‘Horrific scene’: Three elderly men found bludgeoned to death and wrapped up in Detroit basement

Michigan police said one person has been arrested in connection with the gruesome discovery of the remains of three elderly men in the basement of a Detroit home.

Police were called to the home on Edsel St. Wednesday at about 1 p.m. on a report of a missing person, when they were approached by a man who said he had been attacked at a nearby home.

‘They were left in a basement area covered in old, dirty clothing, and one person was covered in a carpet.’

When they went inside the home on Edsel, they found the three bodies in the basement.

“When units finally got inside, the minute you opened the door, you can see the blood, it’s just a horrific scene,” said First Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald.

“Not to go into too much detail on it, but we believe at this point they all met the fate of blunt-force trauma. There were some stab wounds on a couple of them,” he added. “They were left in a basement area covered in old, dirty clothing, and one person was covered in a carpet.”

The family of one of the victims identified him as Norman Hamlin, a 66-year-old military veteran. The other two victims were identified as 65-year-old Mark Barnett and 72-year-old William Barrett.

Neighbors near the home said it was a known drug house.

“There’s some speculation, that I don’t like to get into too much, that possibly some drugs were used in the location,” Fitzgerald said, noting that nothing was found in that regard.

The suspect was described as a 27-year-old black man and was detained on Thursday. He had a connection to the victims, according to police, as well as a criminal history that included carjacking, armed robbery, felony firearm, and fleeing from police.

“It was a brutal scene inside, just awful,” Fitzgerald said.

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One of the neighbors said Hamlin was a good man but had fallen into drug use.

“He got involved in the wrong way and actually seemed to have set up a safe environment for people to come over and use,” said Joel Bond to WDIV-TV. “Of course, as we know, that’s dangerous. You don’t know who’s coming into your house.”

The man who approached the police told them he had been hit in the head twice with a hammer, but that appeared to be unrelated to the three deaths.

Hamlin was a Marine veteran who had served in the Persian Gulf War and was the owner of the home.

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