Killer Teens The True Story of Amy Lee Black

By Andrea Colson

An anthology of true crime stories headlined by the case of Amy Lee Black. In the early morning hours on December 7, 1990, 16-year-old Amy Lee Black and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Jeff Abrahamson, committed a crime that they would have to pay for with the rest of their lives. The teenagers bludgeoned David John VanBogelen in the head with a whiskey bottle and stabbed the unconscious – possibly already dead – man multiple times in the body before calling it a day. By Independence Day the following year, the young couple was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to prison until the day they die.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201538934

Book preview

KILLER TEENS

THE TRUE STORY OF AMY LEE BLACK

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ANDREA COLSON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AMY LEE BLACK

RACHAEL MULLENIX

DEFRANCISCO SISTERS

MARLENE OLIVE

ALYSSA BUSTAMANTE

TYLAR WITT

MELINDA LOVELESS

CINDY COLLIER

KRISTINA FETTERS

NIKKI REYNOLDS

In the early morning hours on December 7, 1990, 16-year-old Amy Lee Black and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Jeff Abrahamson, committed a crime that they would have to pay for with the rest of their lives. The teenagers bludgeoned David John VanBogelen in the head with a whiskey bottle and stabbed the unconscious – possibly already dead – man multiple times in the body before calling it a day. By Independence Day the following year, the young couple was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to prison until the day they die.

In a recent interview, Amy Black, born June 11, 1974, spoke of her actions being attributed to her unhappy upbringing and home life. She recalled living in her mother’s home in Michigan, and her mother would often bring strange men into their home. Black also remembers her childhood being littered with cases of abuse, both physical and sexual, by her parent and a series of different men.

After several years of accepting abuse and living miserably with her mother, when she got older, she left school and did anything she could to rebel against her mother’s authoritarian-style of raising Black. Over the years, Black told reporters in a 2011 interview, when I didn’t feel stable and safe in the home, I left the home.

However, the time she spent outside of her mother’s home didn’t do her any good. Several years before her conviction and sentencing to life in prison, Black was into heavy drugs and living on the streets with several other people living with the same mental anguish as her. Her addiction to cocaine led to her being sentenced to a residential treatment center in Ottawa County, Michigan, back in 1990. Black told reporters of her ineffective stint at the treatment center and despite her breaking her cocaine addiction, she continued to abuse alcohol and marijuana whenever she could get her hands on the substances.

Not long after her brief episode in the Ottawa County rehabilitation center, she met her future boyfriend, Jeff Abrahamson. How and where they met is not currently known, but they hit it off almost as soon as they found each other. In the beginning, their relationship was somewhat normal for a pair of dysfunctional teenagers who had trouble obeying the law and their parents. Their mischief was limited to minor cases of vandalism, loitering, and staying out past midnight without supervision (for Black).

During the early hours of December 7, 1990, the teens would commit a horrendous act which would cost them the remainder of their lives on Earth. On that fateful morning, the pair met David John VanBogelen. VanBogelen, then 34-years-old, was a father of two children – Amanda and David, Jr. – and a mechanic in a local foundry in the town where he was born and raised. On December 6, 1990, after a long day working at the foundry, VanBogelen and several friends from work decided to relax and get a few drinks at a nearby bar. After having his fill of alcohol, he went to a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately for him, he was overly drunk and unable communicate properly.

Black and Abrahamson were already at the restaurant by the time VanBogelen had arrived. The 34-year-old man was drawing a lot of attention to himself but managed to order a plate of food. Black and Abrahamson soon got to know VanBogelen in their brief encounter that night. With the intention of paying his bill and leaving, the 34-year-old mechanic took out a wallet with several paper bills inside. As he pulled his wallet out, the teenagers noticed that it was filled with several paper bills, tempting their curiosity and greed. They then began plotting how they would go about robbing the man and fleeing with the contents of his thick wallet. Unfortunately for VanBogen, he was too intoxicated to drive his red 1991 Ford Ranger pickup truck from the restaurant back to the house he shared with his wife and two children at Sullivan Township, and the teenage couple found an opening to put their plan into action.

Black and Abrahamson used this opportunity to offer to drive him using his pickup truck and take him back to their apartment where they would allow him to rest until his hangover passed. Due to his inability to think straight, VanBogelen jumped at the offer and gave Abrahamson the keys to his pickup truck. The three of them soon left the premises of the restaurant and headed towards the direction of the teenagers’ apartment complex.

The details of VanBogelen’s murder have become somewhat muddled due to inconsistencies in Black’s testimonies. However, it is believed that her initial confession to the court where she played a vital role in the robbing and bludgeoning of VanBogelen in the head is believed to be the true events of what occurred on that unfortunate night.

Not long after VanBogelen was brought into their apartment, the couple immediately went to work. Abrahamson was the first to strike, taking an empty whiskey bottle and bashing VanBogelen’s head repeatedly until the bottle broke. He then instructed Black to take a square-bottom bottle and begin striking the almost unconscious man in the head – an instruction she followed unhesitantly. As soon as they were sure that VanBogelen was unconscious and unmoving, they loaded him back into his pickup truck, held his head down in order to prevent his vision of where they were headed, and drove off with Abrahamson behind the wheel.

Black and Abrahamson drove for less than an hour towards a rural area of Muskegon County. As soon as they arrived at a remote area, they dismounted and took VanBogelen with them. Abrahamson then took a knife and stabbed the comatose man repeatedly in the body. The heartless couple got back into the stolen Ford Ranger and fled the scene.

On December 8, 1990, Barb VanBogelen, wife of the slain mechanic, filed a missing person’s report, claiming that her husband had failed to come home for over 24 hours since he was last seen leaving his place of employment. Around 4 P.M that afternoon, her life changed forever as two policemen approached her front door to deliver the upsetting news of her husband’s death.

It was a drop and scream, VanBogelen told reporters in 2011 as she recalled the day she received an in-person update regarding the whereabouts of her missing husband. Everything just sinks to your stomach. Earlier that day, the police found VanBogelen’s bludgeoned and stabbed body in a remote area on the outskirts of Muskegon Heights, roughly two miles away from the VanBogelen’s home in Sullivan Township.

Amanda VanBogelen, daughter of David VanBogelen and only 7-years-old at the time of his death, also remembers the day her mother received the grim news. I remember my mom yelling, Amanda said in a 2011 interview, and I remember [my mom] being very upset. I remember people coming over... I tried to block it out. It wasn’t until I was older that it really started to bother me.

The murder committed by the delinquent teens was not bullet-proof and they left clues lying around for the authorities to follow. Police investigators traced the last-known whereabouts of VanBogelen to a bar where he went with his co-workers after a work shift to grab a drink. His co-workers immediately cooperated with investigators and informed them that VanBogelen had consumed too much alcohol and was probably too intoxicated to drive. They also told police officials that after visiting the bar, they parted ways with VanBogelen who told them he would get something to eat before making the drive back home to Sullivan Township. From there, investigators collected enough information from the restaurant’s staff that VanBogelen had left with a couple of teenagers who offered to take him back to their apartment.

Less than two months after the murder case of VanBogelen was opened, the police announced their two likely suspects: Amy Lee Black and Jeff Abrahamson. The couple was arrested in Barry County and charged with armed robbery and first-degree murder, and they spent time in jail before their trial began.

Due to the nature of this murder case – a grown man who was beaten and stabbed by a couple of teenagers – the trial began with very little hiccups. At the trial, Black gave two contradicting testimonies regarding her involvement in the robbing and killing of VacBogolen.

When she and Abrahamson were arrested and brought back to Muskegon Heights by police, Black consented to be recorded by police interrogators. In the 30-minute recording, Black told the investigators how deep her involvement was in the murder case. She was in shock that Abrahamson had gone through with the stabbing killing after they had robbed the unconscious man. She alleged that back in the restaurant where they first met VanBogelen, their plan was just to rob him for the contents of his wallet, steal his truck, and leave the owner stranded in a remote area in the city.

The first part of their plan was to lure the intoxicated VanBogelen back to their apartment which was located nearby the restaurant. While at the apartment, they were going to strike him in the head with an empty whiskey bottle until he passed out. After that, they would take the cash in his wallet, drive to the country with the unconscious man’s head held downwards toward the floor of the stolen truck, and dump him out before he sobered up.

As they reached a secluded spot in the outskirts of Muskegon Heights near Brooks and Ellis Roads, they pulled the comatose VanBogelen from the car, and Abrahamson proceeded to stab the man several times in the abdomen and chest. They got back into the car, drove back to their apartment and attempted to wipe all the spatters of blood from their furniture and walls. After that, they fled to Barry County where the couple stayed with her uncle with plans to remain there until the situation had cooled down.

She reported taking upwards of $1,500 from his wallet and spent a large portion of it on brand new clothes. In her recorded confession to the police, she told the police what drove her and her boyfriend to plot and execute the plan was mainly due to being young, ignorant, and having money problems. In addition, she delivered a chilling few sentences that would ultimately be used against her in court. She told the investigators, I always wanted to know if you could kill somebody [and] the cops not know that it was you... I always wondered that. I never, never thought to do it... I didn’t kill him, but I helped out my fair share.

Although the video was played for the jurors as evidence for her involvement in robbing and killing VanBogelen, she delivered an oral testimony in which some parts clearly went against her recorded confession. While in court, Black mainly blamed Abrahamson for striking VanBogelen and forcing her to pick a bottle up and swing after his weapon broke in his hand.

Regarding her recorded testimony where she confessed to being actively and willingly involved in killing VanBogelen, she spoke of being forced by her then-boyfriend to take the fall since there was no chance she would ever be tried as an adult and be held responsible. When you’re young, you believe things, Black told the court when she was on trial. Now I think I can’t believe I was that stupid to believe those things.

On the Fourth of July in 1991, a jury found both Black and Abrahamson guilty of the robbing and killing of VanBogelen during the early-morning hours on December 7, 1990. Ronald H. Pannucci, the judge that presided over the trial, was given the responsibility to deliver a deserving sentence for the teenagers’ horrific crime. Their sentence has been somewhat controversial and has sparked debate over whether juvenile offenders should be punished so severely. After hearing the harsh sentencing of the murderous couple, Elena Kagan – an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court who is known to hold onto extremely liberal views in terms of punishing minors – wrote a lengthy article condemning the inflexible laws regarding sentencing minors for heinous crimes. In her article, she wrote that a life sentence without possibility for parole for murderers under 21-years-old should be an option but not a rule.

At the time of Black’s and Abrahamson’s sentencing, if a juvenile was found guilty of murder, then the judge could choose between two sentences: try the offender as a juvenile and release them from prison after they become 21-years-old, or try the offender as an adult and give them a life sentence without possibility for parole. The rigid law did not allow any other sentences, and the decision was completely in Pannucci’s hands.

Black was counseled and tested by several psychologists in an attempt to determine whether she was of sound mind and had the mental capacity of an adult when she killed VanBogelen. A psychiatrist from Spring Lake, Michigan, spent considerable time with Black during her detainment prior to her trial. During their sessions together, he interviewed, tested, and evaluated Black.