Gardaí investigating the murder of Kerry farmer Mike Gaine travelled to the United States last weekend to speak with the former partner of a man arrested about the killing.
Investigators visited Waldo County in the northeastern state of Maine where Michael Kelley, the man detained and questioned last month over Mr Gaine’s murder, lived before he moved to Ireland.
Mr Kelley’s former partner Alicia Snow said she met investigators on Saturday and that they were looking for any clues to explain what might have happened to Mr Gaine.
A Garda source confirmed a detective had travelled to the US as part of the investigation to seek a statement from Ms Snow.
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The Garda Press Office declined to comment on the visit. “An Garda Síochána does not comment on, confirm or deny queries on specific operational details of ongoing criminal investigations.”
A native of Maine, Mr Kelley lived and worked on Mr Gaine’s farm near Kenmare, and has denied any involvement in his murder. Mr Gaine was last seen alive on March 20th. His partial remains were discovered on his land on May 17th.
[ Who is Michael Kelley, the man questioned over the murder of Michael Gaine?Opens in new window ]
Mr Kelley was arrested on May 18th on suspicion of murder and was released without charge 24 hours later.
Mr Kelley, a musician, has claimed in media interviews that he is being framed for the murder by people involved in “organised crime”.
He is now living in Tralee, where he can be seen regularly busking on the streets.
Ms Snow, who was Mr Kelley’s partner for three years and has two children with him, has fond memories of their time together living simply in a yurt on his mother’s farm in the small town of Swanville in Maine.
She said Mr Kelley did a variety of jobs over the years. He installed ductwork for heating and cooling systems, and worked as a farmhand on a neighbour’s dairy farm, as a breakfast cook and as a butcher in a small country grocery store.
In 2001, the couple had a commitment ceremony on the farm in Swanville with a group of family and friends. Ms Snow grew the flowers for the ceremony, a bagpiper played and Mr Kelley wore a kilt, she said.
She described Mr Kelley as “strong, capable, hardworking, sober homesteader” who played the Uilleann pipes and a bagpipe.
Ms Snow said he was “funny and smart and responsible and cooked well, and worked real hard like an Irish farm boy”.
Their relationship subsequently broke down and they separated in 2001. After their separation, Ms Snow earned a nursing degree and began working as a nurse.
Mr Kelley claimed in an interview with The Irish Times earlier this month that he had been threatened by the Ku Klux Klan in Maine because he was a Catholic and it was anti-Catholic. He claimed they poisoned and killed his dog near his home outside Swanville and, fearing for his life, he moved to Ireland.
After his separation from Ms Snow, Mr Kelley brought a legal action seeking right of access to their children, who were living with her.
Court papers from the legal case in Maine in 2009 show that Mr Kelley accused Ms Snow of witchcraft, and of casting spells on her children. The courts sided with Ms Snow, who was granted full custody of their children.
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The judge in the case, in which Mr Kelley represented himself, concluded that Mr Kelley’s ability to determine fact from fiction was “questionable”.
Ms Snow said the latest time she spoke to Mr Kelley was about 10 years ago.
She said he went to Arizona about seven years ago to visit his father, who bought him a one-way ticket to Ireland.
