Tulsa Police: Man Beaten To Death By Roommate Over Rent Money

Homicide Sergeant Dave Walker said 31-year-old Ted Wayne Kissel had only recently moved to Tulsa from Kansas before his beating death.

Tuesday, December 2nd 2014, 4:22 pm

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police: Man Beaten To Death By Roommate Over Rent Money

Tulsa's most recent homicide victim had recently moved to Tulsa from Kansas and was engaged to be married.

Police said Ted Kissel advertised online for a roommate and Joel Giefer answered the ad two months ago. Giefer is now in jail, accused of beating Kissel to death with a baseball bat.

Kissel was a welding student with a fiancée and no criminal history; police said his only crime was needing a roommate to help pay rent. They said a dispute over that rent money led to his violent, gruesome death.

Kissel's Facebook page shows he's from Andover, Kansas and got engaged to be married in 2010. His last post was a week ago Sunday, when he included a new picture of him and his fiancée.

Police said he advertised for a roommate on Craigslist and Giefer answered the ad.

They said Giefer told a friend recently that he planned to kill Kissel and dispose of his body. Then, Monday night, Giefer texted that friend and said he'd done it.

Tulsa Police Sergeant, Dave Walker said, "That friend did the right thing and called police to go check on the roommate."

When officers got there to check on Kissel, they said Giefer's answers didn't add up and he was acting strangely.

"They could smell bleach and were invited in by Joel, and looked down the hallway and saw a baseball bat and saw blood coming out of the doorway," Walker said.

They said that's when they found Kissel's body in a bedroom, under a mattress. He had been beaten to death, probably only 45 minutes earlier.

Police said Giefer had blood on his shoes and clothing, so he was booked into jail for first degree murder.

Records show he has previous arrests, but not for anything violent.

"We've talked to him numerous times, arrested him numerous times, but nothing said we need to watch him or you could see this developing," said Walker.

Giefer is being held in jail without bond right now.

Records show his brother, Jeremy, is a convicted killer, currently serving life in prison without parole for stabbing a woman to death in Tulsa in 2005.