Latest news with #MichaelKelley
Irish Times
27-06-2025
- Irish Times
Michael Gaine murder: Ex-partner of suspect Michael Kelley says he became ‘very unstable' after 9/11 attacks
A former partner of the American man questioned about the murder of Kerry farmer Michael Gaine expressed serious concern about his mental wellbeing and increasing paranoia after the 9/11 attacks in the US. American woman Alicia Snow was involved in a relationship with Michael Kelley in the late 1990s and early 2000s and has two children with him. Ms Snow told The Irish Times that Mr Kelley (53) suddenly became 'very unstable' and increasingly paranoid after the September 11th, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks and began stockpiling supplies during their time together in Maine. She described the change in him as 'a total reversal to me'. Within three months, Ms Snow and her children moved out of the home they shared near the town of Swanville. They later separated and became estranged. READ MORE Mr Kelley, who moved to Kerry from the north-eastern US state of Maine about seven years ago, was arrested on May 18th last by gardaí investigating the murder of Mr Gaine (56) before being released without charge. Kerry farmer Michael Gaine who went missing in March and whose partial remains were discovered on his farmland last month. Mr Gaine's dismembered body was found the previous day in slurry spread on fields and in a slurry tank at his isolated farmyard 6km from Kenmare. He was last seen alive in a local shop in the town on March 20th. Mr Kelley lived and worked on Mr Gaine's farm. He has denied any role in his murder, claiming he is being framed by organised criminals. Gardaí investigating the murder of Mr Gaine travelled to Maine last weekend to interview Ms Snow and to search for any clues to explain what might have happened to the farmer. Ms Snow described her former partner as 'hardworking' and 'responsible' during their time living together on his mother's farm in Swanville. Mr Kelley worked as a farmhand on a nearby farm among a variety of other jobs, including as a cook and a butcher in a local shop. She said her then partner's increasing paranoia after the 2001 attacks 'surprised the hell out of me'. Alicia Snow, a nurse based in Maine in the United States and the former partner of Michael Kelley. Photograph via Ms Snow's website. Ms Snow, who is a qualified nurse, said Mr Kelley could be very sweet and was notably loyal but that he went through 'bouts of intense paranoia'. Others who knew him in Waldo County, where he lived in Maine, recalled his interest in conspiracy theories, including his fears about the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group, and other groups of interest to conspiracy theorists. Mr Kelley previously claimed to The Irish Times that he fled to and applied for asylum in Ireland as he feared he was being targeted by the KKK. Ms Snow last spoke to Mr Kelley about 10 years ago when he came to her door saying a group called the Heaven and Earth Society were pursuing him. The Irish Times put her concerns about Mr Kelley to him in an interview this week in Tralee, where he is now living. Asked about his former partner's belief that he may struggle with mental illness, Mr Kelley said he would leave people to make up their own minds. 'People need to judge for themselves; they need to judge from their own observations,' he said. Michael Kelley photographed in Tralee this week. Photo: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus Ltd Asked about what those in Waldo County had said about his beliefs in conspiracy theories, Mr Kelley said people should decide for themselves. 'People need to judge for themselves – that's the blanket answer for all these things people are saying about me,' he said. Following the couple's separation, Mr Kelley and Ms Snow were involved in a legal dispute over rights of access to their children. A US judge concluded that Mr Kelley made 'false accusations' claiming Ms Snow was 'a witch' and 'practises witchcraft on their children'. The judge also found that Mr Kelley's ability to determine fact from fiction was 'questionable'. In his interview with this newspaper, Mr Kelley gave more detail about how he came to work on Mr Gaine's farm. He declined to answer any questions about the Garda investigation into the murder or his relationship with Mr Gaine as he said it might affect the investigation. He said Mr Gaine offered him board and lodging at the old Gaine family farmhouse in return for doing farm work. Members of the Garda forensic team carrying out a search at the farm of Michael Gaine (56) near Kenmare last month. Photo: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus Ltd The American said he began working for Mr Gaine after he approached a number of farmers in the Kenmare area on New Year's Day 2022 looking for farm work, having spent more than a year living in a camp at Scully's Wood near Dromquinna outside Kenmare. He said he moved to Kerry after he applied for asylum in Dublin and was transferred to Killarney where he lived with other men in accommodation provided by the State's International Protection Accommodation Service. He later left there and camped in Killarney National Park before he was ordered to leave by National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers. Mr Kelley did a variety of casual jobs in Co Kerry, harvesting seaweed in Kenmare Bay for a man from Glenbeigh and cutting grass at an adventure centre at Blackwater. Before moving to Mr Gaine's old farmhouse, Mr Kelley set up a camp at Scully's Wood and bought a solar panel and battery to charge his headlamp and mobile phone. He spent much of the Covid pandemic living in the wood before deciding on New Year's Day 2022 to look for farm work. He said he convinced Mr Gaine to give him a job after he repaired Mr Gaine's quad bike and he moved into the old farmhouse. Michael Kelley photographed in Tralee Town Park this week. Photo: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus Ltd Mr Gaine paid him €100 a week to help with the farm work, including repairing machinery, bringing fodder to cattle and fetching sheep from the mountain. He brought him into Kenmare once a week to buy supplies. Mr Kelley said the money was 'more than enough for me to live on and I was actually able to save money'. The old farmhouse had no electricity but it had a stove. He described it as 'a serious upgrade on living in the woods'.
Irish Times
23-06-2025
- Irish Times
Michael Gaine murder: Gardaí visit Michael Kelley's ex-partner in Maine
Gardaí investigating the murder of Kerry farmer Mike Gaine travelled to the United States last weekend to speak with the former partner of a man arrested about the killing. Investigators visited Waldo County in the northeastern state of Maine where Michael Kelley, the man detained and questioned last month over Mr Gaine's murder, lived before he moved to Ireland. Mr Kelley's former partner Alicia Snow said she met investigators on Saturday and that they were looking for any clues to explain what might have happened to Mr Gaine. A Garda source confirmed a detective had travelled to the US as part of the investigation to seek a statement from Ms Snow. READ MORE The Garda Press Office declined to comment on the visit. 'An Garda Síochána does not comment on, confirm or deny queries on specific operational details of ongoing criminal investigations.' A native of Maine, Mr Kelley lived and worked on Mr Gaine's farm near Kenmare, and has denied any involvement in his murder. Mr Gaine was last seen alive on March 20th. His partial remains were discovered on his land on May 17th. Michael Kelley lived and worked on Michael Gaine's farm near Kenmare, and has denied any involvement in his murder. Photograph: Barry Roche [ Who is Michael Kelley, the man questioned over the murder of Michael Gaine? Opens in new window ] Mr Kelley was arrested on May 18th on suspicion of murder and was released without charge 24 hours later. Mr Kelley, a musician, has claimed in media interviews that he is being framed for the murder by people involved in 'organised crime'. He is now living in Tralee, where he can be seen regularly busking on the streets. [ American man questioned in Michael Gaine murder inquiry addresses his Garda complaint Opens in new window ] Ms Snow, who was Mr Kelley's partner for three years and has two children with him, has fond memories of their time together living simply in a yurt on his mother's farm in the small town of Swanville in Maine. She said Mr Kelley did a variety of jobs over the years. He installed ductwork for heating and cooling systems, and worked as a farmhand on a neighbour's dairy farm, as a breakfast cook and as a butcher in a small country grocery store. In 2001, the couple had a commitment ceremony on the farm in Swanville with a group of family and friends. Ms Snow grew the flowers for the ceremony, a bagpiper played and Mr Kelley wore a kilt, she said. She described Mr Kelley as 'strong, capable, hardworking, sober homesteader' who played the Uilleann pipes and a bagpipe. Ms Snow said he was 'funny and smart and responsible and cooked well, and worked real hard like an Irish farm boy'. Their relationship subsequently broke down and they separated in 2001. After their separation, Ms Snow earned a nursing degree and began working as a nurse. Mr Kelley claimed in an interview with The Irish Times earlier this month that he had been threatened by the Ku Klux Klan in Maine because he was a Catholic and it was anti-Catholic. He claimed they poisoned and killed his dog near his home outside Swanville and, fearing for his life, he moved to Ireland. After his separation from Ms Snow, Mr Kelley brought a legal action seeking right of access to their children, who were living with her. Court papers from the legal case in Maine in 2009 show that Mr Kelley accused Ms Snow of witchcraft, and of casting spells on her children. The courts sided with Ms Snow, who was granted full custody of their children. [ Michael Gaine funeral hears of 'idyllic' community struck by 'something terrible' Opens in new window ] The judge in the case, in which Mr Kelley represented himself, concluded that Mr Kelley's ability to determine fact from fiction was 'questionable'. Ms Snow said the latest time she spoke to Mr Kelley was about 10 years ago. She said he went to Arizona about seven years ago to visit his father, who bought him a one-way ticket to Ireland.
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Who is the American drifter questioned over Michael Gaine's murder?
Kerry farmer Michael Gaine's disappearance on March 20th was first treated as a missing person's case. Soon, though, it was upgraded to a murder investigation as gardaí explored multiple lines of inquiry in their attempts to find a body. Partial human remains were found on May 16th and subsequently confirmed to be those of Gaine. The discovery shone a new, disturbing light on the case. The 56-year-old had been dismembered, with his body parts deposited into the silage pit on his farm . One line of inquiry involved Michael Kelley, an American who lived and worked on Gaine's 1,000-acre farm for the past three years. READ MORE Kelley has identified himself to the media and confirmed he was arrested and questioned in relation to Gaine's murder. He was released without charge. So, who is he and what was he doing in Kerry? How did he come to live and work on the Gaine farm? And why is he giving interviews? Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
Irish Times
31-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Who is Michael Kelley, the man questioned over the murder of Michael Gaine?
It is a drizzly morning in Tralee and few people seem to be paying much attention to the tall, bearded man in rain gear. He is making his way across The Square in the Co Kerry town, just another person going about their business on another grey Irish day. The man is Michael Kelley (53), a US army veteran from Maine, a northeastern state, but now resident in Tralee. He is, to date, the only man to have been questioned about the murder of Kerry farmer Mike Gaine (56) whose dismembered remains were found two weeks ago at his farm outside Kenmare, two months after he went missing. READ MORE Kelley, standing 6ft tall and lean and muscular, is firm but polite when approached by The Irish Times and other media, saying he will not be doing any other interviews beyond what he has told The Irish Daily Mirror some days earlier. He confirms that his reported comments are correct and that he was arrested by gardaí for questioning about Gaine's murder. He denied any involvement in the killing during nine interviews over 24 hours of questioning by gardaí. [ American man Michael Kelley (53) confirms he was suspect arrested for questioning about Michael Gaine Opens in new window ] Kelley has alleged he is being framed for the crime by criminals. 'There may be elements that want to string me up – people who have an interest in organised crime – people who are involved in organised crime,' he has said. He is calm and relaxed. He says he has been playing traditional Irish music, having been photographed playing the flute with a local busker some days earlier. Michael Kelley busking on the streets of Tralee, Co Kerry. Photograph: Domnick Walsh/Eye Focus As he agrees to pose for a photograph, he jokes that he will have to 'start charging $10 for pictures'. Little is known about Kelley, who has become the suspect in an investigation into Gaine's gruesome murder. Kelley, whose ancestors are understood to be from east Galway, grew up in a rural part of the US, outside the small village of Swanville, which has a population of about 1,500 and is in Waldo County in central Maine, about a two-hour drive northeast of Portland, the state's capital and largest city. He was born on July 27th, 1971, the second child born to New Yorkers Patrick and Janice Kelley, who moved to Maine in 1967 with Janice's son, Damon, from her first marriage. The family settled on a five-acre holding at Upper Oak Hill Road in Swanville. [ Michael Gaine case: Investigators believe most human remains at farm have been recovered Opens in new window ] Janice Kelley had lived in the East Village in New York with her first husband and she stayed there after their marriage ended, becoming acquainted with many of the folk musicians on the coffee shop circuit and some of the leading figures in the 1960s counterculture scene before they became famous. She participated in the famous 1963 March on Washington, where she heard Martin Luther King make his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. This was to inform her political thinking in later life, when she became an ardent Democrat strongly opposed to Republican Donald Trump. Michael Kelley and his mother Janice in 2018 posted on Facebook She and her husband set up a small business where she would design houses and he, a skilled carpenter, would build them. She taught her children an appreciation of nature and growing their own food. Janice and Patrick Kelley divorced in 1974, and she moved with the children to Washington, Maine, but returned to Swanville in 1981, where she opened a second-hand store where people could buy music and jewellery as well as rock crystals and gemstones from around the world. What role or influence Janice Kelley's politics and philosophy had on her son Michael is unclear, but in 1991, aged just 19, he found himself in the US army on a military base in Germany, where, when not on sentry duty, he watched as the first Gulf war unfolded in Kuwait and Iraq. Kelley told the Irish Daily Mirror he never killed anyone when in the army and became a conscientious objector when he saw the horror of the 'Highway of Death', when hundreds of Iraqi troops were killed at night in February 1991 by American war planes as they retreated from Kuwait. What Kelley did after he quit the US army is unclear. He seems to have kept a low profile for more than a decade. On April 6th, 2006, he married Karen Harden in Northport, Maine. The couple divorced on June 23rd, 2014. On December 22nd, 2009, he found himself the subject of critical comments from Judge Donald G Alexander of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court after he appealed a decision by Judge Michael Westcott of Maine District Court over the custody of his two daughters. The judge's criticisms are outlined in a detailed eight-page published judgment . Michael Gaine, whose remains were found earlier this month, more than two months after the 56-year-old sheep farmer was last spotted in a supermarket in Kenmare Kelley had been in a romantic relationship with a woman called Alicia Snow, and they had two daughters. After they separated Kelley brought a parental-rights action over his right of access to the children, who were living with their mother, a qualified nurse. Initially the relationship between the separated couple was cordial but Kelley later claimed that Snow had breached the court order, which ruled that the children could live with her, when she took them on a visit out of state to Chicago, Illinois, to their grandfather without Kelley's consent. Judge Westcott found for Snow in the initial hearing. Kelley appealed it to the state supreme court, where he represented himself. He called his wife, Karen, as a witness. After hearing testimony from both sides, including Snow and her father, Judge Alexander affirmed the earlier court order. He said that Kelley's allegations and fears that Snow intended to move out of the state with the children were 'unfounded'. He concluded that Kelley's ability to determine fact from fiction was 'questionable', and that both Kelley's testimony and that of his wife was 'untrustworthy'. Undated photograph of Michael Kelley posted in October 2017 on the Facebook page of a relative. He said Kelley was an inflexible parent 'who makes false allegations that Snow is a witch and that she practises witchcraft on the children', while he also found that Kelley refused 'to take responsibility for his role in this conflict'. It suited Kelley to be living off the grid as he wanted to be under the radar — A local in Kenmare Judge Alexander agreed with Judge Westcott when he 'specifically stated why it did not find the testimony of Kelley and wife to be credible, including the unsupported allegations that Snow is casting spells on the children and an unwillingness to take responsibility for conflicts.' Attempts by The Irish Times to contact Alicia Snow and her attorney Thomas F Shehan proved unsuccessful, but Kelley did confirm to the Irish Daily Mirror that he had lost custody of his children, now adults with whom he is in contact, after falsely claiming their mother was a witch. Kelley says he arrived in Ireland seven years ago. From inquiries by The Irish Times, it appears he first surfaced in Kenmare about six years ago, squatting on a boat while working for a man harvesting kelp in Kenmare Bay. Garda forensics specialists at Michael Gaine's farm at Carrig East near Kenmare where partial human remains were discovered. Photograph: Domnick Walsh/Eye Focus When that job ended, he reportedly lived in a shed in Templenoe, a village about eight kilometres along the Ring of Kerry route west of Kenmare, before taking up residence three km away in Scully's Wood near Dromquinna. There, he lived in a tent and reportedly used survivalist skills to live off wildlife. It was while he was there that he met Mike Gaine. 'Mike was out shooting deer with a friend in Scully's Wood when they came across Kelley,' says one local. 'It was around 2022 and Mike offered him the use of his old, abandoned family farmhouse at Carrig East in return for doing jobs around the farm and Kelley agreed.' Gaine's farm at Carrig East is about seven kilometres from Kenmare, near Moll's Gap, the scenic spot popular with tourists. 'Kelley used to earn his keep working for Mike, feeding the animals and such like. They used to go hunting together – it was a very informal, loose arrangement, there was no lease, no contract – it suited Kelley to be living off the grid as he wanted to be under the radar,' says the local. 'There was no electricity in the farmhouse, but that didn't seem to bother him – he was rarely in town – Mike used to drive him every so often in to Aldi or Lidl to do his shopping, but beyond that he never hung around, never went into pubs. 'He was just this very reclusive American drifter.' Kelley told the Irish Daily Mirror that he applied for asylum when he first arrived in Ireland but had been refused. Garda sources confirmed he was served with deportation order four weeks ago, though he remains living in Tralee. 'I've asked for an ombudsman to review my asylum but that's gone nowhere,' he said. 'I'm not surprised – I may have a claim to Irish citizenship based on the standing laws of this country based on my ancestry ... [but] I don't see that they are going to deport me in the middle of this case.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nonprofit launches campaign to help keep Kansas City walkers, bikers safe
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There's a new campaign to help keep you safe as you walk or bike. It's called Look Out for KC. Its goal is to significantly reduce the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed in crashes in Kansas City. Memorial Day travel expected to break 20-year record Independence Boulevard Christian Church sits right on Independence Avenue, which safety advocates say is one of the most dangerous streets in the city. According to city leaders, there have been three deaths, nine serious injuries and almost 40 crashes on Independence Avenue in the last 18 months. Pastor Mindy Fugarino said cars often drive above the speed limit and don't see members heading to church. 'The crosswalk is painted, but most people aren't seeing that and we did have somebody last year who did get hit,' she said. On Monday, local nonprofit BikeWalkKC launched its campaign to help reduce the number of pedestrians who are struck. Part of the money for the campaign comes from a grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation. The campaign will include sidewalk decals and billboards across the city. 'Far too often, when we hear about these crashes, it's kind of just a story, a blip, and it goes away,' said Michael Kelley with BikeWalkKC. 'But the fact of the matter is, these are our neighbors, these are our family members that we are losing to something that we know we can prevent.' One of those decals will go at 86th Terrace and Troost Avenue, where Asia Dunmore's mother Michelle was . She said their family has never been the same. See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri 'My hope is first that everyone begins to pay more attention when driving. People drive a little safer, put their phones down and try not to evade capture,' Dunmore said. 'If something happens, own up to it.' . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
