![]() ![]() Looks like pretty much every highway rest stop in the state of Michigan. The killer would have likely gone there rather than across the highway. Notice how wooded it is behind the rest stop going towards the lake. At least I suppose that is the rest stop where the incident occurred. This is Loon Lake and the rest stop is visible. I would wager he ran there to where his transportation was hidden. Running across I-75 seems completely unlikely to me. I think he was young, maybe mid-teens because he seems sexually inexperienced. I keep saying "he" because the killer is almost certainly a male because he overpowered Snow very quickly and a woman would have had a more difficult time of it. He had to have practiced getting in and out. How do you stab someone 22 times without them screaming? First, you surprise them from behind, grab the mouth and simultaneously begin stabbing repeatedly and viciously so that they are overcome before they can scream. He didn't have the time to rape Snow and she wasn't robbed. Why did he do it? Like many psychopaths, he wanted to simply kill someone. If you murder someone, you have to be able to get out quick. ![]() Being without any kind of getaway vehicle would be too risky. He would have had this meticulously planned and likely ran "drills" a few times before the real thing to make sure he could get away without being seen or heard. Although there were no cars at the rest stop when Snow arrived, he could have hidden a dirt bike somewhere close to the rest stop and then walked the rest of the way. Whoever killed Jane Snow was familiar with the area, likely cased it out on numerous occasions and finally found a situation that he felt he could take advantage of. You don't kill someone on foot out in the middle of a wide open area where it's hard to hide. The very fact that there was no evidence to tie him to the murder was because he had nothing to do with it. I think if McGawley did it, he would have been charged and convicted. After stabbing someone 22 times he was remarkably free of bloodstains. Why go walking down I-75 in plain sight? The cop had not heard about the murder yet but he said there was nothing unusual about McGawley. If McGawley was looking for someone to kill, the rest stop might have been a good spot but, since he was on foot, it was also a bad spot to get away from. He must have still had the knife on him since the cops scoured the area and never found it. Then he left the rest stop without being seen by the two Snow boys, went across the highway and started walking until a cop picked him up. We would have to assume that McGawley was in the rest stop when Snow arrived, hid in the women's restroom and murdered her for reasons known only to himself. Moreover, the cops found him pretty easily because he got a ride from a state trooper or at least a cop as he was walking down I-75 not far from the Loon Lake rest stop and the cop dropped him off at his stated destination. When the cops arrested him, he was in Pontiac. I think whoever did this knew the area pretty well. But, otoh, he never got in any kind of big trouble. He had scratches on his hands that he said was the result of a bar fight and he was walking because he had a fight with his wife. He was already wanted for check fraud or something in Rhode Island or Delaware or someplace like that at the time of this incident. He is, to this day, the only suspect they ever had. I read that Snow's sister believes that John McGawley did it. I always think of Jane Snow whenever I pull over at a highway rest stop. I remember this case back from 1979 and I always thought it was weird. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. I will add additionally links as I come across them. Sad.Īnd it SEEMS like this crime should have been solved, but it remains a cold case. The murder of Jane Snow at the Loon Lake Rest Area tapped in to many of the fears inherent in women traveling alone: as her two young children waited for her in the car, she was the victim of a brutal stabbing by an unknown assailant. Obviously, unsolved crimes have been taking up space in my memory for some time and this one happened when I was a teenager in northern lower Michigan-and, like many friends who remember this story, I NEVER stopped at a rest area again. ![]()
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