WARNING, DITRESSING CONTENT: Kevin Bacon, 25, was brutally murdered after meeting Mark Latunski on Grindr on Christmas Eve 2019. Latunski pleaded guilty to murder and mutilation, admitting he stabbed the hairdresser and ate part of his body
Christmas represents a period of happiness and festivity for most households, but for Kevin Bacon’s loved ones, it will remain permanently scarred by heartbreak.
The 25-year-old was reported missing on December 25 after failing to return home for a celebratory family breakfast. As his relatives became increasingly worried about Kevin, who was characterised as an exceptional student and gifted hairdresser, his flatmate disclosed that he had arranged to meet someone from Grindr the previous evening.
This crucial information directed detectives to Mark Latunski’s residence, where they encountered a horrific sight. Officers discovered Kevin had been savagely killed, with his naked body suspended upside down from the ceiling in a concealed chamber.
However, that wasn’t the sole disturbing discovery they made upon entering the house of horrors.
Latunski subsequently confessed to authorities that he had stabbed Kevin, slashed his throat, and then suspended him with rope from the beams. He also revealed he had severed a section of his genitalia and consumed it, according to court documents, reports the Mirror.
“He obviously got into something he wasn’t prepared for,” Kevin’s father, Karl Bacon, told local media. “We all make mistakes. It’s gut-wrenching to hear the details, and we’re just beside ourselves.”
Nobody could have prepared officers for such a ghastly scene, yet this wasn’t their first encounter with Latunski.
The murderer had been under police surveillance for months prior to the 2019 slaying, and according to The Washington Post, several of Latunski’s other Grindr encounters had previously escaped his residence during “basement bondage sessions”.
One of the future killer’s dates scaled a fence in the dead of night and dialled 999, describing leather ankle restraints and chains used to bind him. Another bloke fled Latunski’s property wearing nothing but a leather kilt and was pursued by the murderer, who informed officers he simply wanted his garments returned.
Both men refused to bring charges against Latunski, according to police. They stated that their intimate encounters with him were consensual and that they had merely become “spooked”.
The Michigan killer ultimately admitted guilt to murder and mutilation of a body in September 2022, just weeks before his jury trial was due to commence. He entered the plea in a Shiawassee County court nearly three years after Kevin’s death, reportedly going against his legal team’s counsel.
Before his sentencing on December 15, 2022, a statement from Kevin’s devastated mother Pamela was read out in court. “Our world has been shattered,” it stated.
“Even though we have such great memories of our son, our lives will never be the same or will our family. I don’t understand why anyone could want to hurt our son, especially in such a horrific and unbelievable way.
“Now Christmas for our family will never be the same to us, thanks to you taking our son away from us. Even though we will finally get justice for Kevin, it still doesn’t feel like enough, and you still get to live and do things because a pig like you … can never have remorse.
“In your sick, twisted mind, you probably think you didn’t do anything wrong, but in reality, you took our world away,” the statement continued. “This Christmas I hope you suffer like we have. I hope you feel pain because you are all alone with all the years yet to come.”
A Shiawassee County judge handed Latunski, then aged 53, a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. He also received 11 months to run concurrently for disinterment and mutilation of a dead body.
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