Otto Clarence Ivy featuring The Blue Pines

This here story takes place back in the late 80's.  We are going to Bangor, Michigan...not Maine to tell this story.

We leave you with a happy ending and on a good note as promised with:

The Blue Pines

Bandcamp:https://thebluepines.bandcamp.com/track/aspiring-geologist

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Transcript

Otto Clarence Ivy

MDOC# 209194

Date of birth:  3/2/1964

Resides:  Lakeland Correctional Facility

Otto Clarence Ivy is from the Bangor, Michigan area and had quit school after the 9th grade.

Otto Clarence Ivy sports 10 death art tattoos and one of the grim reaper, among other random tattoos.  Like a skull, warrior, dragon, panther, and a star!

There appears to be no tear drop on his pretty face though.

In 1988 he is living on Walnut Street in Bangor with his girlfriend and he is  26 years old. 

On the night of Saturday, November 26, 1988 Clarence and his girlfriend, Waynette “Frosty” Hollingsworth, attended a party together with their friend Renee.

Renee was 19 years old and a resident of South Haven and they were going to meet her boyfriend at the party on the North side of Bangor on Bangor street, none the less.

By all accounts the party was great…good, it was partying.  

Apparently at this party, Renee’s boyfriend collapsed around 4 am and he was taken by ambulance to the South Haven Community Hospital.

According to Otto,  he and his girlfriend departed with Renee downtown Bangor after they unsuccessfully tried to find a ride for Renee to get to the hospital.  Two people had turned her down for a ride here.

Otto and Frost decide they are going to go home and they assumed that Renee was finding her way to the hospital.  

After Otto and his girlfriend are home…he decides that he better go back out and call the hospital from a payphone to check on the boyfriend's condition.  

I don’t know if they didn’t have a home phone…and that’s why he went to a payphone??  

I do know that he claimed to be so drunk that he doesn’t remember up to 2 hours around this time of the night so I’m glad that they were walking.

Otto remembers getting home and his girlfriend was gone.  

Well, Waynette “Frosty” had become worried that Otto was taking so long to call the hospital from the payphone…so she decided to hike down to the payphone to look for Otto.  

He’s not there though, so she heads back home..not running into him to or fro but he is at their place when she returns.

The very next day, Sunday… November 27, 1988 Miss Renee body was discovered under a railroad trestle in Bangor by a guy named Billy Slaughter.

Billy was just using the tracks as a shortcut when he saw the body.  

The scene was more than just a body lying there passed away.  It was pretty horrific.  She was face down.  She was nude.  She had been sexually assaulted.  She was dead by strangulation, her coat having been tied tight around her neck.   A piece of wood was protruding from her body.  What appeared to be a piece of eyebrow on the trestle wall.  Brutal.

The medical examiner would state she died from ligature strangulation with significant blows to her head.

Ann Kopnick, who is a body fluids specialist, at the time working for the Michigan State Police lab in Grand Rapids. 

Three samples were taken from the sperm found vaginally.  Two of them turned out as blood type B and one was blood type O which was the same as Renee’s.

Renee’s boyfriend, he identified her body and said that one side was so bad, he couldn’t see it was her.  

Of course the party goers are questioned, so is Otto and Frosty.  The problem is that Otto’s stories kept having slight inconsistencies. So he quickly became the focus of the investigation.

Frosty said the last time she saw Renee, she was crossing the Hardings parking lot heading north toward Center Street.

Afterall, he conveniently could not remember some of the night.

December 16, 1988 Otto is at the police department talking to Sgt Dana Averill, and they are discussing what happened.

During the two hour interview, which was taped…probably with a cassette recorder,  Otto starts out by denying having anything to do with her demise.

He just said he had been drinking and couldn’t remember everything.

However, it didn’t take long for him to answer yes when he was asked if he in fact, killed Renee Soristo.

In fact the sgt said

Did you cause Renee’s death?

Otto:  Yes.

Sgt:  Did you lose control and get mad?

Otto:  Yes I did.

He went on to tell the South Haven Sergeant that she agreed to have sex with him on top of the train bridge.  Then she bit him and he lost control.  He just remembers seeing her on the ground.

Needless to say, he was arrested.

Otto pled not guilty to open count murder and felony murder. 

His defense Attorney Robert Hencel suggested that he was unsure if his client truly understood the repercussions of what he did.  Concerns that he was capable.

While researching and reading old newspapers…the Flint Journal on Tuesday, January 3, 1989 had the smallest little teeny tiny square that said 

  Otto Clarence ivy 24 of bangor has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in the nov. 26 strangulation of Renee Soristo 19, of south haven. 

In fact, he would be going to Ypsilanti and visiting the state center of forensic psychology.

His trial finally started in April of 1990.  You know his ass took the stand too.  He recanted his original statement to the South Haven Sgt. stating that he was pressured and confused.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reported the following in regards to Otto taking the stand.

He says that he was at this party with his girlfriend, Renee and Renee’s boyfriend and told the story of them parting ways.

However, on the stand he states there is about an hour that he just blacked out on.

Assistant prosecutor G. Scott Smith really reeled home that he could remember all of this stuff but not the witching hour when Renee passed away.

When asked about his confession, Otto says that the cops wanted a story…so he gave them a story.  It wasn’t the truth.  Just a story.

Sperm samples had been taken from the vaginal area of the deceased.  They didn’t do DNA stuff back then but they were able to match the type B blood to Otto.

His attorney argued that they simply didn’t have the evidence.  No blood, scratches or bruises were found on his client.  There was no hair on the victim that matched his client.  

They just had the jizz sample, which would be really handy today.

In fact, he argued that the blood type B was common among 8% of the white population and 17-18% of the black population.

Otto’s roommate/girlfriend took the stand at trial.   Her name is Waynette “Frosty” Hollingsworth.  She would state that Otto did get feisty and fight people when he was black out drunk and not remember it.

After that night he would say things like he didn’t think he did it but maybe he did…. To her.

She testified that her & Otto left Renee downtown Bangor and went home. Then Otto went to call the hospital but it was taking a really long time.  So she went down to the payphone and Otto was nowhere to be seen.

When she found Otto near their apartment he told her that he was out looking for her!  What a cluster. 

Defense Attorney is Robert Hencthel

During the trial, Otto showed no emotion when they read his confession to the jury.

The trial took 11 days once they finally had it.

Just 2 days after he took the stand in his own defense…on Thursday April 5, 1990 the jury took a mere three hours to completely agree that Otto Clarence Ivy is guilty of first degree murder.  

VanBuren County Circuit Judge Meyer Warshawsky said  the sentencing date would be in five weeks.

He was eventually sentenced to life without parole.  

In the Kalamazoo Gazette his mother was quoted saying, “They’ll never make me believe he did that -not ever.”

However, Renee’s Auntie commented in the same article, “I don’t think any sentence he gets is going to be enough punishment.  I hope they throw the book at him, I hope he never gets out of prison.  At least now maybe Renee can rest in peace.”