Royal Oak, MI: Man charged in Royal Oak woman's murder is former boyfriend

Published: Saturday, September 24, 2011

By Michael P. McConnell
Daily Tribune Staff Writer

ROYAL OAK - A Clinton Township man is charged with open murder in the stabbing death of a Royal Oak woman after police said he admitted killing her to a friend who recorded the confession.

Christopher Michael Hearn, 23, was ordered jailed without bond at his arraignment Friday before Royal Oak 44th District Judge Terrence

Brennan and requested a court-appointed attorney.

Hearn previously lived with Ranae Ann Chupick, 41, who was found brutally beaten and stabbed to death Monday night in her apartment above a beauty salon on Rochester Road by two coworkers, police said.

The suspect was arrested in March 2010 for domestic assault against

Chupick, but never convicted, said Royal Oak police Chief Corrigan

O'Donohue.

Hearn was arrested about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday outside a Clinton Township apartment complex near Metro Parkway and Groesbeck where a male friend lives.

The suspect was reportedly living with the friend at a residence in the Charter Oaks Co-op in the area.

Royal Oak police Detective Don Swiatkowski said police first got a call about 3 p.m. Wednesday from the mother of the suspect's friend indicating Hearn had confessed.

Forty minutes later, police got another call from Hearn's friend who told police the suspect had repeated the confession to him and he had recorded it.

Hearn also made an incriminating statement to a Royal Oak officer in an elevator at the police station Wednesday, police said.

"He said, 'I believe I remember this place,'" Swiatkowski said. "He said he was there before and said 'Same chick, different problem.'"

Police confirmed that Hearn was taken to the Royal Oak lockup after his arrest for domestic violence last year when he and Chupick lived together at a different location than where she was killed.

Chupick's coworkers went to her apartment Monday after she failed to show up for work and were met with a grisly scene.

When police arrived, they said her body was in the living room near a couch with a significant amount of blood.

Her body was "partially covered with a blanket and partially nude,"

Swiatkowski said.

There was blood on her head and an autopsy later showed she suffered blunt force trauma and 12 stab wounds, including a 4-inch gash across her neck, he added.

There were no signs of forced entry at the apartment.

Police noted that there was a set of black-handled steak knives in the apartment, but would not comment on whether one of the knives was used in the killing or if they had recovered the murder weapon.

"This was an especially heinous crime and our thoughts and prayers go out to the Chupick family," O'Donohue said.

Hearn was convicted of two counts of second-degree home invasion in

Livingston County in 2006 and was released from prison in January 2010, just two months before he was arrested for domestic violence against Chupick.

A pre-exam conference was scheduled for 9 a.m. next Friday in Royal Oak District Court.