On a day that should have been for family gathering and belated Thanksgiving celebrations in Muskegon, Michigan, 19-year-old Jedediah Privacky's life was cut tragically short. On November 29, 1998, Jedediah was relaxing in his family's home, watching television, when his younger brother, Seth, fatally shot him in the back of the head with a. 22-caliber Ruger. This act was the beginning of a horrific chain of events that would leave five people dead.
The violence that Sunday afternoon stemmed from a dispute between Seth and his father, Stephen. After being told it was time for him to move out of the family home, Seth retrieved his father's gun and began his deadly rampage. His brother Jedediah was his first victim. Following this, Seth systematically murdered his mother, Linda, as she came out of the shower, and then his father, Stephen, and grandfather, John, when they returned to the house. Jedediah's 19-year-old girlfriend, April Boss, was also killed when she arrived at the home, becoming the final victim in the massacre.
The gruesome discovery was made late that night when April Boss's parents, concerned that she had not returned home, went to the Privacky residence. There, they found a body in the driveway and immediately contacted the police. Investigators who arrived at the scene soon uncovered the full extent of the tragedy, finding the bodies of all five victims throughout the house.
The investigation quickly led to 18-year-old Seth Privacky as the primary suspect. He was arrested the following day after hiding in a nearby pole barn. Another 18-year-old, Steven Wallace, was also taken into custody and was initially charged with murder as an accessory, as he had helped Seth move the bodies in an attempt to stage the scene as a robbery. Seth Privacky confessed to the murders, stating that he had shot all five victims. He was subsequently convicted on five counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His accomplice, Steven Wallace, was also charged in connection with the crimes. Twelve years later, on July 15, 2010, Seth Privacky was shot and killed during a failed escape attempt from Kinross Correctional Facility.
