Porter was 21 years old in December 1971 when he pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder. The Suttons Bay High School graduate admitted to strangling Barbara Belfour, 43, whose body was found covered in snow behind her home on Valentine's Day 1971. Porter went to high school with Belfour's children and was home on leave from the Army at the time of the homicide.
Wayne Porter was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison.
.....He was released on parole on March 23, 1979 after serving 7 years 3 months and he returned to Suttons Bay.
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On August 6, 1979, a 16 year-old runaway reported that she was hitch hiking on S Airport Road in Grand Traverse County. The child was in foster care and had snuck out of her foster home in an attempt to return to her mother in Reed City.
She later told her social worker that she was picked up, kidnapped and raped.
..The victim said that she was picked up by a white male with black hair and a stocky build. The man was Wayne Porter.
..Porter tied her hands behind her back with a rope he had and made her sit on the floor of the car while he held the knife to her throat. The kidnapper tried to cram a towel down the victim's throat as he drove. He tried to choke her into unconsciousness several times while driving as well. The victim was not cut or stabbed with the knife.
After he drove to Leelanau County, Porter stopped the car and attempted to choke her out again and used both his thumbs, one in each eye, to attempt to push her eyeballs back into her head. The victim remained bound with her hands behind her back while still seated on the Volkswagen floor. The man continued to choke her into unconsciousness as he removed her clothing and sexually assaulted her.
...The suspect took her out of the car after the assault and took her to a creek that ran into the Lake Leelanau Narrows. Porter grabbed her by the hair and forced her head into the water multiple times while telling her he was going to drown her. Thinking she was going to die, the victim decided to start talking about anything that came in her head. She said "Daddy, what are you doing to me"? Wayne Porter immediately stopped trying to drown her and said "Oh my God, what am I doing?" He then untied her and took her into an abandoned trailer that was on his grandparents' property. The Volkswagen that he kidnapped the victim with was stuck in sand so he could not drive away.
The victim said Porter laid newspapers, plastic and old life jackets on the floor and she slept on and off throughout the night. In the morning they were not able to get the vehicle unstuck. Porter asked her why she didn't scream so the neighboring house could hear her. She told him that there was no need because he would get his punishment when he died. He then for some reason showed her his driver's license and asked if he took her to a phone, would she want him to wait for the cops to come.
The victim said Porter then gave her the knife he had held to her throat earlier and told her if she was going to use it on him, to do it quickly. She gave him the knife back and began to talk to him about God and how her foster father was a preacher. He agreed to talk to her foster dad sometime.
Porter then took her to a boat that was tied on the Narrows and rowed her across to the village of Lake Leelanau. They walked to the grocery store and she used the payphone to call her case worker. Porter went into the store and bought her cigarettes and a pop.
As they sat on the curb in front of the store, Porter told the victim that her case worker would call the cops and they would know where to find him. He went back to the boat and the victim did not see him again.
...Porter pleaded guilty to the 1st Degree CSC in return for the Attempted Murder charge being dropped. He was sentenced on April 29, 1980 by 13th Circuit Court judge Charles Forster to 60-90 years in prison.
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