The Pinellas County investigators started looking into every angle of Michael Leipniewski's life.

They learned about his ties to Obel's neighborhood, his criminal record, his family, and so on.

But there was a lot of stuff they couldn't dig up without talking to the suspect directly,

so they decided it was time to pay him a visit.

On Thursday, January 26, 2023, Detective Thomas Lane and Detective Ron Chalmers flew to Stennis

International Airport in Mississippi and drove to Waverland. At 11.56 a.m. they knocked on the door of the

house where Lepniewski was staying, and Lapnuski himself opened it, holding a knife.

Hey, buddy, said Ron Chalmers. How are you doing, sir? Lefniewski said, hello. Chalmers said, how are you, are you Michael? Leapniewski said, I am Michael. Chalmers said, hey, Michael, I'm Ron. How are you doing, buddy? Making lunch? Lapnuski said, just making a, yeah, egg McMuffin or whatever. Chalmers said, oh, okay. And Latniewski said, what's up? Chalmers said, hey, I'm from the Pinellas County Sheriff's office. This is Tom here. You're not in any trouble or anything like that, but we were hoping you had a couple of minutes to look at some pictures, help us out with an old cold case. We actually were just driving by on our way to New Orleans. Saw you were just off I-10. We were hoping you could show you some pictures. We're trying to identify an old neighbor of yours from an old case. And we got a couple minutes. Can I show you some pictures? Lapnuski says, yeah, yeah, come on in. At this point, Leepnuski told the detectives, though, that there was someone else in the house,

an elderly woman he cared for who was asleep.

I'm going to address this situation a little later.

For now, the detectives were happy to have a reason to keep things outside for safety's sake.

So they suggested they speak in the yard, and all three went and stood near the attached garage. Detective Chalmers used a large curbside waist can as a desk, probably the very same one

that Wavland officers had lifted Leibniewski's trash from. They made chit-chat about the house, where the

detectives should go for lunch after, how Leipniewski

quit drinking, and how he now needs reading glasses in order to see the photos they wanted to show

him. Yeah, getting old's a bitch and so on. Let me just say here that despite the banter,

Leipovsky was visibly very nervous. It was clear to the detectives that when he heard Pinellas

County Sheriff's Office, he recognized that they were from a jurisdiction in Florida where he had had significant contacts and that they had traveled quite a distance to come talk to him. This is from Detective Chalmers' report, quote, when I visited Mr. Leapniewski, he appeared very concerned that I was visiting him from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in Florida.

Mr. Leibniewski made several references to the fact I was from Pinellas County and referred to himself as a suspect as I was leaving, end quote.

All right, back to the conversation.

Leibniewski says, all right, let's go over the pictures and stuff.

And Chalmers says, all right, buddy. Leibniewski says, all right, let's go over the pictures and stuff. And Chalmers says, all right, buddy.

...