The 1907 Michigan Murder That Starred Dick Van Dyke

The village of Isadore is thought of as a ghost town...and it is definitely a ghost of its former self, but there's much more to Isadore that bubbles under the surface...

Isadore – named after Saint Isadore, the patron saint of farmers - sits in Leelanau County, founded in 1870 by Polish settlers from Milwaukee. A post office was implemented in 1892, lasting until 1912...but a dark shadow looms over the old village, that serves as a reminder of the murder that took place in 1907.

Aside from a few empty buildings and a couple of homes, the only reminder that the town ever existed is the Holy Rosary Church that overlooks the little community. Those who are still there know the church's sinister secret.

Get our free mobile app

Built as a wood church in 1883, it was set to be torn down and replaced with a new one in 1917...but the townspeople objected. They feared that any excavation could uncover the body of a nun who was murdered and buried in the basement in 1907.

The nun was Sister Mary Janina, who came up missing in 1907. Everyone in town joined an extensive search, using bloodhounds and even a clairvoyant. It was Father Edward who discovered the body buried and covered up by a pile of wood. But how did he find the body? This is where the tale gets twisted.

Another priest, Father Andrew Bieniawski, supposedly got Sister Janina pregnant. Stella, his housekeeper, murdered Sister Janina out of jealousy (which also killed the baby) and later confessed. Father Edward heard about the confession, found the skeletons and had them secretly buried at the foot of the large cross in the church cemetery.

But Father Edward was no saint, either. He was having an affair with his own teenage housekeeper, who gave birth to his baby. The two were going to secretly put the baby up for adoption when he told her about the skeletons he had discovered. So she tells her father, a policeman, who arrested Stella and threw her in jail for the murder of Sister Janina. She was set free in 1927 and lived the rest of her days as a cook/housekeeper at a convent in Wisconsin.

Sister Janina's bones are said to be buried at the foot of the cross in the church cemetery down the road.

As for Dick Van Dyke, he was the star of a 1979 movie made about this whole incident, titled "The Runner Stumbles" co-starring Kathleen Quinlan.

The church is located on the corner of S. Schomberg & S. French in the ghost town of Isadore. If you visit, keep quiet about this whole thing to any resident you may come across. It won't go over well....