Alan Dale Nelson, an 80-year-old White man, was found dead in his Sidney Township, Michigan home on Nevins Lake on March 30, 2015. Investigators determined he had been shot in the head and chest and that his death was not from natural causes. The rifle used was identified as a .22-caliber that had been reported stolen from a neighboring house on the night believed to be the crime date, March 29. Authorities described the killing as the result of a home invasion amid a string of break-ins around Nevins Lake; investigators concluded the intruder likely assumed cottages were empty and was surprised to find Nelson at home.

A 48-year-old Sidney Township resident, Alan Lee Morse, was arrested and charged in connection with the burglaries and the homicide. Morse pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2015 and was sentenced in January 2016 to 26 to 75 years in prison with restitution ordered. A confession Morse made to police was later ruled inadmissible because it was obtained illegally, but his guilty plea remained in place.

Does anyone have memories of Nevins Lake in 2015 or information about the break-ins that led to Nelson’s death?