A 53-year-old Michigan cannibal has been convicted of murdering a young man he met through the dating app Grindr.
Mark Latunski faces life in prison for the death of Kevin Bacon in December 2019.
He had previously admitted to killing the 25-year-old, eating parts of his body and hanging the mutilated, naked corpse upside down from a ceiling at his home in Bennington Township.
A further two-day court hearing this week to determine whether the killing was premeditated concluded on Wednesday, during which Shiawassee County Judge Matthew Stewart ruled: “The court finds that this is a crime of cold calculation.
“Kevin Bacon’s death was Mark Latunski’s design.”
Mr Bacon was last seen on Christmas Eve when he told a roommate he was leaving to meet a man he had connected with on Grindr.
His family reported him missing on Christmas Day.
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Shiawassee County prosecutor Scott Koerner said the killing was premeditated and told the court that Latunski had told police officers he discussed buying a dehydrator to make jerky out of Mr Bacon’s muscles, Mlive.com reported.
He reportedly also told them he had cut off part of the deceased’s genitalia and eaten it.
His lawyer Mary Chartier argued Latunski did not plan on killing Mr Bacon, noting that he allowed police inside his home where the victim’s body was hanging by the ankles in his basement.
She insisted he did not understand the gravity of his crime.
“He did not measure the consequences at all,” she said.
First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Latunski is due to be sentenced on 15 December.
