Gardenhire accused of murdering 2 people, prior to Mason Co. arrest.

Garenhire

Gardenhire accused of murdering 2 people, prior to Mason Co. arrest.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LANSING — Two more murder charges have been added to the long line of charges against Isaiah Gardenhire, a Mt. Pleasant man who has lived on and off in Mason County. 

In June, Gardenhire, 40, of 4173 S. Isabella Rd., Mt. Pleasant, was arraigned in Isabella County’s 76th District Court Tuesday, June 8, 2021 on 12 charges including one count of homicide, multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery and carjacking. 

Now, he faces additional charges in Ingham County in connection to the April, 2021 fatal shootings of Harley Owens, 39, and his girlfriend Kelsey Coon-Lennon, 29, according to court records.

The homicide charges in Isabella County are in connection to the stabbing death of 13-year-old Adrie Dembowske. 

Gardenhire was the subject of an intense manhunt in Isabella County in early June, accused of killing Dembowske and a sexual assault in the area of Jamestown Apartments in Mt. Pleasant. At one point, he is accused of having broken into an apartment and held the tenants hostage, sexually assaulting one of them.

Owens and Coon-Lennon were shot and killed April 28, Lansing police said. Their bodies were discovered May 1.

On May 27, he was arrested by Mason County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a felony charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct (victim between age 13-17) in an unrelated matter. Bail had been set at 10% of $7,500, of which was paid and resulted in him being bonded out. 

Gardenhire is well known among law enforcement and courts in Mason and Isabella counties. According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, he was discharged from prison Feb. 12, 2020, after serving about four years for a felon possessing a firearm conviction out of Mason County. He had also been imprisoned for home invasion second degree out of Ingham County and had been convicted in 2000 of assaulting a jail employee/attempting to escape and attempted felonious assault in Isabella County. He was sentenced to three years in prison for each charge.

The May charges in Mason County were eventually dropped. 

Gardenhire is in custody in the Isabella County Jail on $1.5 million bond. During one of the court hearings in the Isabella County case, which includes open murder and four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, Gardenhire was disruptive and flipped off the judge.

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