He's a father of 4 and worked as a chemist. Now he's accused of murder and cannibalism

BENNINGTON TOWNSHIP — Wilk Olykos Vilkas was advised of his rights. Edgar Thomas Hill was read the criminal complaint.

But it’s Mark D. Latunski who faces murder charges for allegedly killing and cannibalizing a 25-year-old Grindr date on Christmas Eve.

Latunski, 50, has identified himself by several names since Dec. 28, 2019, when Kevin Bacon of Swartz Creek was found dead, naked and hanging by his ankles in Latunski’s Bennington Township basement.

On the felony advice of rights form he was given on Dec. 30, Latunski signed with the Olykos alias. That alias is associated with a Facebook page believed belonging to Latunski and with images connected to a gay escort profile.

He gave the name Edgar Thomas Hill at his arraignment and to his attorney, saying he’s part of the Thomas clan of Wales and was given the Latunski moniker as protection, court filings show.

He once was a well-off chemist and married father of four. Now, Latunski awaits a competency evaluation and insanity defense.

His starkly different sides shown in police and court records may shed light as family and authorities attempt to make sense of how a chance online meeting turned into a dark sex tale ending in murder and cannibalism.

Kevin Bacon

Before the celebrity of the same name, actor Kevin Bacon, and Jeffree Star were sending condolences and financial support for a funeral, family and friends of Swartz Creek hairstylist Kevin Bacon desperately searched for their loved one.

His friend and reported roommate, Michelle Myers, rallied search party volunteers in Facebook posts.

He’d left her home about 5:20 p.m. on Dec. 24 to meet a stranger on a dating app, she wrote.

But when he didn’t show up to Christmas breakfast at his parents' home the next day, the Bacon family contacted police, said Michigan State Police Special First Lt. David Kaiser. His car later was found in a parking lot in Clayton Township.

Karl Bacon, Kevin Bacon’s father, told MLive his son's cellphone, wallet and a bag with his clothes were found in the car.

Karl Bacon did not respond to requests for comment by the Detroit Free Press.

It was the cellphone that led police to the gay, bisexual and transgender dating app Grindr and, subsequently, Mark Latunski’s doorstep, said Kaiser.

Kaiser said it’s believed that Bacon went to Latunski’s house willingly.

“I believe the conversations contained things they wanted to happen,” Kaiser said of the Grindr conversations between Bacon and Latunski. “I don’t know exactly what acts were discussed, but I know they were sexual in nature.”

Latunski, for his part, spent part of Christmas with his estranged husband, Jamie Arnold, and Arnold’s friends acting, “as normal as he can be,” Arnold told MLive.

Latunski let police into his home on Dec. 28 to look for Bacon. In what Kaiser described as a “secret room” that was not immediately visible, they found the missing man dead.

Latunski told police that he stabbed Bacon twice in the back of his neck, then strung him up, then sliced his throat, Kaiser said.

He confessed that he then castrated Bacon with a knife, took Bacon’s testicles upstairs, cooked them and ate them, Kaiser said.

The exact date of death is unknown, Kaiser said, but family told MLive it was Christmas Eve into Christmas.

Kaiser said, based on information from the medical examiner, he believes Bacon died before he was hung by his ankles using a mechanical device.

Other bad encounters

Police now are seeking other men Latunski met on Grindr. They know of two.

A New York man born in 1973 fled Latunski’s home, jumped a fence and called police after becoming frightened during a consensual sexual encounter on Oct. 10, Kaiser said.

Then a 29-year-old Lansing man wearing only a kilt got “spooked” during a consensual sexual encounter in which he was chained up in Latunski’s basement on Nov. 25, Kaiser said. He fled to a neighbor’s home with Latunski in pursuit of the $300 kilt.

Neither man wanted to file a police report, Kaiser said. The New York man spent multiple more days with Latunski.

"Sometimes people in these relationships are embarrassed or ... maybe they have a professional career and don't want their private life interfering with their professional career, so they're very reluctant to share anything with law enforcement," Kaiser said.

Without a reporting victim, police have trouble holding others accountable, he said. In addition, consensual flogging and bondage aren't illegal.

Kaiser was not immediately aware of the gay escort website Rent.Men seemingly connected to Latunski. The web address appears attached to nude photos of Latunski and the Olykos alias in a Google image search of the name.

Still, the fleeing men were just some of the police visits that marked Latunski’s time at his well-kept brick home along a rural road of Shiawassee County. Police were called there about a dozen times in the last decade.

There were arrests for failure to pay child support as recently as Dec. 10, a call for a strange man searching a ditch on Oct. 15 and numerous welfare checks, according to Kaiser and police reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Mental illness

Latunski has a long history of mental illness, according to divorce filings by his ex-wife, Emily Latunski. The two were married in 2001, divorced in 2013 and had four children. The Tyrrell Road dwelling was their marital home.

Latunski was diagnosed in 2010 and 2012 with severe, recurrent and chronic major depression with psychotic features, adjustment disorder with depression and anxiety with paranoid schizophrenia, and borderline personality traits, according to an August 2019 motion to suspend parenting time.

His condition can be treated with medication, but Latunski has a history of not taking it, according to his ex-wife’s court filings.

When he doesn’t take his medicine, he’ll watch torture/horror movies, talk to himself, stay out all night, threaten to get rid of his children’s animals, claim their son isn’t his child, and fail to shower and shave, she said in a 2013 filing.

He’s kidnapped his own children by failing to follow custody plans, kept her and her children from leaving the home, made frivolous claims to Child Protective Services, and claimed she and her brother were trying to murder him by poisoning a well, her filings show.

Once in 2013, he introduced himself as a William Gregory Dean to police and claimed he killed Mark Latunski “with the stroke of a pen,” according to a police report. After, he pretended to be unconscious when police found him lying in his father’s nearby home also on Tyrrell Road.

Latunski has been committed to hospitals four times for mental health concerns, his public defender, Douglas Corwin, has said.

Still, Mark Latunski is highly intelligent, Emily Latunski said in a 2013 court filing.

He attended Central Michigan University from 1987 to 1991, interned for Dow Chemical that summer the same year, and went on to earn a master’s degree in chemistry in 1995 from Iowa State University, the schools and company confirmed.

Latunski is a chemist, according to his LinkedIn profile, and during divorce proceedings in 2013, his then-wife said he earned a salary in excess of $100,000 from American Chemical Technologies Inc. in Fowlerville.

He was fired in 2019 from an undisclosed job for refusing to take medication, Emily Latunski said in her August 2019 filing. He claimed his employer wanted him to put harmful chemicals in products.

The aftermath

Kaiser has seen his share of homicides and dismemberment cases in his 35-year career. He's never seen cannibalism like this, he said.

There are a few takeaways, he said. He suggested those using dating apps have meetings in public places and keep their friends apprised of their whereabouts.

He also advocated that people feel comfortable in their sexuality.

"It doesn't matter if you're straight, gay, bisexual, transgender – it's 2020 and it's OK," he said. "In the society we live in, in this culture nowadays, you can tell somebody. Let somebody know where you're going.'"

Staff writer Bisma Parvez contributed to this story.

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