A Michigan man killed two women Friday and is believed to have been planning to kill at least two more before he was caught thanks to a tip from an ex-girlfriend about “disturbing” text messages, police say.
“There’s no doubt he was on a killing spree,” Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said of the suspect at a joint press conference with Eaton County Sheriff’s Office and Meridian Township Police Department. The suspect has not yet been identified.
“A true bad guy was taken off the street by the Eaton County Sheriff's Department and thank God for that,” Wriggelsworth said.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the Lansing State Journal, the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office was contacted early Friday by a woman saying her 27-year-old ex-boyfriend had violated a personal protection order by sending her text messages and knocking on her front door. In one of those texts, he said “he loved her so he spared her, and she would know what that meant soon,” Wriggelsworth said. Another message said he’d been “ridding the demons of some dear friends of his.”
The former boyfriend is said to have also wanted to come inside the woman's home, but eventually left.
Eaton County deputies eventually pulled him over at a traffic stop and reportedly detained him for “unrelated warrants.” At that point, according to police, the man showed the deputies pictures of two dead women on his phone. The bodies were determined to be in Delhi Township and Meridian Township.
A 26-year-old woman he allegedly killed in Delhi Township was found in her unlocked apartment, with the cause of death believed to be blunt force trauma. The second woman, in Meridian Township, was described as a 32-year-old woman who also died from blunt force trauma.
Police told reporters the man had two additional women he wanted to kill, but they were both notified of the situation and are safe. While they don't believe the killings were random, investigators are still trying to determine the man's relationship with his alleged victims and intended victims.
The Journal reports police have not yet released the name of the alleged killer because he has yet to be charged. Officials are also not releasing the names of the victims until their families have been notified.
