WEST OLIVE, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – The case against a 63-year-old Nunica man accused of murdering his neighbor on the day after Christmas may not go to trial.
According to various media outlets that had obtained court documents on Wednesday, Wendell Earl Popejoy allegedly confessed to shooting 59-year-old Sheila Bonge to death while she was clearing off snow from the driveway in front of his 104th Avenue home. The accused said that he grabbed a gun from his home, went out into the driveway and fired one round while her back was to him. Popejoy then said that he took the body into a wooded area behind his residence, where it was discovered two days later by sheriff’s deputies. Results of an autopsy confirmed that Bonge died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Family members said that they hadn’t heard from the victim since talking with her over the phone on Christmas Day; the discovery came hours after the sheriff’s department issued a press release asking for the public’s help in finding Bonge.
Popejoy was ordered held without bond in the Ottawa County Jail by Grand Haven District Court Judge Craig Bunce on Tuesday. No date for a preliminary hearing has been publicly disclosed at this point.
