After eating porridge, she felt strange, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly which part of her body was the problem. In a daze, he reached for his cell phone. As he was texting, he felt a severe tightness in his chest. What happened to the 44-year-old man showed how he was systematically murdered.
The calendars showed January 2021. Francis Kelley, who lives in Carmel, Indiana, USA, was at war with his 42-year-old ex-girlfriend Heidi Littlefield over his two-year-old daughter. They had parted ways some time ago, but they had to keep in touch for the sake of their two-year-old little girl. Both wanted to take sole responsibility for the little girl as parents and both accused each other of violating the parenting agreement.
Francis Kelley in particular was disturbed by Heidi Littlefield’s aggressive behavior. Francis Kelley, who did not back down against these attitudes, filed a complaint against his ex-girlfriend. A hearing date was set for the two who took their stand in court. This date was actually the beginning of the end for Francis Kelley.
HE WAS A DEVOTED FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN
Being a good father was important to Francis Kelley. In addition to his little two-year-old daughter, he also had a 9-year-old daughter with another ex-girlfriend. Kelley was known in his circle for being fond of his children, whom he saw often. Littlefield also had children. Logan Runyon, 23, was not only Heidi Littlefield’s daughter, but also her biggest friend and confidant in life.
Logan Runyon knew everything that had happened to his mother, who was in court over a custody dispute over her half-brother. Moreover, not only Runyon but also the young woman’s 30-year-old boyfriend, Robert Walker, was privy to the dispute between Heidi Littlefield and Francis Kelley. An incident at the beginning of 2021 would make the name of this trio known to the whole world
OLDER DAUGHTER’S MOTHER CONTACTED THE POLICE
On January 18, 2021, a woman contacted the police. This was the mother of Fancis Kelley’s older daughter. She told the police that Kelley had not come to pick up her child and that she had not heard from him for several days. Acting on the missing person report, the teams went to Kelley’s house in Carmel. Stepping inside the house, the teams realized that Kelley was lying on a couch. When they approached the 44-year-old man with quick steps, it was determined that Kelley had died.
Kelley’s lifeless body had been on the couch in the living room of the house for at least several days, and no one except the mother of his first child suspected his whereabouts. After an initial investigation failed to detect any stab wounds, investigators announced that there was a strong possibility that the man had been poisoned. Further investigations would reveal that the police were right.
‘DID YOU DO SOMETHING TO THE OATMEAL IN MY FRIDGE?
An autopsy revealed that Kelley died of asphyxiation and suffered a serious head injury. Toxicology reports revealed that the man had fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, in his system, meaning Kelley had been poisoned. Meanwhile, Kelley’s cell phone was under investigation.
Looking for clues as to who poisoned him, and particularly suspecting the man’s inner circle, who were often in the house, the police found a text message Kelley sent on January 15 remarkable. “Did you do something to the oatmeal in my fridge?” Kelley said in the message. This was exactly the kind of message the teams wanted to see. It was possible that the poison in the oatmeal could have killed Kelley. The teams looked at who the message was addressed to and found the answer they were looking for. It was none other than Heidi Littlefield, his ex-girlfriend, with whom he was in court, who frequently broke into the house.
SHE TEXTED HER KILLER JUST BEFORE SHE DIED!
According to police records, the text traffic between Kelley and Littlefield on January 15th was as follows:
Kelley: Did you do something to the oatmeal in my fridge?
Littlefield: What are you talking about?
Kelley: I saw you open my refrigerator last night. I didn’t like the taste of the oatmeal. I got dizzy after I ate it.
Littlefield: I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about, who would put that useless oatmeal in your refrigerator. What you’re talking about is beyond me now.
DAUGHTER AND DAUGHTER’S LOVER CONFESS
The 42-year-old woman, who was taken into custody, denied the charges against her during her interrogation. However, after the incident became known in the region, a person who told police what he knew told them that the woman had been plotting to kill Kelley and that her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend may have been involved. Her daughter’s boyfriend, Robert Walker, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Her daughter, Logan Runyon, also admitted that after killing Kelley, she and her mother went to a sandwich shop and threw away the tie that led to the murder. The murder charges against Runyon were dropped in exchange for his testimony against his mother, and he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Littlefield, who pleaded not guilty even after his daughter and her boyfriend confessed to the murder, was found guilty last month of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to a total of 115 years in prison.
HE DECIDED TO COMMIT THE MURDER 6 MONTHS AGO
So how did the murder happen? Littlefield decided to kill Kelley almost six months before he went to trial. In August 2020, Littlefield bought fentanyl from drug dealers in Ohio and snuck into Kelley’s home for four months between October 2020 and January 2021. Adding poison to Kelley’s beloved oatmeal and continuing to do so systematically, Littlefield wanted to cause serious damage to the man’s health over time. His goal was to retain custody of his daughter.
According to her, her systematically poisoned ex-lover would ‘naturally’ lose his health over time and die. However, on January 14, 2021, because the poison he added to the oatmeal was too much, his horrifying death plan resulted in his ex-lover losing his life and himself and his daughter being sent to prison.
