STURGIS, Mich. (WOOD) -- Daniel Furlong's neighbor in White Pigeon was among those withholding judgment when he was accused of luring a 10-year-old girl into his garage and attacking her with a knife earlier this year -- eight years after Jodi Parrack was raped and killed. Only this time, unlike Jodi, this little girl escaped.
"There was nothing that would make you think that this man was capable," neighbor Donna Williams said.
As the 65-year-old Furlong stood before St. Joseph District Judge Jeffrey Middleton, charged only with the August kidnapping, his family stood with him.
"His family and his friends all came to the hearing, thinking there must be some sort of mistake, this isn't the guy we knew, this isn't the guy from our club, this isn't the guy we work with," the judge said. "They were very supportive."
Then came DNA connecting Furlong to Jodi's murder in November 2007 and his confession -- his awful, detailed confession -- that he lured the little neighborhood girl into his garage in Constantine, raped her, suffocated her with a plastic bag and dumped her in a cemetery.
"It pulled the rug out of all the supporters who were thinking, 'how did this happen, it must be a mistake,' and now they had to get their mind around the fact that this wasn't a mistake," the judge said. "In fact, he killed a young girl."
'NOT THE PERSON I KNEW'
"I thought, 'He's a monster,'" his neighbor said. "He put a bag over her head and waited for her to die. That's not the person I knew."
This was no stranger standing before Judge Middleton, who for years was the county's prosecutor. The judge and Furlong grew up around the corner from each other in Three Rivers and went to the same high school a few years apart.
"They were a nice family," he said of the Furlongs, whose father was a high school custodian. "Had a well-kept home, had a bathtub Virgin in the back yard. They seemed like a middle-class, small-town Three Rivers family when I was 10 years old."
Furlong became a family man himself, blending into Constantine, living in a home maybe 500 feet from the police department.
"He is someone that was living in the community, working in the community and never got into any trouble," the judge said.
He and his wife raised three kids -- good kids, according to neighbors.
"They would have parties, they would come over and say, 'Mr. and Mrs. Shingledecker, we're going to have a party, we're going to have a fire tonight, but we're going to be done at 11,' and they were. No noise, just neat kids," said Larry Shingledecker, who lived next door to the home where Jodi was killed in Constantine.
"We never had a clue," he said.
Shingledecker said the Furlong family lived in a big, old white house in Constantine for at least 12 years.
Furlong did factory work, finally taking a buyout about 10 years ago from American Axle in Three Rivers, a former co-worker said. The co-worker said Furlong was a machine operator and described him as a good employee. He later detailed cars and mowed lawns to make extra money.
UMPIRE AND STORYTELLER
Furlong was also was a volunteer Little League umpire in Constantine -- mostly for girls softball. He called balls and strikes until this past season.
"As parents and coaches, obviously -- I coached, too -- you watch people for red flags and things like that," said former Little League President Sam Maddox, adding that he saw none of those red flags.
"Just an older gentleman that you thought was out here for the kids, trying to help us out," he said.
"Now, you wonder if there was some ulterior motives," he continued.
Furlong's only quirk, friends and neighbors said, is he sometimes told big lies, like when he said he was dying of cancer and undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.
"He was noted for telling these tall tales, and we don't know why," Shingledecker said.
Furlong barely left a paper trail, though Target 8 found that he and his wife were going through bankruptcy at the time Jodi was killed. Records showed more than $170,000 in debt.
In 2011, four years after Jodi was killed, Furlong and his wife moved five miles away to a mobile home park in White Pigeon.
"I saw him watching his grandkids, playing with them outside," said Donna Williams, a neighbor there. "Typical grandfather."
Then came the attack in August in his garage in White Pigeon, the DNA test and the confession -- two hauntingly similar crimes eight years apart.
>>Inside woodtv.com: Jodi Parrack's grandmother says Furlong 'shouldn't breathe air'
CONNECTION TO BRITTNEY BEERS?
"It certainly raises red flags for law enforcement, I'm sure it does," the judge said, including what, if anything, happened between those attacks and before.
Police say they're focusing on the disappearance of 6-year-old Brittney Beers in 1997 from Sturgis -- apparently snatched not far from home. She has never been found.
Police say a composite of a man last seen talking to Brittney looks a lot like Furlong. Now, they're trying to connect him to Sturgis.
They say his brother lived there, but that the two had nothing to do with each other. Target 8 also found he had a sister in Sturgis in the 1990s -- living for a time on John D Court, around the corner from where Brittney disappeared. City directories show she lived there in 1995, but list an address about two miles away in 1997.
Both the sister and other relatives refused to comment.
Judge Middleton said he wouldn't be surprised if police learned Furlong is a serial killer.
"Most people don't wear a big sign flashing behind them that says 'murderer,'" the judge said. "They just look like you and me and they're just out there living their life and sometimes it's circumstantial -- there's a fight or a breakup or an argument. Sometimes it's evil."
Even if he were to admit to Brittney's disappearance, Furlong won't be charged. That's because he was given immunity for any crimes committed in St. Joseph County in exchange for pleading guilty in Jodi's murder.