Welcome to Murder in the Mitten, a true crime podcast that dives deep into Michigan's darkest mysteries. Each season, we unravel one unforgettable case, using real core audio and rawn terrogations to bring you inside the investigation. This is Murder in the Mitten, Michigan's most chilling stories, told one case at a time. This is Season one, The Murder of Lyle Copenkowski. Episode one, atl Attempt to Locate. Our first case covers the murder of lylek Copenkaski and Potaski, Michigan.
Pataski is located in the northern Lower Peninsula, about four hours or two hundred and seventy miles north of Detroit. It is the most northern county in the Lower Peninsula and the county seat of Emmett County. Potaski was incorporated as a village in eighteen seventy nine and a city in eighteen ninety five. Potaski is a population of about
fifty eight hundred people. It's a very popular resort town, and the population almost doubles in the summer due to the amount of summer homes and cottages in the area. Potaski is located right on Lake Michigan, and you're never more than a few minutes from a lake, as there are also several inland lakes. While the downtown area and areas close to the lake are the most popular with the out of towners, the outskirts of Emmett County are
very rural with hundreds of acres of farmland. Lyle Copenkaski was born on July twenty second, nineteen fifty four, to George and Luella Copenkawski, who was born and raised in Potaski and attended the local schools. He graduated from Pataski High School in nineteen seventy two. Lyle had one older brother named Carl. Carl was three years older than Lyle and they were very close. Carol Duncle was born on August twenty sixth, nineteen fifty three. Carol was also born
and raised in Pataski. She had three brothers and was the only girl. She was described as being a tomboy and wasn't afraid to get dirty and rough house with her brothers. Carol and her brothers were friends with Lyle and Carl growing up, as the family's farms were next door to each other. Carol and Lyle started dating while in high school. They wanted to get married in the summer of nineteen seventy three, but Lyle's dad wanted them to wait until Lyle's brother Carl was home from the service.
How manyngers would have been marriage that um.
Seventy They got married September twenty ninth to seventy three.
Oh wow, we'll spend a while because we were gonna get married in July, and I was still in the service, and then said, no, you got getting married until.
Till we brobably gets home.
So then, so I served a fourteenth clow September July September now fourteenth and they got married to twenty nine.
Okay.
Carol was hard working and almost always had three to four jobs at a time. Lyle worked as a heavy equipment operator, digging for sewer and waterlines. Lyele and Carol didn't have any children, but it appeared that Lyle wanted kids at one point, but Carol never wanted any. Lyle and Carol traveled a lot together. They would take regular trips to Florida and also vacationed in the Ozarks. Carol and Lyle were also avid Nascar fans and would travel
to attend multiple races every year. Carol enjoyed going to yard sales and finding things to resell at her own yard sales and an eBay. She was also known to be dumpster diving to search for items to sell.
And I know that.
She's been dumpster diving for the last I'm gonna say a year or more.
Dumpster diving.
Yeah, Well, she goes to all the dumpsters in town and she knows.
The better ones.
And it was always funny what she'd ended up finding in the dumpster and bringing home that she could take to the yard veil.
And sell or.
On October second, twenty twelve, Carol got home from work between nine and nine thirty pm. There were messages from Warren Lyle's boss dating Lyle hadn't shown up for work that day.
Our phone a couple of times. I tried his home phone and then fine, later in the day I had to go to Pataski, so I left him a message on its home phone, Lyle, I'll come over to the house make sure nothing has happened to you guys or something, because he's just always at work, you know. And so I drove over to the house and ringing the Doorbow
looked in the garage. Both cars were gone, and so I figured, well, it's none of my business, you know, seeing maybe something he quit me or something I didn't know, you know.
Carol called her mom, Rose duncle, and then Carl. Lyle's brother. Carl remembered seeing Lyle's truck parked on the side at Keble Road on his way home from work that day. Carl went to where Lyle's truck was still parked on the side of the road and looked through the truck. Well, I don't have the actual nine to one one recording, I do have the dispatch notes from the call. Carl called nine at nine forty five pm. He reported that
his fifty eight year old brother, Lyle was missing. He told dispatch that Lyle had been depressed lately, but he never talked about suicide or talked about ending his life in any way. Officers arrived a few minutes later. They attempted to call Lyle's phone. The phone rang before eventually going to voicemail, which meant the phone wasn't turned off as it was still ringing. Officers left a message for Lyle to call into nine one one and that they
were concerned about him. Officers called Verizon for a ping on Lyle's phone. The phone was managed by Verizon but owned by a different company. The company could give a rough estimate of location, but not live data. Officers also called local hospitals to see if Lyle had been admitted or taken to the hospital, but he wasn't at any of the hospitals. Lyle and Carrol had a second home in a neighboring town called the Lanson, which was about
twenty five minutes away from their Pataskey home. Officers checked this home as Lyle liked to frequent there, but he wasn't there either. Officers from the Michigan State Police, Emmitt County Sheriff's Office, and Patasky Department of Public Safety assisted in the search for Lyle. Carl told officers that no one had any reason to be upset with Lyle. He had his core group of five friends and didn't spend time with many different people.
A couple of weeks ago, I called him, you know, and he's fine. I know he since the last winter in the early spring before he went to work, you know, he was having depression problems and and drinking. Okay, and I didn't know he was taking so many pills, like Carol said, for depression. He's not one to say, did you take me in? You're not going to do that. He's gonna chop it out. He'll he'll take care of it, he'll work it out. Hold your brother, he don't fifty one,
he must be fifty eight, okay, fifty eight? And those who lived, well, he lives with Carol boy any kids, no, no Children'm sure okay? And he works where he works for Montai Development, puts underground sword water.
In and okay. So is he an equipment operator general laborer?
He's equipment operator.
So he works to bacco and.
Loader and stuff. Who supplies sand and pipe and all that stuff.
If you had to characterize your relationship with your brother, I mean, are your best friends? Are you just brothers? I mean because some brothers are you know, thicker and thieves and other guys just you know you see each other.
You wait there, best friends?
Okay?
Other than yourself? Who else would your brother be best? Friendly?
Well, Terry that took the carolynne her boyfriend. They lived together as Paul and I can't tell you his last name at that terrible what does he do for a living. Uh, he's started a heavy equipment operator too. He's been working down state. Uh, not much work to and Terry, she works for the eye doctor here and do somewhere the group. He retired at least so then she went to work with somebody on.
The bike face And they're close Terry and Paul.
Yeah. Yeah, and they live up by top and to be they're real close. M he's real good friends with a lot of people. But in the past couple of years that you know it kind of they have the house up in a Lance and so that's his kids and get away. I guess, you know. He gets out of work, Pready Knights, comes home, takes shower, it beat beat up till Lansing. Then that's on the porch. Watch people go by. I mean people stop all the time and talk to him.
Uh h h.
Dave Dave Bros. Works at Krings.
He lives up there.
He stops in. Uh. They're just numerous people that stop and he's he's just a likable guy. He's kind of ub noxious sometimes as far as the way yeah plays himself, but everybody knows him. It's a good Joe. We go to races, every August. We did that for probably close to fifteen years. We got a click of people down there that it's just like a home coming down there. Keeping from Chicago felt of Chicago, Ohio. One of the guys, Pat Welch, I got his number Kroll gave.
You will be.
Following him right away this morning, and Paddle will probably be up because I will call him all the time. He used to be in a nastarpool all the time. Dick Zinski, a good friend and buddy of his too, is Carol's uncle Wally, and he passed away like three weeks ago, and I know that took a toll on him. But you know what, Wally, he has had problems for the past years, and you know he was pupping in a kind of you don't even get home, and you know if he had a stroke or what. They don't didn't really.
Do you know the address of the house in the l answer?
No, I do not.
Oh, I know it's uh two houses south of uh Young's bait Chop.
Okay, so right on the main drag and then and two houses south. And he owns a second home.
Yep, turquoise shutters and stuff on it. And they like that he likes to sit up there and people stop and they got there. They you know, they have no children. So he's got a lot of Nascar stuff. And Carol collects dolls and all kinds of stuff and antiques, and that's what they kind of do is and you know kind.
Emmett County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Rodwell spoke with Carroll to get more information about Lyle. Carrol stated Lyle was seeing a doctor every six months for depression and was prescribed ambient to help him sleep. Lyle had never attempted suicide before and had never been hospitalized for depression. Sergeant Rodwell asked about Lyle's access to firearms. Carol stated that she had a twenty two handgun for shooting squirrels and chipmunks.
She also had a small handgun that they had won at a Federation dinner, but never bought ammunition for it. Here's Carol explaining what happened leading up to Kyle's disappearance.
The last time you saw him was what that morning? Was that yesterday? Yeah? Okay? And that would have been about what time he left her out? Five five thirty five five thirty okay?
And did he say where he was going to work. Okay, all right, Now you mentioned something about making his lunch and pulling his car out.
Is that something that you normally do?
You know once in a while.
I do?
But oh, okay, Like I said, he wasn't in a shape to go to begin with, and to pull his truck out. I mean, he's only like this far from the wood pile. I might just want to make sure. God, I'm okay, yes, okay, all right.
And when you say he wasn't the shape to what do you mean by that?
His speech still was not good?
Okay, talk to me about that. What do you what do you mean?
It was like, I don't know, he really still knew exactly what he was saying and stuff I don't know. I just said, I'm feeling that. I don't even know how to explain it.
So where are the things that you was saying?
It's just the way he said it, you have it's not really like you talk when you're drunk or kind of. I don't know, I don't know how to explain it.
So he's thoroughly talking different. Okay, And are there anything is there anything that he said that was odd? I mean, I need to know the old show.
What I can't remember?
Okay?
Are they just saying he was going to work out? And if the whole that was really sad? But it's just the weight's set.
Well what what what did you make him for lunch?
He had a meat most sandwich, some macaroni salad, a brownie, a cookie.
And he made that for him. Yeah, okay, and excuse me. He's in the car and he leaves. Do you see what direction he goes? I didn't know.
I didn't even look.
Okay, and he leaves around five thirty.
That's about what it was, all right.
Now, Has he had or if he noticed any drug habits lately as far as I mean seeking drugs and illegal drugs anything like that at all.
No, we just weren't into the drugs. I mean, neither of us do I have done?
Okay? All right, so you haven't. You haven't noticed anything odd lately? No? Okay? And as far as a gambler, was he a gambler? Gable? Okay? So he leaves, and what do you do?
I go way back down for a while until I get up and you know, do my shower, get my hair done, and then I to a Lanson took computer place.
Okay, frond there and.
Then I came back and they got an adjustment from the camera practor I went to VC Pizza, I went to the computer store, and I don't remember. I think that was after to be Ce Pizza, before I went to the market basket.
I think.
I'm not sure. In the order I did this, I had to read the computer place after the BC.
And he had a day off. Is that character? Or did you work that day yesterday? No?
I worked out two places yesterday.
Oh that's right, okay, and he worked. Weren't you working on them?
You told me Sea Pizza? And then I go to the corner grocer?
And what time are you done with the corner grocer?
We close it nine? So I was out of there probably by nine thirty, a quarter after nine, because I got one by nine thirty. I call it carol.
Okay, now did you Oh? I know, I'm sorry. So what did you learn that he hadn't gone to work at that point? Yeah? Okay, So what what I mean? Time? Did you get a phone call? What's his boss?
I gn't worn there was when I got home after corner grocer? Is when they were seeing the message like like and that's when I listened to the message and it was worn.
Oh I'm sorry again. What time was that they came home from a corner?
I want to say I was home by nine thirty, quarter after night, going to that quarter after nine, between quarter after nine and nine thirty, probably twenty.
After okay, and then so you know, and then do you call you? Who's the first person?
Do you call mom? Mom? Who's mom?
Mine? She's the one that lives right next door in to gaul Askar, she had seen Lyle. Okay, she said no, So then I call Carl.
Okay.
Well, Carl and Carol were speaking to investigators. Officers continued to search the area. Keeble Road and the surrounding areas were very rule. It was all farmland, no street lights. It was also ten pm and very dark. Officers checked the roadways and fields using their spotlights, and police as well as local fire departments, tried to get as many
flashlights as they could for the search party. Backet where Lyle's truck was parked, Sergeant Rodwell searched the truck for any clues as to what may have happened to Lyle. No weapons were found in the truck. It was full of construction type items such as a large toolbox, jackets, hats, safety gear, and hard hats. Sergeant Rodwell saw that the key was in the ignition and the truck started up with no problem. There was no other indication that Lyle's
truck had broken down. There was a lunch pail in front of the center counsile with a lunch packed inside. A coffee cup was also in the cup holder and was full of coffee. Sergeant Radwell also noticed that the driver's seat was moved almost all the way to the front, deafinitely ate, not a position where a man of lyles size and stature would sit. There were no signs of blood or body fluid, or any sign of a struggle whatsoever. Finally,
at twelve thirty two am, Lyles's body was found. Lyles found a short distance in front of the truck, lying in a ditch in the tall grass. Lyle's body was cold to the touch and he was covered in insects. He was shot four times in the back and one time in the temple.
Do you do you know what it is transpired at the scene? Nope, okay, you don't know that. We had the crime lab come up and he has multiple gunshots. Okaying, no, I'm not kidding.
This is Murder in the Mitten five Holly production, and I'm your host.
Kat.
Join us next time for season one, Episode two, The investigation