GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Following a remorseful deathbed confession, convicted killer, Garry Artman, admitted to 11 murders. He is responsible for the slaying of a Grand Rapids woman in 1996 and a woman found dead in Maryland. His last-minute disclosure included nine other murders for which he never faced charges, sources say.
Artman, who succumbed to lung cancer, reached out to detectives days before his death and confessed to the 11 murders. His admissions were made while he was in a coma at a prison hospital in Jackson. Among the victims was Sharon Hammack, for whose murder Artman was convicted in September.
For two decades, the murder of Hammack, who was 29 and pregnant with her third child, remained unsolved despite the presence of DNA evidence. Artman was finally arrested in August of 2022 and convicted in September 2023 after investigators discovered that forensic genealogy pointed to his involvement.
While Artman denied his involvement in the crimes during his sentencing in October, his reconciliation came only a month before his death. Despite Artman’s death, at least four West Michigan police agencies are looking into the details he revealed and comparing them to unsolved cases.