Danielle Stislicki Missing Person Case: Police Name 'Person of Interest'

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI — Police may finally have a break in the Danielle Stislicki missing persons case. A man in Livonia police custody is considered a “person of interest” in the disappearance of the 28-year-old Farmington Hills woman last December, according to media reports.

The individual identified by Livonia police is the same man whose Berkley home was searched in connection with Stislicki’s disappearance, WWJ Newsradio reported. (For more local news, click here to find your local Michigan Patch and sign up for our free newsletters and real-time alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Police took the man into custody in connection with the Sept. 4, 2016, attempted rape of a jogger on Livonia’s Hines Drive bicycle path.

No one was arrested after investigators combed the Berkley residence for clues into Stislicki’s disappearance on late December, but authorities seized a mattress.

Police said early in the investigation that Stislicki likely was a victim of a crime. She was last seen outside her job at MetLife in Southfield on Dec. 2. Her Jeep was found outside her home at the Independence Green apartments the following day, but police think it was driven there by a third party. Her purse and other items were still inside.

Although police didn’t see any signs of struggle, her family thinks she was abducted.

The man in custody is expected to be arraigned Wednesday on charges filed in the the attack on the jogger.
The 28-year-old woman told police at the time was running eastbound on the Edward Hines Drive bicycle path west of Levan when she encountered a man who was walking in the opposite direction.

She attempted to jog past him, but he wrapped his arm around her neck, struck her on the side of the face, and the two struggled as the man attempted to drag her toward the Rouge River and remove her clothes after saying “he wanted to have sex with her,” police said.

The woman was able to fight off her attacker and he fled. She flagged down a passing motorist and used his cell phone to report the attack to police, who searched the area, but were unable to locate the suspect, police said.

Attorney Jim Williams, who is representing the man, told WWJ his client is "just one more" of the many people Farmington Hills police have interviewed in Stislicki's disappearance.

“What happened yesterday [his arrest] is a completely separate matter, and he’s innocent of those charges. There’s absolutely no connection between the two,” Williams said.

If there were evidence against his client in the Stislicki case, "they would have brought charges," he said, adding "they haven't done so yet."

“At some point we do believe the police will back off because I’m sure they have concluded from their investigation that my client is not involved in that case,” Williams told the radio station. “He’s wrongfully identified in the Stislicki case and that ought to just drop. The police haven’t been able to do anything on that, they’re looking at many people.”

Handout photo