Mom of 8 has been missing since 2022, MI cops say. Now boyfriend charged with murder
A mother of eight missing for 13 months is presumed to have been killed, Michigan authorities said.
A murder charge has now been issued in the disappearance of 35-year-old Heather Kelley, who mysteriously vanished from Kalamazoo in December 2022, according to Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting.
Carlos Watts Jr., who WZZM and WWMT reported was the boyfriend of Kelley, was accused on a murder charge Wednesday, Jan. 10, Getting said in a news briefing.
Watts, 38, has been considered a person of interest since Kelley went missing, WPBN reported. He has been in jail on felony escape charges, and Getting said he will be sentenced Friday in that case.
Kelley was last seen Dec. 10, 2022, according to the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office. She left her home at 9 p.m. that night, and when she spoke to her children on the phone at 10:20 p.m., she said she would be home soon.
Mom of 8 vanishes after telling kids she was on the way home, Michigan cops say
She never returned home, and her truck was discovered abandoned the following day, authorities said. Investigators found blood inside the vehicle, which had been set on fire, WZZM reported.
A witness who knows Watts told authorities Watts “admitted to killing Heather by striking her in the head with a blunt object and then disposed of her body in a dumpster,” according to an affidavit obtained by WOOD.
Two days after Kelley went missing, Watts cut off his GPS tether at his probationary program facility, WPBN reported. He ran off from the facility, which he told police he did because Kelley’s brother was sending him death threats.
Despite the murder charge, Kelley’s body has never been found, Getting said Wednesday.
If convicted of murder, Watts faces the possibility of life in prison without parole, according to the prosecutor.
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