In1984 Detective William Eskridge was head of the sex crimes division for the Washtenaw County Sheriff Department.  In addition to the unsolved cases he had on file, he knew of several open rape cases in the neighboring counties of Livingston and Jackson.

In the summer of 1984, John Ewing (Ann Arbor, MI) and his wife, Jill, were looking to buy some property in the country.  Ewing approached a female jogger, (Pattie Morris) inquiring if she owned the property she was running on. Two months later he was arrested & charged with 5 Criminal Sexual Conduct charges (CSC's).   Eskridge created and perpetrated a "serial rapist" theory even though there was no hard evidence that the cases were related.  Suspect composites differed, vehicles differed, descriptions differed, and most importantly, blood types of the perpetrators remained unknown in all but one case (Coltrain).

The only thing similar in each case was the fact that NO VICTIM GOT A GOOD LOOK AT HER ATTACKER.  Consequently the prosecution's cases were all pretty weak.   But by the time Eskridge finished his handiwork, one would be hardpressed to think Ewing didn't rape these women.   Eskridge created the perfect suspect in John Ewing by:

bullet
ignoring Miranda
bullet
committing perjury
bullet
fabricating evidence
bullet
withholding police reports
bullet
altering suspect composites
bullet
coaching the complainants to a positive ID
bullet
destroying all the physical evidence to avoid DNA testing
bullet
cutting a deal with a prisoner to gain his perjured testimony
bullet
locking Ewing in a room and forcing him to submit to a photo

Start with Pattie Morris;

a "crime" that never happened