Girlfriend of suspect arrested in Chelsea Bruck case speaks

27-year-old Newport man in custody in case, Monroe County sheriff says

MONROE COUNTY, Mich. – After an arrest was made in the disappearance and death of Chelsea Bruck, the suspect's girlfriend is opening up about his shocking admission.

Bruck disappeared from a Frenchtown Township Halloween party more than a year and half ago.

Friday night, the Sheriff's Office announced an arrest in the case, and Saturday the suspect's girlfriend opened up about his arrest.

Bruck first went missing in October 2014. Her remains were then found by construction workers in northern Monroe County.

Friday night, a 27-year-old man from Newport was arrested in connection with her death.

Investigators swarmed a mobile home park Friday. Inside one unit was the suspect. He had just recently moved there with his girlfriend, a woman who is shocked to learn the man she loved is now connected to the case.

"It's just so scary because I knew we were alone," Kelli Richter said. "It hurts you start falling for someone and you don't know that side of them."

Richter is going through an emotional roller coaster. Police stormed her house and arrested her boyfriend for Bruck's death.

"I knew he had warrants out for his child support. That's all I knew," Richter said. "It's scary. You go to bed with him every night. I never knew."

But when officers came to the Frenchtown Villa mobile home park, this was for a much more serious crime.

Dana Boring was in the bathroom at the time.

"I was in the shower. He said, 'I'm going to prison. I said, 'What have you done?'" Boring said.

Police said the man Richter fell in with over the past month was the same man who killed Bruck, then hid her body in a field. Richter told Local 4 News she didn't believe the circumstance until her now ex-boyfriend called her Saturday afternoon from jail.

"He called me today and he told me that he did it. I told him not to lie to me and that I wanted the truth, and if you love me, tell me the truth, and he told me he did it on accident," Richter said.

Richter added her boyfriend claims Bruck died during consensual sex that went too far.

"When he did it he did it too rough, and he tried to give her CPR and he freaked out," Richter said.

Richter said her boyfriend told her in the phone call he accidentally strangled Bruck. She told Local 4 News he never talked about this case and his connection comes as shock to her more than anyone.

The Monroe County sheriff said the man arrested knew things about the case no one but the killer would know.