Michigan cannibal who brutally murdered and ate Grindr is sentenced to life in prison
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A cannibalistic man who brutally murdered and ate the genitals of a college student has been sentenced to life in prison.
Mark Latunski, 52, appeared before a Michigan judge Thursday for the murder of Kevin Bacon, 25, on December 24, 2019. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Latunski pleaded guilty in September to killing Bacon, whom he met on the dating app Grindr, and eating parts of his body, including a testicle, at his Bennington Township home.
Bacon’s body was discovered in the basement of Latunsku’s home on December 28 after his roommate told police he went to meet someone he met on the dating app.
His family reported him missing after he failed to show up for Christmas breakfast.
Mark Latunski, 52, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday for the murder of his Grindr date three years ago.
Kevin Bacon, 25, was killed and mutilated by Latunski on December 24, 2019 at the cannibal’s home in Bennington Township.
Pam and Karl Bacon appeared in court and a prepared statement for Latunski was read on their behalf.
“In your sick and twisted mind, you probably don’t think you did anything wrong,” Bacon’s mother Hannah wrote. “This Christmas, I hope you suffer like us.”
Karl, who filed Kevin’s missing person report when he didn’t show up for Christmas breakfast, has previously said he wants Latunski to rot in prison.
Bacon, who was a student and hairstylist at the University of Michigan-Flint, was found by police hanging by his ankles from the rafters of Latunski’s home with a stab wound to the back and a slit throat.
Latunkski confessed to his crimes in front of prosecutors in September, including the events leading up to Bacon’s death and the inhumane acts that occurred when he ate a piece of his genitalia.
“Did you use a knife to stab Mr. Bacon?” a prosecutor asked Latunski in September. ‘Did you know that stabbing Mr. Bacon with a knife would certainly create a very high risk of death or serious bodily harm to Mr. Bacon?’
To which Latunski replied: ‘Yes, I did.’
The cannibal admitted to stabbing Bacon in the back and then cutting off his testicles and eating them in the kitchen.
Latunski’s defense previously tried to find him mentally unfit to stand trial after spending months in psychiatric care at a Michigan hospital, ABC 12 reported.
Latunski lived in the Bennington Township house. Bacon was found in a secret room in the basement.
Latunski pleaded guilty in September to killing Bacon and eating one of his testicles after stabbing him in the back and slitting his throat. Pictured: Latunski in court on December 15
Bacon’s family appeared in court and a prepared statement was read to Latunski on his behalf.
Bacon was found with his throat slit and hanging upside down by his ankles.
Latunski’s defense previously tried to find him mentally unfit to stand trial. He was seen in court on December 15.
Latunski was seen being escorted from the Shiawassee County Courthouse.
Latunski had several run-ins with police before Bacon’s death, including a few months earlier, in October 2019, when a New York man called 911 after allegedly waking up in the cannibal’s basement.
The New York man had escaped and 911 calls obtained by The Flint Journal-MLive reveal the plea for help.
‘I want you to know that nothing like this had ever happened to me. I don’t know if she drugged me. All I know is that I ended up locked in the fucking basement, okay? Chained in the basement,’ the New York man said.
It’s unclear what happened in this case, but a month later, police received another call about a different victim.
Latunski had several run-ins with police before his arrest in Bacon’s death, but was never charged.
The call came in on November 25, 2019. At the time, the man told police that he had run away from Latunski’s home and feared he would be held against his will and chained up in his basement.
“I’m trying to get away from a creepy guy,” the caller told the dispatcher. He had me tied up in his basement.
On two separate occasions before Bacon’s death, the men had escaped from the Latunski home.
Latunski’s neighbor Michael Parks ran into the unidentified victim while on his front porch, according to fox 2.
The victim was covered in blood and had knocked on Parks’s door while trying to escape from Latunski.
“She has purple hair, she’s wearing a leather skirt and she has a pair of belts on her chest,” Park said. ‘This gentleman is grabbing my arm in mortal fear [screaming] ‘help me, keep him away’ he just screamed at the top of his lungs ‘he wants to hurt me, he wants to hurt me’.
“Another vehicle pulls up in my driveway and pulls out, I now discover it’s Mark, wearing a leather skirt, chest belts, no shoes, no shirt, braided beard…a very strange looking gentleman “.
Police had detained Latunski, who was wearing nothing more than a kilt, during the chase, but no charges were filed.
The Latunski torture house was later sold in February 2020 to a woman looking to use it as a rental home.
The house sold for $101,733.28 – $21,000 more than the asking price.
Records previously found that Latunski was married to a woman named Emily, with whom he had two children.
Emily had filed a request to suspend Latunski’s visitation rights on August 22, 2019, citing her diagnoses of major depression, paranoid schizophrenia, and trait personality disorder in 2010 and 2012.
‘[Mark Latunski] He has a history of mental illness and has been hospitalized in the Owosso Mental Stress unit… [and] she has a history of going off her medication,’ the motion filed by Emily in 2019 said.
According to court records, Latunski also stopped taking his medication to treat his mental illnesses.
Latunski was also married to ex-husband Jamie Arnold for three years before calling it quits in September 2019.
Arnold previously said M-live that he was unaware Latunski had a mental illness until July 2019 when he was arrested for failing to pay child support.
“To my knowledge, I couldn’t force him to see a therapist or take medication,” Arnold said. “Never in a million years did I think he would commit such a heinous crime.”