Diane Louise Freitag walked free from prison on Tuesday, more than 16 years after confessing to murdering her 5-year-old son, Robert ‘Bobby? Ogg, Jr., in Brandon Township.
Michigan Department of Corrections Spokesman Russ Marlan confirmed that Freitag, 48, formerly known as Diane Louise Ogg, was released from Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility on Sept. 23 and is serving probation.
‘She was eligible for parole a year-and-a-half ago in January 2007 and they reinterviewed her in May and released her yesterday,? Marlan said Wednesday. ‘The law says they cannot parole someone they feel will be a menace to society or a threat to the public… She only received one misconduct in the 16 years she was in prison and that was four years ago for unauthorized occupation of a cell or room, a minor misconduct.?
The murder of Robert ‘Bobby? Ogg, Jr. went unsolved for nearly 10 years. The little boy was found beaten and with his belt wrapped around his neck, in the woods behind his Granger Road home in October 1982 after Freitag told police he never came home on the school bus. An autopsy determined the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation.
Freitag was a suspect in his death at the time, but she denied killing her child. A lack of evidence and speculation about a stranger killing the boy, possibly even the Oakland County child killer, left lingering doubts, said Bill Kucyk, a former Oakland County Sheriff’s Office detective.
Kucyk said he and William Harvey were working special investigations and were looking at case files of unsolved homicides around 1991 when they pulled out the Ogg murder file and spent a number of days looking at it. ‘We thought it was an absolutely horrible homicide and one that needed to be solved,? Kucyk said Wednesday. ‘We started interviewing witnesses, suspects and anyone who might have information and we had an occasion to interview (Freitag). She was living in Brandon. When we interviewed her, we noticed discrepancies from her original interview at the time of the incident, things that couldn’t be blamed on memory loss or lapse of time. Had her original story been correct, these are things you would have never forgotten as a mother. You will remember the truth and facts, but won’t remember lies.?
Kucyk and Harvey decided to bring Freitag before a grand jury in February 1991. She related a similar story to the one she told police in 1982? that she sent her child to the bus stop, with money pinned to his coat because he was supposed to have class pictures that day, and that was the last she saw of him. But she changed a few details and the detectives confronted her in an interview room after her testimony. Kucyk said they broke her in about 45 seconds and she returned to the grand jury and confessed to killing her son.
‘Another jury convicted her of second degree murder,? Kucyk recalled.
‘I thought it was odd, it should have been first degree murder, without question.?
OCSO Lt. James Ahearn, who was chief investigator of the criminal division at the time, said he accepted the wisdom of the court and the decision by Circuit Court Judge David Breck in January 1992 to sentence Freitag to 10-25 years in prison.
‘As a citizen, I feel she should be incarcerated, she took the life of a child,? Ahearn said this week after learning of Freitag’s release. ‘As a police officer, I understand the system.?
Kucyk said it was a decision of the parole board, and one he wouldn’t question. But there is one answer he still wants and will likely never know? why Freitag murdered her son.
‘She couldn’t tell me why she did it,? Kucyk remembers.
‘I don’t know what could make a person do this. If you could explain it, you could prevent it. She wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer every day of her life. I don’t know what went wrong that day. People appear to lead a functional life and then one day something goes very, very wrong. If we can learn why, we can predict those people who are prone and prevent it.?
At the time of Bobby Ogg’s murder, Freitag had two other children. Another child, a 9-month-old daughter named Jennifer, died in 1980 after allegedly choking on a hot dog. Her body was exhumed after her brother’s death, but an examination of the remains was inconclusive about the cause of death, Ahearn said.