Sounak Sengupta
NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Case of the Girl Who Never Came Home’ features the chilling case of a convicted killer and rapist, Arthur Ream. He had been found guilty of raping multiple minor women throughout the 1970s and 80s, including the 1986 murder of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki. The episode tries to provide a concise view of the suspected serial killer’s modus operandi and how he was convicted.
How Many Girls Did Arthur Ream Kill?
Arthur Nelson Ream grew up in Warren in Macomb County, Michigan, during the 1950s when much of it was undeveloped. He claimed he quit school in seventh grade and left home at 13 because of his abusive father, though he denied sexual abuse. After learning to install carpets, he opened his flooring business. However, his pedophilia caused his personal life to be in constant chaos, with him confessing, “I’ve had a rough time with women.” The first of Arthur’s four marriages ended in 1978 after he was convicted of raping a 15-year-old.
According to reports, Arthur, then 26, and his brother-in-law, then 15, participated in abducting a minor hitchhiker in Shelby Township. The brother-in-law testified how Arthur used a switchblade on the girl before asking him to blindfold her with duct tape and raped her despite her constant pleas. However, the victim managed a glimpse of Arthur’s registration plate, and he was charged with statutory rape, a life offense under ’70s law. The brother-in-law testified how Arthur swore to kill his next victim to avoid getting caught.
The charge was later reduced to indecent liberties with a minor female child, a 10-year felony. Arthur called his felony rape offense his “the worst screw-up” and started serving his five-to-ten-year sentence in August 1975. He wrote to the judge two months into his incarceration, requesting a reduced term and a second chance. Meanwhile, his wife filed for divorce, alleging physical abuse in front of their children and several affairs, including one with their babysitter, then 15. He blamed himself for the divorce and admitted to “screwing it up.”
Macomb County prosecutors alleged Arthur abused a teenage niece by making her drunk in the early 1970s. He was granted parole in early 1978 and married for the second time in March of that year. It lasted eight months, and they divorced in January 1979. He again married in December 1979 before his third wife divorced him in 1986, alleging physical abuse. Arthur called his third wife “crazy” and stated he should not have been with her for that long. The prosecution alleged he abused two girls, aged 12 and 13, during that time.
Arthur Ream is Incarcerated at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility
Arthur Ream married for the fourth time in 1992, which lasted for six years before his fourth wife divorced him in 1998, citing physical abuse. By then, he had also been accused of raping a young girl, then 15, for whom he served as legal guardian. Like all his other victims, she had also been given alcohol and raped. Arthur pleaded guilty but claimed the sex was consensual, though it did not matter since she was a minor. He lived in Roseville then and raped the girl in a Gladwin property he owned during a weekend getaway.
Following his plea deal, Arthur was handed a 15-year sentence and vied for his release in 2008 when he was charged with first-degree and second-degree murder in 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki’s 1986 murder. Arthur claimed the minor and her boyfriend, Scott (Arthur’s teenage son), often hung out at a warehouse for his business. He alleged, “They were on some carpet. She fell, went backward down the elevator chute, and died.” However, he blamed him for the “accidental death,” citing he had wired open the freight elevator shaft’s gate.
The jury did not believe his story, convicted him of first-degree murder, and sentenced him to life without parole. Before his sentencing, Arthur changed his mind at the last moment and led the authorities to where he had buried Cindy’s body. The police later claimed Arthur could be responsible for at least four to six murders, with all the missing victims ranging between 12 to 17 and had disappeared between 1970 and 1982. They unsuccessfully dug up his property near the intersection of 23 Mile and North Avenue in Macomb Township.
The investigators explained they felt there were high chances of him burying his probable victims in the same spot where he concealed Cindy’s remains. However, the convicted rapist and killer maintained he had no connection with any of those cases and audaciously demanded an apology from the police for slandering him and wasting taxpayers’ money. The 74-year-old is serving his sentence in a single cell in Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility, playing cards and watching his favorite TV shows.
Read More: Cindy Zarzycki Murder: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?
