“I jump out of the car, and I go running,” Lynette Drumhiller told Dateline. “Police come running at me and they -- they won’t let me get anywhere closer and I’m shaking so hard.”
Lynette was trying to get into the home of her daughter, Megan Drumhiller. The 31-year-old was found unresponsive in her Carrollton Township, Michigan home on January 28, 2022.
“They ask me for a photo of our daughter, and they confirm that that’s her,” Lynette recalled. “And they tell me she’s deceased.”
It has now been two years since that day. Tim and Lynette Drumhiller are still searching for one thing: Answers.
The Drumhillers are from Saginaw County, Michigan. “We’re in what we call the middle of the state,” Tim Drumhiller told Dateline. “I would say it’s a good Midwestern place to raise a family.”
The Drumhillers told Dateline that their family is extremely tight-knit. “We do so many things together,” Lynette said. “We traveled a lot together. [Megan] loved going to Disney.”
Megan was the eldest of four and the only girl. “She was vivacious, and had a great sense of humor. She had the best laugh of anyone,” Lynette said. “Creative, extremely smart.”
“She was definitely a daddy’s girl,” Tim told Dateline. “I mean, she obviously loved both of us, but I think Megan and I had a special bond as most dads try to. We had kind of shared our love of music and she kind of adapted to some of my artists from my era, so that was fun.”
Tim and Lynette last saw Megan in January 2022. The couple spends most of the colder months in Florida but had been back at their home in Saginaw County visiting family.
“It was the 10th,” Lynette recalled. “We gave each other a hug. She said, ‘Love you, Mom’ and I said, ‘Love you and see you soon.’”
Tim continued the story. He said Megan didn’t have a car, and planned on getting some rides from her parents while they were in town. “She had a series of doctor appointments and things like that when we were home,” he said. “I remember specifically dropping her off at home and telling her I love her and kind of telling her that we’d see her again in a couple weeks.”
Tim and Lynette flew back to Florida the next day — not knowing they would never see their daughter alive again.
“Lynette had plans to go [to Michigan] towards the end of January, which would have been on kind of a normal routine visit,” Tim told Dateline, adding that he was staying at their home in Florida.
Lynette told Dateline that she and Megan had been texting each other a few days before she left for Michigan until suddenly, on January 20, communication stopped. “She kind of went silent and you know, um, that’s fine. She’s 31,” Lynette said.
But when Lynette arrived in Michigan on January 28 and still hadn’t heard from her daughter, she grew worried. “She’s not answering her phone or responding to texts, and we have plans for me to go pick her up, go out to dinner,” she recalled. “I text her significant other and I say, ‘Hey, I can’t reach Megan. Um, have you heard from her?’”
Lynette told Dateline that Megan’s on-again/off-again boyfriend told her that he hadn’t heard from Megan in a few days, either. But she said he offered to go check on her.
“He calls back and he says he can see her through the door — through the window — and she’s lying on the floor unconscious,” Lynette recalled. “I say, ‘Did you call 911?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’”
Lynette rushed to Megan’s home.
“I’m praying as I’m driving and I’m assuming that when I turn the corner, there’s going to be an ambulance, but instead there’s yellow police tape, like, all around the entire property,” Lynette said, tearfully. “There are police cars everywhere.”
Lynette soon got the news that no parent wants to hear. “An officer says to me that from everything he can see — he said, ‘This is a homicide,’” she remembered. “I did not want to hear it. I was in such denial, because who would kill Megan?
The Drumhillers told Dateline that they don’t know who would want to harm their daughter. “She had no enemies. She was such a light,” Lynette said.
Both the Michigan State Police and the Carrollton Township Police Department were initially investigating Megan’s case. “Michigan State Police were doing 99.9 percent of it,” Tim told Dateline. “They’re the big [agency] with all of the resources and investigative team.”
Months went by and the Drumhillers felt like Megan’s case was not moving forward. “Somebody is walking around who’s committed murder and what if he were to harm someone else?” Lynette told Dateline. “I never dreamed I’d become a part-time detective. If we’re not constantly nagging and pushing, nothing seems to happen.”
In June 2022, the Drumhillers requested that Megan’s case be turned over to the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office from the Michigan State Police. Carrollton Township is in Saginaw County.
Michigan State Police Public Information Officer Kim Vetter confirmed to Dateline that their office was involved in the investigation early on but at the request of the family, they turned it over to Saginaw County. “We’re all cooperative and interested in getting justice for the family,” she said.
Dateline also reached out to the Carrollton Township Police Department but has not yet received a response.
The Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating Megan’s case. Lieutenant Russell Kolb of that office told Dateline in an email that Megan was found dead in her living room in the early evening of January 28, 2022.
According to Lt. Kolb, Megan’s cause of death is listed as asphyxiation. “Due to the suspicious nature of her death, it is being treated/investigated as a homicide,” he wrote.
The lieutenant told Dateline that multiple items from Megan’s home were collected “including but not limited to clothing, household items (cups), couch cushions, and various digital media platforms, (cellphone, laptop, wireless router).”
Lieutenant Kolb said that multiple of Megan’s friends have been interviewed by investigators and that “multiple electronic search warrants” have been conducted in the case.
“Recent discovery through various electronic search warrants has identified a possible person of interest. Investigation into this individual continues,” Lt. Kolb told Dateline. The person of interest has not yet been publicly named.
As far as the latest in the investigation, Lt. Kolb told Dateline that “a CODIS hit was made to one of the DNA samples which matched another sample which was submitted from another agency in Michigan. Investigation into this CODIS hit continues.”
In June 2023, the Drumhillers held a press conference during which they announced a $100,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Megan’s death. “We were always careful not to disrupt the investigation,” Tim said. “But we finally got to the point where we — we’ve gotta create awareness. Maybe somebody saw something, heard something, whatever else that they’re reluctant to say.”
The Drumhillers believe new leads in Megan’s case may be on the horizon. “I can’t be specific, but there are other new leads that they’ve developed,” Tim Drumhiller told Dateline. “They uncovered some pretty key information.”
While they wait for answers, the Drumhillers continue to focus on memories of Megan -- the daughter they miss so much. “People wrote letters saying how kind she was and — ‘She changed my life,’” Lynette told Dateline. “One thing people are hesitant to ask us, and I say, you know, ‘Don’t hesitate.’ I know it’s hard for people, but we like talking about Megan. It keeps her alive, so don’t ever hesitate to bring her up.”
Anyone with information about Megan’s case is asked to call the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Russell Kolb at 989-790-5448.