Did Battle Creek Landlord Kill His Tenants?

I have heard of landlord and tenant disputes, but murder?

Before I became a homeowner, I rented a few apartments and never had any landlord issues. I rented a trailer and had a landlord that lived on the neighboring property who was a great landlord and neighbor.

I've never had any landlord problems but I have heard of all kinds of things from evictions, landlord and tenants have relationships behind spouses' backs, drug dealing, fist fights and all sorts of issues, but had never heard of a landlord murdering their tenant before, until today.

According to WOOD, a 53-year-old landlord in Battle Creek, Michigan, by the name of Chad Reed confessed to the killing of 34-year-old Joseph Soule and 31-year-old Jaclyn Lepird who were both his tenants.

Soule and Lepird had been missing according to family members who reached out to Battle Creek Police Department. The two were last seen October 7 but family didn't contact police until October 12.

Police began an investigation that led them to finding the couples bodies Thursday, October 15.

This bizarre story has Soule and Lepird living up stairs at a house on Post Avenue where their landlord Reed lived downstairs.

From all the police info I have read the landlord and the couple did not get along and have had an ongoing dispute for quite some time. From arguments about rent to noise you name it.

Reed claimed that Soule pulled a knife out on him so he responded by shooting Soule and then shot Leprid as she was trying to runaway from the altercation. Reed didn't kill Leprid with the shot so he beat her and choked her to death in the backyard.

It surprises me that a dispute between a landlord and their tenants can go this far. All the landlord would have had to do is evict the couple, after all it was his house to begin with.

My buddy owns a few rentals and when he has an issue, he takes it through the court system and then shows up with the sheriff and problem is solved.

Well after Reed killed the couple, he wrapped their bodies up, loaded them into a truck and at first stashed them in the garage but later moved the vehicle to an abandoned home and stored the bodies in the garage at that location.

Reed turned himself in and since has been in the Calhoun County jail on charges of two counts of open murder.