Trial highlights mother’s confession
to killing her son
By Josh Nelson Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
GRUNDY CENTER (MCT) — Law enforcement’s first question to Michelle Kehoe days after one of her sons was discovered dead and another injured was met with another question: “How are my boys?”
The query came during an Oct. 28, 2008, interview with the Division of Criminal Investigation at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Kehoe, 36, of Coralville was recovering from self-inflicted wounds to her neck and wasn’t able to speak, so she wrote her answers.
Chris Callaway, a DCI special agent, testified Friday at Kehoe’s first-degree murder trial that he didn’t answer her question.
“I really didn’t know how to respond to that at that point,” he said.
Kehoe eventually admitted to killing Seth, 2, and injuring Sean, 7, on Oct. 26 at the Hook-N-Liner pond near Littleton. She initially claimed an unknown man kidnapped the family. Police say she cut the boys’ throats and her own with a camouflage hunting knife.
Seth died, but Sean survived his wounds. Kehoe also is charged with attempted murder and child endangerment resulting in serious injury.
The interview was presented in a PowerPoint presentation to jurors, with both Callaway’s questions and Kehoe’s answers.
Kehoe told Callaway she started planning the killings a few months prior to the Oct. 26 trip. She bought the Winchester folding knife from a local sporting goods store. She also purchased duct tape and began writing the first draft of a note explaining the incident.
“I can’t explain it. I can’t face anyone. I want to be killed or locked up forever,” she said.
Originally, Kehoe told Callaway that she and the boys were headed to Sumner to see her mother, who was in a nursing home there. They left Coralville around 11:15 a.m. She stopped in Jesup around 12:30 p.m. for snacks and to let the boys burn off some excess energy at the St. Athanasius School playground.
It was there, Kehoe said, the man likely climbed into the back of her van and hid. Callaway, however, told jurors details of the story didn’t match up with the evidence they already had, including a statement from Sean Kehoe that Michelle cut him.
“The mystery assailant, we didn’t think was true,” he said.
He confronted her in the same interview, and she confessed she hurt the boys. She couldn’t say why.
“I want to die. I can’t explain this to anyone. Just kill me,” she wrote.
Kehoe said she intended to kill the boys and herself. She drove them out to the pond and told them she had to take care of something. She then bound Sean with tape and covered his eyes. She chose him first because he was older, she said. She killed Seth next, she wrote.
“I knew they would go up to heaven, and I would go to hell,” she said.
She cut her throat about 5 minutes later. Michelle went to the road and curled up in a ball and “waited to finish dying.” In the meantime, Sean had crawled into the van to hide, though Kehoe didn’t see him.
Several family members had gathered at the hospital, though Kehoe declined the offer by Callaway to have them come into her room.
“I don’t want to see anyone, I don’t want to face anyone, once they know I’m not OK,” she said.
During the testimony Friday, some family members of her husband, Gene Kehoe, cried. Michelle Kehoe held a tissue in her left hand.
Testimony in the trial will resume Tuesday morning. Prosecutors will call Dr. Dennis Klein, a state medical examiner, as their only witness. Defense attorneys will then begin presenting their evidence.
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