Unsuspecting man is 'murdered and eaten by his cannibal date'
WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: A man has allegedly been murdered and eaten by a date he met via an app.
Kevin Bacon, 25, from the US state of Michigan, was reported missing by his family on Christmas Eve after he agreed to meet up with a man he met on Grindr.
His housemate, Michelle Myers, wrote on Facebook on Boxing Day the last time she was Mr Bacon was at 5.23pm on December 24.
She added Mr Bacon told her he would be back later that night.
“His phone has been off since approximately 6.20pm,” Ms Myers wrote.
“It is unusual for him to turn his phone off when he’s out and also not like him to not have his car with him when he meets people.”
His parents grew worried after he didn’t show up on Christmas Day.
Investigators later found Mr Bacon’s car in a car park outside a discount store. Police were then able to track him to the house of Mark Latunski, 50, after performing a welfare check on December 28.
First Lieutenant David Kaiser, with the Michigan State Police, told Detroit Free Press, Mr Bacon and Latunski, a father of four, had exchanged messages which were sexual in nature.
“I believe the conversations contained things they wanted to happen,” he said.
Detectives have told court they found Mr Bacon’s body inside Latunski’s home hanging naked from rafters by his ankles tied by a rope, WILX 10 reported.
Latunski admitted to stabbing him in the back with a knife, slicing his throat and then hanging Mr Bacon, Detective Sergeant James Moore told the court.
Det Sgt Moore told the court Latunski also admitted to cutting off Mr Bacon’s testicles and eating them.
Lt Kaiser told Free Press police are now looking to speak with two other Grindr dates Latunski had met up with before his encounter with Mr Bacon.
A New York man who jumped Latunski’s fence, fleeing his home, on October 10 and another man who fled from the same home on November 25, the police officer said.
He added both encounters were consensual.
‘I’m not ready to say goodbye’
Mr Bacon’s dad Karl told the media his son was a “a good person”.
“He was compassionate, he cared for the people he met, he cared for the people he worked with. He loved everybody,” he told reporters.
"Evil does exist and it touched us.”
Ms Myers wrote on Facebook Mr Bacon was her best friend and “always put others first before himself and was self-sacrificial in his actions”. He wanted to be a hairstylist in a major city and work with models on the runway, she wrote.
“Kevin has had an ongoing struggle with mental health,” she wrote.
“He wanted so desperately to be happy, but sometimes that was a real struggle for him. But he always wanted to better himself and sought help when he needed it.”
She added her friend, who was like a brother to her, is irreplaceable.
“I’m not ready to say goodbye to my Kevin,” she wrote.
Mr Bacon’s namesake, the actor Kevin Bacon who starred in Footloose, shared his grief on Instagram.
“For obvious reasons I’m thinking this morning about the friends and family of this young person Kevin Bacon,” the actor wrote.
“His life was taken from him much too soon. His love was hairdressing. I bet he would have done a great job on this mess on my head. RIP KB.”
Mr Bacon was also a fan of makeup artist Jeffree Star.
Star tweeted he was “devastated” in learning of Mr Bacon’s death and linked to a GoFundMe page started by the Bacon family to pay for his funeral.
So far, that GoFundMe page has raised more than US$37,000.
Estranged husband speaks
Latunski’s estranged husband Jamie Arnold told WNEM 5 he moved out of their home, where Mr Bacon was found dead, in September.
However, he added the pair spent Christmas Day together because he didn’t want Latunski to be alone. So, he invited him over and Mr Arnold said he arrived between 1-2pm.
Mr Arnold told WNEM 5 he left his husband due to his lifestyle.
“There were times I would come home and there was someone there,” Mr Arnold told the station.
He cited one occasion where “someone was there” and Latunski tried to get him “involved”.
“I made dinner and went to bed. I had to get out,” he told WNEM 5.
Mr Arnold said he never met Mr Bacon but “no parent should have to bury their child”.
Latunski has been charged with open murder and disinterment and mutilation of a body.
His lawyer, Doug Corwin Jr, submitted a motion for Latunski to undergo competency and forensic evaluations, which Shiawassee Chief District Judge Ward L. Clarkson approved on January 9.
The judge’s order calls for Latunski to be moved from the Shiawassee County Jail, where he’s being held without bond, to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, The Flint Journal reported.
That process may take from 60-90 days, if not longer, and further court sessions are on hold until the report is submitted.
Divorce, custody and criminal records show a history of complaints about Latunski’s mental health. He was known to stop taking medication prescribed to treat his mental illnesses.
Court records filed by Mr Corwin state that Latunski is “so fixated on a conspiracy theory including multiple nations/countries and involved in multiple trust accounts”.
Those records also state that Latunski “believes he is a noble person from the Thomas Clan of Wales” whose real name is Edgar Thomas Hill — a name he provided during the arraignment.
The Lansing State Journal reports he was charged in 2013 with custodial kidnapping after he took two of his four children without permission from their mother.
He was initially found incompetent to stand trial but that was later overturned.
However, the victim request to have the kidnapping charges against Latunski dropped.
With The Associated Press
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