Mich. teens charged in beheading

DETROIT - Daniel Sorensen walked into the garage, where plastic tarps covered the floor. Suddenly, a kitchen knife pierced his back and slit his throat.

A hacksaw removed the head from his lifeless body and a blowtorch charred his fingers and toes in an effort to conceal his identity.

And the two teens accused of his murder and beheading did it all simply for the thrill, authorities said yesterday.

"We've all seen a lot," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a news conference yesterday. "Still, a crime like this surprises us all."

Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 17, a Canton High School senior from Plymouth, and Alexander Letkemann, 18, of Westland, who graduated in June from an alternative high school, were arraigned yesterday on first-degree-murder charges in Romulus.

They are accused of luring Sorensen, 26, an acquaintance from River Rouge, into a home owned by Orlewicz's grandfather in Canton on Wednesday. Police said the grandfather has Alzheimer's.

Police said Orlewicz slit Sorensen's throat and repeatedly stabbed him in the back with a kitchen knife.

"Orlewicz then retrieved a hacksaw and proceeded to cut Sorensen's head off with the saw," Canton Police Detective Ken Robinson said at the arraignment.

Robinson said Orlewicz then placed the head in a plastic container and used a blowtorch to burn Sorensen's hands and feet, before wrapping the body in a tarp.

Letkemann acted as an accomplice, Robinson said, helping to dump the torso in Northville Township and later the head in the Rouge River.

On Thursday, a utility crew found the burned torso in a Northville Township field.

The next day, police found Sorensen's Chevy S-10 pickup in the parking lot of a 24-hour Meijer supermarket in Westland.

Tips led police Saturday to Hines Park, where investigators found Sorensen's head in the Helm's Haven portion of the park in Dearborn Heights.

Yesterday, the two teens shuffled from side to side with their heads down and hands in their pockets as Magistrate Donald Vandersloot ordered them held without bond during an arraignment in district court in Romulus.

After the arraignment, Letkemann's father, Peter, briefly addressed the news media.

"Anyone who knows my family and me, and Alex in particular, knows this would be totally out of character. I love him and we're behind him all the way - one hundred percent," he said.

Letkemann's attorney, Raymond Cassar, said he has information that a third person had been involved in loading Sorensen's body into the truck.

The news of Orlewicz's arrest yesterday quickly spread through Canton High School.

Michael Skrzynski, 15, a sophomore, said he and Orlewicz were in a gym class together over the summer, participating in swimming, weightlifting and jogging.

"He was a nice guy, actually," Skrzynski said. "I personally don't think he did it."