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Thread 9015

Thread ID: 9015 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-08-14

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Lewis Wetzel [OP]

2003-08-14 02:24 | User Profile

Another Matthew Shepherd? Or did a "leather daddy"/trick go too far?

[url=http://www.gfn.com/news/story.phtml?sid=14221]http://www.gfn.com/news/story.phtml?sid=14221[/url]

Bisexual Teen Violently Tortured, Left For Dead August 12, 2003 Michael Christopher Bryan

GRAND RAPIDS—In an effort to determine how they will categorize the crime, Michigan authorities await the autopsy report for an 18-year-old bisexual man, discovered lying unconscious in a ditch with his wrists bound and his eyes glued shut.

According to authorities, Justin Bogdanik, may have been the victim of a violent sexual attack when the assault occured in June.

After remaining on life support for two weeks, Bogdanik died on July 8.

The question for the Grand Rapids Police Department is whether or not Bogdanik was sexually and/or physically tortured prior to his death. Detective Tom VanderPloeg told the Grand Rapids Press that if torture resulted in Bogdanik’s death, the case would be classified as a homicide.

According to reports from friends of victim, he was last seen on June 25 climbing into a white semi tractor-trailer near Grand Rapids. Officials at the Triangle Foundation, a Michigan-based anti-violence and civil rights organization, speculated that Bogdanik might have been picked up by someone who has yet to be identified.

Triangle Foundation officials said reports of Bogdanik’s death show he was sexually and physically assaulted.

"There was evidence of torture and restraint," said Crystal Witt, a victim’s advocate at the Triangle Foundation. "His eyes were glued shut and his body had scrapes — that indicates he was stumbling and falling."

Jeff Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation, said that he hasn’t seen the autopsy report because Grand Rapid authorities have yet to release it.

“[Not releasing the autopsy] might have some value in terms of whatever they are investigating."

Bogdanik was living at the YMCA in Grand Rapids at the time of the assault. His foster father said he had heard that for a period of time Bogdanik was homeless and living under a bridge, according to a report in the Grand Rapids Press.

The case is reminiscent of the killing of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, as well as the 1999 death of Jesse Dirkhising, the 13-year-old Arkansas boy who was allegedly drugged, repeatedly raped and asphyxiated by two gay men.

Montgomery said there are “broad similarities” between the shear brutality and savagery of all three cases.

“All were perpetrated by maniacs and all of these cases may share an element of the perpetrators trying to come to terms with their own sexuality,” Montgomery said. “I see similarities across all three of these cases, the apparent element is that somehow the victims may have been lured into something that they thought was otherwise.”