A missing persons investigation on Detroit’s southwest side led officers to the basement of a home on South Edsel Street, where three men were found dead on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Police were near Fort Street just before 1 p.m. local time, responding to a missing persons report in the area of the 3100 block of South Edsel Street, when the case changed direction. Detroit Police Commander Rebecca McKay said officers had made contact with the caller connected to that report when another man approached them and said he had been assaulted inside a nearby home on Edsel Street. He also told officers there were bodies inside the house.
Officers entered the residence and located three adult men in the basement who had apparently been brutally assaulted. “Police went into the home and found three individuals, adult males, in the basement of the location who had apparently been brutally assaulted,” McKay said during a broadcast aired by WXYZ. By 3 p.m., the bodies had not been fully examined. “They are deceased. We are currently working through all of the evidence, and this case is very preliminary at this point,” she said. Investigators did not yet know how long the men had been in the basement or whether the deaths were related to the missing persons report.
Initial reports indicated the victims appeared to be about age 50 or older, according to The Detroit News.
On Thursday, police identified the men as 65-year-old Mark Barnett, 66-year-old Norman Hamlin and 72-year-old William Barrett. Their ages match the figures later released by investigators: 72, 66 and 65. Hamlin, 66, was the primary resident and owner of the home. Family members told CBS News Detroit that Barnett and Hamlin had served together in the U.S. Marine Corps, and that Hamlin was a military veteran. One of the three men found in the basement was the individual referenced in the missing persons report and had not been seen since Monday.
Detroit Police First Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald described the condition of the scene. “When units finally got inside, the minute you opened the door you can see the blood, it’s just a horrific scene,” Fitzgerald said. “It was a brutal scene inside, just awful. Not to go into too much detail on it, but, we believe at this point they all met the fate of blunt force trauma. There were some stab wounds on a couple of them.”
Police said the three men were beaten to death with blunt force trauma, and that a couple of them had stab wounds. Fitzgerald said the violence occurred sometime Tuesday afternoon into early Wednesday morning. The men were found in the basement covered in old, dirty clothing, with one covered in a carpet. Sources told WXYZ that the remains were wrapped in towels and carpeting and that there was blood everywhere inside the home.
The man who approached officers reported that he had been attacked in the house the day before and struck in the head with a hammer, Fitzgerald said.
Investigators are searching for a person of interest described as a lighter-skinned Black male, about 31 to 32 years old, between 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-7, with dreadlocks. Police said it is unclear what the relationship is between the person of interest and the victims. In a later update, Detroit police said a person of interest is in custody in connection with the triple homicide investigation in the southwest home. No suspects have been formally named, and no motive has been publicly revealed.
Neighbors who spoke to FOX 2 described the residence as a “known drug house.” Fitzgerald addressed that claim, saying, “There’s some speculation that I don’t like to get into too much, that possibly some drugs were used in the location,” and added that nothing in that regard was found. He also said the homeowner “was free to open to his house to a lot of folks who would come and go.”
“Shocked,” one neighbor said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. Tips can be submitted anonymously.
