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On December 15, 2022, Mark Latunski was sentenced to life in prison for the murder and mutilation of 25-year-old hairdresser Kevin Bacon, whom he met on an online dating app.
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of murder, mutilation, and cannibalism, that may be triggering to certain readers. Reader discretion is advised.
According to the New York Post, Mark Latunski was convicted of first-degree murder, disinterment and mutilation of a body. The 53-year-old reportedly confessed that on Christmas Eve of 2019, he stabbed Bacon several times before severing multiple body parts and eating them.
After confessing to eating parts of Bacon's body, Latunski received another 11-months to be served alongside the life sentence.
The details of Mark Latunski's confession
As per Michigan authorities, Mark Latunski eventually admitted to investigators that he met Kevin Bacon on Grindr, an LGBTQ+ dating app.
Latunski allegedly told investigators that after he killed Kevin Bacon, slit his throat and hung him up from the ceiling of his home. Subsequently, he began to eat the victim's bodyparts. He reportedly told authorities that he wanted to buy a food dehydrator in order to turn the human flesh into 'jerky'.
During sentencing, Circuit Court Judge Matthew Stewart said that the sentence will probably be a small amount of comfort in what he believes is "an enormity of hurt."
Kevin Bacon's mother, Pamela, condemned Latunski's actions in an official statement and said in court that their world was shattered. She added:
"Even though we have such great memories of our son, our lives will never be the same or will our family. I don't understand why anyone could want to hurt our son, especially in such a horrific and unbelievable way."
She continued that in Latunski's sick and twisted mind, he probably didn't think that what he did was wrong. She even said that he would suffer the way they did after the death of their son.
Michael Parks, a former neighbor of Latunski's, said that the convicted killer had a history of violent behavior. He described an incident which took place near his home in August, approximately a month before the murder of Kevin Bacon.
Parks said:
"(The victim has) got purple hair, he's wearing a leather skirt and he's got a couple of belts across his chest. This gentleman is grasping my arm with deathly fear (screaming) 'help me, keep him away' just screaming at the top of his lungs 'he wants to hurt me, he wants to hurt me."
Parks added that Latunski arrived soon after and said:
"Another vehicle pulls in my driveway and out comes, who I now find out is Mark, wearing a leather skirt, belts across his chest, no shoes, no shirt on, his beard is braided. (He was a) very odd-looking gentleman."
Fox reported that while authorities later removed the victim in the November 2019 incident, no charges were filed against Mark Latunski.
