44-year-old found guilty of woman’s murder in Bay County
By: Ryan Jeltema AB 12 October 4, 2024
Oct 4, 2024 Updated 1 h
https://www.abc12.com/news/crime/44-year-old-found-guilty-of-womans-murder-in-bay-county/article_1c89e418-8280-11ef-8936-7783fd119bbd.html
BAY COUNTY, Mich. (WJRT) – A Bay County jury has found a woman guilty of killing a 36-year-old woman and setting her body on fire.
The jury found 44-year-old Britany Letourneau guilty of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Heidi Dowd. Dowd’s burned body was found near an abandoned schoolhouse in rural Bay County in August of 2020.
Letourneau was arrested in connection with another incident two days later and was eventually charged with Dowd’s murder.
Her attorney, Alan Crawford, argued it was actually Letourneau’s friend, Aaron Wyse, who shot and killed Dowd. Crawford thanked the jury for its service, but he believes they got it wrong and Letourneau will file an appeal.
Letourneau faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole, which she will receive at a later date.
************************
Outlaws, drugs, guns: Trial begins for Michigan woman accused of executing, torching woman in 2020
By Cole Waterman | Cole_Waterman@mlive.com September 26, 2024
https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2024/09/outlaws-drugs-guns-trial-begins-for-michigan-woman-accused-of-executing-torching-woman-in-2020.html
BAY CITY, MI — It was August 2020 when a Michigan woman’s burned body was found behind an abandoned schoolhouse in rural Bay County, the apparent victim of a gangland-style execution. Four years on, the woman accused of killing the mother of five and setting her remains on fire to conceal the crime is finally facing a jury.
Her attorney, though, claims a different person perpetrated the killing, all to conceal secrets within the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. That person is expected to testify for the prosecution.
Dressed in all black, Britany A. Letourneau entered the courtroom of Bay County Circuit Judge Jessie Scott Wood on Wednesday, Sept. 25, for attorneys’ opening statements. The 44-year-old Letourneau — also known by the surnames Lewis, Johnson, Tigner and Raymo and aliases Marciea A. Fordyce, Marcia Ann Moses and Marciea Reyes — is charged with open murder, removing, mutilating, or disinterring a dead body, and two counts of felony firearm in connection with the death of Heidi E. Dowd, 36.
Opening statements
Addressing the jury first, Bay County Prosecutor Nancy E. Borushko outlined her theory of the case, saying it did not depend on one piece of evidence or one witness’ testimony.
“This is a case of putting all the pieces together,” she said.
The prosecutor said the evidence will show Dowd was at her West Branch home in the early morning of Aug. 16, 2020, when police raided it on suspicion of drug dealing. During the raid, Dowd turned her cellphone over to police, Borushko said.
“In less than 12 hours, Heidi Dowd would be dead,” she continued.
Letourneau arrived at Dowd’s house following the raid, picking up Dowd and her young son. After dropping off the boy elsewhere, Letourneau called a man named Aaron M. Wyse and had him meet her and Dowd near Alderwood Estates in Bangor Township. When Wyse met up with the women, a side of Dowd’s face was bruised, Borushko said.
“‘Heidi needs to go away,’” Letourneau told Wyse, according to Borushko. “‘She needs to go on a vacation.’”
With Wyse driving a Ford Expedition, Letourneau climbed into the backseat and injected Dowd with drugs, Borushko said. Wyse then heard a gunshot behind him and turned around.
“He saw the defendant, Britany Letourneau, with a gun in her hand and Heidi Dowd slumping down into the vehicle’s seat,” Borushko said.
Letourneau climbed back into the front passenger seat, and she and Wyse spent hours driving around Michigan. They went as far south as Troy before heading back north to Bay County’s Mount Forest Township, where Letourneau decided to dump Dowd’s body.
Her body was removed from the vehicle, pulled onto the ground, accelerant was poured on her body, and her body was lit on fire,” Borushko said. “The evidence is going to show you whose decisions those were.”
Wyse is himself charged with removing, mutilating, or disinterring a dead body and testified for the prosecution against Dowd in a September 2023 preliminary examination.
Evidence recovered from cellphones will show Letourneau’s path of travel on Aug. 17 and how investigators tracked her, the prosecutor added.
In closing, she encouraged the jurors not to be swayed by Letourneau’s slight appearance.
“Be careful of a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said.
Defense attorney Alan A. Crawford offered a different perspective, claiming Wyse killed Dowd to keep her from turning informant. His client, he alleged, was a methamphetamine-addicted hostage of the significantly larger Wyse, he said.
“What lies beneath is a more complex tale revolving around addiction, manipulation, and deception,” Crawford said.
He told the jurors they would hear Dowd, Letourneau, and Wyse were linked to the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Dowd’s husband was a member of the Outlaws and while jailed, he asked another male member nicknamed “Cowboy” to watch over his wife and son, Crawford said. Cowboy moved in with Dowd and turned her house into a “dope distribution center,” Crawford said.
When police raided the house the morning of Aug. 16, 2020, they seized narcotics and paraphernalia but did not arrest Dowd. Letourneau came over the next morning, which was not unusual as she and Dowd were friends who used drugs together.
Dowd was panicked and distraught over the raid and agreed to go to Cowboy’s in Saginaw, Crawford said. The two women met up with Wyse so Dowd could obtain heroin, then the three headed south on Interstate 75, he said.
As Wyse drove, Letourneau used meth and Dowd injected herself with heroin. Dowd began talking about the raid and let slip police wanted to use her as a cooperating witness, something which caught Wyse’s attention, Crawford said. Wyse began sending text messages and received a phone call, prompting him to pull over and switch seats with Letourneau, Crawford said.
Wyse shot Dowd in her head then again swapped seats with Letourneau, telling her he’d kill her and burn down her house if she spoke of the killing, Crawford said.
“Aaron Wyse kept her prisoner for the rest of the day,” he continued. “She’s already high out of her mind and she just witnessed a murder. She knew if she talked she was dead.”
He described Wyse as a psychopath and habitual liar. With Dowd’s body still in the backseat, Wyse went through a Wendy’s drive-thru and ordered chicken nuggets. He then drove to a Bridgeport Township gas station, bought a gas can and fuel, all while Letourneau remained in the SUV, paralyzed with fear, Crawford said.
Wyse drove to Troy to socialize with friends before returning to Bay County to dump Dowd’s body and set it on fire. Crawford asserted it is more likely the larger, 6-foot-2-inch Wyse removed Dowd’s body from the SUV than the smaller, 5-foot-6-inch Letourneau.
Two days later, Wyse took Letourneau on another drive, this time with another woman. Letourneau and this woman began arguing, with Letourneau hitting the other woman in her head with a gun.
Police in Gaylord pulled over the SUV and found inside it two handguns, two shotguns, brass knuckles, a baseball bat, battle axe, large knives, and Dowd’s identification. Officers arrested Wyse and Dowd and both were interviewed in the Otsego County Jail.
Letourneau and Wyse both lied during their interviews, Crawford said. On being released, Letourneau set up a meeting with police of her own volition, telling them Wyse killed Dowd because she was about to talk to authorities about the Outlaws’ drug activity, Crawford said.
Questioned again by police, Wyse laid the blame for Dowd’s killing on Letourneau, claiming she was the mastermind and he was her loyal yes-man, Crawford said. Wyse also admitted his fingerprints and DNA would be on the weapons found in the SUV, including the murder weapon, Crawford said.
Crawford concluded by asking the jury to find his client not guilty.
Witness testimony
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey D. Stroud called civilian John R. Kuenker as the trial’s first witness. The afternoon of Aug. 17, Kuenker visited property he owns in the 600 block of West Neuman Road.
In an open grassy area behind an abandoned schoolhouse, Kuenker saw a blackened lump, appearing to be a burned body. Kuenker did not recognize the body and called 911.
Next witness Jeffrey R. Wolpert, a retired Bay County Sheriff’s Detective, testified he went to the scene and found the body too badly charred to identify. It bore distinctive tattoos and two necklaces, which police circulated to other departments in hopes of garnering an identity, Wolpert said
A Michigan State Police trooper soon contacted Wolpert, saying the decedent might be Dowd, whom he was working with. Wolpert attended an autopsy on the remains, during which a bullet and its jacket were recovered from the brain.
Later during the probe, Wolpert obtained video footage recorded by cameras at a Bridgeport Township gas station. The footage showed Wyse buying a gas can and fuel on Aug. 16, he said.
During cross-examination, Crawford asked Wolpert if he determined if Dowd’s husband was a member of the Outlaws. He said there were talks and rumors to this effect, but he could not definitively state Dowd had ever been a member.
Dowd made numerous phone calls from jail to other Outlaws members, Wolpert said. Crawford asked if he thought Dowd’s husband had been withholding information on his wife’s death.
“There was always some question,” Wolpert said. “You always feel like someone knows more than what they’re telling you.”
Following a lunch break, forensic pathologist Dr. Patrick Cho testified he performed an autopsy on Dowd’s remains, which were 95% covered in burns. He found a single bullet wound behind Dowd’s left ear and determined the burns were inflicted after death.
Dowd also had a bruise to her face caused before death, Cho said. He was unable to determine if Dowd’s body had defensive wounds due to its condition, he added.
The afternoon saw two officers with the Strike Team Investigative Narcotics Group (or STING) testify they served the search warrant on Dowd’s house on Aug. 16, having evidence drug trafficking occurring there. They seized fewer than 20 grams of cocaine, heroin, and meth, two guns, and Dowd’s cellphone, they said.
Police did not arrest Dowd at the time because she had her 4-year-old son with her and was being cooperative, the officers testified.
The trial is to resume at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26.
**********************
Bay County murder suspect told police woman was killed to maintain MS-13 drug connection
By Cole Waterman | Cole_Waterman@mlive.com October 2, 2024
BAY CITY, MI – In her first conversation with a detective, Britany A. Letourneau initially claimed she did not know Heidi E. Dowd, found shot to death and set on fire behind a former Bay County schoolhouse. She quickly shifted to describing Dowd as an acquaintance, telling the detective she refused to believe she was dead.
In a second interview, initiated at Letourneau’s request, she gave a tearful account of how she witnessed Dowd’s execution and was forced by her killer to help dispose of her body, all to maintain an alleged drug connection to a notorious gang.
“He said he had to do it because she was about to rat on the MS-13 connection,” Letourneau tells the detectives through her sobs. “I didn’t know he was gonna kill her.”
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is an international criminal organization originating in Los Angeles.
“The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” states the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jurors in Letourneau’s trial heard audio recordings of both interviews, presented by prosecutors who maintain Letourneau was the actual triggerwoman who ended Dowd’s life in August 2020. The 44-year-old Letourneau — also known by the surnames Lewis, Johnson, Tigner, and Raymo and aliases Marciea A. Fordyce, Marcia Ann Moses and Marciea Reyes — is charged with open murder, removing, mutilating, or disinterring a dead body, and two counts of felony firearm in connection with the death of the 36-year-old Dowd.
Retired Bay County Sheriff’s Detective Jeffrey R. Wolpert returned to the witness stand the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 1, saying he first spoke with Letourneau at the Otsego County Jail on Aug. 20. Gaylord police arrested Letourneau the previous night during a traffic stop on a black Ford Expedition in which she rode as a passenger. The Ford was driven by Aaron M. Wyse and contained another woman who alleged Letourneau had pistol-whipped her.
Dowd’s charred body, a bullet hole behind her left ear, was found the afternoon of Aug. 17 behind an abandoned schoolhouse on West Neuman Road in Mount Forest Township. Police investigating drug trafficking had executed a search warrant on Dowd’s West Branch house the previous morning, seizing narcotics but not arresting Dowd.
In the recordings, Letourneau agrees to speak with Wolpert after being read her Miranda rights. She claims not to know why she was jailed, speaking in a slurred and mumbled manner.
“Obviously, I’m here to talk to you about Heidi,” Wolpert says.
“Who’s that?” Letourneau asks.
“You don’t know Heidi Dowd?”
“OK. What about her?”
Letourneau tells the detective she drove to Dowd’s house on Aug. 16 to check on her as Dowd’s husband was in jail. They and Dowd’s son left in Letourneau’s burgundy Nissan Maxima, she says.
After dropping off Dowd’s son in Sterling, Dowd asked Letourneau to drive her to Saginaw so she could meet with an elusive figure named “Cowboy.” Letourneau tells Wolpert she dropped Dowd off near a Saginaw hospital and never saw her again.
“Would it shock you if I told you Heidi’s dead?” Wolpert asks.
“What do you mean? How? Where?” Letourneau replies.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Letourneau repeatedly states she does not believe Dowd is dead. Wolpert tells her she’s the last person to have seen Dowd alive.
“We weren’t friends; we were associates. I was only stopping to check on her because of (Dowd’s husband),” she says.
Wolpert asks Letourneau about a comment made by the pistol-whipped woman she was arrested with in Gaylord, who claimed Letourneau told her she had killed someone. Letourneau denies uttering such a statement, saying she did not know the woman.
Wolpert also asks about items found in the Expedition — three handguns, two shotguns, brass knuckles, a baseball bat, battle axe, large knives, and Dowd’s identification.
“Just because you’re riding in a vehicle doesn’t mean you know what’s in the vehicle,” Letourneau replies.
Letourneau went on to say her Maxima is missing, telling Wolpert it bears a “No Lives Matter” bumper sticker.
Weeks later, Wolpert was contacted by attorney Robert J. Dunn, who said Letourneau wanted to give a statement. Wolpert and Detective Sgt. Matthew Pett visited Dunn’s office on Sept. 15 for a second interview with Letourneau, who this time gave vastly different accounts.
n the recording, Letourneau says Dowd wanted heroin after she picked her up from West Branch. At Dowd’s suggestion, the women met up with Wyse in his Ford Expedition. Wyse provided heroin to Dowd, which she injected while riding in the backseat of the Expedition, Letourneau says.
While nodding out, Dowd began talking about police raiding her house and how she had to choose someone to turn in, Letourneau tells the detectives. Wyse’s eyes widened at this and he began making phone calls and sending text messages, Letourneau says.
Wyse had Letourneau take over driving while he climbed into the backseat with Dowd. Moments later, Letourneau heard a boom as Wyse shot Dowd, she tells Wolpert and Pett.
Wyse threatened to burn down Letourneau’s home if she spoke a word of the killing, she says.
“I didn’t get out of the vehicle after that,” Letourneau says. “I just rode with him. I didn’t know what to do.”
For about five hours, they drove around with Dowd’s body in the Expedition, going as far south as Detroit before turning back toward northern Bay County. When they arrived at the Mount Forest Township property, Wyse dragged Dowd’s body out of his Expedition and set it on fire, Letourneau says, bawling as she speaks.
“I will never forget, and I wish it would’ve been me,” she says.
During his investigation, Wolpert obtained video footage recorded by a surveillance camera at a Bridgeport Township gas station about 5 p.m. on Aug. 16. The footage showed the black Expedition pull up to a pump with a bearded Wyse exiting from the driver’s seat, wearing a baseball cap, denim overalls with one strap hanging loose off his shoulder, and no shirt.
Wyse walks to the counter and buys a small red gasoline can, then pumps fuel into it and the vehicle. He then reenters the Expedition and drives away, without anyone else exiting it.
Wolpert also obtained video footage from a McDonald’s in Pinconning showing Wyse arrive there in his Expedition the early afternoon of Aug. 17. The footage showed Letourneau pull beside his vehicle in her Maxima, then get into the Expedition.
Defense attorney Alan A. Crawford argued in his opening statement on Sept. 25 that Wyse is the person who killed Dowd to prevent her from becoming a police informant against the Outlaws Motorcycle Club’s drug activity. An armed Wyse kept a meth-addicted Letourneau captive as he drove around with Letourneau’s body, Crawford said.
Wyse, 47, is himself charged with removing, mutilating, or disinterring a dead body and testified for the prosecution against Dowd in a September 2023 preliminary examination. He is currently imprisoned on drug and weapons convictions.
Testimony in the trial resumed Tuesday afternoon.