The Cipriano family attack

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Before the spring of 2012, the Cipriano family appeared to have a nearly perfect life in a beautiful home within the wealthy community of Farmington Hills, Michigan, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit in Oakland County. With the low crime rate, it was an ideal area for raising a family. 

The family consisted of parents, 52-year-old Robert “Bob” Cipriano & his 51-year-old wife, Rosemary “Rose” Cipriano. The couple had four children; 19-year-old Tucker, who they adopted in 1993 when he was only four days old, as well as twin sons, 17-year-olds Tanner & Salvatore “Sal”, who were juniors at Detroit Catholic Central High School & an 8-year-old daughter, Isabella. 

The peace within the Cipriano household was forever shattered when, in the still of night, a once sleeping household was suddenly turned upside down in a fit of unimaginable violence & rage.

At approximately 2:47 am on Monday, April 16, 2012 17-year-old Tanner Cipriano called 911 in a series of frantic phone calls in which he told the dispatcher that he was hiding in an upstairs bedroom closet while his 19-year-old brother, Tucker, & his friend, were beating his parents with baseball bats.

While Tanner was trying to keep his voice low so as to not alert the attackers, the dispatcher demanded that he go somewhere quiet so he could tell her what was going on. He tried to explain that he was locked in a room to protect himself from the attack. The dispatcher asked him to put his parents on the line, clearly not understanding the extent of the violence & chaos that was happening in the home.

The dispatcher asked Tanner if he wanted to come out from his hiding spot to check on his parents & thankfully, he remained concealed or he would have no doubt also been attacked.

Within minutes, police arrived at Cipriano home & when Detective Richard Wehby went inside, he was met with a grisly scene. Blood was spattered across the walls, stairwells, kitchen cabinets & ceiling. In the center of the kitchen floor lay the deceased body of father & husband, Bob, who was lying face down in a pool of blood wearing only his underwear. The blood that was spattered on the cabinets & ceiling suggested that an assailant was standing over him while striking his head. There was also a bloodied BB gun lying near his body. 

The family dog had walked around the home, tracking bloodied footprints throughout the house, likely frantic during the violent attack against its family. 

Investigators found Rose in a sitting position on the staircase leading to the basement while 17-year-old Sal lay on the ground on top of two bloodied aluminum baseball bats, an Easton & a Quest. Both were unresponsive & had sustained severe, life-threatening head trauma; they were each bleeding profusely & barely clinging to life. 

Police found Tucker’s friend, 20-year-old Mitchell Young, laying on the floor upstairs crying while Tucker was nowhere to be found. Mitchell had blood on his hands, face, shirt, pants & boots. The blood on his pants were in a spatter pattern from an object contacting blood with blunt force that suggested he had been standing over the blood source.

Mitchell complained of pain in his neck & back after he had been hit with a baseball bat in the face, chest & back. He told the officers that Tucker had gone crazy & started swinging. Because of these complaints, he was transferred to the hospital where he waived his Miranda rights & provided a statement. 

In the meantime, medical staff determined that he had a dislocated jaw, but according to Farmington Hills Fire Sgt. Daniel Wecker, although it did appear that he had been involved in a scuffle, it did not appear that his injuries were consistent with being hit with a bat.

Mitchell confessed that after he helped Tucker into the house through the garage that night, they grabbed a couple of baseball bats & came in through the kitchen. Once inside, the family dog went after Tucker, who slammed the dog to the ground. Bob, who was likely awoken by the commotion, confronted them in the kitchen. As Tucker began beating his father with a baseball bat, Mitchell said he screamed, What the f**k are you doing? This was when Tucker told him that if he didn’t get with the program, he would be joining him.

Rose ran into the kitchen & began pleading with her son to stop; she told him that they loved him & they would give him money if he would just stop. Tucker handed Mitchell a bat & told him to shut his mother up. As Rose continued to scream, Mitchell admitted that he’d struck her in the head with the bat once or twice. 

When Tucker’s little sister, 8-year-old Isabella, came into the room, she was armed with her pink baseball bat in a heartbreaking attempt to save her family. Tucker took her upstairs, put her in her room & told her not to come out. While this was happening, Sal took a BB gun from a gun case, but before he could do anything with it, Tucker attacked him with the bat, hitting him on the shoulder & arm as the fight moved its way downstairs. 

The BB gun broke as they continued to fight on the main floor into the hallway where Tucker hit his brother once or twice with the bat. When he saw the flashing lights of responding officers, in response to Tanner’s 911 call, he fled through the door at the back of the house while Mitchell ran upstairs. Before he did, he dragged a severely injured Rose & Sal toward the basement so the cops wouldn’t see them.

Mitchell initially denied that he had assaulted anyone & only provided these versions of events after he was confronted with Isabella & Tanner’s eyewitness accounts. He told investigators that Tucker had taken off in his pickup truck, leaving him behind to hide in the Cipriano home.

Rose & Sal were rushed to the hospital, each in a coma. Sal had a right skull fracture, a brain injury with extensive hemorrhaging to the point that doctors had to shave his head & insert a drain to relieve the pressure. During his sixteen month hospitalization, Sal underwent four brain surgeries in the course of six weeks. He was left with hearing loss in his left ear, frequent seizures, the inability to speak, walk or consume his nutrition by mouth, thus requiring placement of a feeding tube.   

On his discharge from the hospital, he went to two different rehabs that specialized in neuro/brain injuries where his recovery was a very slow process during a time when he was wheelchair bound & worked daily in an attempt to restore his ability to speak & walk, something doctors weren’t sure would ever return. 

Sal’s recovery has been remarkable & after three years of therapy, paired with his refusal to give up, he was in the gym weight lifting & practicing baseball, his favorite sport. Although he remains unable to speak, he communicates by typing messages that can be played through his phone. 

According to Sal, his drive to continue on through his exhausting therapy sessions has been motivated by his father since Bob was a man who never complained. In conjunction with working with experts to help strengthen his brain function, Sal did eye exercises four times a day at home.

Meanwhile, Rose was in a coma for two weeks & hospitalized for three weeks before she was transferred to a rehab facility. She has seven plates in both her head & her face & there was a time when doctors questioned if she would survive her injuries.

A deputy forensic pathologist with the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office indicated that Bob received blows throughout his head & face, his left ear was shredded, likely from a single blow. He had severe lacerations & his skull was fractured while his nose & mouth were filled with blood. There was extensive hemorrhaging & the bones of his head were broken into small pieces. One continuous fracture at the back of Bob’s head caused him to breathe blood into his airway which caused him to literally drown on his own blood. This meant that he was still alive & breathing as the blood rushed into his lungs. He died from multiple blunt force trauma from what was described as a storm of blows. There were also defensive wounds to his hands.

When detectives spoke with Tucker’s best friend since middle school, Ian Zinderman, he indicated that Tucker had first come up with a plot to kill his family for money two weeks earlier. Ian provided information in an exchange for immunity from prosecution. 

He said that Tucker & Mitchell had approached him with a plan to rob his home & kill his family after he’d been kicked out of his family’s house. Tucker was in violation of his parole after he missed a meeting with his probation officer in early April & he needed money for a car so he could flee to Mexico to avoid going back to jail.

Rose & Bob Cipriano adopted Tucker in 1993 when he was only four days old after he was born to an addicted, single mother. He soon showed signs of behavioral & learning disabilities & beginning from the time that he was in second grade, Rose began taking Tucker to Ann Arbor for weekly treatment for his ADHD & learning disability.

Within two years of his adoption, Bob & Rose had twins, Sal & Tanner, & nearly ten years later, Isabella was born. Tucker felt increasingly alienated & hated the fact that he was adopted despite the fact that he was surrounded by love & support & treated with the same attention & care as his siblings. 

By senior year, Tucker began using drugs & alcohol & missing school until he dropped out entirely. He eventually wound up in jail on drug charges & Rose began attending substance abuse classes to learn more about her son’s condition in an attempt to help him recover.

Bob & Rose were eventually out of ideas as to how to help their son. They finally chose tough love & told him that he would only be able to return to their home if he sought help for himself. Although they continued to reach out & touch base with their son, he continued to use K2 (Spice), otherwise known as synthetic marijuana, during a time when it was legal across the state. On July 1, 2012, less than three months after the attack on the Cipriano family, K2 was made illegal in Michigan. 

K2 is commonly known as synthetic marijuana, although the substances are not chemically related in any way. While it does contain some natural material, the effects of the drug come from synthetic chemicals that are sprayed onto a dried plant substance. K2 use can cause confusion, delusional thoughts, hallucinations, violent behavior & extreme cases of anxiety & paranoia. 

Mitchell Young had also been kicked out of his family’s home & he & Tucker were staying wherever they could, often couch surfing at a friend’s house or staying at local motels. 

According to Tanner, their parents continued to love Tucker & they refused to give up hope that he could turn himself around. Bob was a beloved Dearborn, Michigan public school administrator while Rose was an avid swimmer & fitness instructor at the YMCA where Isabella took swimming lessons. They were a loving couple who tried their very best to raise four children with strong values. 

When Tucker learned that his birth mother passed away, he only seemed to increasingly spiral out of control. The fact that he was living away from his parents & keeping little to no contact with them despite their ongoing efforts at communication, meant that Tucker was no longer attending his counseling sessions. His friends noticed that his anger & violent thoughts were escalating & he often discussed wanting to commit murder. Because he spoke so flippantly about the topic of murder, it’s likely his friends could only assume he was joking.

So when Tucker came to his friends with this idea, he & Mitchell decided that they would either target Tucker’s family or another family within the same neighborhood, speculating they could steal somewhere around $3,000. Ian Zinderman would serve as the getaway driver & also be responsible for disposing of the bodies. The plan involved dumping the bodies into the Detroit River & weighing them down with some sort of barrels. After it was all said & done, the money would be split three ways between Tucker, Mitchell & Ian.

Ian indicated that although he told Tucker that he would consider his offer, he never actually intended on participating. On the night of the attack, Sunday, April 15, Ian joined Tucker & Mitchell at the Keego Harbor house of 14-year-old Samantha Chick & her 16-year-old brother, Sebastian Chick. 

When the trio left to drive to the Cipriano home, Tucker & Mitchell were high on K2 with the goal of stealing money from his family so they could buy more. He believed that his family had more money than the other house they contemplated robbing, so they settled on going to his parent’s house. 

According to Ian, when they arrived at the house, Mitchell stayed in his truck while Ian helped Tucker get inside through a garage window that led him into the house through the kitchen. Tucker came back to the truck a short time later with a bank card. They went to two nearby gas stations to purchase K2, withdraw cash & purchase other items with the cards. Their attempts at making the purchases at the first gas station were successful, but they were unable to get any K2 or cash at the second station due to suspected debit card fraud. 

Faced with this rejection, Tucker & Mitchell revived the plan to rob the house & kill his family to eliminate any witnesses. Tucker & Mitchell began to formulate their plan & decided that Tucker would kill his brothers while Mitchell killed his parents. Although Mitchell offered to kill 8-year-old Isabella, Tucker said he loved sister so much, she would be spared. 

As the three drove back to the Cipriano house for a second time, Tucker decided that rather than killing his family, they would just try to rob them. Back in the garage, he found a Visa gift card, but after visiting a third gas station with Ian & Mitchell, they realized the card had only $2.64 on it.

By 1 am, the trio were back at Samantha & Sebastian Chick’s house where Ian told Tucker & Mitchell he wanted out of the whole plan. He decided to stay back & spend the night at their house while Tucker & Mitchell left. After the attack, Ian said that he wished he believed they were actually going to go through with it because he would have tried to stop them.

When Tucker fled from his family’s home in Mitchell’s truck, he hadn’t realized that Mitchell left his cell phone in it. Investigators were able to track him down by 4 am, where they found him at Samantha & Sebastian Chick’s house. After he cleaned the blood from his shirt, Tucker saw an online report about him & asked Ian if he could get him a change of clothes from Mitchell’s truck, dispose of a knife inside the truck as well as the truck itself. However, by this time, it was too late as officers had arrived.

As Tucker was arrested, officers noted that unlike with Mitchell, the blood on his pants was not consistent with impact spatter. Investigators located a Visa gift card & receipts listing Robert Cipriano as the card holder.  

When Tucker first spoke with investigators, he offered several versions about what transpired prior to his father’s murder & his mom & brother’s attack. He denied drinking or smoking K2 that night & at first claimed he hadn’t even gone into his family’s house. However, when he was told that both Isabella & Tanner had seen him, he admitted to entering the home.

He said that once they snuck into the house through a window to steal money, he was bit by the family dog. This was when they were confronted by his dad, who told them to leave. He said that while he held his dad from behind, it was Mitchell who struck him repeatedly with a baseball bat they found in the garage. He said that Mitchell continued to strike his dad even after he fell to the floor.

Tucker told investigators that when his mom came into the kitchen, she had a stupid look on her face. He said that Mitchell hit her with the bat & chased her into the living room.

Tucker said that he left the kitchen for a period of time when he took Isabella upstairs to get her out of harm’s way. He said he was pleading with her to stay in her room because he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Meanwhile, she continued to cry, I thought you loved me. According to Tucker, he told her that he loved her while he continued to beg that she stay in her room.

He said that he knew that Tanner was hiding in an upstairs bedroom, but he pretended not to know in order to protect him. However, in Tanner’s statement to police, Tucker was searching the house for him & he heard him yell to Mitchell, There’s still one more.

Tucker admits that he attacked Sal & while he was striking him with the bat in the hallway, he heard him making gurgling noises which caused him to run to the bathroom to vomit.

Tucker said that when police arrived, Mitchell had his little sister, but she managed to break free at the sound of the doorbell. As she ran to the door to open it for the officers, Tucker ran out the back door while Mitchell ran upstairs. 

Tucker & Mitchell were each charged with several counts including first-degree premeditated murder & first-degree felony murder in the death of Bob Cipriano. They were also charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder for the beatings of Rose & Sal as well as a charge of armed robbery. 

Each pleaded not guilty, blaming the other for beating Bob, Sal & Rose. They pleaded guilty to robbery, but refused to confess to harming Bob & Rose. 

Tucker later claimed that when he waived his Miranda Rights & gave his statement, he was high on both K2 & mushrooms. Mitchell also claimed his confession was involuntary as he’d been up all night & hospitalized for his injuries & handcuffed to the bed at the time. 

Leading up to the trial, Bob’s brother, Greg, was desperate for the Cipriano family to avoid going to trial where they would be forced to relive their nightmare. He visited his nephew in jail & spoke with him frequently on the phone in hopes of convincing Tucker to plead guilty to first-degree murder, but Tucker continued to insist that he could never hurt his father & pleading guilty would mean giving up.

Only days before the trial was set to begin, Tanner spoke with his brother in a last ditch effort to encourage him to change his plea. He asked him to do something that their dad always wanted, for him to finally take responsibility for something in his life. 

These words clearly struck a chord for Tucker, who, days later, changed his plea from not guilty to no contest to first-degree murder`, meaning an acceptance of conviction without admitting guilt which would spare his family from reliving the brutal crime in court.

In July 2013, Tucker was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During his time in court, he expressed his love for his siblings & his regret for not being a better big brother. He also spoke of his parents & described his dad as a great man & said, Dad, a lot of people miss you down here. I love you & I hope for what it’s worth, I did what you would’ve wanted me to do. He described his mother as amazing & spoke about all of the love & support she showed him through his entire life. He reflected on a time when he was starting first grade & the teachers had to detach him from his mom because he didn’t want to let her go & said, Well mom, I wish I would’ve never let go.

During Tucker’s sentencing hearing, he sat fidgeting as Assistant Prosecutor John Skrzynski read testimony from 8-year-old Isabella, So I woke up & went downstairs & I saw this boy pounding my mom with a bat, & Tucker was there too. Tucker said to go back upstairs, but I didn’t. I got my bat – I was trying to get Tucker, but then Tucker took my bat & started to pound Salvatore & my mom with the other kid.

Mitchell Young maintained his plea of not guilty & said that when they went to the Cipriano house that night, he had no intention of harming anyone, let alone killing anyone. He said he had never even met any of the family members, he’d never been to their home before, he had nothing against any of them & he & Tucker had been only acquaintances for less than a month. He claimed that when he went to the Cipriano home, he was under the impression that it was for Tucker to pick up his personal belongings & since he had a pickup truck, he was only providing a ride. Keep in mind, they drove to the house in the middle of the night, an odd time to move belongings from a house.

During the trial in June 2013, evidence was presented that suggested that Tucker’s versions of events were more likely. There were two bloodied baseball bats found in the home, an Easton & a Quest. The Easton bat contained Bob, Rose & Sal’s DNA & Mitchell could not be excluded as the DNA donor on the bat’s handle, but Tucker could. The same went for a knife that was found in the master bedroom. The blood on Mitchell’s pants & boots also matched the DNA of Bob, Rose & Sal & the pattern of blood spatter suggested he was standing above the blood source.

The blood on Tucker’s pants was not consistent with impact spatter & was a DNA match to his mom & brother, but not his dad.

Although Mitchell claimed that his injuries happened as a result of Tucker attacking him, a doctor who treated him at the hospital testified that the severity of his injuries were not consistent with being attacked with a bat, but likely happened during a struggle with Bob.

Ian Zinderman also testified about the version of events & the fact that he heard Tucker & Mitchell making their plan to rob the house & kill the family. Tucker would kill his brothers while Mitchell would kill Bob & Rose. Bob would be killed first since he was more of a threat.

In June 2013, after a jury of six men & six women deliberated for 90 minutes, Mitchell Young was found guilty of all five counts: first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder, two counts of attempted murder & one count of armed robbery. 

Many members of the Cipriano family attended the trial & despite the fact that Tanner, Rose & Isabella were on the prosecution witness list, they did not appear in the courtroom & were not called to testify. Rather, prosecutors built their case with other witnesses & physical evidence. Like Tucker, Mitchell was also sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

In mid-September 2012, five months after the family was attacked, 17-year-old Tanner walked Rose out to the 50-yard-line during Senior Parent Night at a Detroit Central Catholic High School football game. This came after doctors were unsure if she would live let alone walk again.

In an interview five years after the attack on her family, Rose indicated that each day when she wakes up, she’s faced with the choice of making the day a positive one or a negative one. While she struggles with debilitating headaches, Sal’s seizures have remained a huge issue & he requires around the clock care. Sal has remained absolutely dedicated to his recovery, something that was awe inspiring to experts who worked with him. Meanwhile, Tanner was preparing to graduate from Notre Dame while a 13-year-old Isabella spent her free time in volleyball & drama. 

Regardless of the hell she endured at the hands of her son, Rose remains in contact with Tucker because he is a member of their family. She acknowledges that although they’ll never understand what happened or why, the health & healing of their family includes Tucker as well.

Fast forward to 2025 which marks thirteen years since the attack & the Cipriano family continues to heal. Rose spoke about the tremendous support she & her children have received from the community to help with money spent for Sal’s caregivers & daily needs. The doctors & holistic treatments they pursue aren’t covered by insurance. In 2024, Sal struggled with additional complications in his health when they discovered that the shunts in his brain weren’t working properly. He had to undergo four surgeries in two months.

Sal’s caregiver, Jennifer Beier, works with him on his recovery & how he uses his phone to communicate. She loves his sense of humor & being the social part of his day-to-day life.  He is working with a speech language pathologist & focusing on swallowing & getting off of his feeding tube. Sal has re-learned how to walk & run again & he was even given the chance to throw out the first pitch at a Tiger’s game.

According to Rose, the financial demands for her son’s ongoing care are a constant concern. The medication Sal takes to control his seizures affect his short term memory, which has made it challenging for him to pursue his education. He’s graduated from high school, but college classes have been too difficult because of his memory issues. However, he continues to pursue his passion of baseball.

Like her big brother, Tanner, Isabella also graduated from Notre Dame in May 2022 with a double major in science & American studies. Tanner lives in California where he is pursuing writing & producing jobs within the entertainment industry.

Each year, the Cipriano family holds the Cipriano Classic 5K run/walk to raise money to cover medical bills & June 6, 2025 marked the 14th annual event. They raised over $35,000 in 2024 & $44,000 in 2023, but as the years have gone by, memories fade & the financial help dwindles. You can register for the 2026 race at ciprianoclassic.com or simply donate. You can also follow Sal Cipriano on Instagram at justsal101 where he loves encouraging words before a race.

The Cipriano family have embraced the initials JKLP for Just Keep Loving People since Bob & Rose always taught their children about compassion. In the aftermath of the horrors of that night in April 2012, they have learned that only after true forgiveness can true healing begin.

References:

1. YouTube: Channel 7: Investigators testify in Cipriano murder case
2. EMS World: Story of Mich. man facing murder charges doesn’t add up, EMT testifies 
3. People of the State of Michigan v Mitchell Jordan Young
4. Our Lady of Lourdes: Life Notes
5. Click on Detroit: Cipriano family discusses amazing journey to recover after brutal 2012 attack
6. Click on Detroit: Karen Drew: Catching up with the Cipriano family ahead of annual fundraiser
7. Cipriano Classic 5K Fun Run & Walk
8. WXYZ 7: ‘We can’t give up.’ Healing continues for family after 2012 baseball bat attack
9. American Addiction Centers: The effects & dangers of K2
10. New Haven Register: Robert Cipriano ‘drowned in his own blood’; Grim homicide scene described at court hearing with video
11. MLive: Tucker Cipriano, Mitchell Young to spend life in prison for Farmington Hills baseball bat attack
12. Detroit Free Press: Mitchell Young guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder in baseball bat attack
13. True Crime News: Michigan teen pleads guilty to dad’s murder after family pressure
14. YouTube: JustThoughtLounge: The disturbing case of Tucker Cipriano
15. CBS News: Tucker Cipriano update: Mich. man pleads no contest, accepts life in prison in attack on family