A Person Of Interest And Reward Established In Search For Missing Mother Heather Mae Kelley
The mother of eight went missing in December 2022, and authorities believe she may have been the victim of a homicide. An award of up to $20,000 is being offered as the FBI and police search for answers.
FBI
Heather Mae Kelley, a 35-year-old woman from Portage, Michigan, has been missing since Dec. 10, 2022. The FBI has now announced that it is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to Kelley’s location.
“There is evidence to suggest that she may have been the victim of a homicide,” the FBI reveals on its website.
Heather Mae Kelley was last known to be driving to pick up a friend in Kalamazoo, Michigan, according to the Department of Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. She spoke to her children around 10:20 p.m. that evening and told them she would be home soon. Sadly, she never came home, and that’s the last anyone has heard from her.
Kelley’s vehicle was found set ablaze on the side of the road on Dec. 11, the day after she went missing. “The vehicle was set on fire and evidence of blood was found inside the vehicle,” Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller III said. Her clothing was found near her car.
Now one clear person of interest has emerged in the case. Fuller told ABC News, "That person of interest is still in jail on unrelated charges. But right now, we feel that the investigation continues us on a path toward a possible arrest at some point, down the road, of the suspect."
Police have said that the person of interest is offering “limited cooperation” in the investigation. Fuller said that the person may have helped with the burning of the car and “the possible destruction of other evidence,” reported ABC News.
“We believe that given the spring weather and how it’s warming up and more people are out traveling along the edges of the road in this area where we have searched fairly well, we believe that there’s still a possibility that she is in that area and that springtime is when somebody is going to come across Ms. Kelley and then contact us,” Fuller stated.
Although he acknowledged that it’s a sad case, Nick Arnold, the director of public safety for Portage, stated, “I'm very confident that we are going to be able to find Ms. Kelley and bring this case to a close.”
A Facebook group has been set up to help find Heather Mae Kelley.
The FBI asks that anyone with information about Kelley or the case call the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office at (269) 383-8748 or the Portage Department of Public Safety at (269) 329-4567. Alternatively, you can contact your local FBI office or submit tips online at tips.fbi.gov.
