20 years later, the murder of Bernita White at Potter Park Zoo remains unsolved
Kara Berg
Lansing State Journal
June 23, 2021
LANSING — It's been 20 years since Bernita White was gunned down as she walked with her daughter outside Potter Park Zoo.
Her death remains unsolved.
Police have spoken openly about the murder investigation since 41-year-old White 's death on June 23, 2001. Their longtime suspect, White's husband and former Michigan State Police Trooper Artis White, has been adamant he did not kill his wife.
Michigan State Police and the Attorney General's office are handling the investigation. Both declined to comment.
Bernita White and her then-5-year-old daughter were walking toward the entrance of the zoo when she was shot with a high-powered rifle from about 100 yards away, police have said. Witnesses told police they heard one or two shots that might have come from a wooded area north of the zoo entrance, but no one saw a shooter.
According to a profile of the shooter completed by state police, the suspect is a man about the same age as Bernita White, and is intelligent, articulate and educated, then-Michigan State Police Lt. Kyle Bowman said in June 2013, when the profile was first released to the public. He was "emotionally connected to Bernita" and familiar with the Potter Park area. He is also described as "manipulative," task-oriented and methodical.
In the 10 months after Bernita White's death, detectives spent more than 9,000 hours investigating, interviewing and combing practically every square foot of Potter Park andthe zoo, police said in 2002.
Then-Lansing police Chief Mark Alley said in 2002 that police invested more time and resources into Bernita White's death than for any city homicide in memory.
The day of the shooting, Bernita White had been attending a birthday party with family members. Artis White told investigators he had attended the party with his wife, then left to pick up their other daughter. He returned to the zoo about an hour after the shooting, he told investigators.
The Whites were in the middle of a divorce; Bernita White filed for it about a month before her death, but the two were still living together. Police have said marital problems and a custody dispute over couple's two young daughters were possible motives.
White told the Lansing State Journal in 2009 that investigators wrongly focused on him. He said GPS evidence and witnesses can prove he wasn't near the zoo at the time of the killing.
In 2003, Artis White self-published a book called "Who Killed My Wife?" He also released a documentary in 2009 called "Living Accused" that focused on four people who had been wrongfully convicted of murder or rape and later exonerated. He said it showed how police and prosecutors can make mistakes.
Anyone with information on Bernita White's murder can contact Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Frasier at 810-227-1051.
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