GRUNDY CENTER, Iowa — Michelle Kehoe, 36, sat in the Grundy County Courthouse on Thursday, rarely looking at family members as her oldest son’s voice echoed around the courtroom.
“She put duct tape over my eyes, and nose, and mouth,” Sean Kehoe, then 7 years old, said in describing his mother’s actions. “She was hurting my baby brother.”
Kehoe faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death of her younger son, Seth Kehoe, and charges of attempted murder, and child endangerment causing injury.
The jury heard Sean Kehoe’s high, thin voice telling authorities his mother bound him and his brother before cutting their necks.
His interview was recorded on Oct. 27, 2008, the day authorities found him covered in dried blood with his neck cut inside his family’s van near the Hook ’N’ Liner pond near Littleton, Iowa.
Authorities found the body of his brother, 2-year-old Seth Kehoe, nearby.
Kehoe’s defense attorney is using the insanity, or diminished-capacity, plea. But on day one of the trial, which drew national media attention, the prosecution outlined graphic details that suggested detailed preparations leading up to and following the alleged crimes — including how Kehoe may have tried to point the finger on someone else.
“In this way, the elaborate and meticulous planning of the murder of her children had begun,” said Assistant Iowa Attorney General Andrew Prosser.
Prosser told the jury that Kehoe had purchased a Winchester hunting knife and duct tape from stores around Iowa City. She also picked a secluded location to carry out the alleged crimes.
Through the 10 witnesses called Thursday, the prosecutors pieced together for the jury the alleged events of Oct. 26, 2008.
According to authorities, Michelle Kehoe and her sons left their Coralville home after she told her husband they were going to visit her mother in a Sumner, Iowa, nursing home.
Instead, she pulled her white van off the road near the pond, where prosecutors say she tried to kill both boys before cutting her own neck.
Debra Hinne of Littleton, Iowa, told the jury she heard a knock on her front door around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2008. An injured person, later identified as Michelle Kehoe, was leaning against her front door and fell inside when Hinne opened the door. Kehoe was difficult to understand, Hinne said, so she handed her paper to write a note.
“A man killed my boys and tried to kill me,” Kehoe wrote.
As emergency responders began to arrive, several searched for the two boys.
Shawn Even, a member of the Jessup Fire Department, was a member of the first team to find the van — and Seth Kehoe’s body.
“I didn’t check the body, it was obvious,” Even said as Michelle Kehoe looked down.
He found Sean Kehoe kneeling in the driver’s seat of the van. He’d managed to remove the duct tape and hide in the vehicle, according to multiple witnesses.
The state’s final witness was Amy Pollpeter, a criminalist with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. She walked the jury through the evidence found at the crime scene.
Pollpeter said investigators found blood from both boys as well as Michelle Kehoe. She also identified for the jury two pictures of Seth Kehoe’s body.
Dryer, Kehoe’s attorney, questioned few of the state’s witnesses. She did clarify with Pollpeter that a large amount of the blood at the scene came from Michelle Kehoe.
If convicted of the charges, Kehoe faces life in prison. The state will continue making its case at 9 a.m. today.