Still Missing MI - Heather Kelley, 35, mom of 8, phoned kids said would be home soon, car found, Kalamazoo, 11 Dec 2022 *Reward* *arrest*

[PommyMommy]

MAR 8, 2023

Evidence leads investigators to believe missing Michigan mother may have been murdered

Evidence found in Heather Kelley's vehicle led investigators to believe she may have been murdered.

www.fox2detroit.com

The sheriff's office said they found Kelley's vehicle around Sprinkle and Michigan Avenue, not far from where she was seen on video. They said there was evidence in her vehicle that made them suspect foul play.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The FBI said there is evidence that Heather Mae Kelley, 35, who has been missing since Dec. 10, may have been the victim of a homicide, WOOD reported.

Kelley’s family has said her boyfriend is a person of interest.
The woman left her Portage home about 9 p.m. that night and called her kids around 10:20 p.m. to tell them she’d be back shortly — but never showed up.

Her burned pickup truck was discovered by her cousin the next day at North Sprinkle Road and East Michigan Avenue in Comstock Township, WOOD reported, citing the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators found hair and blood inside the vehicle. DNA tests have determined that the blood was Kelley’s.

Blood of missing Michigan mom of eight found in her burned vehicle

A Michigan mother of eight disappeared three months ago after calling her kids and saying she’d be home soon – and her blood was found inside the charred remains of an abandoned vehicle.

nypost.com

 

[PommyMommy]

The FBI said there is evidence that Heather Mae Kelley, 35, who has been missing since Dec. 10, may have been the victim of a homicide, WOOD reported.

Kelley’s family has said her boyfriend is a person of interest.
The woman left her Portage home about 9 p.m. that night and called her kids around 10:20 p.m. to tell them she’d be back shortly — but never showed up.

Her burned pickup truck was discovered by her cousin the next day at North Sprinkle Road and East Michigan Avenue in Comstock Township, WOOD reported, citing the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators found hair and blood inside the vehicle. DNA tests have determined that the blood was Kelley’s.

Blood of missing Michigan mom of eight found in her burned vehicle

A Michigan mother of eight disappeared three months ago after calling her kids and saying she’d be home soon – and her blood was found inside the charred remains of an abandoned vehicle.

nypost.com

Noting:

[...]

The cousin told investigators she saw a red vehicle speed off from the scene.

A sheriff’s deputy had spotted Kelley’s truck at the same location 16 hours earlier, before Kelley was reported missing and before it was set ablaze, according to the NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids.

He reportedly tagged the vehicle as abandoned and left it there.

[...]

The man — who has not been named – had been on parole, wearing a tether while finishing up a federal sentence at a halfway house in Kalamazoo Township for a 2010 drug conspiracy that included a murder-for-hire plot.

The halfway house is located a couple of miles from where the burned pickup truck was discovered.

The boyfriend ditched his tether and went AWOL from the halfway house late on Dec. 11, WOOD reported, citing records.

[...]

Detectives used search warrants to sift through the boyfriend’s phone, email and Facebook records, which revealed that he lied to detectives investigating Kelley’s disappearance.

He claimed he’d last seen her when she dropped him off at the halfway house on Dec. 10, but phone records and GPS from his tether show they were at a private dinner club in Kalamazoo later that night, according to the outlet.

His cellphone was later turned off but was later tracked to the area near where Kelley’s vehicle was found.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 8, 2023
FBI continues search for Michigan woman missing since December | Western Iowa Today
Authorities had identified an unnamed person of interest who was offering “limited cooperation” in the investigation, the sheriff said at the time.

Fuller said investigators believe at least one person may have helped with the burning of the vehicle and “the possible destruction of other evidence.”

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 31, 2023

Authorities share update on person of interest after Michigan mom-of-8 vanished

Heather Kelley, a 35-year old-mother from Portage, Michigan, has been missing since December, law enforcement told ABC News, calling the case a "homicide investigation"

abc7ny.com

[...]

"The sheriff's office, as well as the Portage, Michigan, [Department of] Public Safety, have been working this in conjunction together as a homicide investigation that has led us into several different possibilities. But it leads us to one person of interest," Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller III told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "That person of interest is still in jail on unrelated charges. But right now, we feel that the investigation continues us on a path toward a possible arrest at some point, down the road, of the suspect."

[...]

"We've gotten in some pretty good information," he said. "We're headed in a path that we believe is a good path. The investigation seems that it's leading in an area that we are convinced is a solid connection."

[...]

Fuller told ABC News that investigators have DNA evidence from Kelley's car.

"We believe that given the spring weather and how it's warming up and more people are out traveling along the edges of the road in this area where we have searched fairly well, we believe that there's still a possibility that she is in that area and that springtime is when somebody is going to come across Ms. Kelley and then contact us," he said.

[...]

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Kelley's boyfriend was identified as a person of interest in the case.

The boyfriend, who will not be named at this time, is expected to remain in custody with the Federal Bureau of Prisons until at least April 26, 2023 on charges not related to Kelley's case, according to a Jan. 11 reply from Judge Robert Jonker.

He was convicted of federal conspiracy to distribute and deal cocaine, and possession of a firearm in 2011, according to the indictment.

He had left his probation home without permission the day Kelley disappeared, according to court documents.

He was also indicted for murder-to-hire, but that charge was later dropped, and was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison, according to court documents.

FBI Detroit offers reward up to $20,000 for help finding missing Portage mother

The search for a missing Portage mother continues.

wwmt.com

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 31, 2023

Cops never flagged for homicide suspect’s dead tether

A man under investigation in the death of Kalamazoo County mother of eight Heather Kelley has been indicted on a federal charge of escaping a halfway house at the time of her disappearance.

www.woodtv.com

A man under investigation in the death of Kalamazoo County mother of eight Heather Kelley has been indicted on a federal charge of escaping a halfway house at the time of her disappearance.

The 37-year-old man was scheduled to be released from federal custody on April 26 but the escape charge, filed this week in federal court, means the feds can continue holding him, giving police in Kalamazoo County more time to investigate. He’s being held in the Newaygo County Jail.

[...]

Search warrants obtained by Target 8 show the man was serving out the end of a federal cocaine sentence at KPEP, a halfway house in Kalamazoo. The warrants also show that at 9:30 p.m. the day of Kelley’s disappearance, his tether went dead.

[...]

The tether went dead, court records show, about the same time Kelley was calling her kids to say she was meeting her boyfriend in Kalamazoo. Phone records show they were together that night at a Kalamazoo dinner club where the man worked.

He returned to the halfway house early the next morning with what a roommate described as deep scratches on his chest and back, court records show.

Just before 6 a.m., the tether was back on. Police say they believe Kelley was killed and her body disposed of during that 8.5-hour window.

After her car was discovered with her blood in it, the man fled the halfway house and cut off his tether, search warrants show. He was arrested several days later.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

APR 2, 2023

FBI offers $20,000 reward for info on missing mom of 8, believed to have been killed

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to the location of a missing mother of eight. Law enforcement believe the woman, Heather Kelley of Michigan, has been killed…

cw39.com

[...]

After her car was discovered with her blood in it, the man ran from the halfway house and cut off his tether, search warrants show. He was arrested several days later.

A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., refused to discuss the case with Nexstar’s WOOD.

“For privacy, safety, and security reasons, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) does not comment on matters related to pending litigation, ongoing legal proceedings, or ongoing investigations,” spokesman Donald Murphy said.

“I can tell you, KPEP did everything they were supposed to do in this case,” Truscott, the KPEP spokesman, said. “They also, when a tether goes out, will call and follow up to make sure a person is where they’re supposed to be at that given time. That is standard practice and everything was complied with in this case.”

[...]

 

[youarentsilly]

So let me just throw out another idea. Here's the hypothesis: Heather was, as she said, really headed to see the boyfriend at the halfway house. She didn't make it. She was intercepted by someone with ill feelings toward the boyfriend. When the boyfriend heard about what happened, he cut off his tether and went AWOL. Maybe he was in fear himself or maybe he thought that Heather was alive and he could do something to help her situation.

What are the holes in that hypothesis?

I know the majority wants to just badmouth the boyfriend, so let's please try to keep responses on topic. Its just a thought exercise, it doesn't we all love him now.

 

[PommyMommy]

So let me just throw out another idea. Here's the hypothesis: Heather was, as she said, really headed to see the boyfriend at the halfway house. She didn't make it. She was intercepted by someone with ill feelings toward the boyfriend. When the boyfriend heard about what happened, he cut off his tether and went AWOL. Maybe he was in fear himself or maybe he thought that Heather was alive and he could do something to help her situation.

What are the holes in that hypothesis?

I know the majority wants to just badmouth the boyfriend, so let's please try to keep responses on topic. Its just a thought exercise, it doesn't we all love him now.

I'd say the biggest issue with that theory is the phone records which place Heather and the boyfriend together the night she went missing. Also problematic is that his phone shows him in the location her vehicle was found. Following that, his roommate observed deep scratches on his chest and back. Etc, etc. MOO

ETA: Timeline: The disappearance of Heather Kelley

 

[Rosydecember]

So let me just throw out another idea. Here's the hypothesis: Heather was, as she said, really headed to see the boyfriend at the halfway house. She didn't make it. She was intercepted by someone with ill feelings toward the boyfriend. When the boyfriend heard about what happened, he cut off his tether and went AWOL. Maybe he was in fear himself or maybe he thought that Heather was alive and he could do something to help her situation.

What are the holes in that hypothesis?

I know the majority wants to just badmouth the boyfriend, so let's please try to keep responses on topic. Its just a thought exercise, it doesn't we all love him now.

I’d honestly say the scratches reported by the roommate of his.

 

[Rosydecember]

So let me just throw out another idea. Here's the hypothesis: Heather was, as she said, really headed to see the boyfriend at the halfway house. She didn't make it. She was intercepted by someone with ill feelings toward the boyfriend. When the boyfriend heard about what happened, he cut off his tether and went AWOL. Maybe he was in fear himself or maybe he thought that Heather was alive and he could do something to help her situation.

What are the holes in that hypothesis?

I know the majority wants to just badmouth the boyfriend, so let's please try to keep responses on topic. Its just a thought exercise, it doesn't we all love him now.

I’d honestly say the scratches reported by the roommate of his.

 

[Beth11311]

I’m just so looking forward to when we have “Arrest” added to her title. I’m all for playing devil’s advocate but in this case, just with then info we the public have been privy to,

 

[imstilla.grandma]

According to Fuller, there is one person of interest in the case, but he’s currently jailed on unrelated charges. Fuller said that it is believed that the person of interest may have helped set Mae’s car ablaze and may have destroyed other evidence.

Although Fuller has not yet revealed the suspect’s identity, Kelley’s boyfriend was arrested four days after her disappearance for getting rid of a tether he was wearing as a condition of his federal parole. At the time, he was staying at a halfway house, concluding a federal sentence on a 2010 cocaine conviction that included a murder-for-hire plot. He is set to be released on April 26.

Authorities believe there’s a possibility that Mae could still be in the vicinity of where her car was found.

Missing Michigan mom of 8: FBI announces $20K reward

FBI announces $20K reward for information leading to the location of missing Michigan mom of 8 Heather Mae Kelley.

www.courttv.com

 

[Megnut]

According to Fuller, there is one person of interest in the case, but he’s currently jailed on unrelated charges. Fuller said that it is believed that the person of interest may have helped set Mae’s car ablaze and may have destroyed other evidence.

Although Fuller has not yet revealed the suspect’s identity, Kelley’s boyfriend was arrested four days after her disappearance for getting rid of a tether he was wearing as a condition of his federal parole. At the time, he was staying at a halfway house, concluding a federal sentence on a 2010 cocaine conviction that included a murder-for-hire plot. He is set to be released on April 26.

Authorities believe there’s a possibility that Mae could still be in the vicinity of where her car was found.

Missing Michigan mom of 8: FBI announces $20K reward

FBI announces $20K reward for information leading to the location of missing Michigan mom of 8 Heather Mae Kelley.

www.courttv.com

Does that mean they don't think he had access to a vehicle?

Or do they mean general area, not enough time to disappear her outside the local area?

 

[Joey100]

The boyfriend is set to be released today 26th April according to the article above. Hopefully they have something on him by now so he isn't released.

 

[flowershop]

It is well into spring and no big leads reported in the media. Was there ever a point where search parties combed through the area?

 

[KooshBall]

Is boyfriend out of jail now?

 

[Dargon335]

Nothing new reported in MSM that I am aware of.

 

[PommyMommy]

Is boyfriend out of jail now?

We don't really know but I'm hoping that this little tidbit from late March is accurate.

Cops never flagged for homicide suspect’s dead tether​

The 37-year-old man was scheduled to be released from federal custody on April 26 but the escape charge, filed this week in federal court, means the feds can continue holding him, giving police in Kalamazoo County more time to investigate. He’s being held in the Newaygo County Jail.