I like to think of myself as an armature detective. The wonderful followers of this blog know how much I love a good mystery. I like analyzing the possibilities of a situation. Daniel Acker claims to be a person just like me. He says he loves solving crimes and mysteries.
Perhaps he does like mysteries. Perhaps he is also interested in hauntings and the supernatural. Perhaps he didn't kill little Johnny Zera. Maybe he was just curious. Maybe that's why he contacted Johnny's family... Maybe that's why he created a mini version of their police department and littered his minature town with mini flyers of missing and murdered children... Maybe the diary in which he confessed to multiple murders was a prank...
John Zera went missing on February 20th, 1976 near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His body was found days later beaten to death. Daniel Acker was a swim coach at John’s high school and after the boy’s death, Acker became close with the Zera family.
In later years, in 2009 a man contacted the school where Daniel Acker worked, stating that Acker molested him when he was in middle school. The school contacted the police, and the police decided to search Acker’s property. Everything was fine until they look in the one place most Hollywood villains keep their secrets; the basement.
In Acker’s basement, police found toy police cars and a replica of the police station. You’re probably thinking, “Ok, yeah. That’s a little weird for a grown man to have, but not that bad. I mean it’s not like he had miniature pictures of missing boys posted on the wall of the mini police station…” No you’re right, most of the children on the walls of the replica police station were murdered, not missing. The last two children listed were John Zera and Carl Galbraith, a young boy who was murdered near Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1977. Then to top it off, the police found a diary, written by Acker in which he confesses to killing John Zera.
Acker was arrested in 2009 for sexual assault of another young boy. Although Acker denied ever knowing John Zera, while in custody confessed to assisting around 20 young boys over the years. The police do not think that he killed Zera. It is possible that Zera could have been killed by Michael Uporsky, a teacher at Zera’s school, or James Lee Crummel, a child serial rapist and murderer from California. There is even the theory that John Wayne Gacy, the infamous killer clown of Chicago, killed Zera and Carl Galbraith.
In 2016, DNA from Zera’s case was tested. However, the test results were inconclusive. From what I understand the investigation into Daniel Acker has stopped...
For updates on this case
…Stay Tuned…
Sources and Further Readings:
Unsolved Podcast (Season 1)
“5 Unsolved Mysteries with Strange Written Clues Part 2” video by Criminally Listed, YouTube
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