KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A West Michigan man who has served 21 years in prison for a 1990 double murder that has legally been cleared of his conviction and is now walking around as a free man.
The bodies of Doug Estes, 33, and James Bennett, 36, were discovered by authorities in a wooded area of the Fulton State Game Area in Kalamazoo County on November 17, 1990.
Estes was from Comstock Township, and Bennett from Leonidas. Both men were hunting when they were killed.
They were both found shot in the back.
In November 1990, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported that investigators at the time had "no information or evidence to suggest that they were stalked."
In the years after the murders, investigators considered that the men had fallen victim to a serial killer— Thomas Dillon.
A January 1993 article in the Detroit Free Press recounted, "during a three year time span in 1989, eight people have been hunted outdoors in three states, possibly by one killer, the FBI says. Thomas Lee Dillon, a Canton, Ohio, draftsman, has been charged in the murders of Claude Hawkins and Gary Bradley."
Despite the investigation taking these turns, Jeff Titus was arrested and convicted for the murders in 2002.
The former Marine police officer maintained his innocence throughout the trial.
On Thursday, Kalamazoo's top prosecutor, Jeff Getting, along with members of the Attorney General's Office and University of Michigan's Innocence Project, announced they had filed a motion to have all charges officially dropped against Titus.
“I have no hard feelings. Just because it doesn't help me to let that eat at me,” Titus said on Thursday. “All I can say is, I'm an innocent man... I am glad to have this off my head, and that I can get on with my life.”
