703 W Tyrrell Rd, Morrice, MI 48857
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Author: Jewls Krueger
On Christmas Eve 2019, 25 year old hairdresser Kevin Bacon left his home in Swartz Creek, Michigan to meet up with a man he had been talking to on the dating app Grindr. He was never seen alive again.
Four days later, Bacon's body was discovered hanging from the ceiling of a basement at 50 year old Mark Latunski's home in Bennington Township, Michigan. The disturbing nature of the killing, which included cannibalism, made the case one of the most shocking and widely covered crimes in Michigan history.
Kevin Richard Bacon (no relation to the actor of the same name) was born November 28, 1994 in Lansing, Michigan and grew up in the small Flint area community of Swartz Creek. He was a graduate of Swartz Creek High School and Sharp's Hair Academy in Grand Blanc, and was attending the University of Michigan-Flint at the time of his death. He worked as a hairstylist at Uniquely U Salon, located just across from his home. He lived with his roommate and close friend Michelle Myers.
Mark David Latunski was a 50 year old man living at 703 West Tyrrell Road in Bennington Township, Shiawassee County, about 30 miles northeast of Lansing. He had a documented history of severe mental illness, including diagnoses of major depression with psychotic features, paranoid schizophrenia, and borderline personality traits. By the fall of 2019, his husband Jamie Arnold had moved out of the home.
Just two months before Bacon's death, Michigan State Police had already been called to the Tyrrell Road home twice for disturbing reasons. On October 10, 2019, a 48 year old New York man named James Carlsen called 911 after escaping from Latunski's basement, where he said he had been chained up after coming to Michigan for a planned sexual encounter. On November 25, a 29 year old man also ran from the home wearing a leather kilt belonging to Latunski, telling a 911 operator that Latunski had tied him up in the basement. Neither man pressed charges at the time, and Latunski was not arrested.
On the evening of December 24, 2019, Bacon told his roommate Michelle Myers that he was heading out to meet a man he had connected with on Grindr. He left his Swartz Creek home around 5:20 p.m. Less than an hour later, he sent Myers a text saying he was not sure when he would be home.
When Bacon failed to show up the next morning for the family's planned Christmas Day breakfast, his parents reported him missing to Michigan State Police. His parents located his car in a Family Dollar parking lot in Swartz Creek, with his clothes, shoes, cell phone, credit cards, and cash still inside.
Further Reading
On December 28, 2019, Michigan State Police troopers arrived at Latunski's home in the 700 block of West Tyrrell Road and were granted permission by Latunski to enter and search the property. Inside the basement, they discovered Kevin Bacon's body hanging naked from the ceiling. He had been stabbed in the back, had his throat cut, and his body had been mutilated.
Latunski admitted to the killing during a police interview and was taken into custody. He also admitted to mutilating and consuming part of Bacon's body. He was charged with open murder and disinterment and mutilation of a body.
Mark Lutunski's Mugshot - Public Domain
Latunski was initially found incompetent to stand trial in 2020 and was committed to the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti. After regaining competency and being returned to face charges, he pleaded guilty in September 2022 to open murder and mutilation of a body.
Because Latunski pleaded to "open murder," a special two day hearing was held in October 2022 before Shiawassee County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Stewart, who alone determined whether the killing rose to the level of first or second degree murder. Stewart ruled that the crime was first degree premeditated murder, stating, "The court finds that this is a crime of cold calculation. Kevin Bacon's death was Mark Latunski's design."
On December 15, 2022, Latunski was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A victim impact statement written by Bacon's mother, Pamela Bacon, was read aloud in court before the sentence was handed down. "Our world has been shattered," it said.
The house where Kevin Bacon was killed sits at 703 West Tyrrell Road in rural Bennington Township in Shiawassee County, on a quiet road in the small community of Morrice, Michigan. Local records at the time of the killing valued the home at roughly $92,800 and showed it had last sold for $80,000 in 2001.
After Latunski's arrest, the property went into foreclosure and was sold at a bank auction on February 26, 2020 for $101,733.28 to a third party buyer named Steven Deehl. Later that year, the Latunski family, acting through Mark's brother Paul who had been appointed as his conservator, submitted $103,000 in an attempt to redeem the property under Michigan's six month foreclosure redemption law, and a hearing was scheduled in district court to address the return of the home to the Latunski family. Steven Deehl has stated that the property is now in the hands of the Latunski family.
The house is a private residence on a quiet rural road. Please be respectful of the current occupants and the surrounding farmland community, stay on public roads at all times, and do not trespass under any circumstances.
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