BARRY COUNTY, Mich.-Tuesday, the Barry County Prosecutor charged Harold Ordway for the shooting death of Paul Atchley.
It was a crash near Plainwell in September 2011 which led to the initial arrest of Ordway. A bloody mattress and a rifle were found in his truck. Shortly after that, Michael VanBuskirk and Paul Atchley, two of Ordway’s roommates, were reported missing.
VanBuskirk’s body was found in Kalamazoo County weeks later, Atchley was never found.
Ordway was arrested on a felony firearms and months later, charged in a federal court.
The release from the prosecutor says, “New developments in the case gave rise to the charges but the Prosecutor’s Office is unable to discuss the details of those developments at this time.”
In September 2011, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf said, “It’s our understanding that he (Atchley) had been sleeping in the back of that truck from time to time, so it’s our concern that something happened to him there.”
Jeremy Weitting was the driver hit by Ordway in the crash. In September 2011, he recalled the crash as, “Kind of an aggressive type turn and as I struck his vehicle, I could kind of see his face and he wasn’t even looking at traffic- he was on a dead set pattern of where he was going.”
Then, Weitting said he noticed something strange, “When he (Ordway) lifted up the mattress, that’s when I first seen what I thought was blood, if you will. When he set the mattress back down the second time it had appeared he had draped a sleeping bag over what could have been a blood stain.”
No charges have ever been filed in the death of Michael VanBuskirk.
