Suspect in Gaine case claims he is being framed by criminals
The suspect in the Michael Gaine murder case has denied having any involvement in the killing of the Co Kerry farmer.
Michael Kelley, a former US Army soldier, claims he is being framed by a subversive criminal organisation.
Mr Kelley, who is an American citizen in his 50s, has told RTÉ News that he was the man arrested and questioned by gardaí on suspicion of murdering Mr Gaine.
Having been detained and questioned for a period of 24 hours in Killarney Garda Station he was released without charge on 19 May.
RTÉ News has spoken to Mr Kelley on two occasions.
The first interview took place in early April in the old farmhouse where Mr Kelley had been living on Mr Gaine's farm. This interview was conducted before Mr Kelley was arrested and when Mr Gaine's disappearance was still being treated as a missing persons case.
Mr Kelley also spoke to RTÉ News last Monday, in the apartment where he now lives in Tralee.
During this meeting, Mr Kelley confirmed on the record that he had since been arrested and questioned. He also reaffirmed aspects of this case discussed in the initial meeting.
Mr Kelley said he worked as a labourer on Mr Gaine's farm for almost three years.
"We worked hand and glove. Doing the sheep or whatever, dosing them and stuff. I had already handled animals. I was fixing cars and tractors for him."
Mr Kelley said he last saw Mr Gaine "around 10am" on 20 March when they met in the farmyard. Mr Gaine had indicated to him that he was planning to meet somebody that day, before giving Mr Kelley a list of chores to complete during the day.
Mr Kelley said he then returned to the old farmhouse to make coffee, adding that was the last time he saw Mr Gaine.
"Around 10am. He was as normal as ever. He was doing his chores. Redistributing the silage and things. Just ordinary chores.
"He said 'look after the chores for me. I'm just going to meet a man. I'll be back later'.
"He didn't come back that night. He said he would be back. Then they came looking for him at about 10am the following morning."
The Kerry farmer disappeared on 20 March. Mr Gaine's vehicle, which contained a number of personal items, was found on the farm at Carrig East, situated between the town of Kenmare and Moll's Gap.
In an effort to establish the whereabouts of Mr Gaine, an extensive search of Mr Gaine's farm, surrounding valleys and lakes was initiated.
Mr Gaine's disappearance was upgraded by gardaí from a missing person case to a homicide investigation on 29 April.
Human remains were discovered on Mr Gaine's farm on 16 May, as workers were spreading slurry on fields. The farm was immediately sealed off and declared a crime scene.
Further human remains are believed to have been found in a slurry spreader and in a slurry tank on the farm in the following days.
Gardaí say DNA tests have since confirmed that the human remains are those of Mr Gaine.
Mr Kelley was arrested on suspicion of murder by gardaí in Tralee on 16 May.
He had relocated to an apartment there two weeks previous to his arrest. Mr Kelley denies any involvement in the murder of Mr Gaine and believes Mr Gaine may have been lured to his death by sinister elements.
"If he wasn't around the barn during the day, it's possible that somebody lured him, maybe at gun point, in to an area of concealment. You could walk 100 yards from the barn and be totally out of sight."
Mr Kelley has his own theories about how Mr Gaine was killed and how his body was disposed of.
He also believes there are questions to be answered about the way the investigation is being conducted by gardaí.
Mr Kelley said he was taken to Sneem Garda Station shortly after Mr Gaine's disappearance to make a voluntary statement.
Mr Kelley was arrested on 18 May, two days after human remains were discovered on Mr Gaine's farm.
Questioned by RTÉ News about his relationship with Mr Gaine, Mr Kelley described it as "transactional" and "a good working relationship."
"I wouldn't describe us as great friends, but we got on. Our relationship was transactional. He gave me accommodation, food and paid me. In return I worked on his farm.
"We had a good working relationship. A civil relationship. We got on and understood one another.
"We are both farmers. We are getting along because we are grown men and we have work to do.
"We were brothers of the land, around the same age, with similar interests, and I liked that sense of brotherhood."
Mr Kelley said he repaired and maintained farm machinery and vehicles for Mr Gaine.
Mr Kelley also showed RTÉ News an old range [stove] in the farmhouse which he said he had repaired and plumbed to provide hot water in a makeshift sink.
Mr Kelley was using what appeared to be a tractor battery to charge his personal devices. He said there was no electricity in the house, but that he was comfortable.
"The arrangement got me out of the limbo I was in where I needed a job and I needed a place to stay. I was doing the work and we were getting along alright.
Mr Kelley is originally from a rural part of Maine in the United States. He said he served in the US military as an infantry private and spent an extended period of his service in Germany.
Mr Kelley, who is separated and has three daughters, said he arrived in Ireland in late 2017.
He claims he was forced to flee the United States as he had been investigating criminal activity there and feared his life was in danger.
Mr Kelley said he remains in danger and he is of the belief that he continues to be monitored by sinister elements here in Ireland.
"It's an organised crime network. It's co-ordinated on the internet," he said.
After an unsuccessful attempt to secure asylum status in Ireland, Mr Kelley said he spent prolonged periods living in the forests in Killarney National Park and in another wooded area between Sneem and Kenmare.
He said he held a number of jobs in the Glenbeigh and Sneem/Kenmare areas, including as a seaweed harvester and as a landscape gardener, before he went to work for Michael Gaine.
Mr Kelley said he is a mechanic and also designs prototypes. During the interview in the old farmhouse on Mr Gaine's farm, Mr Kelley showed RTÉ News a sketch book which contained many detailed drawings of various pieces of equipment which he had designed.
He said he hopes to share these designs with MI5 or other military entities.
Mr Kelley is also a musician who plays the flute and tin whistle along with other instruments. He was recently seen busking in Tralee.
During the course of his interview with RTÉ News he played a traditional Irish air, An Cúilfhionn.
Mr Kelley said he first met Mr Gaine when he approached the farmer seeking work in 2022.
He had been living in a makeshift camp in the woods a few kilometres from Mr Gaine's farm when Mr Gaine offered to let him stay in the old farmhouse:
"It suited me. Firstly, it offered me access to food and it gave me a roof over my head," he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
5 hours ago
- Sunday World
Self-declared Michael Gaine murder ‘suspect' gave court ‘untrustworthy testimony'
American was involved in a bitter dispute with his ex partner over their two daughters The district court findings were made against failed asylum seeker and father-of-two Michael Kelley, who is originally from Waldo County, Maine in the US, during a bitter custody dispute with former partner Alicia Snow in 2009. Publicly available documents obtained by the Sunday World confirm the former US soldier made 'unsupported' allegations against Ms Snow during the dispute of 'practising witchcraft on the couple's children'. Kelley, who has denied any involvement in Michael Gaine's murder, was arrested on May 18, just over 36 hours after the victim's body parts were discovered in slurry being spread on his farm. Mike Gaine went missing on March 20 He was later released without charge. Gardai believe Mr Gaine was dismembered after he was killed and that the body parts were dumped in a 50,000-gallon slurry tank on the property. As part of the garda investigation, a full background check is being carried out on Kelley, who had been living 'underground' on Mr Gaine's farm and working as a 'farmhand'. Enquiries carried out by this newspaper have now established that Kelley is a father-of-two who was involved in a bitter dispute with his former partner Alicia Snow, which was ultimately decided in her favour by Maine's Supreme Judicial Court in 2009. Legal documents outlined Michael Kelley's 'untrustworthy' statements News in 90 Seconds - June 1st Records of this nature in the US are, unlike in Ireland, publicly available. According to court documents, Kelley and Ms Snow were involved in a romantic relationship and are the biological parents of two daughters. After they separated, Kelley brought a parental rights action. In 2006, a family law magistrate held a hearing and issued an order allocating shared parental rights between the parties, but stated 'in the event the parties are not able to agree, final decision-making is allocated to Ms Snow'. The order also awarded primary residency to Ms Snow. The 2006 order included a written agreement which afforded reasonable rights of contact with the children and stipulated that Kelley would not pay child support. After the original order was made, the former couple maintained a cordial relationship. Gardai on site Ms Snow was able to attain a nursing degree and begin a relationship with a new partner. Ultimately, however, the situation began to deteriorate, culminating in a series of miscommunications between Kelley's wife and Ms Snow. After a disagreement over a brief trip to Chicago for the children, Kelley filed a motion to enforce the 2006 parental rights order which he alleged prevented Snow from sending the children out of state without his consent. Kelley also filed a motion for contempt, alleging that Ms Snow violated the 2006 order by taking the children to visit their grandfather in Chicago. The court held a hearing on all of the motions on January 14, 2009. After hearing testimony from Kelley, his then wife, Snow, and Snow's father, the court made a number of 'findings of fact.' These included: Snow, meanwhile, was found by the court to be 'logical and rational and her abilities to act as an effective parent are far superior to those of Kelley'. Mike Gaine captured on CCTV before he disappeared The court ordered that Snow have sole parental rights. In his appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court, Kelley argued that the District Court erred when it awarded sole parental rights to Ms Snow. But the Supreme Judicial Court found: 'After a review of the record, it is evident that the court's findings are supported by the record as a whole. 'Because there is competent evidence in the record to support the court's decision, and it is clear that the court considered the best interests of the children in its award of parental rights, the judgment must be affirmed.' Mike Gaine's wife and sister The investigation into the murder of Michael Gaine is now in its tenth week. The popular farmer vanished on March 20. Mr Kelley worked on Gaine's farm for a number of years.
The Irish Sun
6 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘Mummified' baby found at dry cleaners wrapped in dirty laundry from funeral home as cops probe ‘disturbing' mystery
A MUMMIFIED baby wrapped in dirty laundry was found by a horrified employee at a dry cleaner. Cops have now launched a probe to investigate the sickening ordeal and figure out how the baby was shipped with soiled linens to a cleaning facility in Louisiana. Advertisement 3 A mummified baby was found wrapped in dirty clothes at a dry cleaner Credit: Local 12 3 Cops rushed to the chilling scene at Alsco Uniforms Credit: Local 12 3 The shipment was received from Golden Gate Funeral Home, in Dallas, Texas Credit: Local 12 The embalmed infant was But in a haunting twist, the The nightmarish mix-up occurred despite the baby having had a funeral on May 17 at Golden Gate Funeral Home & Crematory. Cops said the linens which were holding the corpse were sent from this same funeral home. Advertisement READ MORE WORLD NEWS Preliminary findings indicate that the Local cops said the Tuesday morning , at around 5:30am. The employee who first found the tot was seemingly unaware of the fact that they had uncovered a human baby at first. They reportedly believed the disturbing find was a doll wrapped in linen. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun The local Violent Crimes Unit was immediately dispatched to the scene in the 500 block of Hollywood Avenue. Authorities are currently investigating how the remains were misplaced, and whether any parties were aware of the horrifying error. Driver who took 'at least 20 lines of cocaine' before killing girl, 3, in horror tram crash is jailed Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said: "This is a deeply distressing situation. "Our thoughts are with the family of the child as this investigation unfolds." Advertisement Local cops ruled out foul play for the time being, but this could change as the probe goes on. In February, a teenager was arrested after she The baby plummeted 30ft to his death in the senseless killing. American Mia McQuillin, 18, was charged with "child homicide" after her baby boy from the second floor of the Ibis Styles hotel in Advertisement The
Extra.ie
8 hours ago
- Extra.ie
Gardaí believe Satchwell 'meticulously planned wife Tina's murder for weeks'
Gardaí believe Richard Satchwell planned the murder of his wife weeks in advance because he thought she was going to leave him, has learned. Senior sources familiar with the investigation that would ultimately result in Satchwell's murder conviction said the Englishman meticulously planned the killing before going to extreme lengths to try to cover his tracks. One source said the 'speed and calmness' he displayed as he went into 'alibi mode' convinced detectives that Tina Satchwell's murder was not a spur-of-the-moment killing. They told 'Satchwell made the decision to kill his wife because she had either decided to leave him or because the relationship was deteriorating so much. Richard Satchwell. Pic: Seán Dwyer 'Tina was not happy in Youghal. She left a lovely house to move into a mortgage-free doer-upper, only for her life to be taken from her by a man she should have been able to trust.' The 58-year-old truck driver, originally from Leicester in the UK, reported his wife missing on March 20, 2017. Satchwell repeatedly lied to gardaí, journalists, family, and friends, telling them he had arrived home to their house in Youghal, east Cork, after running errands to discover his wife had left him. He maintained that his wife went missing from their home, at the very time her body was stuffed into a chest freezer before being buried under the stairs in the living room. But in October 2023 – six years after Satchwell reported her missing – gardaí discovered Tina's skeletal remains under the stairs during a second search of the house. Tina Satchwell. Pic: PA Wire Despite this gruesome discovery, Richard Satchwell pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife at their home in No. 3 Grattan Street in Youghal, arguing that he had been defending himself when he inadvertently killed her as she attacked him with a chisel. The court heard that a phone linked to Satchwell sent text messages about purchasing monkeys over the same period when he is alleged to have murdered his wife. Satchwell attempted to purchase two marmoset monkeys, called Terry and Thelma, over a period of two years, from 2015 to March 2017. On the day of Tina's murder – March 20, 2017 – Satchwell wrote to the monkey rescue, saying: 'I'm in a mess right now because my wife has said she is leaving me over this so please let the organisation know.' Richard Satchwell on RTÉ News in 2017. Pic: RTÉ The emails to the monkey rescue were one aspect of the investigation that convinced detectives that Satchwell planned the murder. A source told 'It was the investigation view that the speed and calmness that he went into alibi mode in terms of sending the monkey email.' The source also noted Tina was 'hardly dead' when Satchwell had showered, changed his clothes and then went to the post office to collect his dole. Satchwell then went on a round trip to Dungarvan in Co. Waterford – around 30kms from Youghal – for a bottle of water 'so he could say she was gone when he got back'. 'This all belies a preparedness that could only have occurred before the killing,' the source said. But while the investigation team believes Satchwell planned to kill his wife, sources familiar with the case said Tina's birth mother thought her daughter's husband was innocent until her body was discovered. Tina Satchwell's mother, Mary Collins. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Mary Collins told confidants she believed Satchwell was genuine in the numerous media appeals he made appealing for information about his wife's disappearance. 'It was a difficult time for the whole family, and Mary believed Richard,' a source told 'She never doubted him. With hindsight, it's easy to see through his lies, but at the time he was very convincing.' Tina only discovered Mary Collins was her birth mother when she found her birth certificate around the time she was making her confirmation. Up until then, she believed the grandmother who raised her was her mother. Tina Satchwell. Pic: Facebook Ms Collins attended court every day of the trial and was often visibly upset by the evidence of what Satchwell had done to her daughter. When the verdict was read just before lunchtime on Friday, several members of the Satchwell family, who occupied a full bench at the back of the courtroom, wept audibly. Three of the jurors were also crying as they walked out of the jury box for the last time. Afterwards, the family spoke to assembled media on the steps of the Central Criminal Court at Parkgate Street, Dublin. Tina's niece, Sarah Howard, to whom Satchwell had offered the freezer in which he initially stored his wife's remains after he killed her, spoke about the family's dismay at the manner in which he denigrated her aunt's name. 'During this trial, Tina was portrayed in a way that was not who she was,' she told reporters. 'Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter whose presence in our lives meant so much to us all. We can never put into words the impact that her loss has had on all of us. 'Tina was a kind, loving, tender soul who loved her animals as they loved her, and that's the way we want her remembered.' Ms Howard, who gave evidence in the trial just two weeks after giving birth, continued: 'Today, as family, we finally have justice for Tina, and we now ask for privacy to begin our healing.' Before she spoke, Tina's sister, Lorraine Howard, thanked the gardaí and the judge and jury for their work. She also thanked the State's legal team, Geraldine Small and Imelda Kelly. 'Your hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies you are,' she said. Lorraine Howard gave evidence in the case as the only witness for the defence. But has learned that she had no idea she would be appearing in Satchwell's defence until she arrived at court. Her discomfort was visible during her questioning by defence counsel Brendan Grehan. She was brought to the witness box on foot of a statement she made to gardaí in August 2020, when Tina was still believed to be missing. She had been estranged from her sister for 15 years before her disappearance. In the statement, she described Tina as 'high-maintenance' and that her husband spent every penny he had on her. She had also claimed Tina had a bad temper and had screamed at her so badly on one occasion that it induced a miscarriage in her. But when she appeared on the witness stand last week, Ms Howard said: 'I gave that statement in anger… whereas in actual fact, he was the person I should have aimed the anger at,' gesturing with her head towards Satchwell in the dock. 'I believed her to be alive… I was angry with her at the time. I didn't see him [Satchwell] as controlling at the time… but I've revised my views on information I've seen… I wasn't aware of aspects of their relationship.' The murder trial lasted just under five weeks, and the courtroom was packed every day. Much of the credit for finally bringing Satchwell to justice is being given to the senior investigating officer, Superintendent Ann Marie Twomey, who took over the case in 2021. 'She deserves all credit,' a source said. 'She and her team were determined Tina's family would get the justice they deserve.' The five-week murder trial at the Central Criminal Court heard Satchwell, who is from Leicester in England, claimed his wife was physically abusive to him and that she died after she 'flew' at him with a chisel. He also claimed he used the belt of her dressing robe to keep her off him before she went limp. Satchwell then buried his wife under the stairs of their living room. He denied murdering Tina, but did not give evidence during the trial. He has been in custody since he was first charged on October 14, 2023, with Tina's murder. Satchwell now faces mandatory life in prison when he is sentenced next Wednesday by Judge Paul McDermott, after which victim impact statements will be heard.
