A 22-year-old Michigan man will spend decades in prison for fatally shooting his grandfather in his home, then try to allege that the 87-year-old man was possessed by spirits.
Houghton County Circuit Court Judge Brittany A. Bulleit ordered Jacob Kempainen achieve a sentence of between 15 and 50 years in a state penitentiary institution for the murder of Alvin Kempainen in 2023, according to court records.
The sentence was handed down after Kempainen reached a plea deal and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. In exchange, charges of conspiracy to commit murder and illegal possession of firearms were dropped.
Margaret Kempainen, his mother and daughter-in-law of the victim, is also charged with murder in connection with the death of Alvin Kempainen.
Authorities indicated that the mother and son resided in Wisconsin, traveled to Michigan, where they allegedly murdered Alvin Kempainen, and were later arrested in Iowa.
According to reports consulted by Legislation&Crime, agents from the Houghton County Sheriff’s Office responded on December 19, 2023 to a call requesting a welfare check at a home located at 53000 Salo Road, a few kilometers south of Lake Superior.
Upon arriving at the home, the emergency services Alvin Kempainen was found with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to a report from NBC and Fox affiliate WLUC in Marquette, Michigan, investigators were able to quickly identify Margaret and Jacob Kempainen as possible suspects in the deadly shooting. They were located in Minnesota, driving south on Interstate 35 toward Iowa. Authorities contacted the Rush Lake, Iowa, police department and The agents managed to arrest the couple when they stopped at a local gas station.
According to the report, Minnesota authorities executed a search warrant at Jacob Kempainen’s Minneapolis apartment in connection with the murder investigation.
The warrant indicates that Margaret Kempainen’s husband, who is also the father of Jacob Kempainen, told authorities that on December 7, 2023, his family left him in Wisconsin and had not contacted him since.
However, he told them that after seeing a debit card transaction in Bruce Crossing, Michigan, he believed his family was traveling to his father’s house to “get money,” which made him fear that the old man was in danger.
Alvin Kempainen allegedly sent a text message to his son at 9 pm on December 18, 2023, telling him that the family – whom he referred to as “the gang” – had just arrived at their house. He then stopped responding to his son’s messages and calls.
They thought he was possessed
Following the arrests, Margaret Kempainen allegedly told police that her son was the one who killed Alvin Kempainen, but Both suspects made numerous outlandish claims about the circumstances of the shooting.
For example, Jacob Kempainen allegedly told police that upon arriving at Alvin Kempainen’s home, they believed the 87-year-old man had already been killed by evil spirits and that the person in the house “wasn’t Grandpa.”
“He stated that the spirits said that the grandfather opened the well behind the house and that the spirits killed him,” according to the search warrant.
Similarly, Margaret Kempainen stated that Alvin Kempainen “was not her father-in-law”claiming that he behaved “like a 20-year-old.”
According to the report, investigators even noted that the mother and son’s stories were eerily similar to the events of M. Evening Shyamalan’s film “The Visit.”
Margaret Kempainen remains jailed without bail. As of Monday, no date had been set for his trial.
Keep reading:
– 14-year-old teenager is arrested for killing a 12-year-old boy in Atlanta.
– He shot his housemate to death and sealed the room to hide it: sentenced to 62 years in prison in Indiana.
