[♪ dramatic music playing]
[narrator] 25-year-old Kevin Bacon is a hopeless romantic...
[♪ pop music playing]
...looking for that someone special in his small Midwestern town.
♪♪
Kevin wanted to be someone's person,
but he got friend-zoned a lot.
[narrator] So, until Prince Charming shows up,
he turns to dating apps for that feeling of connection.
[Michelle Meyers] Kevin would meet them, maybe hook up multiple times,
and then that was it.
♪♪
[narrator] But when Kevin doesn't come home...
[police radio chatter]
Why is his clothing in the car?
[police radio chatter]
[narrator] ...the secrets kept hidden in his phone...
He asked, "Am I gonna be safe?"
[narrator] ...just might link his search for love
to the search for a killer.
I know that there is real, true evil out there,
and this was an example of that.
[♪ dramatic crescendo]
[speaker 1] She solved her own murder from beyond the grave.
[speaker 2] The fitness app on the phone.
It was overwhelming evidence.
♪ I've been haunted by the visions ♪
♪ That I've seen with my own eyes ♪
♪ And the only way to find you ♪
♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪
[speaker 3] She did help catch this killer.
♪ I wanna take you to this place I know ♪
♪ I wanna take you to... ♪
[narrator] It's Christmas Eve 2019 in Swartz Creek, Michigan.
♪ I wanna take you to this place I know ♪
While this quaint rural village
in the shadow of Flint, Michigan, is celebrating the season,
25-year-old hairdresser Kevin Bacon walks out his front door
and vanishes.
-[bells jingling] -[truck rumbling]
His roommate, Michelle, is the first to realize that something is up.
[Michelle] My name is Michelle Meyers.
I was Kevin's best friend, roommate, confidante.
[muffled clap]
[♪ ominous music playing]
When I woke up in the morning, I got a call and a text from his sister,
who had asked where Kevin was.
Since it was Christmas morning,
he was supposed to have breakfast with his family.
This is unlike Kevin to not show up on Christmas morning,
and to not text me anything and let me know,
like, where he is.
[line ringing]
I called several times and got no answer.
♪♪
Kevin was super punctual, so him not being there,
I was a little bit, you know, weirded out.
[line ringing]
[narrator] Kevin's connection to Michelle and his family is strong,
and if he isn't answering either of them,
something must be up.
So, as the afternoon passes with still no word from Kevin,
his worried parents call police.
[line ringing]
[Joshua Dirkse] I'm Detective Sergeant Joshua Dirkse.
I work for the Michigan State Police out of the Flint post.
Metro Police Department took the original missing person report
and started the investigation looking into potentially where he could be.
Who his associates are, who he had been talking to, where he had gone.
[♪ ominous music continues]
[narrator] Investigators don't know much about Kevin,
but they do know the holidays are tough.
Kevin could have voluntarily disappeared for a little while.
People do that all the time, especially around the holidays.
They just, they need to get away.
[narrator] All police know is that Kevin is an adult
who didn't show up for breakfast.
That's not necessarily a cause for concern,
but Kevin's loved ones just know there's something wrong.
♪ Chasing shadows out our windows... ♪
I've known Kevin since he moved to Swartz Creek in 4th grade.
♪♪
We knew each other, we were friends, and kind of hit it off more
as we got into middle school.
And then, by the time we graduated, we were, like, best friends.
♪ Chasing shadows ♪
He was just like, I don't wanna say weird, but like, the good kind of weird.
Like, I'm weird, and he's weird,
so we just clicked in our weirdness together. [laughs]
He was an all-around just bright light that, you know, everybody really needed.
♪♪
Kevin was one of my best friends.
[♪ upbeat music playing]
Kevin was tall, bald... [giggles]
and always had nails and makeup on.
He cared about the way he looked,
and I think that he liked making other people feel that same way.
[hair dryer whirring]
[♪ gentle music playing]
He was big on tattoos, and he had some beautiful artwork.
"Beauty killer" across his chest,
'cause that was Jeffree Star's cosmetic line.
He had a couple Taylor Swift ones
and a couple of Lady Gaga ones also.
Man, I'm like, "I'm so jealous! I haven't gotten a tattoo in, like, two years!
I don't have the money anymore." He's like, "I don't either, but...
[laughs] it makes me feel good."
He had a really big personality.
He was a lot of fun. Big heart, too.
Anything you needed help with, he was there.
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] Kevin may have been smiling on the outside,
but inside, he often struggled with his sexuality
and his search for connections with others.
♪ Breathing in, breathing out ♪
In high school, even if I think he knew deep down that "I'm gay,"
I don't think he felt like he could even admit it to himself.
And we, like, tried to make him feel comfortable about that.
[narrator] Finding acceptance with your friends is one thing.
-[keypad clacking] -Finding someone to share
the rest of your life with is something else.
And he often discussed the struggle with his good friend, LeRae.
Kevin was looking for love. He wanted to be in a relationship.
[♪ soft music playing]
Kevin wanted to be someone's person.
He would put all of his feelings out there,
but they were never returned from the other side.
[narrator] If that lasting connection is out of reach,
at least there are plenty of guys eager for a hookup on the dating apps.
He got friend-zoned a lot, so then he would go look
for a quick fix on one of the sites.
[♪ electronic crescendo]
[narrator] The last time Michelle saw Kevin,
he was getting ready for a hot date with a new guy.
[Michelle] A lot of people do date online.
And by the time Kevin moved in with me,
he was pretty comfortable meeting men on the dating apps.
♪ Coming for you, coming for you, coming for you, coming for you ♪
[Michelle] Kevin would meet them, they'd hook up,
maybe they'd chat, maybe sometimes befriend each other,
or they'd maybe hook up multiple times, and then that was it.
[narrator] All Michelle knows is that Kevin was going
to meet someone on Christmas Eve.
She has no idea who that is.
Kevin told me he was going to meet with a guy in Swartz Creek.
He just said, "Hey, I'm going to meet with this guy,
and I'll be back later."
[♪ ominous music playing]
This is where Kevin was last seen.
We had a Nest Doorbell
that captured footage of him leaving our house.
[insects chirping]
He went straight to his car, and then-- and that was it.
[car engine starting]
[narrator] Kevin's parents know he's gay,
but they don't know about his online dating habits.
And Kevin wants to keep it that way.
But it's now been nearly 20 hours since Michelle last heard from him,
and she feels she has no choice.
[♪ soft electronic music playing]
It put me in a very tight spot
because I don't know how to say that he was meeting up
with a stranger online and hooking up with them,
because his-- at this point, like, his--
his family didn't know any of that stuff at all.
[line ringing]
[voicemail] Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system.
[narrator] Michelle puts Kevin's safety before his secrets.
So, I texted Kevin, and I just told him,
"I'm really sorry, but I don't have a choice."
♪ There's no turning back now ♪
[Michelle] "I'm gonna have to tell them that you've met
with a stranger and some details about your lifestyle."
♪ There's no turning back now ♪
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] Kevin's father, Carl, rushes over to Michelle's
to find out what she knows.
[Michelle] I told Kevin's dad he was meeting with somebody
on a dating app for a hookup.
He didn't really know about Kevin being more sexually active.
It was kind of like an awkward conversation, I guess.
[narrator] Michelle tells police about Kevin's mystery hookup, too.
[phone ringing]
And they get to work figuring out who he is.
But at the moment, they're more focused on Kevin's past
and his history of self-harm.
[Dirkse] We knew that he had struggled with some depression
and had suicidal ideations.
You know, a lot of times, holidays can bring that on.
[♪ somber music playing]
[narrator] Kevin's struggles with depression
are something his friends are all too aware of.
I remember in early high school, I would look at Kevin,
and I'd see marks on his arms from cutting.
We would ask Kevin if he had been seeing a therapist
or if that was a possibility.
And it was difficult
because just money was tight financially
for him and his family.
[narrator] It all boils over into a suicide attempt in 2018.
[Michelle] Kevin sent me a text. He had cut himself quite bad.
[echoing text bloops]
And then, he did tell me that he had overdosed.
And then, his mother contacted me
and told me that he was admitted to the hospital.
[machines beeping]
[narrator] Alarm bells go off for investigators.
Did Kevin's depression take over again?
We are trying to follow up. There's been no indication
that anything tragic has happened to Kevin.
Kevin did in the past suffer
from some mental health struggles and had been suicidal.
[♪ ominous tone playing]
[phone ringing]
[narrator] While detectives are working through all potential leads,
they get an unexpected call from Kevin's parents.
They've been driving around town looking for Kevin themselves
and they just found something troubling.
[police radio chatter]
[Jim Moore] Kevin Bacon's vehicle was found by his parents
in the strip mall on Miller Road,
approximately a mile and a half from his residence.
[narrator] What the investigators discover inside the car
turns this holiday into a horror.
♪♪
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] 25-year-old Kevin Bacon goes missing on Christmas Day.
His history of self-harm has his family and friends worried,
and the discovery of his car in a strip mall parking lot
does little to ease their minds.
[Michelle] His parents were concerned,
so they started driving around.
Because it's Christmas,
all these parking lots are vacant at these stores.
So, his car kinda stuck out like a sore thumb.
And his mom pulled in and saw the car, reported it to police.
-[♪ mysterious music playing] -[police radio chatter]
Shortly after his vehicle was found,
the police responded to there,
and went through Kevin's vehicle.
♪♪
[narrator] What's inside is shocking and confusing.
His wallet, his keys,
and his neatly folded clothes.
Why is his clothing in the car, and where is he?
[narrator] The clothes match what Kevin was wearing
when last seen on his home cam.
It was just getting worse, 'cause it's like,
Kevin wouldn't leave his clothes and everything behind.
[narrator] If Kevin committed self-harm,
why would he leave his clothes?
But more concerning is the discovery
that Kevin left his cell phone in the car as well.
[♪ ominous music playing]
That's really alarming, because in today's age,
most people carry their cell phones on them.
Why is Kevin's phone in the car?
[narrator] It's Christmas in Michigan,
and he couldn't have wandered off far in the cold.
The police search the area and come up empty,
so they turn to his phone for clues
and any insight into Kevin's life it may provide.
[Dirkse] Having the phone would help.
You can see who he's been talking to, leading up to him going missing.
-[police radio chatter] -[keypad typing]
[narrator] But of course, Kevin's phone has a passcode.
Investigators need a warrant and a forensic expert to unlock it.
And that's gonna take time.
[police radio chatter]
But time is not a luxury they have.
[♪ dark music playing]
[birds chirping]
So, investigators turn to Kevin's friends for help.
Kevin's car was found here,
and then the, the detectives called us down here.
♪♪
Until we found the car, I was kind of-- I was kind of feeling like
there was still a chance that maybe he was just somewhere.
But actually seeing the car and Kevin's clothes
and everything in there,
things started to feel
that something had really had gone wrong.
[♪ ominous sting]
I remember the-- So, the detective approached me with Kevin's phone.
♪♪
And then I said that, "I think I know the code.
I'm pretty certain I can unlock it."
They handed me the phone over.
I put in passcode.
♪♪
And it worked, first try.
[Moore] Once the passcode was correctly accessed
and his phone was unlocked, the phone was transferred
to the Computer Crime Scene unit of the Michigan State Police.
[narrator] While investigators pick apart Kevin's phone for clues,
Michelle conducts her own investigation with Kevin's dad.
They go through his computer,
hoping they can find the identity of his Christmas hookup.
[keyboard keys clacking]
Christmas night, we were up pretty much all night
just trying to log in on everything.
I had, like, some of his emails and passwords.
Kevin's dad also had some passwords to try,
like, just to see if we could get in on his laptop,
potentially get on iMessage
and try to see anything from there.
We got into pretty much every dating app that Kevin had.
The messages are either
nothing or very little, or it had nothing to do with the meetup.
We could not find anything.
It was hard because, you know, my thought was that
wherever he is, he's in a bad situation.
[narrator] Michelle isn't waiting for the police
to figure out where Kevin is or who he's with.
She starts compiling her own list of men Kevin has dated.
Kevin met with a lot of married men
that did not want their families knowing
about what they were doing.
[narrator] And she remembers one with whom Kevin seemed to have a special connection.
[Michelle] Kevin had been meeting with a guy named Chad.
He had met with him multiple times,
and it got to become a more emotional relationship.
♪ How will we know it's time ♪
Kevin's dream was, you know, to find a partner,
um, find a man that he could marry.
♪ I try to heal ♪
I think Kevin wanted for them to be, like, official,
or something at some point.
[LeRae Johnson] They had a great time,
and I guess Kevin had asked, like, if they-- what they were.
And he was like, "Oh, I just look at you like a friend."
[narrator] Kevin was crushed.
But now, Michelle can't help but wonder
if somehow Chad was back in Kevin's life.
It might have something to do with whatever happened to Kevin.
Michelle shares the name with investigators.
We were able to, to get a name of a person.
Now, we can start investigating who that person is.
[narrator] It's now almost two days since Kevin went missing.
And as investigators consider the different men in Kevin's life,
his phone gives them their first lead
on the identity of his mysterious Christmas hookup.
Kevin had taken screenshots
of a chat log of a dating app that Kevin had used.
And what was found was that Kevin was communicating
with a male, and the messages between them
appeared to show that Kevin and this unidentified male
were gonna meet up on Christmas Eve.
[narrator] The screenshots confirm that Kevin was going on a date.
Not with Chad, but with someone new and anonymous.
And they reveal that even Kevin was concerned
that this meetup might go horribly wrong.
Kevin asked the male, "You're gonna keep me safe, correct?"
[narrator] Now the race is on to find out who this mysterious person is...
[knocking]
...before his family's worst nightmare comes true.
♪♪
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] 25-year-old Kevin Bacon is looking for a special connection.
But right now, his friends and family are looking for him
after he goes missing on Christmas morning.
♪ Your fall is mine ♪
[♪ electronic music playing]
But investigators just got access to his phone,
and screenshots Kevin took hint that he was so concerned for his safety.
♪ You'll never know ♪
[Dirkse] Kevin's text messages were pretty specific,
pretty detailed.
They were talking about role-play
that was gonna happen between him
and this individual from the dating app that he was talking with.
They were talking about taking clothes off,
having nothing with him, none of his belongings,
leaving it in his car, locking it up,
and then getting in the vehicle with this other individual.
[narrator] It's all part of the pre-meetup ritual
that's part of the BDSM lifestyle.
[Rachel Prenzler] My name is Rachel Prenzler.
I'm an outpatient therapist.
The majority of my clients are queer or trans, LGBTQ+.
And also, I see a lot of non-normative relationships,
so polyamorous, BDSM, kink.
Kevin was looking for a connection, but also fulfilling a fantasy,
a sexual encounter based on a fantasy.
When I was reading that text, there were no red flags,
and you know, I could have saw myself in that situation.
[keypad typing]
It's all about trust and consent.
We call it playing with someone, right? Or setting up a scene.
So, before you do that, you have to sit down with each other
and talk about, like, your boundaries, right?
Like, what are you wanting to get out of this?
So, it's very planned out.
[narrator] Then, the screenshots give investigators their first real lead --
a profile photo and a name of the guy Kevin was meeting.
His nickname on this mobile app was Olykos.
[♪ ominous sting]
Kevin asked him...
♪♪
"You're gonna keep me safe, correct?"
And Olykos indicated that yes, he would keep him safe.
[narrator] It's a huge lead.
But like most things online,
Olykos probably isn't this guy's real name.
And it doesn't appear on any police database.
Who is he? Where is he?
And does he know anything about where Kevin is?
For answers, investigators turn to the screenshot image
of Olykos on Kevin's phone.
[Moore] With that information,
in trying to identify who Olykos was,
the Computer Crimes Unit sent the image of Olykos
to our facial recognition unit in Lansing.
[narrator] One thing's for sure, he isn't Chad,
or any of the other men whose names Michelle had given to the investigators.
[Dirkse] It was definitely a race against time.
We needed to decipher who he was talking to.
[whooshing]
[narrator] Michelle isn't going to wait around
for the police to solve Kevin's case.
I put together a search party with his family.
We had several news stations,
and the posts had gotten, I guess viral, in a sense.
Time is of essence. If Kevin's alive somewhere,
and he's obviously in an unsafe situation,
we need to work fast.
♪ Walk away ♪
So, this is the park where we kind of all met and gathered.
We had about 80 to 100 people coming out,
uh, just to kind of break apart into as many groups as possible
and cover as much ground as possible.
Right here.
♪ I write that song, that song ♪
♪ Always something, something ♪
Like, I could just remember, you know, looking over,
making sure there was nothing in the river,
or just looking through trees,
trying to find some little symbol that he was in this area.
But we honestly-- we never came up with anything.
[♪ somber music playing]
[narrator] The search may have come up empty,
but the social media buzz pays off.
♪ They're coming out ♪
That night, Michelle gets some unexpected information
that raises even more red flags.
♪ Don't let them catch you ♪
[Michelle] I got a message from one of my friends saying,
"Hey, there's been an individual in our town.
"They've had people escape their basement. It was in the news.
Like, this guy's really strange."
♪ Too late to think ♪
And it was a screenshot of a conversation
between two people,
and they were discussing this weird stuff
has been happening at this guy's house. What if?
And they sent a screenshot of his Facebook profile.
[narrator] The incident the tipster is referring to
just happened four weeks earlier,
and not very far from where Kevin lives.
The responding officer that night was Robert Viviano.
[deep clap]
[Robert Viviano] My name is Detective Trooper Robert Viviano.
I'm a detective with the State Police.
I'm currently on an undercover assignment
for the State Police right now.
♪♪
In 2019, I was assigned to Shiawassee County.
It's kind of more of a rural area.
Lots of farms.
In November of 2019,
a call came over the radio
that someone was running down the road,
wearing a kilt, covered in blood,
and was knocking on people's doors, yelling for help.
We made contact with this individual
who said that he had escaped from this house...
[♪ eerie music playing]
...pointed out the house,
and said that he had been held captive.
♪♪
We made contact with this individual at this house,
who turned out to be a gentleman by the name of Mark Latunski.
[♪ ominous music playing]
And he was also dressed in nothing but a kilt,
a leather kilt, which we found strange.
After talking to Mark and this subject
that had quote-unquote "escaped" from this house...
we thought it was some type of sexual role-play kinda gone bad.
Someone got scared and ran outta the house kind of thing,
which is kinda how Mark described it.
So, we just kinda took it at that. Nobody wanted to press charges.
There's nothing else that we could really do
other than document it and kinda leave it at that.
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] The incident is about 10 miles away
from where Kevin's car was found.
As Michelle learns more about it from her online tipsters,
her heart begins to race.
I was going 100 miles an hour, and I can't think of anything else.
What if this ends up being the person that did it?
So, I gave the screenshot of the profile to the detectives.
♪♪
[narrator] With this new information,
the detectives start investigating Latunski
and discover this isn't the first scary incident
reported at his house.
A man known only as James had a similar terrifying journey.
A person named James had been to that house
in the fall of 2019,
had been to the house with Latunski.
They had different role-play and scenes they had.
But at one point, it went too far.
And James was scared,
thought that Latunski was gonna hurt him,
thought he was being held against his will,
was able to escape at one point.
-[♪ dramatic music playing] -[panting]
Running down the road, calling 911, asking for help.
[narrator] When the police learn the full extent
of James' troubling tale,
they fear that Kevin may have met a similar fate.
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] It's been three days since Kevin left his house on Christmas Eve.
He was looking for love, or at least something like it,
and hasn't been seen since.
♪♪
But thanks to screenshots Kevin took of a conversation
that he saved on his phone,
investigators know who he was meeting up with on Christmas Eve.
Now, police wonder if this man, known only as Olykos,
might be a sexual predator
who has been stalking other victims,
including a man named James just four weeks earlier.
♪♪
[siren wails]
[narrator] When Michigan State Police catch up to James,
he's shaken, but unharmed.
♪ I see your evil ♪
James was very adamant that he didn't wanna pursue criminal charges,
if there was anything criminal that had happened.
[police radio chatter]
James was embarrassed,
said, "I came here on my own free will. I wanted to be here."
♪ Your wicked ways ♪
"I just wanna leave. I just want to get outta here."
So, he did.
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] As investigators race to learn all they can about Mark Latunski's past,
the results from the facial recognition lab come in.
The Michigan State Police facial recognition unit,
they were able to obtain the probe image, as it's called, of Olykos.
And they take that probe image, and they put it into
the facial recognition software.
And the software gave an investigative lead,
which doesn't mean it's 100% this person.
But in this case, their lead was Mark David Latunski.
♪♪
[♪ tense music playing]
[narrator] Suddenly, it all comes together.
The man who the tipster had warned Michelle about,
the man who two potential victims had escaped from,
and the man on Kevin's phone are now all one and the same:
Mark David Latunski.
So, with that, that was the next logical person
-for them to go see or talk to. -[echoing knock]
Was, "Hey, you've been talking to Kevin.
Do you know where he's at?"
[narrator] Trooper Viviano gets the call again.
It's only been a month since he last saw Latunski.
[Viviano] Mark answers the door,
shirtless, wearing a leather kilt,
and holding a little dog with a pink bow in its hair.
It reminded me of the movie Silence of the Lambs,
where that particular serial killer, Buffalo Bill,
had a little dog with a bow in its hair.
And it was kinda surreal.
It was odd.
And he goes, "Oh hey, Trooper, how you doing?"
And I kind of explained to him, like,
"Hey, we're looking for someone who went missing.
His name's Kevin Bacon. Do you know him?"
And he just kinda went, "Mm, no. Never heard of him."
"Hey, do you mind if we come in and search the house,
"check the house real quick, just to make sure everything's good
and no one's here?" And he just paused,
and waved me in and said, "Sure, come on in."
♪♪
I was thinking Kevin was probably here at Mark's house,
and it was probably that they were hooking up.
They met on a dating app, so he didn't want anyone to know
what he was doing, like, that kind of thing.
That's what I thought.
I'm like, okay, he's gonna be here, sitting in the kitchen, whatever,
or in the living room, you know, and they're just hanging out.
We searched the first floor.
Don't find anything remarkable,
nothing that kinda piques our interest.
We go upstairs, search the upstairs where Mark's bedroom is.
There's Viking swords and helmets.
Nothing that spoke crime.
[♪ ominous music continues]
We make our way to the basement.
[echoing footsteps]
And I kinda was looking on the ground, and there's a miter saw,
and there's fresh-cut wood and sawdust.
So, I put my hand on the wall
thinking that I was gonna touch this wall and it would be cold to the touch,
like your basement walls, but it was room temperature.
So, I thought that was very odd.
So, I push on it, and it gives a little bit.
Then I push on it again, and it popped open.
And it was kinda like a secret door, and it swung open.
♪♪
I peered into the opening, and I exclaimed, "Oh, my God!"
[♪ disturbing music playing]
It was just a crazy horror movie that I was in the middle of.
♪♪
[♪ ominous music playing]
[narrator] Three days after he goes missing,
investigators are looking for Kevin Bacon at the house
of a potential predator.
But even they aren't prepared for what they are about to find.
[Viviano] At first, I didn't think it was real.
[♪ disturbing sting]
That's not real.
It's like a dummy or something that's fake, you know?
And then, my sensibility got the best of me,
and I was like, "Oh no, it's real."
♪♪
I've never seen anything like that.
I'm still shocked to this day that we found him like that.
♪♪
My partner's head is peering around the corner from the top of the stairs,
kinda like giving me like a "What's going on?" kinda thing.
So, I look up at him, and I give him the universal sign that we use
for cuff somebody up, put handcuffs on him.
-[siren wails] -[police radio chatter]
I go up to my sergeant.
I said, "Sarge, he's in there."
"Oh good, you found him?"
"No, Sarge, he's dead.
♪♪
He's hanging from the ceiling in the basement."
[narrator] Detectives Moore and Dirkse meet Trooper Viviano at the scene
and take Latunski back to the station.
[Moore] Mark told us that he did know Kevin
through the dating app,
that Kevin had approached him
about consensual sexual activity.
Kevin was gonna act as if he was kidnapped, and Latunski facilitated that.
[door creaks]
That was part of the role-play.
[♪ ominous music continues]
[Moore] As he's being led into the house
and down into the basement,
once they went into this room,
the sexual activity occurred.
Mark stated that he stabbed Kevin
in the back of the neck with a knife.
[♪ tense music playing]
He then used the rope to hoist Kevin up by his ankles.
You're not prepared to hear the things that he was telling us,
but we have to keep our emotions in check.
[narrator] Latunski admits to killing Kevin,
but he insists that it wasn't a murder.
Mark told us after the sexual activity occurred,
that Kevin wanted Mark to kill him,
to end his life.
Latunski thought, you know, in his mind, this was an assisted suicide.
What in the world, you know?
What is this guy all about?
...160 pounds.
There's no doubt in my mind, there's no doubt in anybody else's mind
that Kevin did not want to die.
He did not go into this looking to commit suicide.
♪ My eyes closed ♪
Kevin had mentioned in the text messages
that he wanted to make sure that he was gonna be safe.
He asked, "Am I gonna be safe?"
♪ Won't you leave my mind? ♪
He expected to be home with his family for Christmas.
[♪ tense music playing]
At the end of the interview, he wanted to know when he was going home.
And we ended up breaking it to him. "Sorry, you're going to jail.
You're not going home."
"You're being arrested for the murder of Kevin Bacon."
[Dirkse] I've dealt with a wide range of different people throughout my career.
There's usually a little bit of humanness and a little bit of...
remorse most of the time.
But there was nothing.
He didn't think anything he did was wrong,
which was hard to understand.
♪♪
[♪ somber music playing]
[narrator] Investigators finally know the grisly truth
and are burdened with informing his loved ones.
[Moore] I mean, parents aren't supposed to bury their kids,
let alone in this fashion.
So, to see them and to see their reaction was kind of heartbreaking.
♪ It all starts somewhere ♪
♪ The innocence and fantasies ♪
My phone immediately started blowing up.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, everywhere.
And I just knew. Even before I opened my phone, I just knew.
♪ And it all goes nowhere ♪
[Michelle] I cannot even encapsulate how painful
that moment was for me then.
A pain that I've never, ever experienced before.
♪ Broken-hearted dreams ♪
♪ You were my friend ♪
♪ You were my treasure ♪
[narrator] The social media world now turns
from searching for Kevin to mourning him.
And when Kevin's personal idol hears about the tragedy,
he reaches out to help.
I'm so devastated for the Bacon family.
Um...
[sighs] I don't know.
Here is sweet Kevin, and I want you guys
to, um, be able to link to his GoFundMe.
So, if you guys wanna swipe up.
Kevin, I love you.
[LeRae] He had a really beautiful, beautiful service.
And honestly, a lot of that, thanks to Jeffree Star,
and all of the followers, 'cause they donated the 20K.
♪ I bet it's so nice up in Heaven since you arrived ♪
It was just so good to see, you know,
so many people out to just make sure he was done right.
♪ 'Cause here on Earth, everything's different ♪
[♪ somber music playing]
[Scott Koerner] I'm Scott Koerner, the elected prosecutor
of Shiawassee County.
Latunski's initial defense counsel filed
what's called the notice of insanity defense,
which means that if he was found insane,
he would not be responsible for the crime.
[narrator] That leads to two and a half years of legal motions,
competency evaluations, and psychiatric hospitalizations.
[Koerner] He was aware of what he was doing.
We had internet searches
that were taking place the night before
about a certain type of knife.
We have receipts from the Home Depot
where Latunski went and purchased that knife
just prior to the murder, the night before.
And then, we had his confession.
So, we felt confident there was a lot of evidence.
[♪ dramatic music playing]
As to premeditated murder, Mr. Latunski,
it is the sentence of this court
that you serve out the remainder of your life
in the Michigan Department of Corrections,
without the possibility of parole.
♪ Deep down, you go ♪
[Pamela Bacon] But it don't bring Kevin back,
but at least now, we got some type of closure.
♪ And though you wonder ♪
[Michelle] Kevin was murdered in someone's basement
by a person that he trusted.
He was missing this aspect that he wanted of, like, a long-term connection,
and I think he didn't know what could happen.
♪ And the ghosts are gone ♪
[narrator] While Latunski's conviction is a small comfort to Kevin's family,
law enforcement believes that the screenshots he took
led them to a budding serial killer.
To them, Kevin is a hero.
Kevin probably saved a lot of lives.
[Moore] Had Kevin not taken those screenshots,
we don't know how quickly Mark would have been identified
as a person of interest.
And it is very likely that Kevin's body may never have been found.
[Dirkse] It cost him his life,
but we got a true predator off the streets
and put in prison in Latunski,
all thanks to Kevin.
♪♪
[LeRae] He's kind of always in the back of my head,
like, almost to make sure that I'm still kind of a good person.
I just wanna make sure that I do him proud up there.
♪ I don't know where my head is lately ♪
♪ Have I lost my mind? ♪
♪♪
[exhale]
♪ But I know that I have a secret ♪
♪ And it's only mine ♪
♪♪
♪ And the only way to find me ♪
♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪