In the early hours of March 18, 2017, the quiet of a Grand Rapids neighborhood was shattered by the sound of gunfire. When police arrived at a home near Lincoln Avenue and Bridge Street, they discovered the body of 50-year-old Laurie Kay Lundeberg outside. She had been shot three times, once in the face, once in the chest, and a fatal shot that pierced her armpit and lungs. Robbery was quickly ruled out as a motive, as all of her personal belongings remained with her.
Lundeberg, a mother to a son and daughter, was remembered by friends and family as a kind and helpful person who would open her home to those in need. She had lived in her Grand Rapids home for two decades and worked as a cashier at a local pharmacy.
The investigation into Laurie's death initially left her loved ones with many unanswered questions, as police had no immediate suspects. Friends mentioned that while she was a welcoming person, she had been having issues with some tenants. It was revealed that Lundeberg had previously been assaulted by a man named Vicente Rodriguez Ortiz in September 2016 at her home. Ortiz had pleaded guilty to assault and battery and was on probation at the time of Lundeberg's murder. A friend of Ortiz had been a tenant in Lundeberg's home, and she had reportedly confronted them about drug activity in her basement shortly before the initial assault.
The case broke in January 2018 when Vicente Rodriguez Ortiz, then 22, was arrested for another murder. He was charged with the shooting death of 17-year-old Andre Lamont Hawkins. During his arraignment for the Hawkins murder, Ortiz himself brought up 'his other murder case,' a clear reference to the Lundeberg investigation. Following his arrest, he made statements to the police that implicated him in Laurie Lundeberg's death. He claimed that on the night of her murder, Lundeberg had yelled at him on the street, and in a moment of rage, he shot her.
In March 2019, Vicente Rodriguez Ortiz pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and felony use of a firearm in the death of Laurie Lundeberg. This was after a jury had already found him guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Andre Hawkins in February 2019. In April of the same year, Ortiz was sentenced for both crimes. He received a sentence of 35 to 75 years in prison for Lundeberg's murder and a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of Andre Hawkins, ensuring he would spend the rest of his life behind bars.
