Mark Latunski has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of 25-year-old man Kevin Bacon, who he met on Grindr in 2019.

After connecting on the dating app, the two men on Christmas Eve and the next day Bacon’s family reported him missing after he failed to show up to family celebrations.

After three days of searching for Bacon, the police entered the murderer’s home on December 28th and found a gruesome scene. In Latunski’s basement, the police found Bacon’s lifeless naked body hanging from the ceiling by his ankles. His throat was slit and parts of his body were missing.

The police found and questioned Latunski, who quickly confessed. He told investigators that he invited Kevin Bacon to his home before stabbing him in the back and slitting his throat. He then hung the young man in his basement, cut off, fried and ate his testicles and was later planning on using Bacon’s muscles to make jerky.

The ‘Grindr cannibal’ was charged with the murder of the young man and taken to court. He was initially found to be competent for trial but his defence team pushed to have him undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Despite this, Latunski was brought to court in October 2022, and he was charged with two counts of open murder and mutilation of a body.

On December 15th Latunski was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. The judge was heard to say, “Perhaps today’s sentence will be a small amount of comfort in what I know is an enormity of hurt.”

Along with the attorney’s statements throughout the trial, Kevin Bacon’s family came to express their grief and the impact that the horrific murder of their son had on their lives. “Our world has been shattered,” said the victim’s mother.

“Even though we have such great memories of our son, our lives will never be the same or will our family. I don’t understand why anyone could want to hurt our son, especially in such a horrific and unbelievable way.”

She ended her emotional statement, which was read aloud in court with an honest comment to the murderer, “In your sick, twisted mind, you probably think you didn’t do anything wrong, but in reality, you took our world away. This Christmas I hope you suffer like we have. I hope you feel pain because you are all alone with all the years yet to come.”