Victim’s sister wonders how paroled killer got chauffeur’s license
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — A paroled killer who confessed to his role in the serial rapes and murders of three young women in Kalamazoo County in the 1970s says he’s looking for other ways to make a living after the state shut down his private transportation service.
“I’m trying to figure that out now,” Brent Koster, now 67, told Target 8 Wednesday through the door of his apartment in Battle Creek.
He refused further comment.
He had recently started advertising his transportation services with this motto: “Cash Up Front or Wheels Don’t Roll.” But the Michigan Department of Corrections put the brakes on his business, Impromptu Ride.
A sister of one of his victims said the latest developments are raising more questions for her family about how the Michigan Department of Corrections has handled Koster’s release.
Laurie Locke was 10 when Koster and Danny Ranes raped and murdered her sister, Pamela Fearnow, in 1972. Koster later led police to her body.
Her sister was just about to start her sophomore year at Western Michigan University.
“I was the bratty little sister,” Locke said. “She was nine years older than me. She was very fun loving.”
“It was very hard,” she continued. “For me, it made me think that I might not live until I was 18. It made me afraid.”
Koster, just 15, and Ranes, then in his late 20s, also killed two young women from Chicago, Linda Clark and Claudia Bidstrup, both 19, who had stopped at a Kalamazoo gas station on their way to Ann Arbor. Ranes worked at that gas station.
Ranes had earlier raped and killed Patricia Howk of Kalamazoo Township. He was sentenced to life without parole and died in prison in January 2022.
Koster, who testified against Ranes, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and got life. He served 48 years before the Parole Board released him in January 2021.
Fearnow’s sister says she’s still angry that the state never notified her family about the parole hearing in 2020. She said she would have argued to keep him locked up.
“I would have wanted to go,” she said. “I would have wanted to tell them I feel robbed of being able to know my sister as an adult. She was robbed of her future. She was robbed of having any children, a family.”
She recently learned learned that Koster had started a business providing rides in his car.
“I’m not sure how the state of Michigan gave him a chauffeur’s license,” she wondered.
Records show the Michigan Secretary of State issued him a chauffeur’s license in December 2023.
“If you’re giving rides to people, men, women, and you know where they live, that’s kind of eerie to me, knowing that he had killed three women, raped and killed three,” the sister said. “I would be afraid that he would do it again.”
An MDOC spokesman said the department recently learned of Koster’s transportation services through social media.
“Koster did not report that he was attempting to work in this capacity, but his agent became aware from social media posts and other sources,” an MDOC spokesman said in an email to News 8. “His parole agent met directly with Koster after becoming aware to make clear that he cannot provide rides or engage in similar work with the public.”
The Parole Board will enter a special condition to Koster’s parole, the spokesman wrote.
“The Parole Board has the authority to order special conditions that it believes will be beneficial to protecting the public and ensuring a successful completion of parole including placing limits on types of employment, establishments they can visit, etc.” the spokesman wrote. “Koster will continue to be closely monitored by his agent through his parole discharge in January of 2025.”
The victim’s sister said she also wonders why Koster is not listed on the state’s sex offender registry. She said she recalls that being a condition of his release. Media reports at the time of his release said he would be required to register.
In an email to News 8, an MDOC spokesperson said Koster was convicted of second-degree murder, not any sexual offense that would require registration as a sex offender under state law.
Even after all of this, the sister is conflicted about Koster’s freedom.
“Selfishly, no,” she said when asked if he deserved a chance. “He killed my sister. I don’t think he deserves a chance, but yet part of me says, well, forgiveness. But I do think that a job chauffeuring people around is not a good idea.”
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