TROY, Mich. – Gail Webster was beaten to death in her Troy apartment in 1978. The killer has never been caught.
In 2020, there was a push for witnesses to come forward. Troy police said at the time they reviewed leads and followed up on tips, but made no headway.
Gail Webster’s murder is considered an unsolved cold case, but that hasn’t stopped her three daughters from fighting for justice.
Gail Webster’s 1978 murder
Gail Webster and her daughter, Terry Webster King, lived together at Somerset Apartments in the 2900 block of Dorchester Drive in Troy.
On October 28, 1978, Gail Webster was attacked and beaten to death by a blunt object. Troy police said there were no signs of forced entry, nothing was taken from the apartment, and there were no obvious signs of sexual assault.
Suspicious incident before murder
There was a suspicious incident that caught investigators attention prior to the murder.
On October 2, 1978, almost four weeks before the murder, Terry Webster King said her apartment keys were stolen from her car while she was at Piper’s Alley.
Later that night, while Terry Webster King was still out, Gail Webster said she heard someone jostling her apartment door handle. She yelled out, and the person ran away.
The night the keys were stolen, Terry Webster King said she noticed a suspicious vehicle with two white men in it believed to be between 20 to 25 years old. The vehicle is believed to have been a 1968 to 1970 Pontiac Tempest or Chevy. It was beat up, rusted, and blue/green in color.
On the morning of the murder, Terry Webster King said she thought she saw the same vehicle on Dorchester Drive near Coolidge Highway. The driver of the vehicle had blond hair.
“We have come closer to understanding that our mom saw something that she shouldn’t have seen, heard something that she shouldn’t of heard, and she became a liability, I think,” Terry Webster King said.
Vital evidence destroyed
In the early 2020s, Gail Webster’s daughters discovered that vital evidence had gone missing.
“The robe and nightgown that our mom was wearing was missing. And it would have had perfect DNA contact from who assaulted her ... Nowhere to be found. One of the best pieces, if not the best piece of evidence,” Terry Webster King said. “And that was disturbing, to say the least.”
The Investigators at Local 4 reached out to the Troy Police Department, who told us that the robe and nightgown had been destroyed.
They stated that the items of clothing were supposed to be picked up by Michigan State Police, but were not retrieved. After the autopsy was complete, the items were destroyed, which was the medical examiner’s policy.
“The autopsy was coordinated by the Michigan State Police, who handled the evidence. It seems they were instructed to pick up some clothing items from the medical examiner’s office which were not retrieved.
“Therefore, they were never placed into Troy Police Property property.
“After the autopsy was complete, the clothing items were apparently destroyed pursuant to medical examiner policy.”
Troy Police Department
“In addition to the DNA that’s become so far advanced over the years, that now you are seeing so many cold cases solved through DNA and techniques, and that brings us back up even more again to our feelings of hurt and frustration and sadness,” Terry Webster King said. “This should be happening to us, and it isn’t.”
The customer that made Gail Webster ‘nervous’
Gail Webster was a manager at Detroit-area landmark Susie-Q Restaurant. The restaurant is closed now, but it was located near Woodward Avenue and 13 Mile Road.
Her daughter said there was a male customer that Gail Webster became “nervous and skeptical” of after a couple of situations occurred.
“We did not know that was happening at the time ... When I saw her, when I said goodbye to her, goodnight to her, when I was leaving that night. She was very anxious that he was going to be working close by. And I didn’t understand why she was anxious at all, and I just kind of took light of it, not understanding or having a lot of knowledge. And who knows, I mean, I came home that night and then she was gone,” Terry Webster King said.
Gail Webster’s daughter’s aren’t going to stop fighting for answers and for justice in their mother’s case.
“I think she’s just in a box, under a desk, and nobody seems interested in pursuing much more. And that’s -- it’s hurtful, it’s really hurtful,” Wendy Webster Razlog said.
In August of 1995, after the daughters learned their mother’s fingernails were never scraped for evidence, they managed to convince police to get a search warrant to exhume Gail’s body.
The day she was exhumed, the daughters say they saw the same customer ... the man that made Gail so nervous ... learning against his car int he Oakview Cemetery. Watching them.
If you believe you have a tip that could help Gail Webster’s daughters solve this case, please send that information to Kayla Clarke at kclarke@wdiv.com, and it will be shared with her daughters.
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You can contact Investigator Karen Drew directly at kdrew@wdiv.com, and contact Kayla Clarke at kclarke@wdiv.com.