A gay love triangle involving Jeffrey Mundt, Joseph Banis and a third man whom authorities declined to identify ended in murder, according to NBC Chicago. The pair now are being held in a Louisville, Kentucky jail after police found the body of the third man stuffed in a plastic tub and buried about four feet below the ground.
The strange tale began when the couple had a sexual relationship with the third man last year. They allegedly had planned to rob him of drugs but ended up killing him, then they decided to hide the body underneath the basement of Jeffrey Mundt's Louisville home.
Since he wasn't reported missing, police were not searching for him nor did they have any reason to suspect anything.
But when the couple visited Chicago two months ago and booked a room in the Hyatt Regency, a doorman who was handed a wet $100 grew suspicious and police eventually were called. They took the couple into custody and found $50,000 in mostly counterfeit cash, knives, guns and bottles of the so-called date rape drug GHB.
Jeffrey Mundt was held on $50,000 and Joseph Banis was held on $200,000 bond; they posted the 10 percent bail requirement for release and left the state, as the Chicago Tribune reported earlier.
The couple returned home to Louisville and soon police received a 911 call from Jeffrey Mundt, who had locked himself in a bedroom and said his partner was trying to break into the room to kill him with a hammer. Police arrived and arrested Joseph Banis, who upon questioning told police he knew where the body was.
Police were astonished, since they weren't even looking for a body.
Joseph Banis said his boyfriend killed the third man, whose body police were able to recover. He had been shot and stabbed several times. Both men have been charged with the murder.
The defendants probably will not be hiring Illinois criminal attorneys, since the body was found in Kentucky, but it will be interesting to see how this case plays out once more details are revealed.
Related Resources:
- Murder: First Degree (FindLaw)
- Scott Roeder Convicted of First Degree Murder of George Tiller (FindLaw's Decided Blog)
- Find a Chicago Criminal Attorney (FindLaw)
