Sword and Scale - Episode 170

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

The world had a conniption when news headlines announced “Kevin Bacon-Murdered!” just before the new year. As more details came out, it was clear that the victim of this murder was not the actor known for the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. The man who was murdered was a hairdresser from Swartz Creek, Michigan, and an LGBTQ+ advocate. What happened to Kevin was gruesome and shocking that it got the attention of YouTuber Jeffree Star, catapulting the story to mainstream news outlets.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I have soda, I work up on the basement. And I'm gonna feed you up to it. Well, we've got a real doozy for you today. This is a story that occurred just last year, and it was all over the news, thanks to a certain YouTuber you may have heard of. Maybe someday I can aspire to the fame of Jeffree Star. But until then, this little true crime podcast is all I got. Strap in,, you're gonna hear about all kinds of things, including the popular app called Grindr. That's gonna be a very educational show for some of you. So with that said, thank you for joining us.

Sit back and listen carefully to the story. It may save your life. Right between Lansing and Flint, Michigan lies Shio-Wassie County. It's only 541 square miles. Compare this to the vast and densely populated Los Angeles County, which spans almost 5,000 square miles, there's a huge difference in size and morality. In almost the center of Shiawasi County runs a little rustic road called Tyrell Road. It's off the Vinterstate 69. Tyrell Road is hugged by farmland and the occasional house. It's out in the countryside. It's only a

five-minute drive from the nearest small town. A man named Michael Parks lives on this road. After what happened in the months concluding 2019, he will attest that you never truly know your neighbors. You may be close with them, friends even, but we don't know or understand the people around us as much as we think we do. We think that because we are friendly with someone and have lived next door to them for years, that they're safe, that everything's fine. We think they're just like us, normal, law-abiding citizens. We assume that since we'd never hurt anyone, neither would they. This is a naive assumption. I'm here in Detroit and from New York. And I get this guy at the West station, walked a few miles and a lady,

what do you have? Well, the block out is still too close. And I need a ride on a truck. I'm on a travel. I can't go back to his place if I wanted to. I don't know if he can continue a signal. I'm sending you a work and I'm walking out the street with a picture and a street heart.

I need you to go. OK, I'm going to get you help. Are you walking down the street right now? Yes, I'm going. I'm passing a bar and it's all by the way here. But you believe I don't know where I am. I don't know. Like, whenever I go, I see like this happens.

I never redrobed me. I don't know. I look up in the talking basement. Okay? Charmed in a basement. It was a rubber thing. I never had an ankle. And I cut it with the butt you know I said I haven't.

Forget it. I'm just using a French. Okay. You have anything on you right now? Great. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are you carrying anything?

I'm not sure. And so I see a police officer. I see a police officer. I see a police officer. I look for it. And so they're not in trust that he's not walking up because I got lost. And I didn't even know if I'm headed towards his house or not. That's why I'm carrying 911. I'm lost.

This is a difficult to understand 911 call. But you can pick out the most important bits. He is clearly frantic. And you can hear him say to the dispatcher at one point, sweetheart, I need help. I don't know if he drugged me, and I woke up in the fucking basement, chained in a basement. This was October 10, 2019. A businessman had traveled from New York to Michigan for work. In the 911 call, he was running from his captor, and he didn't know where he was. He was running all around the rural area outside the home he escaped from, and he was lost.

The man on the call told police that a guy at the bus station was hitting on him when he arrived in Michigan. All he remembered was going to get a drink with the man. Then nothing. Blackness. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in a basement, chained by the ankles. He found a butcher knife and cut through the leather strap holding the metal chain

to his ankle and desperately ran from the home. I can't get the leather strap that had the chain. I just know that I'm here and I'm going to go home. I don't even care about the legal case I was here for. I'm sorry, I can't help them. I'm going to go home. Okay, all right, listen, I've got help on the way. What were you here for?

On a violence circuit, I have a kid. I can't help him to see a C.S.C.U.D. And I was supposed to be an amendment at the bus station. I met this guy. I'm a violence shooter. He hit on me. I went without the car. We dropped.

We went to the cinema. I had a soda. I woke up in a basement. He's obviously dragged me. Okay. When I get out super close to you, I'm going to need you to put that butcher knife down, though. Or that can be an auto-issue speedy.

It will go fine in the woods. Okay. You don't have to serve as an auto-danger. I find another word. OK. You don't have to serve as any other danger. I've been a puppy doctor for a year. You don't need to throw it in the woods, but I just don't want it on you. Is there anything else on you at all? Just I don't have, I don't even know if I have my figurehood. OK.

I don't have a bag or anything else. No, I don't have a bag, neither, sweetie. OK. OK. I'm going to switch to some water with water. I'm going to put this guy in here. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I'm not injured. I am in the middle of the night. I'm in the panic right now. Jerry's in a good, as a weakest man kind of. He had a leather strap to the metal jury.

He's a mid-aid. Okay, where I'm showing you, the trooper is a little bit away, but when he gets closer, I'm going to need you to put that knife down. I've got to know a problem, then. I have nothing but respect for the police officers. I've never had a problem with police. Just advising. He has a knife in the pan to cut that leather off. He's gonna put it down when he sees you approaching.

Because I don't know if I'm working towards him, if he comes walking out, I don't know where he is now. Oh, he's gone. I don't know where to be learned. Okay. Because I don't know. I was definitely, it's so real right now. When a misced- on them. I'll probably be able to function. This is like shit from the movie. I ran down driveways. I ran low over so much that I'm fucking lost. If you're good, I'm gonna be sure I love them being followed. I don't know if there's that job. I don't know. I just really never going into his house. When police arrived to help this man, no one wanted to press charges.

A Michigan State police lieutenant stated, nobody wanted the police there. Nobody wanted to file charges. A lot of times people have a professional life and a personal life. They don't want to intertwine the two. Their personal life is very secret, very protected. Just really do. So if you see him approaching, you do to put that knife on. I don't see any lights at all.

OK. OK. I'm starting to see lights coming up behind me. You know, where is the way out? OK. I will shift this on the guardrail as soon as I can tell. Nobody's walking behind me. This is the second vehicle I'm seeing tonight. And I'm hoping this is a cop because if it's not, I'm going to be really scared. I'm slowing down whoever this is.

So if this is the maniac, you're going to hear some crazy shit. I don't know. I think this is a cop because that looks like an extra bright light. So I am now putting this down. I am on it. It is on the guard rail. I am not on. I am not on. I am not on. I am not on. Okay. Okay.

Okay. What's over here? Easy. I'm on. Easy, you see. Okay. I just want him to know I'm not on. He knows. I'm not on. He knows. Just a little over a month later, on November 25th, 2019, Michael Parks, a resident of Tyro Road, heard a pounding at his door in the late afternoon. About 4 in the afternoon, a kid showed up pounding on my door, screaming hysterically, making a lot of noise.

He had a rag over his mouth where he was bleeding from his face and he had to phone to his ear. And my dog started barking and I ran to the door and I'm like, what's the matter? What's the matter? He was just screaming hysterically, help me, help me, help me. The gentleman pulls into my driveway and gets out of the truck. And he's wearing the same type of get up That just kid is wearing which is a leather skirt and these leather belts and no shoes no shirt and it's really cold out and

Very strange I I'm sorry, what's that? I'm trying to escape from some guys who had made a chain up in his basement. Yeah, do you change into his basement? Where are you calling from? I don't know. All right, and I'm going to go to this road. Are you on the front here?

Okay, hold on one second. Looks like you're on Tyrell Road. I could be. Are you walking? Yeah. Hold on one second. I'm going to haverell Road. Take good deep. Are you walking? Yeah. Hello, I'm Peter. I'm going to have shoes on. 35, 62. Look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look the resident. Is that on the floor?

You have to be. Hey, I need you to go to somewhere safe. If you can run up to somebody's house, where you at right now, are you getting, are you able to get away? Thank you. Six, two, he's running towards that house. I'm trying to get it. I'm trying a phone with a cop. I'm at it. We're very long. We have to learn how to park. We have to do that. If you're at it, I need the address. He won't give me the address.

We're going to go to the other side. Are you outside or inside somebody's house? Are you in the road? I have six state troopers around the race bar. 35, 62, and 12 are at 9pm. He's talking to a homeowner there. Do you know where the house was at that you were at? Um, you guys, not even a mile down the road doing, I don't know what to weigh.

Okay, I see the two of them. Okay. Okay. You see the two of them? Yes. I see the two of them right there. You see the two of them right there? Yes. Yeah. Two of them right here. Okay. Go ahead and talk to them and I'm going to have to point out where the house is at that

you're in. Okay. Okay. Go ahead and talk to the crew, Presenter. Okay. Okay, so here you are. Yeah, you can hang up with me. Okay.

All right. Bye-bye. The 29-year-old man running from this mysterious basement wearing just a leather kilt claimed to have met his captor on a hook-up app. These bleeding all over the place of blood on my door, a gentleman pulls up in my driveway in a silver SUV, and he gets out and he's wearing the same get up. This guy's wearing, which is a leather skirt

and a couple of belts crossing her body, no shoes on, no shirt on, it's 40 degrees out. This kid grabs my arm and clutches behind me. Keep him away from me, keep him away from me, just scared out of his mind. When police arrived at the home, the victim indicated he had escaped from. The middle-aged homeowner claimed that he was only chasing

the young man to retrieve his guilt. The homeowner was wearing similar attire, and explained that the guilt his former prisoner had run away with was worth $300. He just wanted to get it back. This man was 50-year-old Mark Lytonsky. He too lived on Tyler Road, just a short jog from the house Lytonsky's 29-year-old victim ran to upon escaping from the basement. This incident is nearly identical to the one that occurred on October 10th, except this time, the victim had met Mark

Lutonsky on a hook-up app, Grindr. If you're not familiar with Grindr, it's a little bit like Tinder, but for gay men. It's used often to find sexual liaisons, or one night stands. Lutonsky's victim met him on this app, presumably expecting a simple hookup. We're unsure how this hookup turned into a hostage situation, but holding his date's hostage seemed to be a kink for Lytonsky. It was becoming a pattern. There were unfortunately no charges pressed

against Lytonsky in this instance either. There should have been. If there had, a life may have been saved. I just wish you to press charges, because maybe he could have kept this from happening, but on a simple assault charge, I don't see that he's going to get out eventually, and something's going to eventually happen. What we found out was that anything that happened inside the residence was consensual. He wasn't being held or chained up against as well and nobody wanted

to file a police report or press charges. While it's possible that all the activities that occurred in Lutunsky's basement were indeed consensual, it's unlikely. The more likely scenario is that the victim was downplaying the events so that no one would push him to press charges resulting in his personal information being released in court and Subsequently to the media This is unfortunately very common if a person is victimized while doing something They may not want their family and friends to know about they often sweep the events under the rug and move on

It's common for anyone to choose not to report assaults, especially sexual assault, that can be burdensome to relive the encounter over and over again with police and lawyers, and that's if police even take the claim seriously. Mark Lutonsky is not a stupid man. On his LinkedIn profile, he boasts a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Central Michigan University, and a Master's degree in chemistry from Iowa State University of Science and Technology. He mentions that he obtained this Master's degree while studying physical organic chemistry and the mechanisms of free radical processes.

Latonsky spent much of his adult life in careers relating directly to his educational background. In the past, he worked in the Barrier Resins division of the Dow Chemical Corporation in Midland, Michigan. His job specifically was characterizing rates of decomposition and polymeric materials, whatever the hell that means. He then moved on to a career at Flint Inc. as a research chemist. His goal was to create environmentally friendly inks and coatings.

Lytonsky impressively holds several patents for lithographic inks. By 2007, he had joined American chemical technologies and worked as a lab manager. In other words, he had an impressive resume. Even the brightest among us though have quirks, strange interests, vices. Mark Lutansky is no exception. Photos of the 50-year-old social media pages show a lifestyle he preferred. Very clearly. His Facebook page is not under his real name. Instead, he dubs himself,

Oli Kos, Kai Lucas, spelled with lots of k's. He states on his profile, those who really know me call me a straight arrow. I am a chemist and an experimentalist. This page is laid in with photos of Latonsky in various leather kilts, and other photos depict him standing naked in his kitchen

with different strategically placed items to cover his genitals. One photo in particular shows Latonsky facing the camera in a button-down shirt and a leather kilt. His beard pulled into three small ponytails. The caption reads, I'll let you go and ponder that for a minute. Platonsky's kinks are not really the most concerning bits of this story though.

They're the peripheral details that pull this whole persona together. What's most alarming is his mental health history. Most mentally ill people are just that, mentally ill. They never heard anyone, they never do, quote, unquote, crazy things. They just exist alongside their mental illness, trying the best they can. Mark Lutansky, however, has a long history of refusal to take his medication. In 2010 and 2012, he was diagnosed with major depression, severe, recurrent, and chronic with psychotic features, adjustment disorder with depression and anxiety, with paranoid schizophrenia, and borderline personality traits. This all comes directly from the courts.

He got married to a woman in 2001 and had four children. In 2013, things started to get rocky, according to court records. The couple's relationship became strained as Lytonsky's paranoia is increased her brother of trying to murder him by poisoning his well. When the couple decided to file for divorce, Lutonsky claimed one of the children couldn't have been his because, quote, the timing didn't add up. Lutonsky was born 22 months after Lutonsky and his wife got married. To some things up, this guy was pretty much paranoid about everything and everyone around him.

During the course of the legal divorce proceedings, Lutunski was ordered several times to undergo psychiatric evaluation. He was finally granted supervised visitation with his children, but only saw them one time before disappearing for three years. He did not have contact with his children or attempt to visit them from October 2013 to October of 2016. In March of 2019, just seven months before his first known hostage incident, Lutonsky was fired from his job as a result of his refusal to take his medication.

Lutonsky would later claim that he was fired because his employer was allegedly trying to force him to include dangerous chemicals in the products he was working on in the lab. There is someone who can offer more recent insight into Mark Lutonsky's mental state. After the divorce from his wife was finalized, Lutonsky married a man named Jamie Arnold, a hairdresser in the Flint, Michigan area. The two were married for a few years before Jamie made the decision to leave Litsonski in September of 2019. What is somebody who, when you met with this kind, general soul who turned into this monster,

you just, you don't want to believe it. Oh, I'm telling you, I came home and there's somebody there. And he tried to get me involved. And it was like, you know what, I'm going to make me dinner. I'm going to go to bed. I just why I had to get out. So I had to get, I couldn't take that lifestyle anymore. The year 2019 for Mark Lutansky was bad. He lost his job, he lost his husband, and he was off his medication. On December 24th, 25-year-old hairdresser Kevin Bacon, no, not that one, was scrolling through

Grindr looking for a quick Christmas Eve hookup. He came across a viable candidate and they began chatting. Kevin texted his roommate Michelle at about 5 p.m. and told her he was meeting up with a man from Grindr. At 6.12 p.m. he sent another text telling Michelle that he would be gone for a while. He told her that he didn't know when he would be home, but he was having fun. The man he was meeting was Mark Lutansky. Kevin's family planned to have a big Christmas morning breakfast together, and when that morning arrived, Kevin was nowhere to be seen. This was unlike him. So his family promptly called police and reported him missing. His car was found parked outside a dollar general store with his phone inside. What a great Christmas present for his family.

It's never a good sign when police find an unoccupied vehicle owned by missing person with all their belongings inside. We're able to go back and extract the conversations that he had between him and Mr. Latansky. And that's what led us to this house. That is how we found Mr. Bacon. If we hadn't found that phone, we know as if we'd have ever found him.

And we will recheck the entire house, the premises as well as the property. I just to make sure that there is no undisturbed earth or other potential victims. We don't have any reports of any missing victims that fits this type of profile, but that is something we are looking at. What law enforcement officials found inside

the rural brick home on Tyrell Road was horrifying. It is one of the worst I've seen in my career, 35 years. December 28, three days after Christmas, is when the body of Kevin Bacon was discovered after Michigan State Police received a call for assistance from the Clayton Township Police Department while they were conducting a welfare check for Kevin at the home of Mark Latonsky.

Kevin Bacon's body was found suspended by the ankles from Latinsky's ceiling rafters. A rope bound his ankles to the rafter, the rest of his body dangling upside down. He had stab wounds in his back and his throat was slit. An autopsy didn't have to be conducted right away for police to discover the additional horrendous details that awaited them. During an interview, Lutonsky admitted to roping Kevin's ankles, suspending him from the ceiling, stabbing him, slitting his throat and finally, using a knife to cut off the poor guy's testicles, so that he could eat them. After he murdered Kevin, Lutonsky went on to attend a lovely Christmas party at his ex-husband's

house. Kevin was supposed to be spending time with his own family on Christmas day, but he was all alone, hanging dead from the ceiling of a stranger who killed him and mutilated his body. His killer, on the other hand, was having a jolly good time with his own friends and family alive and well. I had some friends over and I didn't want him to be alone, so I invited him over Christmas day

if he wanted to come. Okay, so he arrived there in the afternoon, I don't know, sometime around one, two o'clock. He appeared to be normal, he never exhibited any signs that anything was wrong. I didn't think he would ever hurt me in that type of capacity. I never thought he was capable of such a horrendous crime. There are so many signs along the way that you never saw at all during your relationship. Not this. No. Yes, that there was something wrong.

Lytonsky's ex-husband, Jamie Arnold, was the one who returned Latonsky to his home on Tyrol Road just hours before Kevin Bacon's body was discovered inside. Did you take Mark back to the house on that Friday? Yes, I did. Did you go in the home? I did not. I dragged him off at 10.30 a night. Came back home. I had to work the next day and he never once. So he wanted to come in. He just got out of the car, loved and I loved. Jamie Arnold had no idea what was right behind the doors to the house he used to call home. Jamie, do you think that it's possible that Mark has murdered before? Given the evidence at hand, I think it could very well be possible. As soon as Kevin Bacon's body was found, people began scouring his social media accounts.

Someone noticed that Kevin had several tattoos featuring Jeffrey star or elements of his brand. This person made a tweet that caught the attention of the YouTube makeup mogul himself. The tweet read, Jeffery Star. This man was found murdered after a grinder meetup in Michigan on Christmas Eve. I saw it on Facebook and noticed he had several Jeffery Star tattoos. I wanted you to see this and all of us can keep his friends and family in our thoughts. Star retweeted the message, adding,

Rest in peace, Kevin. I'm devastated to hear of the passing of someone from Michigan who lived their life fearlessly and was taken too soon. Please help his family in this horrible time. What got this case the most attention, aside from the unbelievably gruesome details, is Jeffrey Star's use of his platform. He addressed his fans and Kevin's friends and family in this video. with really heavy hearts. One of my dear subscribers and fans, his name was

Kevin Bacon and he was from a very small town in Michigan called Swartz Creek and he was sadly murdered a few days ago and the case, it's giving me weird vibes. The police are playing games, and I really wanted to talk about this case and bring more awareness to Kevin and his family. From researching it, he went missing on Christmas Eve after going to meet up with someone on the app grinder, and sadly, the person that he met up with killed him. And it's so, it's hard to process.

It's really hard to fathom another person doing that to someone. And it just really makes you aware of how like, anyone that is meeting a stranger on an app really needs to be careful. But it goes deeper and it was really hit close to home. This person was from Michigan. Kevin had a beauty killer tattooed on his chest. He was fearless. He lived his life exactly how we wanted to. He was open. And I can't believe we lost someone from the star family. So last night I tweeted about donating for his family, for his GoFundMe, for his funeral,

and so many of you came through. So just thank you from the bottom of my heart. This whole case is crazy, and I wanna put awareness on this because there's so many pieces to this puzzle. There's a grinder not giving people information quick enough. Now the town that they were from, they live near Flint, Michigan. It's such a fucked up city, and I feel so bad for the people that have to deal with all the shit and the shadiness and the sketchiness of the police force.

Now listen, this is all a legit, I don't know everything, but there is a lot of things I'm learning and I'm so devastated for the baking family. I don't know. Sometimes I want to use my platform and make content about this stuff and this isn't about me. I want to put someone else's story on the map when they're not getting a fair shot because the system's so fucked. And we're about to be in the new year, and it's like, I wanna get on a plane and fly to Michigan.

I wanna meet these people. I wanna talk about their story because they're not eating a voice. And if someone like me can help, that's so important. I told Kevin's family yesterday, if they needed anything from me, that I would be here to help. They live in a town that is an hour and 45 minutes away from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

And just hearing about someone that is gay that had to go through this and the homophobia of the police and people not fully getting the story and the person that did this to him was arrested before and bitched like I've been diving deep online and I am just so sad about all this so Rest in peace Kevin thank you guys for listening to this and for everyone that donated from the StarCut me last night thank you like that is just there's no words for that it's unreal and this family can put their son to rest. So I love you guys. I'm going to go enjoy this day or try to as best as I can. But I love you. And thank you for letting me bring awareness to this. 37,176 dollars was the ending balance on the GoFundMe Kevin's family set up to

cover funeral expenses. And that's on top of the $20,000 YouTuber Jeffrey Star donated to the family. Those of us who have never experienced the unexpected and abrupt death of a close loved one, don't often think about the costs associated with such a tragedy. Any loans that Kevin's parents may have co-signed with him would become their responsibility. The cost of his funeral arrangements fell on them as well, and we all know how ridiculously expensive funerals can be. Young people rarely have life insurance policies to cover this sort of thing, because who among us plans to die? We think this kind of thing could never happen to us, that we won't be someone who dies young, hung upside down, and someone's basement. As for the family and friends of

Mark Lutonsky, it's hard to imagine knowing someone who has done such a horrendous thing. Lutonsky has four children and two ex spouses. Imagine being one of them. And because this case is still in progress, everyone involved is forced to relive the details over and over until the case concludes. Kevin's parents spoke with the media and thanked everyone for the generous financial support just one day after their son's body was discovered.

Kevin was a kind hearted person who enjoyed his work, his life, his work. He was a very good hairstylist. He had a natural talent for it. He was a very joyful person, very sociable person and everybody who knew him enjoyed to be in around him. He would be greatly missed, not anybody else, but by all his friends and family. He knew, had a great friendship circle here in town,

but also, if there was work too, he was a hairstylist for close to six years. And... I never knew this social media, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. He was, he was very social. And it was just so social. Out there.

Out there for anybody that he would help you. He was proud of who he was and he liked to show it. And he did. He was a proud member of his community and he liked to show it. You can see that in his tattoos and stuff. That's what got Mr. Stars' attention was always on his tattoos and in and stuff. That's what God just starts attention as always. All his tattoos will have you.

When Latvinsky was arraigned on December 30th, 2019, after being charged with open murder, disenternment, and the mutilation of a body, things got even weirder. And that breaking news tonight out of Shiawasty County, the man accused of murder and mutilation in the death of 25-year-old Kevin Bacon now formally arraigned on charges. Thanks for joining us at 5. I'm David Kuster. Good evening, everyone. I'm Frank Turner, 50-year-old Mark David Lutonsky, appearing before the judge this afternoon

facing life in prison, if convicted. Yeah, it was a rather bizarre arrangement here at the Shiawasi County District Court, where Mark Lutonsky was officially charged with the murder of Kevin Bacon. the fire. The fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆爆 爆爆 爆爆爆爆爆 爆爆爆 爆爆 爆爆爆 爆爆爆爆

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爆爆 爆爆爆爆爆 爆爆爆爆爆爆爆 I'm Tlaxkey. No, my name is Andrew Thomas Hill. I'm sorry, but Tom Pee is my Matthew. The police have definitely identified who he is. They dealt with him in the past. And this is the same person they arrested on site. And they have not left his custody at all.

For him to say he is somebody else, he had this whole theory that his family wasn't his family, that he was not a Latansky, that he was, I don't know, somebody else, he had this whole theory that his family wasn't his family, that he was not a latonsky, that he was, I don't know, somebody else. During the course of legal proceedings in this case, latonsky has continued to claim that his real name is Edgar Thomas Hill, and that he is from the Thomas clan, a royal Welsh family. It's unsurprising that latytunskis public defender quickly requested

psychiatric testing, with the goal of entering an official insanity plea. Anybody that you have a question about their mental capacity, whether they understand the nature of the charges against them, or if they don't even understand what they did at the time of the offense, you send them down there to get checked up. This type of evaluation ultimately determines whether someone is mentally competent to stand trial. Then they will hold you for a period of time, approximately a year, and after they feel that you are now competent, after they have rehabilitated you, so to say, then the case

can proceed. Idaho, Montana, Kansas, and Utah have no insanity defense. It has been completely abolished. In the state of Michigan, there are two types of insanity defenses. They're closely related, but very different. The first defense is guilty, but mentally ill. The second is not guilty by reason of insanity. If you are found guilty but mentally ill,

you still go to prison, the judge still sentences you, and in that situation, you are basically given extra mental health help at the hospital. If you are found not guilty by reason of insanity, in that situation, you are sent to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry to get treatment and to get help. You are held there for as long as they be necessary.

And that what happens? Do you go to prison after that? That's right. Then you go to prison. Dr. Lawrence Miller, a PhD in clinical forensic and police psychologist, explains the insanity plea a little more clearly for the layman. The mere presence, absence, or severity of any mental disorder does not by itself make a legal determination. That's very important because people think that just because someone has bipolar disorder, just because someone has schizophrenia, just because someone has an organic brain syndrome, that that means that they are insane. And that's not the case. So here are the criteria. They're actually two criteria that are used in the United States and most Western countries. One of them goes back to 1843.

This is known as the Minotin Criteria. And it comes from a historical case where a defendant named Daniel Minotin attempted to assassinate the British Prime Minister at the time. Instead, he seriously wounded and under-secretary and was arrested and was found by a court of judges back in 1843 as suffering from a mental illness and being not sane at the time of the crime. And much like what happened after the Hinkley verdict where people were incensed at the fact that John Hinkley verdict, where people were in sense of the fact that John Hinkley was acquitted, not guilty, by reason of insanity after attempting to assassinate President Reagan, 150 years earlier, there was a human cry, and

Queen Victoria herself convened a panel to determine standards for insanity. And they came up with the Minotin criteria, which is still the standard used in about half of the states and the United States today in many Western countries. And what the Minotin criteria says, that in order for you to be acquitted on the grounds of not guilty by reason of insanity, at the time of the commission of the crime,

and that means not before, not after, but at the time you committed the crime, you have to be mentally incapacitated. You have to have a defect of reason and behavior. And it has to be by reason of some mental disorder, by reason of some mental disease or defect. So severely impaired that you do not understand the nature and quality of your act. And even if you do understand that, you do not understand that what you're doing is wrong.

In short, the system will try to rehabilitate the defendant using therapies and medications until they are competent to stand trial, which can drag the process out for years. And if you think about it, that level of impairment is an extremely high bar to me. There are very few conditions that make you that impaired that you literally don't know what you're doing and know that it's wrong. To put it mildly, just because you're crazy doesn't mean you don't know what you're doing.

So evidence that the individual planned the crime. Evidence that they sought to cover up the crime. Evidence that they sought to evade capture for the crime. I may have schizophrenia, but if I wait for you to come into the room for hours, jump on you, kill you, then try to dispose of the body and run away and not leave any evidence, that pretty much shows I know what I was doing, didn't it?

It pretty much shows that I knew that it was wrong because why would I run away? So again, it's very careful not to misconstrue having a mental illness with, therefore, being not guilty by reason of insanity." This is not the first time Mark Lutonsky has been found incompetent to stand trial. According to court records, this is the fifth time he has been ordered by the courts to undergo psychiatric testing and treatment. Back in the summer of 2013, when Latsonsky was in the throes of his divorce proceedings, he refused to return two of his children to his ex-wife for over 24 hours after he was

legally supposed to have returned them. Even after police were called to intervene and retrieve the children, Latsonsky refused. He was ordered by the court to undergo psychiatric evaluation due to this incident and was found incompetent to stand trial. By the time he was finally competent to stand trial, the charges against him were dropped. In February of this year, Lutonsky was found incompetent to stand trial for the murder of Kevin Bacon. A few months later, he was re-evaluated and found incompetent yet again.

If he is rehabilitated to the point of mental restoration, he will jump right back on track to trial. He will go through the entire trial process, just like any other defendant. Now let's backtrack for a moment. Remember the businessmen from New York who called 911 in October of 2019 after waking up chained with leather straps in Mark Lutunsky's basement? Well he's now filed a federal lawsuit. The man's name is James Carlson and he filed a lawsuit on June 10th.

It accuses Lutunsky of neglect and gross negligence, battery, and false imprisonment. The lawsuit says verbatim. The facts of this case are straight out of a horror movie. Carlson traveled from New York to Michigan for the purpose of engaging in consensual BDSM with Lutunsky. What Mr. Carlson did not expect during his stay, Lutunky would end up chaining him down in his basement and holding him captive. After he thought Latonsky had fallen asleep,

Mr. Carlson terrified, cut himself loose with a butcher knife and ran down the street in the middle of nowhere in order to call the police. Carlson specifically mentions that after chaining him in the basement, Latonsky threateningly declared Carlson wasn't going anywhere. On the 911 call, Carlson exclaimed to the dispatcher,

We all know how dangerous online dating can be. Dating in hook-up apps are now becoming the norm. They have been for years, but are especially appealing after months and months of social distancing. People are sitting on their phones all day, swiping through potential romantic partners, and meeting with them often at the home of the stranger they swipe to write on. With no bars, restaurants, or other places to hang out, in-home dates start looking more and more appealing. The problem is that no matter how you spin it,

meeting a stranger can be risky. A woman named Bridget Parker has a YouTube channel dedicated to true crime. as a YouTube channel dedicated to true crime. He interviewed a man who claims to have been talking with Mark Lutinsky on Grindr, but got a bad gut feeling about him and decided not to meet him after all. His name is David and David potentially escaped death by listening to his own instinct. The encounter occurred in September of 2019

about a month before James Carlson called 911 after escaping from the basement. Well, being completely honest, I was grinder and I was on there looking for a one night stand or a regular partner, I guess you could say. It's so, it is not a dating site. Like, I'm just being honest, it's not. It makes it's kind of like innocence. Just, you could meet someone and immediately as they want you to come over to their place without

even getting to know them and you're going, God knows where. David mentions later that he had some horrible experiences wherein he did meet at a stranger's house alone. Thankfully, Mark letonski was not one of these escapades. I kind of feel like it was a mutual thing because I messaged a lot of people on there. Yeah. So I probably messed it up first. And then whoever messaged me back,

I just started or continue a conversation with them. And the thing is it just he seemed too eager to want me to come over. It didn't last long because the way he talked is what just turned me off and the eagerness for me to come over and the way he wanted me to come over. All of them are completely red flags, wish this victim had solved them too. But that's the problem. Sometimes people don't see the red flags. And just, you know, they're too depressed or sad

and they just ignore them. This person's giving them attention. They're a good person. I won't get hurt. That's what you're thinking when you're in that position. It was that one night. It was, I was in a really low place and I was just, whoever was talking to me,

I was well-in-paying out with, but just the fact that he, I don't know, he just seemed kinda like, we got into kinda, because I sometimes have conversations that are kinda BDSM type, and it just, he just went too far with it as well. Yeah. That conversation I have, he sounded violent, he sounded dangerous and along with the not telling me where I'm going thing, all that added together just was a big no-no for

me. Yeah, of course. And some people are into that but I like to not go that far, I guess, with the BDSM. I like people to know where the heck I am. Or, you know, I always tell people where I'm going. Because you never know. You need to tell people where you're going. David says his experience with several other life-threatening hookups have taught him the

red flags to keep an eye out for. Haven't been victimized before makes me able to kind of know what I'm like, I can read people a lot better now. I know the disturbing thing that really made me just end the conversation was the fact that he wanted to pay for the ride for me to get into the Uber to go to his place, but not knowing where he was living. That was the red flag, not giving me his bad address. This is speculation, but it's possible the same sort of transportation with Kevin Bacon, whose car was discovered outside of Schwartz Creek, Michigan, with all of his things inside.

I really don't know exactly why it's transpired, but it just bugs me that he left all of his belongings behind it. It's almost like he, I don't know if he had his stuff with him when he went there. That's what I'm thinking. I mean, it's just, I'm scary, like, so. Yeah, I'm trying to work out whether he took that all with him and then Mark moved his car. I think whoever picked him up, it was their own vehicle. I'm guessing. Yeah, that's what bugs me more. Like I just, I guess I would have been less creepy if you would have drove all the way here and got me and then went back to his place because I've

done that before. Yeah. The whole Uber all the way to his place, not knowing where I'm going was just not going to happen. I just think these apps need to have geolocation on at all times. I know that's very invasive, but sometimes being invasive is not a bad thing because they've probably can found Kevin a lot quicker had it set set like gave a location, you know, sooner. But the thing is, that's why I think to some point, I don't think he ever had his phone at the residency. I think he did leave all this stuff there, which I don't know why anyone would ever do that. It's scary to not have my phone on me. When my phone dies and I'm walking down the street at a night, that scares me.

Grindr is also a rare app that allows you to delete messages from another person's phone. Hypothetically, if you were to match with someone and decide to block them after having a chat conversation through the app, the messages are deleted from both your phone and the other person's phone. They disappear forever. When a person deletes their grinder account, the profile cannot be recovered. They have to go back and create a whole new profile. Police all over the country continued to warn people about apps like Grindr. The most important thing with any dating or hookup app is to let other people know where you're going to be. Don't give out too much personal information and meet people in a

public place whenever possible. According to the FBI, many serial killers hide in plain sight in their communities, often staying within a specific geographic radius. We have to be honest with ourselves and know that these active or potential killers lurk everywhere. Apps like Grindr are the perfect online shopping platform for killers searching for victims, or violent people hoping to act out their sick desires on an unsuspecting partner. When victims of crime like this are part of the vulnerable population, for example, young

runaways, sex workers, and those discreetly a part of the LGBTQ community, crimes often go unreported. It's possible that this makes criminals more comfortable in pursuing victims on apps specifically made for marginalized groups. Grindr has a section of their website dedicated to safety tips. Protect your identity. Don't post personal information. Don't rush into things. Share your location only when you feel comfortable. Tell a friend. Make sure a responsible person you trust knows who you're meeting, where you're going, and when you're planning on coming back. Report any attacks or threats to law enforcement.

If things go wrong report it to the police. Give them all the facts. Use our block and report features. give them all the facts. Use our block and report features. Be aware that other users on the Grinder app may be able to determine your location. Any app that uses relative distance information has an inherent risk that your actual location may be determined. Through sophisticated attacks or by a user who accesses the app from multiple locations while you remain in the same location. We encourage you to connect with each other and help us build a safe and inclusive community. It's unfortunate that this safety page was probably written as a response to crime, like the ones perpetrated against Kevin Bacon and the two men who escaped from Mark Lutunsky's home before him.

Kevin Bacon was a peer educator at U of M Flint's Gender and Sexuality Center. He majored in applied psychology and was in his third year of study. His photo and bio on the wall of the LGBTQ plus community, I'm happy to be a peer educator. I believe in the power of knowledge and the ability for it to create social change. My interests include sexual violence prevention, inclusive sex education, and the importance of self-expression. But facts about me, I have a 40-pound cat I'm a hairstylist. The staff and students of the university mourned Kevin's death in a celebration of life ceremony. I still don't know how to feel. There are times when I'm just so angry I could lash out at anything or anybody and there

are other times when I'm sad and other times I'm just numb. He's very accepted for people differences. He was very open to meeting new people and just very friendly. Kevin left behind him a whole group of people that loved him and that he loved and returned. He had pink hair and nails painted. He wore purple parts and he just walked around

and didn't let everybody, and what anybody thought, affect him. This is believing to me for a little bit because it's like kind of allowing everybody to come together and really talk about it. The students and faculty at the Gender and Sexuality Center made a build-a-bear in Kevin's name. They dressed the bear up like Kevin and even gave him a purse similar to the one Kevin proudly carried around. There was a time when people were more cautious about their

behavior, but the proliferation of apps that attempt to connect us in various ways has made it so some of us let our guard down when we probably shouldn't. They used to tell us not to get into a stranger's car. Nowadays we have an app for that. Clearly an app meant for engaging in one night's stands is going to possess even more obvious inherent dangers. The same technology that connects us can also be used for nefarious purposes by evil people. But if you keep in mind the simple lesson that monsters are everywhere, Then perhaps you'll be a little safer in this brave new world. That does it for this episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time.

And remember, if someone locks you in their basement, forgetsakes, file a police report, and stay safe. Hi, my name is Maddie. I'm calling from Athens, Georgia. Gosh, where do I start? I just think you are a national treasure. I'm so blessed that you're sure to exist. I'm actually pursuing a degree in seminal justice and I tell all my colleagues about you and pretty much anybody else I can think of. I'm on the road a lot for work and it's just great to have this wonderful archive that was to do and I greatly appreciate it. I'm so glad you're back.

Please don't ever leave us again. And yeah, thanks for all your needs. They say fans. Hey, Mike, big fan here, but I'm also under a show. Way back in the infamous episode 20. I just love everything you do. I appreciate all the work that you

put into the show. I've been a supporter since way back then and I just never called in but I figured I'd give you a call just to let you thank you for everything you do we really appreciate it. Hi my I'm Hi Seren Stale Singh. I'm just calling to say thank you for your great work with the podcast. I'm Jennifer from Northern Ireland. Yeah, I love us. I tell them to be more grateful for all the attitudes that are thoroughly entertaining me through the lockdown and beyond. And yeah, people have to do work and thank you very much.

Hey Mike, this is Nelly from Hollywood Florida. Just wanted to let you know that you are the man, you're a badass. I love you as a narrator. Stories are amazing. The work that you put in to these stories, it's like amazing. It's like there's no way of actually going

to listen to other podcasts. You should be always number one all the time on the podcast list. There's no one like you. I told family members. I'm on a plus. I just can't describe it anymore. All I can say is that you're amazing. Keep up the good work and like you tell us and I'm telling you, stay safe.