Danielle Stislicki

It was the 2nd of December 2016. A Friday. Twenty eight year old Danielle Stislicki had a busy weekend ahead. She was scheduled to work on the Saturday and on Sunday, she had plans to help decorate her grandparent's Christmas tree. But that night, the Friday night, she made plans to meet her best friend Sarah Pollack after work for dinner. 

Danielle left work at 5pm and sent a text message to Sarah:

"I got off early, I just need to stop home quickly and I'm on my way."

Sarah responded at 5.30pm:

"Yeah, I called in. Are you alive? LOL. Weird I haven't heard from you, you're making me worried."

Sarah waited for Danielle for a while and when she didn't arrive, she called her a few times but it went straight to voicemail. Sarah thought that Danielle fell asleep when she stopped off at her apartment in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, to get changed. 

Danielle was due in work at MetLife in Southfield on the Saturday morning at 8am but she didn't show up and nobody heard from her. Colleagues and friends called but their calls went to voicemail and their texts went unanswered. Sarah went to Danielle's apartment. Her black 2015 Jeep Renegade was parked outside. She knocked on the door but there was no answer so Sarah contacted Danielle's parents, Rich and Ann Stislicki, to let them know that she hadn't heard from Danielle.

Danielle Stislicki

Ann worked with Danielle at MetLife and was deeply concerned so they called police as they drove over to their daughter's apartment. The fact that Danielle didn't meet her friend for dinner or go to work was completely uncharacteristic of her.  Danielle's Jeep was locked and her purse, money, identification and credit cards were inside which was unusual. They entered her apartment. The only things that appeared to be missing, apart from Danielle, were her cellphone, keys and the clothes she wore to work. Her cat was still inside the apartment. There was nothing out of place and nothing that indicated there had been any foul play of any sort. 

Police spoke to those in Danielle's life and her coworkers. Some of them recalled seeing Danielle leaving the office on Friday at 5pm. She had her Jeep with her that day at work. So did she drive home that night as she planned to get changed? Her Jeep was found parked just eight feet from her front door. 

Police discovered, through talking to Danielle's coworkers, that Danielle  stopped to help someone in the car park outside the office after work on Friday. The person she helped had the hood of their car up and they identified him as thirty two year old Floyd Galloway. They knew Floyd as he was employed by a company contracted to provide security for MetLife. Danielle knew him also. 

Danielle's mother Ann also knew Floyd through her job at MetLife. She believed that Danielle was uncomfortable around him and she saw him around her daughter a lot. Ann said:

“Her and I would meet in the cafeteria on her floor, and we would have lunch together and he would appear there.”

That said, it was a cold night that Friday night when Danielle left work so it would not be unusual for her to help someone if their car had broken down and if they were in need of some help. 

Police spoke to Floyd and searched his house in Berkley. Farmington Hills Detective Ryan Molloy asked him about Danielle. Floyd told him that he had heard from a friend that Danielle was missing. When asked when he had last seen Danielle, he told police that he last saw her several months earlier. Detective Molloy said that during the conversation, Floyd was "stand-offish and stared at a wall.” Detective Molloy gave him a business card so that Floyd could contact him if he remembered anything and noted that Floyd's “hands were shaking” when he took the card. Police also spoke to Floyd's wife. She was in hospital undergoing chemotherapy treatment when Danielle went missing. 

Police removed a number of items for evidential reasons from his home but Danielle was not there and police had no idea where she was. But, in an unexpected development, through their search for Danielle, they managed to link Floyd to another crime, one that was completely unrelated to Danielle's case. And he pleaded guilty to that charge. Floyd admitted to sexually assaulting a jogger at Hines Park in Livonia. That attack happened less than three months before Danielle went missing. He punched the jogger, choked her and tried to rape her but she managed to escape. 

Floyd Galloway

Floyd pleaded guilty to kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct, assault with intent to commit sexual penetration, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. A charge of assault with intent to murder was dropped. He was sentenced to 16 to 35 years in prison.

Police continued to investigate Danielle's disappearance and even though she still had not been found, they built a case against Floyd. He was charged with premeditated first degree murder. At the preliminary examination, to hear evidence to see if there is sufficient evidence to go to Trial, the Court heard some of the evidence that the Prosecution has against Floyd. 

It was the Prosecution's case that Danielle drove her Jeep to Floyd's house in Berkely to drop him home as he told her his car had broken down. It was their case that Danielle was murdered inside his home and then he drove her Jeep back to her apartment and parked it outside. The Prosecution argued that the evidence also showed the murder was premeditated.

The Court heard that the day before Danielle went missing, the 1st of December, Floyd called work to let them know that he would not be at work the next day. 

The Court heard from a number of witnesses. Brandon Williams, a coworker of Danielle’s, testified that he saw Danielle and Floyd on the Friday evening. He testified that he saw them leave the car park together in Danielle's Jeep. He told the Court that he was driving away from the MetLife building in Southfield when he saw Floyd sitting in the passenger seat of Danielle's Jeep. 

Other coworkers saw Danielle standing in the MetLife parking lot talking to a man fitting Floyd’s description. The Court heard that he had the hood of his vehicle raised as if he was having engine trouble.

Prosecutors showed surveillance video to the Court of a Jeep that they believe was Danielle's Jeep heading toward Floyd's home the night of her disappearance. They highlighted a "very significant dirt area on her Jeep" which they say indicates that it was Danielle's Jeep. It was the Prosecution's case that once they reached Floyd's house in Berkley, Danielle was murdered and Floyd drove her Jeep back to her apartment and parked it outside. It was their case that he then walked to a Tim Horton's restaurant and called a cab. 

Surveillance footage from Tim Horton's restaurant showed Floyd asking to use the phone. It was the Prosecution's case that the call he placed at the restaurant was to the cab company to order a cab. Silvia Morris, a cab driver, testified that she picked up a fare at a Tim Horton’s restaurant at Grand River and 10 Mile, less than a mile from Danielle's apartment and dropped him off across the street from MetLife. The Prosecution claimed he wanted to be dropped off back there so that he could collect his car from the car park. 

Silvia identified Floyd in a photo lineup. When asked to describe how he was in the cab, she said that he was “calm and low key” and he told her that he was visiting his girlfriend and needed to get a cab as his “car was broken.”

Danielle's keys and FitBit were found outside less than a mile away from the Tim Horton's where Floyd was spotted on a surveillance video. The Prosecution argued that Floyd dropped them there on his walk back from her apartment to the Tim Horton's that he visited that night. They were dropped between the two locations. 

Danielle Stislicki

The Court heard testimony from Oakland County Medical Examiner Dr. Ljubisa J. Dragovich. He testified that he believed Danielle was dead despite the fact her body had not been found. He testified that he believed she died as a result of asphyxiation and told the Court that he came to his conclusion through evidence collected by police and common sense. 

"I felt someone grab me from behind. He took his arm and swooped it around my neck and held tight around my neck. He started to drag me towards the woods off of the path. He became more forceful and got himself on top of me. I started yelling 'What do you want, why are you doing this? What do you want?' 'I just want sex.' I thought he was going to rape me."

The jogger managed to escape and flagged down a driver who was driving past the park. She called 911 and provided a detailed description of the man to the police. 

The 47th District Court Judge James Brady ruled there was sufficient evidence for a Trial to proceed.

While the testimony of the jogger was heard at the preliminary examination, it will not be heard at Floyd's Trial in relation to Danielle's murder as a Court of Appeals ruled that Floyd's admission that he sexually attacked a jogger cannot be introduced in as evidence and was ruled as non-admissible. 

The Prosecution argued that the attack on the jogger showed a common plan or scheme and they claimed there was a striking similarity between the case of the jogger and Danielle's case. They further argued that it should be admissible to show Floyd's motive, intent, lack of accident, identity and common scheme.

But the Appeals Court disagreed. They rejected it based on their findings that there was no striking similarity between the attack on the jogger and Danielle's disappearance. 

The ruling means that when he goes on Trial for Danielle's murder, his guilty plea in the jogger case can not be addressed in Court and the Jury cannot hear about it. 

Floyd is due to stand Trial in 2021.