One of Lansing's most shocking cases.
Rose Larner was born on August 19, 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Rose was a very ordinary kid but when she was 4 her parents decided to separate. Young Rose was also diagnosed as hyperactive.
Besides all the family problems Rose did pretty well in school, she had good grades, great friends and was a regular teenager overall. Many called her a 'vampire'. Because she would stay up at night, roaming around the streets with friends.
Rose had many friends. But there was one boy she was close with in particular. A boy by the name of Billy Brown. They were friends since 5th grade and would always hangout together.
Her family said she was going through her 'angry teenage years'. Rose would get into fights a lot, almost with everyone. So her mother one day, took her to Rivendell psychiatric hospital to get some help for Rose.
At first Rose was upset but after 3 months she really liked it there. She made new friends, had therapy. Mostly she liked the individual attention she received from the staff and doctors there. She didn't want to leave.
After she left the hospital her mother said that her attitude had gotten worse because she wanted to go back to the psychiatric hospital.
One day, Rose was hanging out with her friend Bailey. They saw a man in the nearby tennis court, watching them. At one point he approached them and rose and the man hit it right off. They were talking and Bailey felt like a third wheel so she left them there and went home.
Later that night Rose showed up at Bailey's house and told her that the man had apparently sexually assaulted her. They immediately filed a complaint and he was arrested but only spent a month in jail.
But Rose moved on with her life regardless. At the age of 16 she dropped out of high school but got her GED when she was 17. Around that summer she met a local rapper by the name of John Kehoe. And she became obsessed with this guy, to her he was almost like a God.
Rose began to date him and Rose, John and Billy would all hangout together very often. At one point John even moved in with Rose and her brothers and mom. But one day Rose's mom walked into her room and found guns and cash just lying around her room. She found out that this John guy was actually a drug dealer. So she kicked him out of the house.
After this incident John completely started to ignore her. And the more he ignored her, the more she wanted to get his attention. They got into many arguments and he even threatened to kill her.
December 6th, 1993 Rose got home from her night shift around 11:30. Her brother, who was sleeping on the couch at that time, stated that she called a friend and got into a small argument with them. After that she told her brother that she loved him and she headed out. Around 1:30 she went to convenience the store where her mother worked, and her mother could tell that something was off. But Rose reassured and said that she was just going to hangout with some friends.
Next morning, Rose still wasn't home yet. Her mothers gut knew that something was wrong so she called the local detective. A day had gone by and they still couldn't find her.
Her mother found out that Billy Brown wasn't home either, so she assumed that they were probably hanging out together. But the next day Billy called her and told her that he had no idea where Rose was.
The police found nothing after searching for her all over the area, so they asked help from the community. Soon they started getting many tips. But over a hundred of them had mentioned only 2 names. Billy Brown and John Kehoe.
Police brought Billy for investigation. He said he knew nothing about Rose. They knew he was lying but had nothing against him.
The police had many search parties. They searched every corner of the town. Weeks turned into months, months tuned into years but there was no sign of Rose Larner.
Finally, in 1996, Billy Brown had a confession to make. Billy told the police that, on the night that Rose had disappeared, the 3 of them, Rose Billy and John, were together. He said that Rose had called him to hangout. So John picked Rose and Billy in his truck and Rose and John had sex while Billy just sat there.
After driving around for a while, John stopped the car and went to a store to get some things. According to Billy, he later learned that John had bought a filet knife, a hatchet, some trash bags and 2 bottles of charcoal lighter fluid.
Then they drove to John's grandparent's house. They took some drugs and Billy said that John and Rose had sex again. Afterwards all three of them decided to take a shower together.
After the shower John stepped out of the bathroom for a second while Billy and Rose were still there. John came back with a cord and all of a sudden, started to slit Rose's throat with it. Billy asked him why he was killing her and John told him that she needed to go.
Minutes later when Rose was completely dead, John put her in the bathtub and started to slowly cut her body parts. Then he proceeded to put her body parts in the basement fireplace and burned them.
They cleaned up the place and went to Billy's family house where they burned Rose's remaining body parts for nearly 10 hours. Billy stated that at one point he saw John take a piece of burned flesh, put it on a bread and he ate it with mustard. John said it was for the ‘experience’.
They filled garbage bags with Rose's ashes and spread them along the roadsides of Big Rapids, Michigan. Then they went to John’s brother, Tim's house who said he would take care of everything. So, this was Billy's testimony. Later police also found a drop of blood in Johns grandparent's bathroom. And indeed it was Rose's blood.
When John and Tim found out that the police were looking for them, they ran to Mexico. But shortly after were arrested by the Mexico police.
During Johns trial Billy testified against John in exchange for a year in prison for being an accessory after murder. John was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Though John claimed that he is the innocent one and that Billy did everything and blamed him.
Even to this day, John claims to be innocent.
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