Deathbed confession: Killer admits to murders of 11 women, sources say

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — On his deathbed, a convicted killer admitted to nearly a dozen murders, most of which he never faced charges for, sources said.

Garry Artman reached out to detectives days before he died of lung cancer, sources told Nexstar's WOOD. In a prison hospital in Jackson, struggling to breathe, he admitted to 11 murders, 10 of which happened in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

That included the murders of Sharon Hammack in 1996 — the only killing of which Artman was ever actually convicted — and 24-year-old Dusty Shuck.

"She was an amazing soul. She was good inside and out," Shuck's mother Lori Kreutzer said.

Shuck was found beaten and stabbed to death near a truck stop off Interstate 70 in Maryland on May 4, 2006. DNA had linked Artman, a long-haul trucker, to the case, though his terminal cancer prognosis made a trial a long shot.

Kreutzer said that Artman was in a coma, on a respirator and expected to die in mid-December.

"And he did not die. He came out of the coma after the respirator came out and fully confessed to Dusty's murder," Kreutzer said. "It was a miracle…divine intervention. So at least he did that."

Artman died Thursday, Dec. 28. He was 66.

"(He) died the 28th at the hospital, and Dusty's birthday was the 29th. So she would have been 42," Kreutzer said.

A MOTHER NEVER FOUND

Sharon Hammack would have been 57 and Cathleen Dennis 56. They were among 17 women, many of them sex workers, who went missing or were found dead in metro Grand Rapids between 1993 and 1996. Detectives are still comparing details Artman provided against the cases.

"Our investigative team met with him three times prior to his death to see if there's any information or case facts they could glean to help solve some of these unsolved murders and missing people," Kent County Sheriff's Office Lt. Eric Brunner said. "What we can say is just that those three times were fruitful, to an extent. And we're trying to further help bring closure to these families that potentially have been impacted over these last many years by these unsolved cases. So that is our hope, but there's still a handful of work to be done."

Artman told investigators he spotted one of his victims leaving the old So-So's Lounge in Grand Rapids, according to sources. He said she was wearing a cast or sling on her arm. Those details match the case of Dennis, who was 28 when she was last seen on July 7, 1995.

Kent County Sheriff's Office Detective Andy Hinds called Tommy Dennis Tuesday morning to let him know investigators finally had some answers to questions he'd had since his mother vanished when he was just 7.

"Unfortunately, (Artman) did disclose to us some details where we believe he is responsible for your mom's murder," Hinds said. "I wish I had better news and my sincere condolences are with you, sir."

"Oh, wow," Tommy Dennis said.

"Yeah, we're still working, Tommy, on several other cases in the Grand Rapids area around the same time. We believe he could be linked to many more," Hinds said.

Known for her bubbly spirit and sense of humor, Cathleen Dennis had traveled to Grand Rapids from her Nebraska hometown in July 1995. She and her sister planned to spend the weekend working Grand Rapids' red-light district along Division Avenue. That's where Deanna Dennis told police she had last seen her sister, leaving So-So's Lounge. When Cathleen failed to return to their hotel room, Deanna knew something was wrong, she previously told WOOD. 

She and her family filed a police report and searched the streets for Cathleen to no avail. Her body has never been found, and detectives said that based on the details that Artman provided, it's unlikely it will ever be recovered.

"At least it provides some kind of closure," her son said. "I mean, ideally, I would like her returned to me, but this is just kind of where things are at."

Artman never faced charges in connection to the Dennis case.

KILLER DENIED MURDER ONLY MONTHS AGO

The over-the-road trucker was charged and convicted in one of the Grand Rapids cases, the 1996 murder of Sharon Hammack. A Kent County jury took just thirty minutes to find Artman guilty in September. Hammack's body — bound, raped, strangled and stabbed — was found wrapped in a blanket alongside a metro Grand Rapids road on Oct. 3, 1996.  She was 29 and pregnant with her third child at the time of her killing.

“She was beautiful. She didn’t deserve that,” Hammack's sister, Tina DeYoung, previously said.

For years, the murder went unsolved even though there was DNA evidence. Then, forensic genealogy pointed police to Artman. He was arrested in August 2022 and convicted in September 2023. At sentencing in October, he denied being a killer.

“They’re blaming me for what somebody else did,” Artman said at sentencing. “Let ’em. If they get closure, fine, they get closure. But all these other murders, they’re idiots,” he said, referring to investigators on the case. “You detectives right there, ‘scuse my language, are (expletive) idiots. Why? Because you keep looking at me, and I didn’t do it.”

But three months later, as he lay near death at a prison hospital in Jackson, Artman confessed, though the exact number of victims will likely never be known. He may have claimed eleven as his victim count only because a Kent County prosecutor mentioned that number when he talked about unsolved cases during Artman's October sentencing hearing. 

Dusty Shuck's mom believes Artman used his job as a long-haul trucker to rape and murder vulnerable women across the country before he dumped their bodies.

"If he had lived through this or just lived longer, he probably would be known as one of the biggest serial killers, I think, in the United States," Kreutzer said. "I just have a feeling there's a significant number of women who died." 

At least four West Michigan police agencies are investigating the details Artman provided, comparing them to unsolved cases. 

"Any time we investigate these cases, we cannot forget the impact that has on a victim's family," said Lt. Brunner of the Kent County Sheriff's Office. "Someone that's had a loved one go missing or murdered a long time ago...it's just a huge loss and then to not have answers on top of that. So, our investigators feel that burden as well when they look into these cases to try to help bring closure to these families. Obviously, Mr. Artman has passed away, so some people are going to have differing emotions about that. But, to bring closure to these families even beyond his death, that is their goal."