The picturesque seaside town of none other than Camden, Maine is now attracting a new breed of tourists – cops from Ireland investigating an apparent murder.
Police from Ireland came to Camden to interview the former wife of Michael Kelley, a suspect in the suspicious death of Michael Gaine.
Kelley had lived on Gaine’s farm in Kerry, where Gaine’s chainsawed remains were found in a slurry pit.
Kelley and his then-partner – court filings describe their setup as a “romantic relationship” – lived for a while in midcoast Maine, before they went their separate ways. He eventually moved to Ireland.
After the couple split, Kelley’s ex-partner, a longtime nurse, set up a healthcare shop in Camden.
That’s now where the investigation in to the disappearance of the Irish farmer is partly based.
Sound like a Stephen King novel?
Funny you should ask – Kelley is telling the Irish press that he wants to become a mystery writer in the mold of the Bangor-based king of horror.
Kelley has said he lived underground in Ireland avoiding immigration enforcement but now is looking to become a citizen of that country.
“This comes as Kelley has confirmed that police travelled to his native Maine on the northeast coast of America to talk to his ex-wife and other family members, as the investigation into the killing of Michael Gaine continues,” according to CorkBeo.ie.
“Mr. Kelley said he accepted that the police visit to Maine indicated that officers were still focused on him as a suspect in the murder of Mr. Gaine – a crime he insists he did not commit,” the paper reported.
Alicia Snow, a highly-credentialed nurse practitioner, primary-care physician and nursing instructor, has been living in the midcoast for decades and operates a whole-health practice in Camden.
Snow and Kelley previously lived together in Waldo County, Maine as a couple with two children.
Three years after they split, Kelley brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against Snow, who had been granted sole custody of their children by a lower court. He claimed she was an unfit parent and had been practicing witchcraft on their children.
The Maine Supreme Court eventually ruled against Kelley, in 2009, keeping the children with Snow and actually praising her parenting skills.
Now that Kelley is under police suspicion in the Ireland killing, he’s predicting that Snow will prove to be a dead-end for homicide cops who are seeking background on him. “She knows absolutely nothing about anything I’ve been doing,” he told CorkBeo.
“We haven’t talked for years,” he added. “For the life of me I can’t see the relationship between a woman who hasn’t talked to me for over 10 years and this case.”
Kelley, who was recently arrested on suspicion of the murder of the popular farmer, told DublinLive.ie that he is now writing “psychological thrillers” in the style of his literary hero – famed Maine author Stephen King.
“I have outlines of ideas,” Kelley said, “Irish short stories.”
