Murder-for-Hire: How a Hitman, A Porsche, and Surveillance Footage Broke Open a Deadly Family Plot
What began as a quiet Monday morning turned into a nightmare after Gattuso dropped off his 3-year-old daughter Kennedy at daycare and returned home, where he was ambushed and beaten to death with a hammer. The killer, Michael Nakvinda, was no random attacker—he was a hired hitman, paid by Gattuso’s own father-in-law, Gene Kirkpatrick.
Gattuso’s murder came just seven months after his wife, Valerie, died from heart surgery complications, leaving little Kennedy parentless in a heartbreaking turn of events. Prosecutors say Kennedy was the ultimate victim of this calculated crime. Cass County State’s Attorney Birch Burdick, who worked the case, admits he still thinks about it every week as he passes the crime scene on his way to a local Kiwanis Club meeting.
Surveillance video from The Bowler, a bowling alley down the street, became key to solving the crime. Footage captured Nakvinda loading Gattuso’s Porsche onto a U-Haul trailer, helping police trace the suspect and piece together what really happened that day. This episode explores how community tips, surveillance footage, and old-fashioned police work came together to crack the case—and how one man’s twisted plan forever changed a family.
