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OCTOBER 1, 2025 • Vol. 44, No. 21
Man convicted of first-degree murder following 2-week trial in case from 2022
Explore Feature Series
The folLowing is part of C & G Newspapers’ feature series about Northern Michigan destinations to explore Photo by Michael Murphy IV Photography
BY BRIAN WELLS bwells@candgnews.com
See MURDER on page 11A
Up North Wine BY GREG TASKER
M Photo by Brandon Schadler
ABOVE: Pond Hill Farm’s market features canned ciders, wine, jarred goods and more. TOP: The husband-and-wife team of Derrick Vogel and Izabela Babinska run Folklor Wine & Cider, located south of Charlevoix.
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ichigan’s growing wine scene is home to wineries of all different sizes and designs. There’s a Tuscan-style villa perched on a hill on Old Mission Peninsula. A Kentucky-style plantation on the Leelanau Peninsula. Modern industrial-like structures here and there. And, of course, revamped houses and restored barns (even a chicken coop). But an Airstream trailer may be a first in Michigan. Outside Charlevoix, a restored 1973 Airstream serves as the summer tasting room for Blu Dot Farm and Vineyard. You can walk up to a window — the Airstream has been customized — and order a sampling of up to 10 wines or a glass of your choice. Grab a chair under an umbrella-topped table, while you sip a glass of Party Girl Sparkling and enjoy views of ripening grapes and a former horse farm next door. Blu Dot Farm and Vineyard is among the wineries belonging to the See WINE on page 8A
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ROSEVILLE — A 22-year-old man from Lexington, Michigan, was found guilty in mid-September of multiple charges including first-degree murder in a case that dates back to 2022. In November 2022, Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney Peter J. Lucido announced the murder charge against Stephen Freeman, who was 19 at the time. Freeman was accused of murdering 63-year-old Gabriele Seitz, whose body was discovered in the bed of her pickup truck. At approximately 12:15 p.m. Oct. 27, 2022, Roseville police officers were Freeman dispatched to the area of Common and Hayes roads for a report of a traffic crash. When they arrived, officers learned that the driver of one of the vehicles, a pickup truck, had fled the scene, according to a 2022 press release from the Roseville Police Department. While officers were investigating, they located a deceased person — later identified as Seitz — in the bed of