Singing Sands Rv Park

Witness: Silverlight murder suspect confessed over Thanksgiving ...

By ANDREW LERSTEN

For the Tribune

ALLEGAN — The  gruesome murder of a South Haven man ended up being the conversation at a Thanksgiving dinner where the suspect, Alison L. Martin, allegedly confessed to a friend about it.

Allegan District Court Judge Joseph Skocelas last week ruled that there is enough probable cause against Martin, 23, Kalamazoo, to move the case of Brandon Silverlight’s death to circuit court. She is scheduled to be arraigned in circuit court on May 28 on five charges: Open murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, torture and felony murder. She’s being held without bond.

She and her boyfriend, Justin Terpstra, 24, Kalamazoo, allegedly stabbed Silverlight several times as he was bound to a tree off 74th Avenue north of South Haven, and then put him in his car and set it on fire.

An autopsy report concluded that burns, smoke inhalation and the stab wounds all could have been possible death causes. It also stated that Silverlight had been alive when he was burned.

The testimony received during Martin’s preliminary hearing last week that linked her to the crime was viewed as circumstantial. Details of the events surrounding the slaying are based on comments Martin allegedly made to a friend at Thanksgiving dinner last year, just two days after the homicide.

Martin’s friend Shawn West testified that Martin had given details of the slaying to him after he invited her over for Thanksgiving dinner. Martin told him she and her boyfriend, Justin Terpstra – the co-defendant in the case – had killed Silverlight. A full timeline of events from the time the meeting with Silverlight was set up until the slaying occurred was given in West’s testimony, based on Martin’s comments to him.

Martin had previously been in a relationship with Silverlight, police said earlier. West said Martin told him Silverlight had raped her and as a result, she was having sexual problems with Terpstra. The confrontation with Silverlight was planned as a way to get revenge on him, West said he was told.

Martin lured Silverlight into meeting with her in South Haven on Nov. 24 with the prospect of a sexual liaison. Terpstra met up with them when they arrived at the Singing Sands RV Park in South Haven and hit Silverlight in the head with a board, according to West’s testimony. Martin and Terpstra then allegedly bound Silverlight with duct tape on the hands and feet and took him to a nearby rural two-track road off 74th, where they bound him to a tree and stabbed him, West testified.

Woodall's campground directory

Woodall's trailering parks and campgrounds

Michigan travel and recreation guide

Frommer's Best RV and Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.A.

Woodall's North American Campground Directory with CD, 2009