Speaker 1: Welcome to Murder in the Mitten, a true crime podcast
Speaker 1: that dives deep into Michigan's darkest mysteries. Each season, we
Speaker 1: unravel one unforgettable case, using real core audio and rawn
Speaker 1: terrogations to bring you inside the investigation. This is Murder
Speaker 1: in the Mitten, Michigan's most chilling stories, told one case
Speaker 1: at a time. This is Season one, The Murder of
Speaker 1: Lyle Copenkowski. Episode one, atl Attempt to Locate. Our first
Speaker 1: case covers the murder of lylek Copenkaski and Potaski, Michigan.
Speaker 1: Pataski is located in the northern Lower Peninsula, about four
Speaker 1: hours or two hundred and seventy miles north of Detroit.
Speaker 1: It is the most northern county in the Lower Peninsula
Speaker 1: and the county seat of Emmett County. Potaski was incorporated
Speaker 1: as a village in eighteen seventy nine and a city
Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety five. Potaski is a population of about
Speaker 1: fifty eight hundred people. It's a very popular resort town,
Speaker 1: and the population almost doubles in the summer due to
Speaker 1: the amount of summer homes and cottages in the area.
Speaker 1: Potaski is located right on Lake Michigan, and you're never
Speaker 1: more than a few minutes from a lake, as there
Speaker 1: are also several inland lakes. While the downtown area and
Speaker 1: areas close to the lake are the most popular with
Speaker 1: the out of towners, the outskirts of Emmett County are
Speaker 1: very rural with hundreds of acres of farmland. Lyle Copenkaski
Speaker 1: was born on July twenty second, nineteen fifty four, to
Speaker 1: George and Luella Copenkawski, who was born and raised in
Speaker 1: Potaski and attended the local schools. He graduated from Pataski
Speaker 1: High School in nineteen seventy two. Lyle had one older
Speaker 1: brother named Carl. Carl was three years older than Lyle
Speaker 1: and they were very close. Carol Duncle was born on
Speaker 1: August twenty sixth, nineteen fifty three. Carol was also born
Speaker 1: and raised in Pataski. She had three brothers and was
Speaker 1: the only girl. She was described as being a tomboy
Speaker 1: and wasn't afraid to get dirty and rough house with
Speaker 1: her brothers. Carol and her brothers were friends with Lyle
Speaker 1: and Carl growing up, as the family's farms were next
Speaker 1: door to each other. Carol and Lyle started dating while
Speaker 1: in high school. They wanted to get married in the
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen seventy three, but Lyle's dad wanted them
Speaker 1: to wait until Lyle's brother Carl was home from the service.
Speaker 2: How manyngers would have been marriage that um.
Speaker 3: Seventy They got married September twenty ninth to seventy three.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, we'll spend a while because we were gonna
Speaker 4: get married in July, and I was still in the service,
Speaker 4: and then said, no, you got getting married until.
Speaker 5: Till we brobably gets home.
Speaker 3: So then, so I served a fourteenth clow September July
Speaker 3: September now fourteenth and they got married to twenty nine.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 1: Carol was hard working and almost always had three to
Speaker 1: four jobs at a time. Lyle worked as a heavy
Speaker 1: equipment operator, digging for sewer and waterlines. Lyele and Carol
Speaker 1: didn't have any children, but it appeared that Lyle wanted
Speaker 1: kids at one point, but Carol never wanted any. Lyle
Speaker 1: and Carol traveled a lot together. They would take regular
Speaker 1: trips to Florida and also vacationed in the Ozarks. Carol
Speaker 1: and Lyle were also avid Nascar fans and would travel
Speaker 1: to attend multiple races every year. Carol enjoyed going to
Speaker 1: yard sales and finding things to resell at her own
Speaker 1: yard sales and an eBay. She was also known to
Speaker 1: be dumpster diving to search for items to sell.
Speaker 2: And I know that.
Speaker 7: She's been dumpster diving for the last I'm gonna say
Speaker 7: a year or more.
Speaker 8: Dumpster diving.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, she goes to all the dumpsters in town
Speaker 7: and she knows.
Speaker 5: The better ones.
Speaker 7: And it was always funny what she'd ended up finding
Speaker 7: in the dumpster and bringing home that she could take
Speaker 7: to the yard veil.
Speaker 5: And sell or.
Speaker 1: On October second, twenty twelve, Carol got home from work
Speaker 1: between nine and nine thirty pm. There were messages from
Speaker 1: Warren Lyle's boss dating Lyle hadn't shown up for work
Speaker 1: that day.
Speaker 7: Our phone a couple of times. I tried his home
Speaker 7: phone and then fine, later in the day I had
Speaker 7: to go to Pataski, so I left him a message
Speaker 7: on its home phone, Lyle, I'll come over to the
Speaker 7: house make sure nothing has happened to you guys or something,
Speaker 7: because he's just always at work, you know. And so
Speaker 7: I drove over to the house and ringing the Doorbow
Speaker 7: looked in the garage. Both cars were gone, and so
Speaker 7: I figured, well, it's none of my business, you know,
Speaker 7: seeing maybe something he quit me or something I didn't know,
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 1: Carol called her mom, Rose duncle, and then Carl. Lyle's brother.
Speaker 1: Carl remembered seeing Lyle's truck parked on the side at
Speaker 1: Keble Road on his way home from work that day.
Speaker 1: Carl went to where Lyle's truck was still parked on
Speaker 1: the side of the road and looked through the truck. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't have the actual nine to one one recording,
Speaker 1: I do have the dispatch notes from the call. Carl
Speaker 1: called nine at nine forty five pm. He reported that
Speaker 1: his fifty eight year old brother, Lyle was missing. He
Speaker 1: told dispatch that Lyle had been depressed lately, but he
Speaker 1: never talked about suicide or talked about ending his life
Speaker 1: in any way. Officers arrived a few minutes later. They
Speaker 1: attempted to call Lyle's phone. The phone rang before eventually
Speaker 1: going to voicemail, which meant the phone wasn't turned off
Speaker 1: as it was still ringing. Officers left a message for
Speaker 1: Lyle to call into nine one one and that they
Speaker 1: were concerned about him. Officers called Verizon for a ping
Speaker 1: on Lyle's phone. The phone was managed by Verizon but
Speaker 1: owned by a different company. The company could give a
Speaker 1: rough estimate of location, but not live data. Officers also
Speaker 1: called local hospitals to see if Lyle had been admitted
Speaker 1: or taken to the hospital, but he wasn't at any
Speaker 1: of the hospitals. Lyle and Carrol had a second home
Speaker 1: in a neighboring town called the Lanson, which was about
Speaker 1: twenty five minutes away from their Pataskey home. Officers checked
Speaker 1: this home as Lyle liked to frequent there, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't there either. Officers from the Michigan State Police, Emmitt
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office, and Patasky Department of Public Safety assisted
Speaker 1: in the search for Lyle. Carl told officers that no
Speaker 1: one had any reason to be upset with Lyle. He
Speaker 1: had his core group of five friends and didn't spend
Speaker 1: time with many different people.
Speaker 3: A couple of weeks ago, I called him, you know,
Speaker 3: and he's fine. I know he since the last winter
Speaker 3: in the early spring before he went to work, you know,
Speaker 3: he was having depression problems and and drinking. Okay, and
Speaker 3: I didn't know he was taking so many pills, like
Speaker 3: Carol said, for depression. He's not one to say, did
Speaker 3: you take me in? You're not going to do that.
Speaker 3: He's gonna chop it out. He'll he'll take care of it,
Speaker 3: he'll work it out. Hold your brother, he don't fifty one,
Speaker 3: he must be fifty eight, okay, fifty eight? And those
Speaker 3: who lived, well, he lives with Carol boy any kids, no,
Speaker 3: no Children'm sure okay? And he works where he works
Speaker 3: for Montai Development, puts underground sword water.
Speaker 2: In and okay. So is he an equipment operator general laborer?
Speaker 3: He's equipment operator.
Speaker 2: So he works to bacco and.
Speaker 3: Loader and stuff. Who supplies sand and pipe and all
Speaker 3: that stuff.
Speaker 2: If you had to characterize your relationship with your brother,
Speaker 2: I mean, are your best friends? Are you just brothers?
Speaker 2: I mean because some brothers are you know, thicker and
Speaker 2: thieves and other guys just you know you see each other.
Speaker 3: You wait there, best friends?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 2: Other than yourself? Who else would your brother be best? Friendly?
Speaker 3: Well, Terry that took the carolynne her boyfriend. They lived
Speaker 3: together as Paul and I can't tell you his last
Speaker 3: name at that terrible what does he do for a living. Uh,
Speaker 3: he's started a heavy equipment operator too. He's been working
Speaker 3: down state. Uh, not much work to and Terry, she
Speaker 3: works for the eye doctor here and do somewhere the group.
Speaker 3: He retired at least so then she went to work
Speaker 3: with somebody on.
Speaker 2: The bike face And they're close Terry and Paul.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, and they live up by top and to
Speaker 3: be they're real close. M he's real good friends with
Speaker 3: a lot of people. But in the past couple of
Speaker 3: years that you know it kind of they have the
Speaker 3: house up in a Lance and so that's his kids
Speaker 3: and get away. I guess, you know. He gets out
Speaker 3: of work, Pready Knights, comes home, takes shower, it beat
Speaker 3: beat up till Lansing. Then that's on the porch. Watch
Speaker 3: people go by. I mean people stop all the time
Speaker 3: and talk to him.
Speaker 1: Uh h h.
Speaker 3: Dave Dave Bros. Works at Krings.
Speaker 5: He lives up there.
Speaker 3: He stops in. Uh. They're just numerous people that stop
Speaker 3: and he's he's just a likable guy. He's kind of
Speaker 3: ub noxious sometimes as far as the way yeah plays himself,
Speaker 3: but everybody knows him. It's a good Joe. We go
Speaker 3: to races, every August. We did that for probably close
Speaker 3: to fifteen years. We got a click of people down
Speaker 3: there that it's just like a home coming down there.
Speaker 3: Keeping from Chicago felt of Chicago, Ohio. One of the guys,
Speaker 3: Pat Welch, I got his number Kroll gave.
Speaker 5: You will be.
Speaker 3: Following him right away this morning, and Paddle will probably
Speaker 3: be up because I will call him all the time.
Speaker 3: He used to be in a nastarpool all the time.
Speaker 3: Dick Zinski, a good friend and buddy of his too,
Speaker 3: is Carol's uncle Wally, and he passed away like three
Speaker 3: weeks ago, and I know that took a toll on him.
Speaker 3: But you know what, Wally, he has had problems for
Speaker 3: the past years, and you know he was pupping in
Speaker 3: a kind of you don't even get home, and you
Speaker 3: know if he had a stroke or what. They don't
Speaker 3: didn't really.
Speaker 2: Do you know the address of the house in the
Speaker 2: l answer?
Speaker 5: No, I do not.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know it's uh two houses south of uh
Speaker 3: Young's bait Chop.
Speaker 2: Okay, so right on the main drag and then and
Speaker 2: two houses south. And he owns a second home.
Speaker 3: Yep, turquoise shutters and stuff on it. And they like
Speaker 3: that he likes to sit up there and people stop
Speaker 3: and they got there. They you know, they have no children.
Speaker 3: So he's got a lot of Nascar stuff. And Carol
Speaker 3: collects dolls and all kinds of stuff and antiques, and
Speaker 3: that's what they kind of do is and you know kind.
Speaker 1: Emmett County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Rodwell spoke with Carroll to
Speaker 1: get more information about Lyle. Carrol stated Lyle was seeing
Speaker 1: a doctor every six months for depression and was prescribed
Speaker 1: ambient to help him sleep. Lyle had never attempted suicide
Speaker 1: before and had never been hospitalized for depression. Sergeant Rodwell
Speaker 1: asked about Lyle's access to firearms. Carol stated that she
Speaker 1: had a twenty two handgun for shooting squirrels and chipmunks.
Speaker 1: She also had a small handgun that they had won
Speaker 1: at a Federation dinner, but never bought ammunition for it.
Speaker 1: Here's Carol explaining what happened leading up to Kyle's disappearance.
Speaker 5: The last time you saw him was what that morning?
Speaker 5: Was that yesterday? Yeah? Okay? And that would have been
Speaker 5: about what time he left her out? Five five thirty
Speaker 5: five five thirty okay?
Speaker 9: And did he say where he was going to work. Okay,
Speaker 9: all right, Now you mentioned something about making his lunch
Speaker 9: and pulling his car out.
Speaker 5: Is that something that you normally do?
Speaker 6: You know once in a while.
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 6: But oh, okay, Like I said, he wasn't in a
Speaker 6: shape to go to begin with, and to pull his
Speaker 6: truck out. I mean, he's only like this far from
Speaker 6: the wood pile. I might just want to make sure. God,
Speaker 6: I'm okay, yes, okay, all right.
Speaker 9: And when you say he wasn't the shape to what
Speaker 9: do you mean by that?
Speaker 6: His speech still was not good?
Speaker 5: Okay, talk to me about that. What do you what
Speaker 5: do you mean?
Speaker 6: It was like, I don't know, he really still knew
Speaker 6: exactly what he was saying and stuff I don't know.
Speaker 6: I just said, I'm feeling that. I don't even know
Speaker 6: how to explain it.
Speaker 5: So where are the things that you was saying?
Speaker 6: It's just the way he said it, you have it's
Speaker 6: not really like you talk when you're drunk or kind of.
Speaker 6: I don't know, I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 5: So he's thoroughly talking different. Okay, And are there anything
Speaker 5: is there anything that he said that was odd? I mean,
Speaker 5: I need to know the old show.
Speaker 2: What I can't remember?
Speaker 5: Okay?
Speaker 6: Are they just saying he was going to work out?
Speaker 6: And if the whole that was really sad? But it's
Speaker 6: just the weight's set.
Speaker 5: Well what what what did you make him for lunch?
Speaker 6: He had a meat most sandwich, some macaroni salad, a brownie,
Speaker 6: a cookie.
Speaker 5: And he made that for him. Yeah, okay, and excuse me.
Speaker 5: He's in the car and he leaves. Do you see
Speaker 5: what direction he goes? I didn't know.
Speaker 6: I didn't even look.
Speaker 5: Okay, and he leaves around five thirty.
Speaker 6: That's about what it was, all right.
Speaker 5: Now, Has he had or if he noticed any drug
Speaker 5: habits lately as far as I mean seeking drugs and
Speaker 5: illegal drugs anything like that at all.
Speaker 6: No, we just weren't into the drugs. I mean, neither
Speaker 6: of us do I have done?
Speaker 5: Okay? All right, so you haven't. You haven't noticed anything
Speaker 5: odd lately? No? Okay? And as far as a gambler,
Speaker 5: was he a gambler? Gable? Okay? So he leaves, and
Speaker 5: what do you do?
Speaker 6: I go way back down for a while until I
Speaker 6: get up and you know, do my shower, get my
Speaker 6: hair done, and then I to a Lanson took computer place.
Speaker 5: Okay, frond there and.
Speaker 6: Then I came back and they got an adjustment from
Speaker 6: the camera practor I went to VC Pizza, I went
Speaker 6: to the computer store, and I don't remember. I think
Speaker 6: that was after to be Ce Pizza, before I went
Speaker 6: to the market basket.
Speaker 5: I think.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure. In the order I did this, I
Speaker 6: had to read the computer place after the BC.
Speaker 5: And he had a day off. Is that character? Or
Speaker 5: did you work that day yesterday? No?
Speaker 6: I worked out two places yesterday.
Speaker 5: Oh that's right, okay, and he worked. Weren't you working
Speaker 5: on them?
Speaker 6: You told me Sea Pizza? And then I go to
Speaker 6: the corner grocer?
Speaker 5: And what time are you done with the corner grocer?
Speaker 6: We close it nine? So I was out of there
Speaker 6: probably by nine thirty, a quarter after nine, because I
Speaker 6: got one by nine thirty. I call it carol.
Speaker 5: Okay, now did you Oh? I know, I'm sorry. So
Speaker 5: what did you learn that he hadn't gone to work
Speaker 5: at that point? Yeah? Okay, So what what I mean? Time?
Speaker 5: Did you get a phone call? What's his boss?
Speaker 6: I gn't worn there was when I got home after
Speaker 6: corner grocer? Is when they were seeing the message like
Speaker 6: like and that's when I listened to the message and
Speaker 6: it was worn.
Speaker 8: Oh I'm sorry again. What time was that they came
Speaker 8: home from a corner?
Speaker 6: I want to say I was home by nine thirty,
Speaker 6: quarter after night, going to that quarter after nine, between
Speaker 6: quarter after nine and nine thirty, probably twenty.
Speaker 8: After okay, and then so you know, and then do
Speaker 8: you call you? Who's the first person?
Speaker 5: Do you call mom? Mom? Who's mom?
Speaker 6: Mine? She's the one that lives right next door in
Speaker 6: to gaul Askar, she had seen Lyle. Okay, she said no,
Speaker 6: So then I call Carl.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: Well, Carl and Carol were speaking to investigators. Officers continued
Speaker 1: to search the area. Keeble Road and the surrounding areas
Speaker 1: were very rule. It was all farmland, no street lights.
Speaker 1: It was also ten pm and very dark. Officers checked
Speaker 1: the roadways and fields using their spotlights, and police as
Speaker 1: well as local fire departments, tried to get as many
Speaker 1: flashlights as they could for the search party. Backet where
Speaker 1: Lyle's truck was parked, Sergeant Rodwell searched the truck for
Speaker 1: any clues as to what may have happened to Lyle.
Speaker 1: No weapons were found in the truck. It was full
Speaker 1: of construction type items such as a large toolbox, jackets, hats,
Speaker 1: safety gear, and hard hats. Sergeant Rodwell saw that the
Speaker 1: key was in the ignition and the truck started up
Speaker 1: with no problem. There was no other indication that Lyle's
Speaker 1: truck had broken down. There was a lunch pail in
Speaker 1: front of the center counsile with a lunch packed inside.
Speaker 1: A coffee cup was also in the cup holder and
Speaker 1: was full of coffee. Sergeant Radwell also noticed that the
Speaker 1: driver's seat was moved almost all the way to the front,
Speaker 1: deafinitely ate, not a position where a man of lyles
Speaker 1: size and stature would sit. There were no signs of
Speaker 1: blood or body fluid, or any sign of a struggle whatsoever. Finally,
Speaker 1: at twelve thirty two am, Lyles's body was found. Lyles
Speaker 1: found a short distance in front of the truck, lying
Speaker 1: in a ditch in the tall grass. Lyle's body was
Speaker 1: cold to the touch and he was covered in insects.
Speaker 1: He was shot four times in the back and one
Speaker 1: time in the temple.
Speaker 5: Do you do you know what it is transpired at
Speaker 5: the scene? Nope, okay, you don't know that. We had
Speaker 5: the crime lab come up and he has multiple gunshots. Okaying, no,
Speaker 5: I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1: This is Murder in the Mitten five Holly production, and
Speaker 1: I'm your host.
Speaker 3: Kat.
Speaker 1: Join us next time for season one, Episode two, The
Speaker 1: investigation