Man convicted of first-degree murder following 2-week trial in case from 2022

ROSEVILLE — A 22-year-old man from Lexington, Michigan, was found guilty in mid-September of multiple charges including first-degree murder in a case that dates back to 2022.

In November 2022, Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney Peter J. Lucido announced the murder charge against Stephen Freeman, who was 19 at the time. Freeman was accused of murdering 63-year-old Gabriele Seitz, whose body was discovered in the bed of her pickup truck.

At approximately 12:15 p.m. Oct. 27, 2022, Roseville police officers were dispatched to the area of Common and Hayes roads for a report of a traffic crash. When they arrived, officers learned that the driver of one of the vehicles, a pickup truck, had fled the scene, according to a 2022 press release from the Roseville Police Department.

While officers were investigating, they located a deceased person — later identified as Seitz — in the bed of the truck that police said Freeman had been operating. Seitz was partially concealed with blue bedsheets.

It was later determined by police that the pickup truck was Seitz’s vehicle and that Freeman was driving when the crash occurred.

Freeman fled the scene on foot, according to Roseville police, but Roseville officers arrested him several days later, according to records from the Macomb County Jail.

On Sept. 16, 2025, Freeman was found guilty following a two-week jury trial that ended with jurors deliberating for more than seven hours, according to a press release from the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

Freeman was convicted of first-degree premeditated and felony murder, both lifelong felonies; first-degree home invasion, a 20-year felony; second-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 15-year felony; and concealing the death of an individual and receiving and concealing stolen property — motor vehicle, both five-year felonies.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Freeman broke into Seitz’s home through a window while she was at work. She arrived home while he was there, and he sexually assaulted her and then strangled her using a shoelace, the Prosecutor’s Office stated in a press release. Freeman then dragged her body in the blue bedsheets to the pickup truck, according to a press release.

“Today’s verdict delivers justice for the victim and her family,” Lucido said in a prepared statement following the trial. “This young man’s actions were brutal, deliberate and have left lasting scars on our community. While no conviction can erase the pain and loss suffered, we hope this outcome provides a measure of closure.”

Freeman is scheduled to be sentenced at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 22 before Circuit Court Judge Julie Gatti. His attorney, Gary Kennedy, could not be reached for comment.