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Families of missing Battle Creek couple organize search party

Murdered Battle Creek Couple
Posted at 5:39 PM, Oct 14, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-14 19:38:58-04

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Battle Creek Police are asking for the public's help in locating a couple who have been missing for a week.

Family members, friends and strangers all came together on Wednesday at Bailey Park to help look for missing 34-year-old Joseph Soule and 31-year-old Jaclyn Lepird.

"These are two people that are missing. These are family members. These are people we care about. We don’t know where they are and we don’t know what happened to them," said Jaclyn's cousin Sylvia Villeneuve.

Battle Creek Police said the couple was last seen on October 7, 2020.

"It’s very unusual for her and Joey both to just not talk to nobody that long," said Jaclyn's cousin Ashley Lepird.

The Battle Creek Police Department said there are very few details about their possible whereabouts at this time.

But, Lepird's cousins said her car was found a couple of days ago on Lark Street, and Wednesday the families organized a search party at Bailey Park.

"This was more so a starting point for the search party. I thought we would start in Pennfield and work our way towards Lark Street where Jackie’s car was found. Then you can pretty much just walk over to Post from there. So, we just thought we would work our way there from here," said Villeneuve.

Family also checked out the apartment where the couple lived, saying normally the apartment is messy, but the floorboards in the bedroom looked like they had been replaced. The area looked very clean.

They also said that the couple had issues with their landlord prior to disappearing.

"She said that the landlord was getting weird on her and that he didn’t want Joey there or Joey around. He was, I guess, acting weird around Joey. It was just weird. That’s her own home. She should be able to have whoever she wants in her home," said Lepird.

"It just wasn’t a very safe place for them to be. I feel like something bad happened there," said Joseph's brother Jimi Soule.

Both families said they're not giving up and will continue to search until they have answers.

"I don’t want this to get put on the wayside. I want my brother to be found," said Soule.

"She’s lived a life of nothing but pain I feel like, and so for her not to come home and this to happen to her, I just feel like she was cut short," said Lepird.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact Calhoun County Dispatch or Silent Observer.

FOX 17 will continue to follow this story and brings details as they become available.