra kill Eric because he knew she was taking money from Gerald Rutledge?
"Could she have killed him by herself? Probably. There are all kinds of ways," said Waterman. "Could she have disposed of his body by herself? I don't believe so."
"Justice for her is not going to happen on this side of life, but it can for anybody who may have helped her, and that is what we are seeking," says Baus.
The Florida detective who interviewed Kendra's husband asked if he would take a lie detector test.
"They consider you and Kendra suspects, so if you fail, they will still consider you a suspect." the detective told Kendra's husband. "If you pass it, potentially they can move on."
Kendra's husband refused. The search for the answer as to what happened to Eric Franks continues.
"Eric's mom deserves it," says Baus. "My wife, Eric's sister, deserves it, and we are not going to stop."
"You want closure for people," says Waterman. "They want to know where their loved one is, and this is sad because he may never be found."
The Michigan State Police is asking anyone with information on this case to give them a call.
