08/14/2026
Justice for Flynn. I want to share this story, but I especially want to recognize and praise the brave mother for refusing to give up. She is fighting for justice for her son, but she is also fighting to make sure another family does not have to experience what hers has endured.
What troubles me most is that, in my view, the bigger problem goes beyond one individual or one family. The justice system itself is broken.
When people have money, power, or the right connections, it can feel as though they are able to manipulate the system and escape consequences. Meanwhile, people accused of far less serious offenses, without money or influence, can spend years and everything they have trying to survive that same system.
I know that feeling personally. In my son Denis’s case, the person accused of possessing my sons body with Molly for fun that caused his death was already on probation in two different courts. Yet my family is still fighting, more than seven years after Denis died, for what we believe is accountability and justice.
That is why I have so much respect for this mother. She refuses to be silenced, intimidated, or exhausted into giving up. She understands that her fight is bigger than her own family. It is about sending a message: our children’s lives matter, and when they are taken, families should not have to fight the justice system harder than they fight the people they believe are responsible.
I have serious concerns about the leadership of Michigan’s justice system, including Attorney General Dana Nessel and the handling of my son’s case by Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. Those concerns are exactly why transparency and accountability matter, regardless of someone’s title, political connections, money, or power.
To this incredible mother Ann Vanker keep fighting. Every mother who refuses to give up makes it harder for the system to look the other way.
Our children deserve justice, and their lives will never be forgotten.
Ann Vanker has spent nearly three years fighting to hold the mother of the teenage driver who killed her 18-year-old son criminally responsible. A judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case.