Michigan Dismemberment Suspect Leads Police To Body Parts

MUSKEGON, MI — A 29-year-old western Michigan man fatally shot an acquaintance in an argument over money, drove to a hardware store to buy a chainsaw and then cut up the 24-year-old father of two’s body and dumped the torso along a recreational trail in Manistee National Forest, where pieces were discovered Saturday night, police said.

Anthony Blamer Jr., of Fremont, was charged Tuesday with disinterment or mutilation of a dead body and concealing the death of an individual, the Newaygo County Sheriff’s Office said. Additional charging decisions will be made when the investigation is complete.

Blamer says D’Anthony Keenan was accidentally shot in the head during a struggle over a gun Keenan brought to and displayed at a prearranged meeting, according to published reports. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Grand Rapids Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Blamer was arrested Monday after investigators discovered Facebook posts arranging the meeting, WOOD-TV reported. He hasn’t been charged with murder in Keenan’s death but is due back in court Aug. 17. He is being held in the Muskegon County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Investigators said Blamer admitted Keenan was shot multiple times inside his 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe.

Investigators said there is a “very real possibility” Keenan was killed in Muskegon County, MLive.com reported. After the deadly encounter, Blamer drove Keener’s body in the victim’s Tahoe and left it at a park-and-ride lot in northern Muskegon County, investigators said. The next day, they said, he bought a chainsaw and began dismembering the body.

After he was arrested, Blamer led investigators to the spot in Oceana County where he dumped a plastic bag containing Keenan’s head and hands and to the swamp where he had dumped the chainsaw, according to the reports.

Newaygo County Sheriff Bob Mendham said Tuesday the treatment of Keenan’s body was “disgusting,” WOOD reported.

“The people of the community would be scared to death when you find that there’s a body dumped in the national forest in your area,” Mendham said. “This is a small community; we don’t have this sort of thing happen every day.”

Blamer’s family members said they believe he killed Keenan in self-defense but are shocked by the rest of the story. The two met in jail and had gotten together Friday so Blamer could install a stereo system in Keenan’s Tahoe, Blamer’s brother-in-law Mike Clark told WOOD.

“This is just a hard thing to believe because I know he’s not like that,” Clark said. “This is a first-time thing that has happened with him. I know it was a self-defense thing… He just don’t like hurting people.

“I would trust him with my own life,” Clark said.

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