Marvin Gabrion

Rape

On August 7, 1996, Rachel Timmerman reported to Newaygo County Sheriff’s department that she had been raped by Marvin Gabrion. The previous evening, she had been invited to a card game by a family friend named Wayne Davis and a classmate of Rachel's named Mikey Gabrion. Davis and Mikey Gabrion arrived to pick up Timmerman along with Gabrion's uncle Marvin. On the way to the card game, Marvin Gabrion allegedly forced Davis and Mikey Gabrion out of the car before driving off and raping Rachel. Gabrion was arrested and charged with the crime.

Disappearance

On June 3, 1997, two days before Gabrion's trial on the charge of rape, Timmerman left the house with her 11-month-old daughter Shannon, telling her family she was going on a date with a man she met at work. Her father soon received a letter stating that she planned to leave town and elope. The prosecutor and the judge presiding over the case also received letters in Timmerman's handwriting stating that the rape allegations were fabricated and that she wished to drop the charges against Gabrion.

Another letter arrived identifying the man she left with as being named "Delbert". Rachel's family believed the letters were legitimate and her disappearance was not investigated at the time.

Investigation

On July 5, 1997, two fishermen found Rachel's body in Oxford Lake chained to cinder blocks and her face wrapped copiously with duct tape. According to the coroner, she was alive when she entered the lake and died from drowning.

Gabrion's whereabouts were unknown, but he quickly became a prime suspect in her death. A search warrant was executed for his residence and keys that matched the padlock used to secure Rachel's body were found at Gabrion's home along with concrete blocks stained with the same paint as the ones retrieved from the lake. Marvin's nephew, Mikey Gabrion, also led police to a campsite that had frequently been used by his uncle. Gabrion's tent was found there, along with bolt cutters, chain, duct tape, a woman's hair clip, and nipples for a baby bottle.

Gabrion's neighbors were also interviewed by police. They reported that Gabrion had a handyman named John Weeks, but that he hadn't been seen around the property in a few weeks. Investigators contacted Weeks' girlfriend, who identified a photo of Gabrion as a man introduced to her as "Lance". She reported that Lance had left the area with Weeks and she hadn't heard from him and was unsure of how to get a hold of him. She also reported to police that on one occasion she caught John on the phone with a girl named Rachel. When she confronted him, she was told that he was trying to do a favor for Lance, who was interested in being set up with her. Authorities believe that Weeks was the mystery date who picked up Rachel and Shannon on the day they were last seen and that he arranged the date at the behest of Gabrion.

The search for Gabrion lasted two months until they received a tip that Gabrion was set to receive a social security check from a post office in Sherman, New York. FBI agents covertly staked out the location and he was arrested as he left the post office.

Timmerman's daughter, Shannon, has never been found.

Other disappearances

Gabrion is a suspect in the disappearances of several other people. The house where he was living when Rachel's body was found was owned by a man named Robert Allen. Allen was a mentally disabled transient and had been receiving social security when he went missing in 1995. Gabrion cashed Allen's checks and lived in his home until 1997. His impersonation of Allen led authorities to him following Rachel's murder when he opened a post office box in Allen's name and directed that his social security check be sent there. Gabrion was convicted of social security fraud in July 1998 for his use of Allen's checks and sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Wayne Davis, the family friend who invited Timmerman the night she was raped, disappeared in February 1997. Davis was set to testify against Gabrion at the upcoming rape trial. Davis' residence was largely undisturbed when the disappearance was discovered aside from a stolen stereo system. It was later uncovered that Gabrion was in possession of the stereo equipment and attempted to pawn it. In July 2002, canoeists found Davis' body in Twinwood lake, another body of water in the same national park where Rachel's body was found.

John Weeks' whereabouts are also unknown. Gabrion was the last known person to see him alive in June 1997.

Weeks and Allen are presumed deceased. Gabrion remains the prime suspect in the disappearances of the three men, but has not been charged.

Trial

Gabrion was tried in 2002 for the murder of Rachel Timmerman. The prosecution presented testimony from multiple witnesses describing Gabrion's propensity for violence and threatening behaviors, including accusations of other physical and sexual assaults. Two witnesses testified that their homes had been set on fire following altercations with Gabrion. Another woman described how Gabrion trained a rifle on her and her two-year-old child as she walked to her car one day. He then climbed into his own car and followed them for several miles. The disappearances of the other men surrounding the case were also admitted.

The trial was also noted for the judge's decision to deny the defendant's right to fire his counsel and defend himself in court due to Gabrion's erratic behavior and frequent disruption of court proceedings. He punched his defense attorney in the face in full view of the jury and he committed 40 major infractions while at the Calhoun County Jail. Gabrion filed numerous bizarre motions using "abusive and obscene language". He accused the judge of sleeping with and impregnating 13- and 14-year-old girls and called his lawyer and the judge "satanic" and "Hitler". During his appeal, the appellate court affirmed that the District Court had every reason to deny Gabrion's right to represent himself, noting that his erratic and disruptive behavior would certainly continue if he were given the opportunity.

The defense countered that Gabrion's temperament and actions were the result of multiple car accidents that had resulted in brain injuries as well as a troubled childhood. He was convicted and received the death penalty.

Death penalty debate

United States v. Gabrion is considered a landmark case for its use of the death penalty in a non-death penalty state. Capital punishment has been illegal in Michigan since 1846. Michigan was the first English-speaking jurisdiction to eliminate the death penalty. Federalism allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case. Rachel's body was found on federal land in Manistee National Forest, allowing prosecutors to try Gabrion in federal court and seek the death penalty, a sentence that is otherwise illegal in the state of Michigan. Gabrion was the first person in the United States to receive the death penalty for a crime committed in a non-death penalty state since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 as well as the first person to be sentenced to death in the state of Michigan since 1937.

During the trial, Gabrion's defense argued that she may have been killed outside Manistee National Forest before being transported into the park to be disposed of, and therefore the murder occurred on state property instead of federal property. The jury found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Gabrion killed Timmerman inside the national forest. In 2011, Gabrion appealed both the conviction and the sentence. The defense maintained that jurors should have been told that had Gabrion been tried in state court, he would not have faced the death penalty. In his appeal, Gabrion argued that under the Eighth Amendment and the Federal Death Penalty Act, he was entitled to argue to the jury during the penalty phase of his trial that they should consider any "residual doubt" that he killed Timmerman inside the national forest. The conviction was upheld, but the sentence overturned.

In their decision, the court wrote,

The case was not brought to serve a special national interest like treason or terrorism different from the normal state interest in punishing murder. The jury should be given the opportunity to consider whether one or more of them would choose a life sentence rather than the death penalty when the same jury considering the same defendant's proper punishment for the same crime but prosecuted in Michigan state court could not impose the death penalty.

In 2013, the sentence appeal was overturned and the death penalty was reinstated. He is currently on death row at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Media coverage

The case garnered national attention and was featured on the Investigation Discovery show FBI: Criminal Pursuit as well as Unsolved Mysteries. Rachel's father and uncle published a book about the case called The Color of Night: A Young Mother, and a Cold-Blooded Killer. The legal aspects of the death sentence in this case were described in the book Cause of Death: Forensic Files of a Medical Examiner as well as the law text book Psychiatry in Law.