MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — For days, police repeatedly visited a rural Isabella County home in hopes of finding a 6-year-old boy after his father did not return him to his mother.
Unable to legally enter the house without a warrant, their hands were tied on how thorough they could search.
The boy’s mother, meanwhile, anxiously awaited updates and sought intervention from the courts.
Their hopes were dashed with the discovery of the boy’s body, along with his father, both dead from gunshot wounds, in a camper secluded on the father’s property.
Available evidence indicates the child, Rowan M. Morey, was killed by his father before police were first alerted to his potential peril.
As Sheriff Michael Main told Rowan’s sobbing mother in a phone call, what the evidence did not indicate was “any sort of motive or reason that would explain this tragic incident.”
The Isabella County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, Aug. 29, provided MLive with a 27-page police report in response to a Freedom of Information Act request related to their investigation into their search for Rowan and the subsequent discovery of his body.
The agency also provided seven video clips from deputies’ body-worn cameras showing them inspecting the property and a 24-minute phone call between Sheriff Main and Rowan’s mother and stepfather, in which he explains the probe’s timeline.
The reports state a Michigan State Police trooper was dispatched to the property of Rowan’s father, Michael S. Winchell, at 8220 E. River Road in Chippewa Township for a well-being check around 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 19. Winchell and Rowan’s mother, Brandi Morey-Pols, shared custody of the boy.
Winchell was supposed to return Rowan to his mother that morning but did not do so and wasn’t taking her calls, reports state.
The trooper found nothing amiss and left. A deputy returned to the property that evening and again the following morning, finding nothing appeared different, reports state.
About 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, Morey-Pols and her husband Brian Pols visited the sheriff’s office and filed a missing person report with deputies. The mother had last seen Rowan on Aug. 12, she said.
A concerned Morey-Pols described her and Winchell’s relationship as contentious but said he had never disappeared with their son before. She advised Winchell had a camper, with deputies telling her they didn’t see it on his property.
Her husband alleged Winchell would often mistreat Rowan, such as shaving his head before gatherings with his mother’s family. Brian Pols told deputies his was worried that her son could be killed.
Deputies returned to Winchell’s property on Tuesday morning, knocking on doors and looking through windows, the reports and video show. They found nothing amiss and left but returned that afternoon. On this visit, deputies ventured further back on the property, following a pathway through tall grass and found a camper behind a thicket of trees and brush.
Deputies knocked on the locked camper but received no response. The same day, deputies obtained a cellphone number for Winchell from a relative. Deputies’ calls to it went directly to voicemail.
Also on Tuesday, Morey-Pols filed a motion with the Isabella County Friend of the Court seeking an emergency ruling from a judge regarding her son’s custody. The judge denied the motion that afternoon.
The morning of Wednesday, Aug. 21, deputies again returned to the property and found no changes, according to police.
Shortly thereafter, relatives of Winchell’s drove up from downstate and went to the property. They called police after looking through a camper window and spotting an unresponsive Winchell inside. Deputies told her that, as a relative, she could do what she had to do to check on Winchell’s well-being.
Sheriff Main and deputies responded to the scene and met with Winchell’s relatives, who broke a camper window and saw Winchell on a bed inside. Main broke into the camper and confirmed Winchell and Rowan were deceased from gunshots, police said.
Deputies then obtained a search warrant for Winchell’s property. They found no cellphones, laptops, or computers in the house but did recover an iPad on a nightstand in the camper. They also discovered a bullet hole in a wall of the camper.
In Main’s Aug. 26 call to a grief-stricken Morey-Pols and her husband, the sheriff broke down the steps his deputies went through in their efforts to locate Rowan. He explains that without a search warrant, deputies could not enter the house, the camper, or vehicles on Winchell’s property.
As Morey-Pols wept, Main said it appeared Rowan was killed early Monday morning. The iPad found in the camper had a factory reset performed on it at 7:52 a.m. that day.
“Our working theory is the crime probably occurred shortly thereafter but we have to wait for the medical examiner’s office to confirm that,” Main said. He added that it appeared Rowan was asleep when he was shot. He speculated Winchell killed himself immediately after killing his son.
With deputies finding no other digital storage devices, Main said it appeared Winchell burned those items in a burn barrel.
Main went on to say investigators reviewed the video footage recorded by the camera worn by a deputy who visited the property on Tuesday afternoon. That footage showed a small bullet hole on the camper wall, indicating to Main the murder-suicide had already occurred.
Morey-Pols and her husband held a press conference at their Caledonia home on Aug. 27.
Fighting back tears, Morey-Pols said she believed Winchell allegedly abused Rowan – like deliberately shaving his head – as retaliation toward her. The mother said she’s tried to take her concerns to Isabella County’s Friend of the Court but was told “it’s a civil matter.”
Jerry Pols, Rowan’s grandfather, read from a statement Tuesday afternoon as family stood at his side and wept. He said the family court system is flawed and fundamentally broken.
“We are not dealing with minor cracks in the system, but gaping holes that allow children like Rowan to fall through,” he said. “Often with catastrophic consequences.”
Court records show Morey-Pols filed a motion Aug. 21 in Isabella County Courts to modify physical custody of Rowan as well as parenting time. The hearing initially was set for Sept. 5.
Rowan, whose favorite color was orange, would have turned 7 on Aug. 31.
“Rowan was a delightful little boy whose laughter could light up any room,” his obituary states. “His infectious giggles and playful nature brought joy to everyone around him. He had a unique ability to find humor in the simplest of things, making even the dullest days feel like an adventure. Whether he was cracking jokes or pulling silly faces, he had a knack for making people smile.”
Rowan loved Pokémon and had a budding interest in golf.
“He would often be seen swinging his little club in the backyard, dreaming of becoming a champion one day,” his obituary states.
Rowan’s funeral was held Aug. 29 in Caledonia.