Teens Decapitate Sex Offender in "Thrill Kill"

By Pamela Mortimer

Jean-Pierre Orlewicz, 17, and Alexander James Letkemann, 18, entered not guilty pleas Monday in Romulus District Court for on one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and mutilation of a corpse in the death of Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, 26.

Orlewicz and Letkemann had been charged in the brutal death and decapitation of a registered sex offender whose headless body was left to burn in a subdivision. Prosecutors are calling the violent act a "thrill kill."

"A crime like this surprises us all," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a press conference. "Any time anyone kills just because they want to — and that's what the evidence seems to suggest here — is bone-chilling. Why anybody would want to do that, especially being 17 years old, it makes us think and ask a lot of questions about our society."

Prosecutors allege that the two teens lured Sorensen to the Canton Township home of Orlewicz's grandfather. This was only one factor in determining that the murder had been premeditated.

"They lured him in the garage where they prepared a space to kill him," Worthy said.

The teens had a tarp spread out to cover the garage floor. Sorenson was stabbed multiple times in the back, his head was sawed off, and his body was wrapped in the tarp, authorities said.

After the murder, the teens allegedly used a blowtorch on Sorensen’s hands and feet in an attempt to remove his fingerprints, officials said.

Sorensen’s torso was dumped in a Northville Township cul-de-sac where it was set on fire with gasoline. A utility crew discovered the body the next morning, police said.

Sorensen’s head, found on Saturday, was dumped in the Rouge River near the border between Dearborn Heights and Detroit.

"They made plans on how they were to clean up the blood," Worthy said. "They made plans on how they were going to dispose of the body. No matter how malicious we all think it may be, it was very thought out and very methodical."

"I want to put a face to these people," Sorensen's father, Jim, told MyFOXDetroit on Sunday. "And if it’s a friend I want to know who would call themselves friend and do this to my son."

Sorensen had been convicted of the criminal sexual abuse of a teen between the age of 13 and 17 in Tazewell County, Ill., according to Michigan's sex offender registry. Worthy stated that Sorensen’s troubled past had nothing to do with the murder.