In this episode of Crime Watch Daily Updates: Mike Crites, an avid outdoorsman, built a home without electricity or running water on his 80-acre Montana property, the perfect place for just himself and his wolfdogs. While Mike got along with some of his neighbors, he started feuding with John Mehan. The two argued about an access road to Mike’s property that went through John’s land, and at one point, John even pointed a gun at Mike.
Enter Leon Ford, a former military man who owned the property north of Mike. Leon allegedly wanted to use Mike’s land as a shortcut to get to his own house, but Mike refused. They started feuding, and unfortunately, it turned deadly.
Mike started to get nervous that one of his neighbors was going to kill him. Then, one day in June 2011, he disappeared.
After not hearing from him, Mike’s friends and loved ones speculated he ran away. Months later, a Forest Service employee discovered a bag of dismembered remains, with the head missing. At the scene, investigators also found specific cable ties that would soon link to Leon. He supposedly had access to those cable ties because of his work at the Naval Air Station near Seattle.
The remains were identified as Mike in January 2012, and his head was eventually discovered miles away.
John Mehan was arrested later for tampering with evidence because he supposedly moved cameras that investigators were using in their investigation. He later pleaded no contest to criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.
In August 2020, nine years after Mike’s disappearance, Leon Ford was arrested in Washington for deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence. A coroner concluded Mike had been fatally shot in the head before he was dismembered. The next year, Mike’s sister, Connie, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Leon, who is still awaiting trial.
Let’s look back at this tragic case of feuding neighbors that turned deadly.
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