Is the murder of Bernita White going to remain an unsolved crime in the Lansing community or is the case close to being solved?

On June 23, 2001, White was shot and killed in Lansing at Potter Park Zoo, 1301 S. Pennsylvania Ave., while at an outing with one of her young daughters. The case still has not produced a guilty party.

White's husband, Michigan State Police Sgt. Artis L. White, loses more hope every day thinking the case will never be resolved. He is unhappy that he has been the only suspect in the case.

"As it stands right now, I was only falsely accused. I was not wrongfully convicted, not placed in jail, and I think part of that is because I have the knowledge to say, 'Hey, wait guys, you're not doing this right," Artis White said.

As it is not unusual to hear random gunfire in the area around Potter Park Zoo, Artis White has come to the conclusion that the killer may not have been aiming at Bernita.

"I feel that it wasn't a person who intended to kill Bernita. She got shot in the arm and it went all the way through her body. From my accounts — what I know — if you're intending to kill someone, you don't shoot them in the arm," Artis White said.

"Who Killed My Wife?" is the name of Artis White's autobiographical account of his spouse's untimely death. The book was published in 2003 and has not provided any sort of progress toward the capture of the killer.

In the book, Artis White points out the mistakes made by the Lansing Police Department and state police in handling the case. In Artis White's opinion, he should have been taken off the list of suspects very early in the case.

In response to his qualms with the police's handling of Bernita White's murder case, he is also working on a film documentary with the working title "Wrongfully Accused," in which he interviews other people who were falsely suspected of crimes.

Besides losing his wife on June 23, 2001, Artis White also lost his mother-in-law on the same day.

She had a heart attack when she found out her daughter had been murdered.

In the book, Artis White writes that one of the detectives working on the investigation falsely stated that Artis White's mother-in-law's dying words were "Artis killed her," referring to the shooting of Bernita White.

"Who Killed My Wife?" is available at Everybody Reads, 2019 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing.

Artis White is still in the process of conducting interviews for his documentary, "Wrongfully Accused."