Sex, Drugs, and Cannibalism: The Rose Larner Story

Trigger Warning: Cannibalism, Drugs Use, Murder

Rose Larner was the middle child amongst her other 2 siblings and they lived in Lansing, Michigan. Rose’s parents divorced when she was 4 years old which led to her sharing time between both of her parent’s households. Rose was described as an excellent student by her peers and previous instructors. When Rose reached age 18 (year 1993), her friends and family would call her a “Vampire” as a joke due to her always being awake at night. Her family said during this time, Rose was going through her “angry teenage years”. Many adults who encountered Rose shared the common idea that she was a lot to handle, but very generous and was there when you needed her.

Rose would always be on the phone with her friends, and a particular friend that she would talk to often was a boy named Billy Brown. They had been friends since the 5th grade and they did many different things together throughout the course of their friendship. Another friend of hers was Bailey and they met in the 3rd grade and they were also very close. Bailey and Rose had the same birthday, August 19th. Rose definitely did have enemies though. This was because she was very blunt and had quite a smart mouth. Rose’s mom, also named Rose, exaggerated her daughter’s behavior so that she could admit her into Rivendell Psychiatric Hospital with the intent to bring peace to their household since she was very reckless. Rose was surprised to be there, but she agreed to stay and ended up liking it there after three months of stay. Her release did upset her though.

Soon after her release, she got her first job at a local KFC, but her behavior got worse. She would skip school, get arrested for shoplifting, bring alcohol to school, and more. One day while Rose and Bailey were playing basketball at a park, a man approached them and engaged in conversation. Him and Rose seemed to hit it off and Bailey began to feel out of place, so she walked home. Rose goes to Bailey’s house later that night and she shows up in a distraught state. This was because the guy she met ended up raping her. The guy pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and only spent a month in jail. Rose dropped out of high school at 16, but got her GED at 17.

Rose’s mom set a curfew of 1 a.m. for Rose during the summertime and she gave her a pager if contact was needed. During the summer, Rose met a local rapper named John Kehoe and she was really obsessed with him. They eventually ended up dating. Rose, Billy, and John would always hang together, and eventually in October, Rose asked her mom if John could move in with them because he needed a place to stay. Her mom was hesitant at first, but she allowed him to stay. She liked him up until she went into Rose’s room and saw a bunch of guns laying out with a bunch of cash. John was making tons of money being a drug dealer which lead to him being kicked out, and this is where the downfall begins.

John and Rose’s relationship fell apart after he was kicked out which deeply upsetter her. The more John ignored her, the more passionate she got about receiving his attention. In November, there was a local party for teens and Rose knew John would be there, so she went and it led to an argument. As a result, she drove her van into John’s truck. John made a threat to kill her, but all she wanted was answers. On December 6, 1993, Rose got home at 11:30pm after work and she made a call to a friend. Her brother who was on the couch overheard an argument occurring during this call and eventually Rose told her she loved him and headed out. Around 1:30 a.m. Rose shows up to her mother’s job at a local convenience store, and her mom knew something was off. She suggested that Rose took the family van since it was cold and late, but Rose insisted that she was fine and would go hang with friends. She then tells her mom she loves her and goes to hang with friends.

Around 8 a.m. the next morning, Rose’s mom had a feeling that something wasn’t right, especially because Rose was not home. She then calls detectives to report her missing. A day goes by and no word from Rose yet. Her mother drove around to the spots she would usually be with friends but no results. She then calls Billy, but finds out he was not home either so she assumed Rose is with him. A day later, Billy calls Rose’s mom to inform her that he hasn’t seen Rose in a couple of days and had no idea who she was. The friends she normally talked to all said they haven’t heard from her since December 7th, which was unlikely for Rose since she always talked to her friends. Helicopters and police searched for her and nothing turned up. Police then turn to the community for help, and they receive several tips about her whereabouts. Some included that she was at a mall, others were that she was beaten with a baseball bat. Over 100 tips came in and they mentioned two names: Billy Brown and John Kehoe.

Billy was brought in for questioning and overtime they knew that he was involved some how with her disappearance. In April 1996, Billy calls detectives and says the night Rose disappeared, the night involved drugs, sex, murder, and body parts inside of John’s grandparents house. Billy stated that John killed Rose and not him and they went to John’s brother, Tim’s house to lay low. A warrant went out for the arrest of Billy and Tim and they were going to be charged with accessory to murder. John got word that an issue was warrant for his arrest and fled. John and Tim fled to Mexico and were later found, arrested, and sent back to Michigan in 1996.

Here are the details of what happened that night:

On December 7, 1993, Rose calls Billy to see if he can contact John so they can smoke weed, have sex, and do “average party things”. John picks up Rose and Billy around 3 a.m. John then pulls over to a dark road and the three engage in some form of sexual intercourse. John later went into a store and when he left, the bag contained a filet knife, two bottles of charcoal lighter fluid, a hatchet, and some trash bags. They then drive out to John’s grandparent’s house where John and Rose have sex again, and then the 3 shower together. The three get dressed in the bathroom, but John steps out and returns with a cord which he places around Rose’s neck. The only time Billy stepped in was to ask why he was killing her and John stated, “That b*tch has got to go, and that’s what’s going to happen.” Rose was then dead and John proceeded to place her into the bathtub and cut her throat. John and Billy then do cocaine together, and he goes back to inflicting more injury to her body. He grabbed the hatchet and a block of wood and cut up Rose. John then put her body parts into the basement’s fireplace so they could burn. The remains of the body were placed into a trashcan and they cleaned up the house and left.

The two drove about 100 miles to Billy’s family property, dug a hole, laid a bed of logs into the pit, placed the midsection of her body into the pit, dumped the 10 gallons of gasoline on her body and set her remains on fire; this continued for about 10 hours. Billy reports that John took some of Rose’s flesh, put it on a piece of bread with mustard and ate it. When the fire was done, the two filled garbage bags with Rose’s ashes and they spread the ashes along the roadside and highways all the way to Big Rapids, Michigan which is where Tim lived. Tim said he would handled all of the tools used for the murder. Billy was offered a lesser sentence if he chose to testify against John, which he did, and he was sentenced to a year for accessory to murder. John stood his own trial and denied any connection to the murder, stating that everything Billy told investigators was actually what Billy did and not him. John was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. When given his sentence, he laughed. As of 2020, John is trying to get a new hearing to discuss his original trial, but things were put on hold because of COVID. John still stands firm that he is the accessory and Billy killed her because she denied him sex the day of her death. Weirdly enough, John is active on social media and it is believed that his accounts are ran by his fiancée.  Attached are some of his social media profiles.

http://johnortiz-kehoe.blogspot.com

Instagram: @johnortizkehoe