Kristy Kelley case: What happened to Indiana mother of 2?

fun-loving in vivacious Christie Kelly was born and raised in Boonville Indiana a hardscrabble coal mining town in the Midwest describe Christie to me bubbly personality definitely wasn't afraid to tell you what she thought I couldn't have asked for a better daughter at 27 years old Christie had just recently divorced and moved back in with her parents hoping to jumpstart her new single life she was getting ready to go out with her friends and of course I'd always tease her about you know well who are you gonna be with and of course you know being 27 years old she would be dad Roy that question would soon sound ominous on a steamy night in August after hitting a few bars on Boonville main drag Christie and her friends wound up at the local VFW bar manager Tommy Mattingly vividly recalls the cute young mom with big blue eyes perched on the barstool anything seemed unusual about that evening she was here and there was another girl with her and a guy with her and they were having a good time after a few drinks the couple left Christy lingered past closing time she was sitting at the bar me and my bartender we we had kind of had her backs turned to her and turned around and I mean she was there one minute and the next minute Christie was just going they searched the ladies room but she wasn't there so we just assumed then that she'd come out and went home but Christie never said goodbye to either you or her friend who was bartending never said a word I never heard one sound the next morning Christie's parents drove my the local drugstore where she worked and noticed her car wasn't in the parking lot we just sent at this time you know she was probably at lunch but turns out Christy oddly never showed up for her job she never just missed work without calling in something tada Warwick County Sheriff's Department retired jailer quickly called his former sergeant I just told him hey I think I may have a problem I think my daughter may be missing Todd soon learns Christy was partying at the VFW when he arrives there's no sign of Christy or her SUV but in the ladies room the janitor finds what could be an important clue Christy's abandoned cell phone I think that's when the heart really dropped for her cell phone to be left behind may as well been surgically attached the knowing in the pit of Todd's stomach quickly turned to full-blown panic he frantically combed the back roads of town in search of his daughter we were going to find her now had to and within a day or two a massive multi-agency search descends on the close-knit town to help with that aircraft of drones people on horseback ATVs there was hundreds if not thousands looking we worked around the clock to find her you know it was our number-one concern with no trace of Christy police order polygraph tests for the last known people to see her alive including Tommy the bar manager says here that the subject this would being you was not being truthful regarding the relevant questions it's either two things it's either whoever give me that polygraph test don't know how to operate that machine or your machines broke because I didn't tell you anything but the truth six more people including Christy's ex were given a lie-detector test shockingly three out of the seven failed meanwhile the feverish search for the young mother continued as time went on you know you kind of come to the realization yeah let's find our love or they diminish but either way we were gone fine but where when the land hunt yields nothing the search moves below the water's surface investigators scour a lake off of a rural County Road and 32 heart-wrenching days after Christy went missing a grim discovery Christy's SUV is pulled from the murky green water tragically christy is inside take me to the moment when your daughter's SUV was found sheriff Cruz and lieutenant Brian flowers showed up at the house said they'd believe they might have found the vehicle what was your reaction that you're glad that you finally found her but flipside of that I'm sorry I don't mean to get emotional but you also realize you lost your daughter in less than 24 hours later more heartbreak the coroner determines the cause of death as an accidental drowning how quickly did investigators role Christie's death an accident pretty quick the night she was found and they did an autopsy early the next morning and it was Road an accidental drowning that was the end of it in accidental drowning Todd and his wife were not only shocked they would downright suspicious what put your antennas up yes going back to that cell phone being left behind that was a big red flag Todd says the circumstances surrounding Christie's death are as murky as the water where she was found desperate for answers Christie's parents ask sheriff Brett Cruz to open the case file so they could review the investigative findings strangely their request was denied the sheriff's sealed the record and refused to give a reason why have you ever given you an explanation we're withholding this because of and then they tell you he told me then that you know sometimes when in your youth you do things that you don't want your parents to know you're the parent I'm if you're saying no it's okay I want all the information but it wasn't given and Todd wasn't giving up convinced Christie's death was no accident he goes on an investigation of his own over time together this question that leads to more questions the search for Christi Kelly met a tragic end her body found in her SUV submerged at the bottom of a lake in Boonville Indiana the coroner quickly ruling Kristi's death an accidental drowning and Sheriff Brett crews closed the case and sealed the file did you ever ask the sheriff or any of the deputies or investigators that question point-blank why are you not looking into this death further to be honest I never really asked him that question all I know was I wished the case would be reopened and let's try to find some answers as to why it's sealed Kristi's parents always suspected their daughter's death was no accident I just want to know the truth what happened to her I want to know what happened that night so desperate to know Todd and his wife took an extraordinary step hiring attorney April Edwards to dig for answers possibly hidden in the cult file on their daughter's death sheriff Curtis indicated to me that the it was an accident and it was closed he's gonna flat out it's an accident right but we're not gonna hand over these records yes the investigators theory is that Christy had too much to drink beard off the road and landed in the lake but Tommy the bar manager at the VFW said she didn't seem drunk when he last saw her like she was walking by and she was talking ban you know she wasn't slurring investigators do say their theory is Christy was drunk and she will throw it around do you buy that no why not then talking with the pathologist he explained to me how as the body decomposes it produces ethanol ethanol reads as alcohol in your toxicology her toxicology was only a 0.1 1/2 so she had been at probably around 0.05 and that would be nowhere near and capacitated could the answers possibly be hidden in security camera footage now sealed in the closed file that captured would appear to be Christy as she left the bar chilly the VFW you'd make a right which would be indicative her coming toward her house but yet she's found four miles south of town the sheriff believes Christie was speeding southbound on Mount Gilead road they say she blew past the stop sign and careened into the lake but Todd says when he searched the area he made a chilling discovery Todd what is significant about this location this is the location where we found parts of Christy's vehicle it was the passenger side fender well it was later determined that's what it came from Todd says the fender was from Christie's own car far from where she was found dead more than a mile away the alleged crash site yes when they pulled it from the lake was a lot more damage than should have just been caused by water this is what led us to look to try to figure out you know what happened and another disturbing find when Christy was recovered from the lake her body had no bruises or injuries that would be expected in a violent car crash May does she have any wounds on her nothing nothing to indicate any type of bleeding contusions scratches cuts not a broken fingernail her body is pristine so to me that doesn't make sense and April Edward says investigators were well aware of another bizarre detail when they pulled the SUV from the water the gearshift was in park and her keys were in her pocket why do you take the keys out when I'm in your pocket what do you do you know why do you put the car in park that to me is is extremely odd because I would think that most people's instant reaction be if he liked a better get out of here even more shocking April says her body was found in the backseat how does law enforcement theorized that she ended up there the information that was made available to me indicates that she could have either crawled there or that she could have floated there I'm not sure I buy into the floating theory because there was a big car seat she had children which begs the second question could Christie have been the victim of foul play there's a possibility that needs to be investigated that this was all staged to look like an accident in my mind it's possible that somebody abducted her and kept her for a couple of days or a week and until he realized that the heat was getting tight and they had to dispose of the car in the body if Christie was abducted who would want to take her or was it a random attack by someone much closer to home one of Christie's exes the father has been with the Department for 30 years April tells us that one of Christie's exes has connections to the Sheriff's Department investigating the case if there was a cover-up or someone's being protected that's where would happen I think that most people would leave and when would reach that conclusion this particular person made a misleading statement to the people investigating her disappearance he'd indicated that she had disappeared before one time for four days and one time for two days when in fact that's patently false the FBI did help the family get a hold of the data in Christie selkie even generating a 6000 page transcript of her texts and what was discovered in her digital footprint was chilling her text messages had reflected that an axe had made some threats toward her within the week before she disappeared so far the family hasn't been able to connect the dots on the text exchanged were they just idle threats or something far more sinister these texts of sexual nature there was one shortly before her disappearance that basically used need to disappear but I really don't want to go into great detail at this time on somebody saying to Christie that she needs to disappear pretty much yes that same ex was given the polygraph test his results came back inconclusive but there was never any follow-up interview I think that there are motif out there if the place would look a little further but there are other X's in the picture one of them admitted to keeping track of Christie's whereabouts and Christie's texts reveal she was texting another God the night she disappeared with so many questions we think it's high time to pay a visit to the sheriff we're curious to why the sheriff doesn't hand over the case file to Christie's parents we've tried to reach out to him he won't return any of our phone calls any of our email so now we're here outside his office to see if he'll talk to us my name is Jason Mattera I'm with the television show crime watching daily and we are doing a story surrounding the controversy of Christie Kelly's death and we'd like to get comment from the sheriff is he available he's not available is he here today any reason why he's avoiding for now April is working to open the sealed file legally with the help from a forensic pathologist to subpoena the Sheriff's Department and at this point after three harrowing years with no answers Todd can only hope that one day he will know the truth about what happened to Cristy where do you go from here find out what happened period I watching my daughter and that's kind of my stance on it and my grandkids someday they're gonna want to know what really happens I wanted to have those answers

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 889,382

Rating: 4.7254901 out of 5

Keywords: Kristy Kelley, Boonville Indiana, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily

Id: Aeao90s2DGU

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 18 2019