Man charged with killing and dismembering janitor he met on Grindr

A Michigan man was charged this week with the killing and dismembering of a janitor he met on Grindr, the dating application.

Justie Stilwell, a 41-year-old janitor at T.L. Handy Middle School in Bay City, was reported missing on September 18. That same day, a teenage girl discovered a foot in the Saginaw River, leading police to recover Stilwell’s arms and lower legs from the water.

Court documents obtained by the Michigan media outlet MLive reveal that detectives reviewed surveillance footage from Stilwell’s neighbors, which showed him driving away from his Bay City home on the evening of September 14. Investigators then used data from the Grindr app to track Stilwell’s movements, discovering he had arranged to meet a user with the handle “Bored.”

According to MLive, Bay City Public Safety Sgt. Nate Kamp spoke about the case before Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer where he revealed that Stilwell did not show up for work at the T.L. Handy Middle School for two consecutive days, prompting concern from his family.

Investigators were then able to track the user “Bored’s” location to a Bay City home owned by 40-year-old Robert Tweedly.

The court documents obtained by MLive revealed that Tweedly told investigators that Stilwell came to his home, but when Stilwell tried to leave, Tweedly pushed him down the basement stairs. He then admitted to strangling Stilwell to death, the documents said.

According to the court documents, Tweedly told investigators that Stilwell’s body was too heavy to carry up the stairs of his home, so he cut it into pieces. Prior to dismembering the body, Tweedly told investigators that he traveled to a local Walmart to purchase a rope, which he thought would help him move the body, MLive reported.

Tweedly admitted to discarding Stilwell’s legs and arms in the river and dumping his head and torso in a nature preserve, according to court documents. Police later recovered those remains at the preserve.

Tweedly was arraigned on September 27, facing charges of murder and mutilation of a body. He is currently in custody on a $1 million bond, MLive reported.

His attorney, James Piazza, told MLive.com that while he had met with his client, he was still waiting for prosecutors to provide evidence and had no further comment on the case.

Stilwell would have turned 42 on Monday. Live reported that his obituary said he “enjoyed the peace of nature and enjoyed time spent outdoors, especially up north in Mackinaw City,

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.