The Taco House Murder
Jackson, Michigan is not the type of small town anyone would refer to as idyllic, especially in the late 1990’s. There is nothing quaint or cute about it. A small, industrial city, that in 1999, industry had mostly abandoned, Jackson housed its fair share of crime and grime. But nobody expected what would be found, placed on the porch of an abandoned home on July 15th, 1999.
Police officers investigating a missing person report in Jackson County, Michigan, were met with a nervous and disoriented Kevin “Kip” Artz at his business, Kip’s Pizza and Taco House. Kip’s wife, Patricia, had been reported missing by family members two days prior, on July 13th. Family members reported it was unlike Patricia to not contact them at least daily and were especially unsettled at the lack of contact due to Kip recently undergoing brain surgery. When questioned at his business, Kip relayed that Patricia had left town to visit friends. But police weren’t buying his story, and details remained sketchy. First off, the vehicle Kip reported his wife leaving town in had been sold days prior. And again, her family was adamant that it was unlike Patricia to not call and discuss her plans or whereabouts. If she had left town to visit a friend, they would have known about it, especially with Kip on the mend. Police made arrangements with Kip to return later to discuss his missing wife.
Later, on the day of July 15th, 1999, detectives returned to the location of Kips’ Pizza and Taco house before their pre-arranged time, only to witness Kip Artz disappear behind the building carrying a suspicious white box, and then return to his restaurant empty handed. Police began investigating the premises. Within the kitchen of the restaurant the smell of burnt flesh permeated the air. A scrap of charred flesh was found stuck to the edge of a countertop, and a pan of a mysterious meat-like substance sat abandoned in a sink bay. Police sprayed luminol in the kitchen to check for blood and noticed that the luminol lit the entire kitchen up, indicating that blood was everywhere. Meanwhile, another investigating officer had discovered the suspicious white box Kip had been carrying placed on the back porch of a neighboring vacant home. Upon opening the box, police discovered a human skull and human flesh. Artz was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Kevin ‘Kip’ Artz confessed that on the evening of July 13th, 1999, he looked at his wife Patricia sitting on the couch in their apartment and saw the devil. He preceded to beat his wife with a metal pipe before wrapping her body in a sleeping bag and dragging her to their adjacent restaurant. Over the next two days Kip dismembered, boiled, baked, and fried his wife’s body in the kitchen of their restaurant. When police came to investigate her whereabouts two days later, they had inadvertently caught him in the act. In March of 2001, Artz was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder of his wife, Patricia Artz. He is currently serving his sentence in Adrian, Michigan.
There is much debate over Kip’s motive for killing and also his sanity. Some family members claim it was the brain surgery that caused him to kill. Witnesses say Kip had hinted at murderous antics years prior to actually carrying out the crime. Others claim he exhibited psychotic tendencies long before the murder. Regardless, Kevin Artz’s heinous actions place him within the top ten most gruesome murders in Michigan.
This story is based on true events that occured in Jackson, Michigan in July of 1999. Facts for this story were compiled from local newspaper articles as well as court affidavits and documents.