Number 9 Chad Reed
53-year-old Michigan landlord Chad Reed was accused of murdering his two tenants,
in October of 2020. Joseph Soule and his girlfriend Jaclyn Lepird, both in their early 30s,
had rented an upstairs room at Reed’s Battle Creek home. It was reported that Reed and his tenants
didn’t get along. They fought about money and the landlord had also repeatedly confronted the couple
about their partying which kept him up at night. After killing Soule and Lepird, Reed stashed their
bodies in the back of his truck for about a week. Once the couple was reported missing, the police
came to his home but found no evidence of foul play. Reed would eventually surrender to the
authorities and confess to the double homicide. This occurred at roughly the same time as the
police had received a tip, from a source who knew Reed, claiming that the tenants had been killed.
The landlord stated that he’d shot Soule after he pulled a knife on him during an argument.
He opened fire on Lepird as she attempted to run away from the house. Reed then strangled,
stabbed and beat her to death with a metal pipe. A few days after his arrest, a fire broke out at
the home, destroying most of the victims’ possessions. It’s unclear what connection,
if any, the landlord had had with the blaze. Number 8 Lorenzo Simon
In April of 2014, landlord Lorenzo Simon stabbed his tenant in the neck when he complained of
the handy work he was forced to do around his apartment in Birmingham, England. 34-year-old
Simon had reportedly accepted Michael Spalding as a tenant in exchange for his handyman skills.
By multiple accounts, Spalding was treated horrendously by Simon, in what the authorities
described as “slave labor”. He was given only one meal per day and forced to work on the apartment
from the early hours of the morning until past midnight. The handyman wasn’t allowed to go out
unless his landlord gave him permission. Spalding eventually complained about the inhumane treatment
and an argument erupted with Simon. Neighbours heard him saying he was tired and hungry,
to which the landlord responded aggressively. Investigators later determined that he’d also
accused Spalding of damaging his Volkswagen Passat in a crash. As the fight escalated, Simon fatally
stabbed his tenant. He used a hacksaw to dismember his body, which he placed into two suitcases
and then dumped in the Birmingham Canal. In May of 2014, the suitcases were recovered from the water,
one containing Spalding’s torso and the other his head, limbs and the tools used in
the dismemberment. The police traced the killing back to Simon, who denied any wrongdoing. However,
testimonies from neighbours, with reports of a bonfire in the garden and the subsequent discovery
of a humerus bone fragment inside a charred drum, were enough to secure an arrest. Simon would later
confess to his crime and was jailed for 19 years. Number 7 Jerry David Thompson
In July of 2020, a tenant decapitated his landlord with a samurai sword following a rent dispute.
64-year-old Victor King, a professional bridge player, was attacked at his Connecticut home
by tenant Jerry David Thompson. A day earlier, King had reported 42-year-old Thompson to the
police for waving the sword at him over a rent dispute. The authorities were alerted once more,
when King’s friends hadn’t heard from him. Officers went to the house, in Hartford,
and found his lifeless body on the kitchen floor. He’d been slashed, beheaded and then
partially covered with a sheet. A manhunt ensued and the police arrested Thompson. He told the
authorities that all they needed was a piece of paper from the glove compartment of his jeep.
According to the paperwork, Thompson, who had prior convictions for assault and robbery,
saw himself as a sovereign citizen and hence not subject to the law. The suspected murderer refused
to provide any details about the atrocious killing and was held on a $2 million bail.
Number 6 Patrick Maher In February of 2021, a Maine tenant
fatally stabbed his landlords in what was regarded by the authorities as an unprovoked attack.
24-year-old Patrick Maher had been renting a room from Troy and Dulsie Varney. In the days leading
up to the double homicide, a relative of the couple claimed that Dulsie had become afraid of
the tenant. One of Maher’s family members reported that, in recent weeks, he’d been struggling with
depression over lockdown restrictions. He ambushed his landlords with a knife and started stabbing
them repeatedly. The police responded to a home invasion call at the couple’s Turner property,
at around 1:30 am. Even though he’d been severely wounded, it was reported that Troy
had put up a fight and managed to hold on to Maher until the officers arrived at the scene.
Both Troy and Dulsie were later pronounced dead at a hospital, in Lewiston. The tenant was arrested
and charged with 2 counts of murder. Number 5 Daniel Walsh
In 2020, a tenant from Derbyshire, England, was found guilty of murdering his landlord and then
feeding parts of his body to badgers. In June of that year, 71-year-old Graham Snell had gone
to a police station to complain that his tenant, 30-year-old Daniel Walsh, had been stealing money
from his bank account. The following morning an officer arrived at the man’s property but there
was no answer and the calls to his cellphone went straight to voicemail. Walsh subsequently visited
a DIY store where he purchased 10 garbage bags and two saws, which he used to dispose of the body.
In the following days, Walsh made several trips to casinos, arcades and massage parlors with the
money he was able to obtain from the elderly man’s account, after his death. When the police examined
the area, in early July, they found pieces of Snell’s body buried in the woods nearby. Many
of the remains had been pushed down a badger den and the animals had reportedly nibbled on them.
Following Walsh’s arrest, it took a jury just over an hour to unanimously find him guilty of
murdering the elderly landlord. Number 4 Michael Dudley
In June of 2020, Seattle landlord Michael Dudley
was charged with two counts of murder in the second degree for the killing of his tenants
Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner. It’s believed that 35-year-old Lewis and Wenner, aged 27,
were murdered following a dispute over rent. Neighbors called 911 and reported hearing gunfire.
According to one witness, a man had yelled out “Please don’t do this, just let me leave!” before
the shots were heard. There was no response at the residence when the police arrived. When
they obtained a search warrant, officers found bullet holes and blood inside one of the rooms.
Dudley dismembered the bodies and disposed of the remains in bags throughout various bodies
of water. Several days after the police had been called to the property, a suitcase was found
on a West Seattle beach by TikTok users. They’d opened it, believing it held valuables, but were
immediately overcome by the smell. They called the police and posted the footage of the bodies being
found, which subsequently became viral. Based on the analysis of a forensic anthropologist,
Dudley may have had accomplices. The cuts on the victims’ bodies were “disorganized” and executed
in different manners, with various devices. Number 3 Scott Edmund Pettigrew
On June the 14th of 2016, Mimie Anita Cowen was found floating face-down in the swimming pool of
her home, in Palm Springs, California. A few days earlier, the 65-year-old woman had gone
to the police to ask for a restraining order against her tenant Scott Edmund
Pettigrew. She’d agreed to let him a room, back in February, and his behavior gradually became
more erratic in the months that followed. He’d poured water over the woman’s computer, stolen
her food and allowed his dogs to defecate in the house. He’d only paid one month’s rent and would
threaten the landlady whenever she’d question him about the money. Cowen told the police that she
lived in constant fear of what Pettigrew would do next. In spite of the woman’s complaints,
the court didn’t evict Pettigrew and gave him a 5-yard restraining order. Less than a week later,
he killed Cowen. When the police arrived to find Cowen unresponsive in the pool,
they also found 50-year-old Pettigrew inside the house, lying naked on his bed. His body
was covered in scratches. The police found a digital audio recorder under the kitchen table.
In the audio file, which was about 1 minute long, a woman was heard shouting over the sounds
of an altercation. Investigators believe that the voice was Cowen’s, screaming at her attacker to
go away and leave her alone. Pettigrew was charged with murder along with elder abuse
and the violation of a protective order. Today's topic was requested by Ritean Dan,
Warpath and Javon Knight. If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about, subscribe & let
us know in the comments section below Number 2 Alex Garces
In January of 2020, a landlord from Queens, New York, was killed by his tenant as he tried to
collect $200 in unpaid rent. While talking on the phone with his wife, 71-year-old Edgar Moncayo
arrived at the property he owned in the Corona neighborhood. His tenant, 22-year-old Alex Garces,
answered the front door and an altercation ensued as Moncayo tried to enter the property. The fight
was captured by a doorbell camera. Garces pushed the elderly man down the flight of stairs leading
up to the front door. Moncayo landed on his back and sustained a devastating injury as
his head snapped into the concrete. He was taken to Elmhurst Hospital and put on life support but
was eventually pronounced dead. In the incident’s aftermath, Garces was charged with manslaughter.
Number 1 Li Family
In 2017, a horrific quadruple homicide occurred in Qingdao, one of China’s most modern cities.
40-year-old Li Jizhong, his wife and his parents lived in a rented apartment on the 5th floor of
a residential building. The apartment’s owner, the Ji family, lived upstairs, on the 6th floor.
After the landlord had come to the apartment to ask for the overdue rent, Li planned to kidnap
and rob the Ji family. He convinced his wife and parents to join him. They first lured the landlord
and head of the Ji family, under the pretense that the TV was broken. Afterwards, they tricked
his wife by pretending they were going to sign a new contract. Next they lured the couple’s adult
children. All members of the Ji family were bound and suffocated. The Li family then robbed their
flat before fleeing to Beijing, on November the 15th. All were apprehended the following day. They
pled guilty and were sentenced to death. Thanks for watching! What’s your worst
tenant/landlord experience? Let us know in the comments section below!