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Crime & Safety

Landlord Who Found Body Said Slain Royal Oak Woman was Sweet, Energetic

'What I saw is a vision I'll never forget,' said neighbor, who also reports having seen a man leave the victim's apartment hours earlier.

The landlord who said he found the body of Royal Oak homicide victim Ranae Ann Chupick hasn’t been able to get the memory of her face out of his mind.

“What I saw is a vision I’ll never forget,” Greg Ksiazek of Royal Oak said Wednesday.

in connection with , whose body was found in her apartment on Rochester Road Monday night.

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Ksiazek rented the apartment to 41-year-old Chupick a few months ago. 

“She was one of the sweetest girls I ever knew,” Ksiazek said of Chupick. “She was so excited about living here, so excited, that she even wanted to have her rent taken directly from her checking account.

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“She fixed something up in the apartment every day.”

Ksiazek rented an upper level apartment to Chupick and he lives in another apartment in the buildings that house Skin Boutique salon and Soundscape Recording Studio on Rochester Road at Windemere.

Wednesday evening, he recounted the hours before and after Chupick's body was found.

On Monday evening, Ksiazek said, Chupick’s friends from work couldn’t reach her and they looked to Ksiazek for help.

“The two girls had tried to enter her apartment through a sliding door and felt a little uneasy,” he said. “They came next door and asked me if I could go in with them."

After the two women tried to open the sliding door, a security bar fell across the door, preventing the three of them from entering. Ksiazek had to let them in through the front door. 

As he did so, he had an uneasy feeling. 

The three of them walked through the apartment and the women noticed something under a blanket.

Ksiazek said he went over, lifted the blanket and saw Chupick dead. He immediately dropped the corner of the blanket, turned to leave and told Chupick’s co-workers to call 911. 

Earlier Monday, a man outside

Much earlier Monday, Ksiazek said he saw a person outside the apartment who now he views as suspicious.

About 2:30 a.m. Monday, he said, he heard a man cross over the deck of his shop, which is directly next to the building where Chupick lived. He saw the man going  down the back steps. 

Ksiazek said he looked outside and watched the man, who seemed somewhat disoriented and dazed, walk around a car, through the parking lot and out on to Windemere, toward Rochester Road. Ksiazek assumed it was one of Chupick’s friends, but now wonders if it was her assailant.

He does not have any recorded evidence of what he saw, however. “I have monitors placed all over the property for protection,” he said.  “Unfortunately, they are not hooked up to any recording devices.” 

Ksiazek said he has told police what he saw, in several discussions with them, but that his most recently scheduled interview was canceled yesterday afternoon, before .

Royal Oak Police have been unavailable to confirm or discuss any details of the arrest on Wednesday.

Woman neighbors thought was killed

Cheryl Daenzer, who until recently lived in the lower apartment of the same complex at Windemere and Rochester, said when she visited the area Wednesday that she was quite shaken by the incident. 

“I moved from the lower apartment three weeks ago,” she said. “Because of the pictures being shown on the TV, my friends and family thought it was me that was killed here this weekend.” 

Daenzer said Chupick was easygoing and always had a smile on her face. "I am deeply saddened and shocked by this whole ordeal,” she said. “I hope they have the right suspect."

Daenzer said her dog, Charlie, surely would have barked had Daenzer still been living there. 

Neighbors in the area were concerned about Daenzer and Charlie. They had been trying to reach anyone who had information on the dog's whereabouts. Daenzer said she had an agreement with the neighbors that if anything ever happened to her, someone needed to look after Charlie.

Concerned neighbors were relieved Wednesday evening, a short time after hearing a suspect in Chupick's death was arrested.

“It’s been very scary here the last couple of days," said Debbie Sielaff, who lives on Windemere a few doors down from the homicide scene. "We didn’t know if it was random or someone that Chupick knew.” 

Ksiazek said he hasn't been able to sleep since the incident and was also relieved there was a suspect in custody.  “I hope they have all the evidence they need" for a conviction, he said.

Even while relieved at the arrest, Ksiazek reflected sadly on the tragic end to the life of Chupick, the woman he'd come to know.

“She was one of the most beautiful, prim and proper women I’ve ever met," he said sadly.

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