Belle Meade Hatchet Murder Suspect Confessed ‘In Detail’: Police

BOWLING GREEN, KY — Accused murderer Domenic Micheli “admitted in detail” to killing his former boss with a hatchet, Metro Police said Wednesday.

Micheli, 36, was arrested Tuesday night after a traffic stop on Interstate 65 near Bowling Green, Ky., ending a more than 36 hour manhunt that began with a grisly attack at a Belle Meade gym where, police allege, Micheli killed Balance Training owner Joel Paavola, 46-year-old father of five.

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Police said Micheli was fully cooperative with the Kentucky State Police who pulled him over. A motorist who recognized Micheli and his Toyota Prius from Nashville-area news coverage called in a tip.

After Monday’s incident there were few sightings of Micheli, though surveillance footage emerged of him at a Gallatin urgent care clinic and drug store buying a suture kit and noticeably limping on his left leg.

In addition to announcing the apparent confession, Metro Police said they found a hatchet, large knife and blood inside Micheli’s car.

After his arrest, he was treated for his leg injury and booked into the Warren County, Ky. Jail where he was interviewed by MNPD West Precinct detectives. He is due in court in the Commonwealth June 13 and is then expected to be brought back to Nashville.

MORE: GoFundMe Launched For Joel Paavola

Micheli, who police believe may have been on the West Coast some time after he was fired by Paavola in 2017, had previously been arrested for unlawful entry and failure to obey an officer near the White House late on the night of April 28, according to a Washington, D.C. police report obtained by Patch, after pulling his car to a security checkpoint and refusing to move. A court-appointed psychiatrist who examined Micheli after that arrest found him competent to stand trial.

According to his LinkedIn page, Micheli was a personal trainer at the gym. Metro Police said he was fired by Paavola approximately 14 months ago. As Micheli was a fairly well-known member of the fitness community, at least one area gym - Boost Fit Club on Vaughn’s Gap - added extra security and closed early Monday.

Micheli's Facebook page is full of blank verse poetry, in which he claims to be the "Sun of God" (or occasionally, the "Son of God"). He appears to be out of contact with his family, many of whom placed comments in recent weeks on his posts urging him to come home or call them.

In one chilling post written April 8, Micheli wrote he was visiting a Jewish temple.

“i wont be armed. i have two small knives and a hatchet in my car," he wrote (his syntax preserved).

In another, he makes a reference to “Nurse Mayinga.” Mayinga N’Seka was a nurse in what was then Zaire who died from Ebola in 1976. She is often considered, incorrectly, the index case - or “Patient Zero” - of the disease. In that post, Micheli discusses index cases and says he “can kill nine tenths of the world population and be within justice.” He mentions “abaddon,” the name of both a bottomless pit and a vengeful angel in the Bible.

On May 26, he began by writing "There will not be any mercy doled out after this post."

In his most recent post on June 1, he wrote, among other things, "Truly, no one has been actually honest to God with me yet. In fact, though there are the faithful and faithless, I've opened up a drastic separation even from my own people, the faithful, over the last week."

Photo via Metro Police