BATTLE CREEK, MI -- A Battle Creek man has confessed to killing a man and woman who were his tenants and then wrapping the bodies in plastic, police said.
Battle Creek police said the 53-year-old man turned himself in Thursday, Oct. 15, shortly after telling another person what he had done.
The man is expected to be charged with two counts of open murder, said Battle Creek police Detective Sgt. Joel Case.
The two people who died, 31-year-old Jaclyn Lepird and her boyfriend 34-year-old Joseph Soule, had been the subject of a missing persons case since Monday, Oct. 12.
Case said the homicides appeared to stem from a long-running disagreement between the couple and the landlord.
It apparently flared up Wednesday, Oct. 7, the day police believe the couple was killed at 203 Post Ave.
When he turned himself in Thursday, the landlord gave a statement. Case said he told police that there was a verbal altercation between him and Soule.
"He’s claiming that Joey pulled a knife on him and in self-defense he drew a gun and shot and killed Joey. After seeing that, (Lepird) tried running from the residence, at which time he ended up shooting her as well.
“He also did state he followed her into the back yard and proceeded to beat and strangle her until she ended up passing away in the backyard,” Case said.
Police said he also confessed to wrapping the bodies in plastic and putting them into the back of his pickup. After a couple of days, when family and friends of Soule and Lepird began showing up to look for them, he drove the truck to a nearby abandoned garage and parked it there, Case said. He closed the door.
Case said the homicides are still under investigation.
He said detectives, in the investigation today, learned a little more about the ongoing disagreement between the landlord and couple.
“From everybody we talked to, friends and family, it sounded like they had an ongoing dispute where they just could not get along. They had arguments about money, they had arguments about you-name-it,” Case said.
He said it was “relatively common” for the landlord, in conversations with others he knew, to describe his annoyance with them. He allegedly told others the couple liked to party and were noisy.
“He would tell other people he had another bad night’s sleep because of all the noise going on,” Case said.
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