On January 20, 2025, officers responded about 3:20 a.m. to a Best Western hotel room in Mishawaka, Indiana, where 44-year-old Anthony Korolis of Buchanan, Michigan, was found unresponsive near the room’s entrance. Korolis had sustained gunshot wounds to his chest and head and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was wearing a bandana over the lower portion of his face when found.

Investigators recovered a fully loaded 9mm handgun near Korolis’s body and three .40 caliber casings inside the room. Drug paraphernalia, a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, and a pill identified as clonazepam were also found. Justin Levi Bonham, 34, was in the room and admitted to shooting Korolis with a .40 caliber handgun, saying he fired in self-defense after seeing Korolis enter the room armed. The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office preliminarily ruled the shooting a justified homicide, citing inability to disprove the self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt.

Bonham was not charged in Korolis’s death but faced other charges stemming from items in the room. He pleaded guilty to unlawful carrying of a handgun and was sentenced to five years in the Indiana Department of Correction with two years of probation to follow; drug-related charges were dismissed. Does anyone have information about Korolis’s movements in Mishawaka that morning or witnesses who were nearby?