Man Charged in 'Heinous' Slaying of Royal Oak Woman

Christopher Michael Hearn, 23, of Clinton Township was arraigned Friday afternoon on a charge of open murder in the brutal  in her Royal Oak apartment earlier this week.

Hearn lived with Chupick briefly last year and was arrested on a charge of domestic assault on Chupick in 2010 but not convicted, Royal Oak police said Friday. Hearn was released from state prison in January 2010 after serving about 3 1/2 years on a Livingson County home invasion conviction, state records show.

During Friday's hearing before Judge Terrence Brennan at 44th District Court in Royal Oak, Police Detective Don Swiatkowski described the bloody scene and details of the killing of 41-year-old Chupick in her second-floor home above the Skin Boutique salon on Rochester Road north of 13 Mile.

On Monday, co-workers worried that Chupick had not shown up at work inside and called 911. The apartment showed signs of a struggle and Chupick was found partially nude, beaten and stabbed at least 12 times, Swiatkowski said. Her throat had been slashed and she’d been hit in the head with a blunt object, he said.

Wednesday, Hearn was of a friend after law enforcement officials received a tip. Police said Hearn admitted to the friend that he had killed Chupick. The friend recorded Hearn's admission and told his mother about it, who then called police, Swiatkowski said.

Chupick was a hair stylist by trade but also bartended briefly in downtown Royal Oak.

“She worked at the  over ," her 16-year-old son, Jake Chupick, . "That's where she met Chris. She was a bartender; he was a bus boy. My mom went out with him a few times, then he got really weird. She told my dad this. Then she stopped all contact with him, but I guess he would call.”

Chupick's stepmother and older sister were in the courtroom during Friday's hearing. The women held each other and sobbed as the details of the woman's slaying were revealed.

Brennan entered a not guilty plea for Hearn and ordered him held in the Oakland County Jail without bond. Hearn requested a court-appointed attorney, saying he is not currently employed.

"I would like to take this opportunity to commend the investigators involved," Royal Oak's Interim Chief of Police Corrigan O’Donohue said outside court Friday. "They worked tirelessly throughout this week and their efforts paid off. ... This was an especially heinous crime and our thoughts and prayers go out to the Chupick family."