Kevin Bacon Mourns Homicide Victim Who Shares His Name: 'Life Was Taken From Him Much Too Soon'

Kevin Bacon is paying tribute to the Michigan man who shared his name and was killed this week after an apparent Christmas Eve dating app meet-up.

The Footloose star, 61, mourned the loss of Kevin Bacon on his Instagram page with a photo of the late 25-year-old and a heartfelt message.

“For obvious reasons I’m thinking this morning about the friends and Family of this young person Kevin Bacon. His life was taken from him much too soon. His love was hair dressing. I bet he would have done a great job on this mess on my head. RIP KB”

The victim’s family told MLive that in addition to being a hairstylist at J.C. Penney, he was also studying psychology at the University of Michigan-Flint.

The slaying of Bacon — whose body was found in a home in Bennington Township on Dec. 28 — has also drawn attention from makeup mogul and YouTuber Jeffree Star, who mourned the loss on Twitter after a user pointed out that the victim was a fan of his.

“RIP KEVIN 😥 I’m devastated to hear of the passing of someone from Michigan who lived their life fearlessly and was taken too soon 💔 Please help his family in this horrible time,” Star, 34, wrote, while adding a link to a GoFundMe page.

Star himself donated $20,000, according to the page.

Bacon’s roommate and longtime friend Michelle Myers told MLive that he said he was headed out to meet up with a man he’d met on the dating app Grindr on Christmas Eve.

An hour after their schedule date began, Bacon texted Myers that he was having a good time and would be out “for a while.”

His family eventually reported him missing on Christmas Day after he failed to show up for breakfast, MLive reported. Police later found his car in a parking lot, containing his clothes, phone and wallet.

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The Michigan State Police Bay Region confirmed that he was found dead on Dec. 28, and that a 50-year-old Bennington Township man had been arrested on a murder charge.

That man, Mark Latunski, was arraigned in court on Monday on one count of open murder and one count of mutilation of a human body, MLive reported. He faces up to life in prison if found guilty.

The Shiawassee County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, and PEOPLE was unable to reach the public defender appointed to Latunski.

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Bacon’s father Karl told the outlet that the Clayton Township Police Department was tipped off to a series of Facebook posts that eventually led them to Latunski’s house.

“[He was] a kind-hearted person who enjoyed his life, his work. He was a very good hairstylist. He had a natural talent for it,” Karl Bacon said of his son. “He was a very joyful person, very sociable person, and everybody who knew him enjoyed being around him. He will be greatly missed, not only by us but by all his friends and family.”

Meanwhile, Michigan State Police also confirmed that authorities responded to a call at Latunski’s house earlier this year, though no one involved wanted to file a complaint or press charges.

The call was in regards to a partially clothed man being chased out of the home, though he later said he had been there consensually and was running because he got “spooked,” Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser of the Michigan State Police told the Lansing State Journal.

Latunski was also charged with two counts of custodial kidnapping in 2013, though the charges were eventually dismissed at the request of the alleged victim, according to the Journal.