Kelcey Fike, (Courtesy)
KEARNEY — Nearly two decades after a Kearney woman’s body was found inside her burned home, the party responsible is still at large.
On June 17, 2008, Kelcey Fike, 21, was found in the burned remains of her mobile home at the R-Villa South Trailer Court in west Kearney.
“Somebody out there knows something, and I believe we will get answers someday,” Fike’s older brother John told the Associated Press in 2014.
At the time, Kearney Police said Fike died shortly before a fire was set that engulfed the bedroom that she shared with her boyfriend at the time. He was out of the state at the time of her death wasn’t considered a suspect, according to the Associated Press.
Police know that Fike left her work at Bob’s Super Store at 5:30 p.m. on the day before her death. She made and received several phone calls and sent and received text messages. Neighbors reported seeing Fike at 9 p.m. with her dog.
At 1 a.m. on June 17, Fike sent her last text message to her boyfriend.
At 4:39 a.m., video surveillance from The Buckle captured a car leaving the trailer park.
Members of the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched to Fike’s mobile home at 4:50 a.m. They discovered her body at the back of the house in a hallway between the two bedrooms, according to the Associated Press.
It was clear that the fire and subsequent water used to extinguish the blaze destroyed much of the physical evidence at the scene.
“Police initially thought Fike’s killer was someone she knew, but investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility she could have been targeted at random,” the Associated Press wrote in 2014.
The autopsy report revealed that Fike died of blunt force trauma to the torso head and there was evidence of ligature strangulation, Kim Schmidt reported for the Kearney Hub.
Due to Fike’s injuries, a broken nose, bruises to her torso, face and arms and other defensive wounds, it is believed the assailant was not a female or slight person, Schmidt reported.
A message seeking comment was left with the Kearney Police Department.
A $30,000 reward is still available for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for her death.
Fike’s burial took place at Mount Hope Cemetery in Omaha.
Anyone with information in Fike’s death is asked to KPD at 237-2104, the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office at 236-8555 or Crimestoppers at 237-3424.
