A Michigan man who heroically saved his sister from being slain by a serial killer who had broken into their home in the late 1970s is speaking out about the traumatic ordeal a year before the man known as ‘Mid-Michigan’s Ted Buny’ becomes eligible for parole.
Randy Gilbert was a 13-year-old boy living in his family home in the Eaton County town of Delta Township in August 1978.
When he came home, he found Donald Eugene Miller, a 23-year-old from East Lansing, violently raping his sister, Lisa Gilbert, who was just 14 years old at the time.
Miller had previously murdered four women.
He had just raped Lisa and had started to strangle her when Randy walked into the house, according to the Lansing State Journal.
Randy Gilbert (left), 55, and his sister, Lisa Gilbert, nearly died at the hands of Donald Eugene Miller (right), 65, a serial killer who confessed to the murders of four women in the Lansing, Michigan, area in the late 1970s
Miller confessed to killing his former fiancee, Martha Sue Young (left), 19, on New Year’s Eve 1976. Eighteen months later, he killed 27-year-old editorial assistant Marita Choquette (right)
Two weeks later, he fatally stabbed Wendy Bush (left), 21, a Michigan State student. In August 1978, he killed Kristine (Guske) Stuart (right), 30, a Lansing science teacher
Had Randy not come home to intervene, it is likely that Lisa would have been Miller’s fifth victim, and authorities may not have arrested him.
When Randy walked in during the attack, Miller left Lisa, who was bound and gagged, and attacked the young boy instead.
‘He grabbed me and looked at me and says “I’m not going to hurt you”,’ Randy told WLNS-TV.
‘At that point he had a knife to my neck.’
Miller forced Randy to lead him into his bedroom. Randy was then told to lay face down on the ground.
That’s when Miller started slicing Randy’s neck with the knife.
Miller (pictured above in 1978) was arrested two days after he raped Lisa Gilbert in her home in Eaton County, Michigan, in August 1978. During the assault, Randy Gilbert, Lisa’s brother, walked into the home. While Miller attacked Randy, Lisa, who was bound and gagged, ran outside and flagged a vehicle for help, eventually leading to Miller’s arrest
Randy then managed to knock the knife out of Miller’s hand and a struggle ensued.
Miller then started to choke Randy until he passed out and lost consciousness.
Miller then grabbed the knife and stabbed Randy twice in the chest. Randy suffered a punctured lung and nearly lost his life as the knife just barely scraped his heart.
Fortunately, while her brother was being attacked Lisa managed to escape and run for help.
‘While he was attacking me, my sister was able to get out of the house,’ Randy said.
Lisa, who was still bound and gagged, managed to flag down a car on the street outside her home.
Miller’s boyish-looking face and mild manners earned him the moniker ‘Mid-Michigan’s Ted Bundy,’ named after the infamous serial killer who confessed to using his good looks and charm to meet and then murder at least 30 women in the mid-1970s
She and her brother were fortunate to survive the attack.
Miller, was arrested two days later, and confessed to killing four other women from January 1977 until August 1978.
Now 65 years of age, Miller, who has been incarcerated at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan, is up for parole this coming August.
In 1979, he was given a 52-year prison sentence after he was convicted of rape and attempted murder.
He managed to avoid a sentence of life imprisonment by leading authorities to the bodies of his four victims.
In exchange, he received what was considered at the time as a shockingly light sentence.
Miller was a 23-year-old graduate of Michigan State University, where he majored in criminal justice.
Two days after his fiancee Martha Sue Young, a 19-year-old French major at MSU, broke off their engagement, Miller killed her on New Year’s Eve 1976.
Young was declared missing on New Year’s Day 1977, and while authorities suspected Miller to be the culprit, they could not find enough evidence to arrest and charge him.
In June of 1978, Marita Choquette, a 27-year-old editorial assistant at WKAR-TV, went missing after she came home from having dinner with a friend.
Thirteen days after her disappearance, her mutilated body was found in Okemos, a town next to East Lansing, where a farmer was dumping his trash in a woodlot just a short distance from his residence.
That same month, Wendy Bush, a 21-year-old college student enrolled at MSU, was found stabbed to death in a field near Holt.
Two months later, Kristine (Guske) Stuart, a 30-year-old married science teacher, went missing while walking on Fairoaks Court in East Lansing.
Stuart disappeared two days before Miller was arrested for the attacks on the Gilbert siblings for which he was eventually arrested.
After his arrest, Miller confessed to all four killings. Authorities said that Miller managed to cover his tracks.
Now 65 years of age, Miller, who has been incarcerated at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan. He is up for parole this coming August
His boyish-looking face and mild manners earned him the moniker ‘Mid-Michigan’s Ted Bundy,’ named after the infamous serial killer who confessed to using his good looks and charm to meet and then murder at least 30 women in the mid-1970s.
At his trial, Miller claimed that he was insane and was suffering from multiple personality disorder.
Since the start of his incarceration in 1979, Miller has been up for parole numerous times and been denied each time.
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