Family: Son & suspect were best friends

CUMBERLAND, Ind. (WISH) - A Cumberland family that was devastated by two murders on Monday was dealt another blow Sunday. One of the two men arrested, Michael Bell, was their son's best friend and once lived in their home.

"They were as close as ketchup and mustard,” Cathy Crane, mother of victim Jeremy Crane, said. “You wouldn't see one without the other.”

UPDATE | Bell requests meeting with police chief.

Jeremy, 21, was murdered alongside his 7-year-old niece, Kyleigh.

On Sunday, police arrested Michael Bell, 22, and Jeremy Priel, 26.

The Crane family said Bell and Jeremy Crane played on the Warren Central High School football team together and remained best friends.

Kyleigh, they said, knew Bell her whole life and called him ‘Uncle Mike.’

“He was our neighbor; he was my son's best friend; he lived in our house,” Cathy Crane said Sunday after the arrests. “I've done his laundry; I've given him food.”

“My son just asked me, when I told him, he said, 'Why would my Uncle Mike do that?'” Kyleigh Crane's mother, Holly Wilson, said.

The family said they do not know Jeremy Priel.

Immediately after the murders, Don Davis of Don's guns offered a reward of $10,000 for information.

Someone took that bait.

“I got a call yesterday morning at 9, and the caller said, 'Don, I'm the guy you're waiting for to call you. I know who did it,'” Davis said.

That man agreed to meet anonymously and privately with Davis and the police.

“The man told us who did it, and that's who turned himself in this morning,” Davis said.

The man who turned himself in was Michael Bell.

Police haven't said yet who pulled the trigger.

“I feel like I'm in a coma,” Wilson said. “I'm just waiting to wake up, and this is all going to go away.”

Bell and Priel each face two preliminary charges of murder.

Priel also faces a preliminary charge of theft. An XBOX and PlayStation were discovered missing from the Crane home after the murders on Monday.

Police said they have the gun that was used, and they've matched it to the crime scene.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said he hasn't decided yet whether he'll seek the death penalty.

Michael Bell also has a previous rape charge from 2007.

In that case, Bell was acquitted, supported by the Crane family, who said they stood by his side throughout that case, even attending his court appearances.