Police say a Michigan grandmother who once falsely told authorities her missing granddaughter had returned home has now allegedly admitted to killing her.
Lois Janish, 74, is facing charges of open murder in the death of Coral Hall, who disappeared in 1998 at the age of 14, WNEM 5 News reported.
The teen vanished shortly after a heated altercation with her grandmother. Hall called a friend from a pay phone to arrange a sleepover, but never showed.
Hall was never heard from again, and her body has never been found.
At the time of her disappearance, Hall was living with Janish and Janish's boyfriend, who is now deceased after complications with alcohol, a report from the Daily Mail said.
Over a decade later, investigators in the case have arrested Janish, who police said never gave them straight answers.
"All of [the grandmother’s] statements over the years have been inconsistent," Sgt. Greg Hosmer told the New York Daily News. "Trying to sort them out just didn’t make any sense. We just followed up on all of that."
Childhood friends of Hall tried to see their long-lost friend after Janish once claimed her granddaughter had returned. But after not being allowed to see her, Hall's friends turned to Detective Sgt. Hosmer, according to a report in the NY Daily News.
Hosmer said Janish made numerous "incriminating statements" and constantly changed her story.
One version of Janish's story involved telling investigators her granddaughter moved down South to live, while another version involved Hall fleeing to California with an older man. At one point, Janish allegedly even said that Hall was found raped and stabbed to death in California, according to a report by MLive news.
Hosmer told a judge that Janish actually admit that she and her boyfriend dismembered Hall, but recanted her story after hiring an attorney. She told investigators she made the stories up.
In 2011 and 2012, Janish admitted in a polygraph test to smoking crack cocaine.
Hosmer told the judge he interviewed three women lodged at the jail at the same time as Janish. The women described her as "scary" and allegedly told Hosmer that she giggled as she told them she killed Hall by hitting her in the head with a hammer and scattering her remains.
Hall's half sister, Jacinda Jones, told the Daily News she was ready for Janish to be convicted and that the grandmother was "not a very good woman."
There is no bond for Janish because she faces an open murder charge.
"It feels good," Jones said. "It's happy tears all the way. I just want to know where my sister's buried. When she murdered my sister, she took me down with her."
Janish could face life in prison without parole if convicted.
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