Bail set at $2 million for man accused of killing former St. Charles woman
Bail was set at $2 million Tuesday for a man accused of beating and stabbing to death his 19-year-old girlfriend, formerly of St. Charles, and hiding her body in a closet after an argument last weekend at their DeKalb apartment.
Michael G. Kulpin, 20, of the 900 block of Kimberly Drive, was being held at the DeKalb County jail on charges he murdered Moorea M. Desroches, who once attended St. Charles North High School and had a son with Kulpin.
He also is charged with aggravated domestic battery and concealment of a homicide, both felonies.
According to DeKalb police, authorities conducted a well-being check Sunday after Desroches' mother called police because her daughter failed to show up at work for a couple of days and she couldn't reach her.
Police went to the couple's apartment on the 900 block of Kimberly Drive and spoke to Kulpin and two others at the apartment.
Police found the body of Desroches in a bedroom closet at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
The two got into an argument late Friday night and the dispute turned physical, with Kulpin beating and later stabbing Desroches at least five times before moving her body to a bedroom closet and covering it with a plastic shower curtain, DeKalb police Cmdr. Robert Redel said.
Police said they recovered several items of “evidentiary value” from inside the apartment and a Dumpster outside the building.
“The items had blood on it, but we're not going to go into detail about what was recovered,” said Redel, noting Kulpin and Desroches had lived in the two-bedroom apartment with their toddler son for about a month. “We are being told (the toddler) was in the apartment. Whether he witnessed this, we don't know. They had a very rocky relationship. From what we've been told, it's been violent in the past. It was just a culmination of them not getting along.”
Redel said police had not been called to the couple's apartment for domestic issues.
The two others questioned were released, and police say they don't believe they had anything to do with the murder.
On May 31 Kulpin posted on his Facebook page:
“All people want/need in a relationship is true honesty but why does it always seem to be easier to lie then to be true and loyal as people of society we all know true right from wrong but we always turn to the bad instead of good because wrong always felt better I guess that's why we lie especially to the ones we claim to love the most.”
Friends posted condolences and memories of Desroches on her Facebook page.
“I regret not getting lunch with you the last time we planned. I had gifts for you and (your son). Will forever be grateful, you were my first friend in St. Charles. ... Rest in Peace,” wrote Matt Zrelak.
Added friend Blakely Thomas: “I absolutely do not and will never understand how someone so kind and so full of life could be taken at all, let alone like this. It's not fair. You made it clear that you would do anything at all for your little boy, and you touched the hearts of people just looking at the two of you. We can all be confident that he has the most devoted, loving and utterly irreplaceable guardian angel watching over him.”
Kulpin has previous arrests in Kane County for using a forged credit card, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, domestic battery and violation of an order of protection, records show. He had traffic offenses in DeKalb County.
Kulpin was arrested in March 2014 and charged with using a stolen credit card to pick up Desroches, then a minor, after curfew and taking her to a hotel. He served 39 days in jail on the felony charge before pleading guilty to a reduced misdemeanor, records show.
Citing abuse, Desroches and her mother obtained a two-year order of protection against Kulpin on March 27, 2014, banning him from contacting her at the high school and Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, records show. Kulpin violated the order the next month and was sentenced to probation and domestic violence counseling, which he failed to complete. records show.
Kulpin also was charged with domestic battery and resisting arrest in March 2015; he was accused of punching Desroches in the face and head, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a year of probation.
But Kulpin was ticketed for misdemeanor driving while license suspended in DeKalb County in February 2016 and Kane prosecutors moved to revoke his probation, records show.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Kulpin faces between 20 and 60 years in prison with no chance of early release.