Granddaughter, Missing 17 Years, Finally Declared Dead
Om September 22, 1998, 14-year-old Coral Hall went missing. Her last known location was a payphone in the Flint area, from which she called a friend to tell them that she and her grandmother had been fighting again. Records show that shortly before her disappearance, Hall had spoken with someone at CPS, but was then returned to her grandmother’s custody.
She had not been seen since. No one has seen her or heard from her in almost 17 years. According to an MSP analyst, multiple searches conducted on a number of databases show zero activity tied to her personal information. In all those years, Coral has not once applied for a driver’s license, requested state aid, given birth, or used her social security number.
Which is why Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph J. Farah has finally decided that, in all likelihood, she is dead. And with this ruling comes the ability for the state prosecution to move forward in their case against Lois Janish, Coral Hall’s grandmother and the woman accused of murdering her.
But nothing in law is quite this simple. This case has been a long time in coming – 17 years to be exact, and many people on both sides of the table are deeply invested in it’s possible outcome.
Janish’s defense attorney, Jessica Mainprize-Hajek, has asked the judge to dismiss any statements that Janish may have made to police following Hall’s initial disappearance, which happen to include Janish’s confession to murder.
The reason, she explained, was that state law does not allow a defendant’s confession to be admitted into evidence unless other evidence exists to support the confession – in other words, a confession cannot be the only available evidence upon which to build a criminal case against a person. Since the prosecutor’s don’t have any other proof that Janish committed a crime, her confession should be dismissed.
But the judge has decided that there is in fact enough evidence to support the claim that Hall was murdered. For one, the total absence of any communication or contact, sighting, or activity involving her personal records leads to the reasonable assumption that she is dead.
Janish, who has been declared fit to stand trial by the judge, has provided a number of explanations over the years for Coral’s disappearance. One account is that Janish herself killed her granddaughter with a hammer and dismembered her body. Another is that Coral ran away with an older man to California, and yet another is that Janish’s boyfriend killed her when she refused to engage in sexual activity with him.
Janish is scheduled to return to court on February 10th. She is facing a single count of open murder, which, if convicted, could mean up to life in prison.