BARRY COUNTY, Mich. — Harold Ordway pled guilty Wednesday to the 2011 murders of his former roommates, Paul Atchley and Michael VanBuskirk, according to the Barry County Prosecutor’s Office.
The 44-year-old man was found with a bloody mattress and rifle in the bed of his pickup truck after a car crash in September 2011, shortly before his two roommates were reported missing. VanBuskirk’s body was discovered at a Kalamazoo County farm shortly after, but Atchley’s body was never found.
Ordway pled guilty to second degree murder in the shooting death of Atchley, and agreed to show authorities where his body was as part of a plea deal that drops additional felony firearm and habitual offender charges.
In addition to those charges being dropped, he also won’t be charged with VanBuskirk’s murder as part of the deal, though according to the prosecutor’s office he did confess to choking him to death.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 9 at 8:15 a.m. in Barry County Circuit Court.
