Michigan family fears daughter’s killer ‘still free’ after ‘missteps’ in homicide investigation

A Michigan family is desperate for answers after their 31-year-old daughter was mysteriously killed in her Carrollton Township home in January 2022.

Investigators have yet to release Megan Drumhiller’s cause of death, though new evidence the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office collected from the crime scene indicates her death was a homicide. 

“They asked us not to look at the crime [scene] pictures,” Megan’s mother, Lynette Drumhiller, told Fox News Digital. “They were too difficult, they said. Every officer who saw the scene or the pictures said 100% homicide, which was never in our wildest dreams … never on our radar – just so shocking.”

The family’s attorney and Megan’s aunt, Tara Pearson, said her family believes they know who her killer might be but that saying anything could compromise the investigation.

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Lynette and her husband, Tim Drumhiller, publicly expressed their frustrations with the police investigation into their daughter’s death for the first time during a Thursday morning press conference.

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The family said the Carrollton Township Police Department, which was initially investigating Megan’s death, apparently failed to test all evidence from the crime scene for DNA, failed to interview all possible eyewitnesses directly after her death, failed to look into all possible camera evidence, and they said the lead detective on the case worked remotely for four or fives months due to COVID-19, never visiting the crime scene in person.

“I don’t know how you investigate from home,” Lynette said.

Tim said the initial investigation was “wrought with so many missteps and so many errors.” Lynette feels as though “the process was intended to wear” her family down.

The Carrollton Township Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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“A killer is still free, and that is a threat to everyone,” Lynette said during the press conference. “To the person who did this to Megan, you know who you are, and I hope your nightmares far exceed ours.”

She became teary when recalling the moment she and her husband pulled up to her daughter’s house only to see an ambulance and crime-scene tape. A detective with more than 30 years of experience told her at the time that he was “99.9% certain that Megan was the victim of a homicide,” Lynette said.

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Lynette added that her daughter would never have let anyone outside her “small circle” of friends and family inside her home. There were no signs of a break-in at Megan’s home, and her family believes she likely “trusted her killer,” her father said.

Tim also pointed to nationwide police staffing shortages and FBI data that shows more than half of U.S. murder cases go unsolved as some of the many issues hindering justice for his daughter.

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“How many other families is this happening to?” Lynette asked. “People are walking around committing war crimes because they can. It’s bad and scary … and this country should be further along.”

The Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office has since taken over the investigation, and a private forensic DNA lab has taken over evidence for testing from the Michigan state lab. The Drumhillers have also hired a private investigator, whom they are not naming at this time.

The Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office said it could not discuss Megan’s case due to their active investigation.

The family is also offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in their daughter’s homicide.

“We’re encouraged by today, and then in the coming days, we’ll try to give more confirmation, hopefully, of what’s going to happen,” Tim told Fox News Digital of his family’s Thursday announcement.

Megan was a lighthearted, quirky, intelligent woman who loved to dance and write, her parents said. She worked in retail at the time of her death and lived in a somewhat rural area in a neighborhood with lots of families.

The public is encouraged to submit tips to the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office hotline at 989-790-6333. Anonymous tipsters can share information with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-422-JAIL.