Police: Elderly Michigan Man Murdered, Wife Tied Up by Suspects Posing as Utility Company Workers

An elderly Michigan man was murdered and his wife was tied up in their home after letting in a pair of men posing as utility company employees, police said.

The 72-year-old man was killed just before noon on Friday in the 3700 block of Newcastle Drive in Rochester Hills, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release:

Deputies responded to the home after receiving a 911 call from the wife, who they found bound and duct taped — and fearing that her husband had been abducted. 

Upon searching the basement of the house, cops found his body — which was so “gruesome” that investigators have not yet determined if he was bludgeoned or shot to death.

Ring doorbell footage obtained by the sheriff’s office — which they said they got “no thanks to Ring” — shows a man wearing a neon work vest and N95 mask saying, “We’re DTE, we’re trying to look for gas leaks.”

The man who spoke then flipped over a clipboard to show the camera a DTE Energy-branded paper that looked as though it was from the Detroit-based energy company. 

The woman, also 72, told deputies the two male suspects came to their home the night before, but were not let in. When they returned on Friday, police said the couple admitted them into the house and the husband walked them downstairs, “ostensibly to look for the leak.”

It is not immediately clear when exactly the woman was tied and duct taped, but she called police after police said she “did not see her husband come up from the basement with the men and assumed he had been kidnapped.”

The suspects were gone when police arrived.

Neither victim’s name has been released, pending notification of other family members. 

Detectives have yet to determine if anything was stolen from the home.

“We are looking for the public’s help – anyone who may have seen something, anything,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said, adding that people should be wary of letting any unexpected visitors who look like workers into their homes.

The sheriff’s office also encouraged the public to reach out with any information as to the suspects’ identities or whereabouts.