William “Billy” Chernow Jr., a 35-year-old man from rural Sanilac County, Michigan, had built a quiet life around family, work, and the outdoors. Born on January 3, 1979, in Deckerville to William Sr. and Jessica Chernow, he was employed as a truck driver with the Sanilac County Road Commission, a job that kept him on the county’s back roads in all seasons.
Outside of work he was known for his love of hunting, snowmobiling, and tinkering with old tractors, and he remained closely tied to his parents, siblings, and extended family in the nearby communities of Carsonville and Ubly.
On Sunday, October 12, 2014, the routine that defined Chernow’s life was abruptly broken. When he failed to show up for work, a concerned neighbor went to his home on East Forester Road in Bridgehampton Township, a rural area near Deckerville. Entering the residence, the neighbor discovered Chernow lying in his bed with an obvious wound to his head. Deputies from the Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene at about 1:30 p.m., where they found him deceased.
The case was treated as suspicious from the outset. Authorities arranged for an autopsy to be performed in Lapeer by Sanilac County Medical Examiner Dr. William Starbird. The autopsy confirmed what investigators already suspected: Chernow had died from a gunshot wound to the head, and his death was formally ruled a homicide. In public statements, Sheriff Garry Biniecki described the loss as a tragedy for the family and the wider community, acknowledging that residents were on edge. Even in those early days, however, he emphasized that investigative leads pointed to an isolated incident rather than a random attack, suggesting that detectives believed the victim had been specifically targeted.
As the week progressed, investigators moved quickly behind the scenes. They developed a primary suspect: a 40-year-old man from Deckerville named David Lamont. According to subsequent reporting, sheriff’s investigators had been closing in on Lamont when the case took an unexpected and grim turn. On the Friday following the homicide, deputies went to his home and found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, with the suspected weapon still present at the scene. Sanilac County officials publicly identified Lamont as the primary suspect in connection with the homicide of Chernow, underscoring that the killing did not appear random.
After Lamont’s death, the investigation continued in a more technical vein. Authorities indicated that crime lab work and ballistic testing would go forward to tie together the physical evidence from both scenes. The sheriff’s office continued to ask anyone with information to contact detectives, but there is no public record that any other suspects were named. No arrests were made in the case, and because the only person publicly identified as the primary suspect died before charges could be filed, there was no trial and no conviction stemming from Chernow’s killing. In practical terms, law enforcement treated Lamont’s apparent suicide as closing the central question of who was responsible, even as many of the details about motive and the events inside the house on East Forester Road remained known only through confidential investigative files and the final forensic reports.
