A Michigan man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after luring a man he met on a dating app to his home on Christmas Eve, committing a murder of exceptional brutality, and mutilating the body.
A Festive Tragedy Unfolds
Kevin Bacon, a 25-year-old hairdresser and top student, was reported missing on 25 December 2019 after he failed to arrive for a family Christmas breakfast. Growing increasingly concerned, his relatives learned from his roommate that Kevin had gone to meet someone from the Grindr app the previous night.
This information led police to the home of Mark Latunski in Shiawassee County. There, officers discovered a scene of profound horror. They found Kevin's naked body suspended upside down from the ceiling rafters in a concealed room. The investigation had uncovered a brutal homicide.
A Killer's Chilling Confession
Latunski later admitted to detectives that he had stabbed Kevin, slit his throat, and hanged him with a rope. In a further act of depravity, court documents reveal he cut off a portion of Kevin's genitalia and consumed it.
"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."
Disturbingly, police were already familiar with Latunski prior to the murder. The Washington Post reported that other Grindr dates had fled his home during 'basement bondage sessions'. In one incident, a man escaped and called 911, reporting leather ankle straps and a chain used to restrain him. Another ran from the property wearing only a leather kilt, pursued by Latunski who told police he merely wanted his clothing back. Both men declined to press charges, stating their encounters were consensual but they had become "spooked".
Justice Served After Three Years
In September 2022, nearly three years after the killing, Latunski pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and mutilation of a body, reportedly against his lawyers' advice. This plea came just weeks before his jury trial was scheduled to begin.
At his sentencing on 15 December 2022, a heartrending statement from Kevin's mother, Pamela, was read to the court. "Our world has been shattered," it said. "Even though we have such great memories of our son, our lives will never be the same... I don't understand why anyone could want to hurt our son, especially in such a horrific and unbelievable way."
Addressing Latunski directly, she added, "Now Christmas for our family will never be the same to us, thanks to you taking our son away from us... In your sick, twisted mind, you probably think you didn't do anything wrong, but in reality, you took our world away."
A Shiawassee County judge sentenced the 53-year-old Latunski to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for murder. He received a concurrent sentence of 11 months for the charge of disinterment and mutilation of a dead body.
The case stands as a grim warning about the potential dangers of online dating and a tragic reminder of a family's festive season forever marked by loss.
