Margaret “Frankie” Kellis

(upbeat music) A beloved husband enjoying his golden years is found gunned down in his home. (laughing) There's blood on the pillow. - His watch and wallet were missing. We felt that robbery could have been a motive. - His elderly widow suspects a mystery man she saw lurking in the neighborhood. - She did tell us about a suspicious person that she saw. - He looked out at me and said, "Why did she manage it so many times?" - Had he have showed up and done this homicide while she was out? - But when shocking secret surface, investigators find themselves chasing an unlikely culprit and a master manipulator with a deadly past. - She went by different aliases. She had different social security numbers. - She didn't want any of us to tell her secrets, to be exposed. - When you dig into all the facts and all the details, you start to see them just a monster. - In a matter of a second, she would be the devil himself. (upbeat music) July 20th, 2016. At approximately 7.20 a.m., North Carolina police receive a friend to call from an Aberdeen resident named Frankie Kelles. - More counting that one, one. - I think my husband's name. - How old is he? - Seven to eight. - Oh my God, you can't. There's blood on the pillow. - I'm not one call. She does seem at a breath kind of like frantic. So that's when everyone starts responding to the residents. - The dispatcher instructs Frankie to try to attempt CPR on her husband, but Frankie tells the dispatcher cheese 80 years old has limited mobility. - Okay, we need to get him on the floor. - I'm not able, I'm disabled. I can't lift him. - Okay, are you able to grab his feet and pull him toward you? (dramatic music) - Honey, I can't do it. I can't, I'm not able. (dramatic music) - Unfortunately, by the time first responders arrive, it's too late to save her husband, Dallas. - It was obvious that he was not here anymore. It was deceased. - When he a mess began trying to render aid, they realized there was blood on the pillow. So they started looking for the source of the blood, and they noticed an injury on the back of his head that they thought might be a gunshot wound. - They were kind of taken aback by this because Frankie didn't mention and then I went one call that he had been shot. - Initially, it's just a medical call. Then it becomes, we've got to lock this scene down. Now we've got a big investigation on our hands. - Crime scene tape goes up, we isolate witnesses and then we bring investigators in. - He had a small caliber wound to the lower back portion of his neck and the same thing to the back of his head. - It was evident that his injury was not self-inflicted. No gun was visible, close by. The police contacted my dad and dad let me know that Uncle Ballard's had been killed. - Uncle Dallas is a friendly guy. Do anything for anybody that he could. It's one of those situations that you wonder how that could happen. - Dallas Leon Kellis was born in rural North Carolina near the end of the Great Depression. - My uncle Dallas was raised by my grandmother. My grandfather was killed in an automobile accident. I think it was 1940. So, times were tough. And Uncle Dallas was the baby. He was the youngest of seven. And they definitely learned at an early age what work was about. He graduated from a high school in West End North Carolina. And after that it was the United States Army. - After serving in the military, Dallas returned to Aberdeen and took a job as a machinist at a local textile mill. - In 1968, he married the love of his life, Louise Cole. - My aunt Louise, she was little older than Uncle Dallas and had a couple of daughters from a previous marriage. Uncle Dallas, he was, I'm gonna say a dapper dan, a sharp dress man, always everything altered. Whole nine yards and they were happy together. They did well for themselves and built a nice house outside of Aberdeen. Church was the big thing. They enjoyed going to church and enjoyed doing things with the church. So that was their primary focus. Uncle Dallas, he enjoyed working out in the yard. They were good people and worked hard. Dallas and Louise enjoyed 41 years together until she passed away in June 2009. - Pretty much age and life just kinda caught up with it. - Dallas was heartbroken, but after a year of mourning, he opened up to the possibility of finding love again. - It gave the church lady's hope because he was considered to be a little bit of a catch. He had that little burnt rentals laugh that you'd get out of him every once in a while, but he had a laugh that was infectious. He was always one that was approachable and one that was there for you and you knew that he was. - In 2010, someone captured his heart, but it wasn't one of the ladies from church. It was a woman from his past who was also recently widowed after the passing of her third husband. - Much to everyone's surprise, Dallas reconnects with a next girlfriend from his 20s named Margaret Francis Bright, better known to her loved ones as Frankie. - My grandmother grew up in a little town called Elizabeth Town with Carolina. She is the youngest of all of her siblings. The baby out of, I believe, at least six. I didn't get to meet my great-grandparents, but I was told that they like coddled her and she always got her way. My grandmother met Dallas in her 20s or before then and so they had a past relationship from what I was told. And after my granddadgy junior passed away and she moved back to North Carolina. My grandmother and Dallas rekindled their relationship in their 70s. Although 50 years had passed, Dallas and Frankie quickly fell back in love. They were married the following year in February 2011. - They didn't date very long before they got married 'cause it's like your older, it's like why wait. So it's, you never know when it's gonna be your last day. My grandmother and Dallas, they spent their time working out in the art, watching TV like Willough Fortune. You know, the old shows like Matlock, you know, it's the normal things that older couples do together. The reunited couple were enjoying their golden years together. But now a bullet has shattered their second chance at love. - We're trying to establish motive. Why would someone want to kill Dallas? It is important to roll out the spouse that we can focus our efforts on different people or suspects. - When investigators sit down with Frankie to find out what happened, she is understandably distraught. - I might appear to be strong, but inside, but now I'm down. I've always had to hold it for everybody else. I lost a son at 29. No vendor, I raised him, he was my grandson, and I lost a daughter, last year. - We've had some rough time, I'm sorry. - Frankie says she and Dallas were supposed to attend the funeral of a family member that day. So she woke up around 5 a.m. to get ready. - I came in here after a neck-up party so I could fix me a cup of cup. And I walked that way and I said, "Oh, look, these are some bricks, these are knotted, don't do that." He said, "Go get it, McDonald's can get it for the family." - She said she went to McDonald's, got a hand-biscuit, she went by the post office and came back home. - I probably could get him kind of sad. I woke up and got the paper, and I said, "Thank you, still one of you." I thought, "We just take a month, a long time into the afternoon." So I walked in there, and I saw that blood of next when I got off. Frankie tells investigators that she thinks someone might have broken into the house while she was out, because Dallas's wallet and his watch were both missing from the nightstand. With her saying that his watch and wallet were missing, then we felt that robbery could have been a motive, but we didn't see any signs of a struggle. If individuals had come into the house and were looking to steal items of value, they would have been tearing up the house looking for. If someone breaks into a house, you know, we see what's missing, the door kicked in, but the house was immaculate, very clean, organized, we didn't see anything else missing. That was stuck out. That was odd. Immediately, there's some suspicious here. Coming up, a closer examination of the body offers new theories. Looking at the gunshot to the back of the neck, it was a pretty close brain shot. And a family grudge points investigators toward a suspect. Dallas's family was very vocal about Dallas not caring for her grandson. Detectives in North Carolina are interviewing the widow of Dallas Kellis, who just found the victim shot dead in their home. She did tell us about a suspicious person that she saw as she was leaving the residence to go get breakfast. Unfortunately, Frankie is unable to recall any details. And other than the missing belongings, there is little evidence of a break in. There was no sign to force the entry, there was nothing to appear to be missing, everything looked in order. Do you leave the doors unlocked when you leave? You don't have a lock, it's one good thing. Of course. What kind of weapons are in there? There was a 22 rifle, it was pretty clear by looking at the gun that had been there for a while and had not been free solely shot. The size of the wound, I mean, wasn't large to what a shotgun would leave, so the shotgun was not the weapon either. I was looking at the gunshot to the back of the neck, it did go through the shirt, and I could see what looked like powder burns. It kind of gave me the indication that it was a pretty close range shot. The body was removed from the house and taken to Raleigh for an autopsy. Investigators hope the medical examiner will be able to confirm the caliber of the gun used to kill Dallas. On a murder weapon, it was began to look like whoever shot Dallas had taken the gun with him. At the same time with no other suspects, it was important for investigators to cooperate the alibi that Frankie had given. Officers wanted to verify that she didn't go to make Dallas, so they go and they check, they get a video, and they get her on the video. We decided to do a gunshot residue test on Frankie, just to see if it would indicate that she had shot any weapons. When they were talking with her, she had like a washcloth that she kind of kept wiping her hands with. That made the gunshot residue test that we performed on Frankie inconclusive. Though Frankie isn't completely cleared, for now, her alibi appears to check out. With Frankie's whereabouts accounted for, detectives begin pursuing the only other lead they have. They begin canvassing the neighborhood, trying to see if anyone else saw the man that Frankie described. We always have to start with the people surrounding them. Who do they know, who would have a motive, opportunity, we look at those things. We spoke to the neighbors, next to them, behind them. No one had seen this person that she was talking about. Just walking down the road near their house, there is a convenient store up there that people walk to on occasion. We were allowed to look at the surveillance system and we looked at, I would say, several hours before and several hours after. We didn't see a person walking down the street. Frankie's next door neighbor says he did see someone in the driveway with Dallas a few weeks ago. The neighbor provide us with information that someone arrived at Dallas's residence in a silver Mustang and he recalls both of them, Dallas and this person looking at a silver gun. We learned that it was a revolver. Afterwards Dallas is seen shooting the pistol around his property. It almost seemed as if this guy showed up and sold Dallas a pistol. We didn't locate a hanging inside the house, so from then I believe that that was going to be the murder weapon. Frankie had claimed that the couple didn't own a handgun, so naturally the question became why did she lie and what other things she might be lying about. According to his loved ones, Dallas wasn't the kind of man who made enemies, but there was bad blood between him and Frankie's grandson, Uriah. My grandmother raised Uriah. He lived with her a lot up until she got married and moved in with Dallas. And I know that his relationship was probably also had a wedge between Dallas and her. Whatever we learned about Uriah, we spoke to Dallas's family and they were very well aware of who Uriah was. Dallas' family was very vocal about Dallas not caring for Uriah. He wasn't a good person. He had some bad habits that Dallas did not care for. Uriah was not allowed to be at his residence. It did appear that Uriah was being kicked out of the house, he was not with his uncle. But we wondered if maybe that Frankie was trying to move him into the house with him. And we speculated was there an argument that didn't suit over that. And we learned that he actually flew in the day of Dallas's murder. The first thing we thought is could he have showed up and done this homicide while she was at McDonald's. Investigators contact the airlines and discover Uriah's flight arrived earlier that morning. One thing we had to consider is did he have time to come down and do this homicide? We checked and he was actually still in route to North Carolina when the murder occurred. So with that, it ruled him out as a suspect. But as detectives continue their interviews, a new lead takes the case in a different direction. Two days after Dallas's death, one of our officers gets a call from a distant relative to Frankie. According to her relative, Frankie is hiding things from investigators. He tells us that Frankie's known to carry a revolver with her wherever she goes. And in his opinion, he didn't feel like that she would be afraid to use it. At this point, you know, we're thinking she's not this little lady that people think she may be. That's just a image that she puts on. 48 hours into the investigation of Dallas-Kellis's murder, a witness sheds new light on the grieving widow. A seemingly kind grandmother no one would look at twice for murder. At this point, Frankie had already lied to investigators about the revolver and the handgun. So investigators begin to wonder what else she might be lying about. When detectives question more of Frankie's family, including two of her granddaughters, they learn the gun isn't the only thing she's been hiding. Several Frankie's family members didn't seem surprised by this information that knew that she was known to carry a firearm with her. It's a major red flag for detectives that Frankie would hide the fact that she carries a handgun. Now investigators have to figure out is there a possibility that she's the one who killed her husband? So, investigators began to look more deeply into her background. Frankie's granddaughters tell police she's been married four times and left a trail of broken homes behind her. She didn't really raise any of her kids. She just kind of like left. She got remarried and the same thing just kind of abandoned her children. To say the least, you know, maybe not mother of a year. She wasn't close with her five children, but by the time her grandchildren were born, Frankie seemed determined to redeem herself. My grandmother would be the one that you would call if you needed somebody to be there for you. She would do anything for her grandkids and the people that she loved. But according to one of her granddaughters, that included teaching them how to shop left. My grandmother's not the typical grandmother, right? That you think of little lady who bakes pies, comes over for birthdays. She would have them commit crimes as kids. She would have them go into stores and steal items. And when they were caught pretend like she had no idea that they were stealing. She appeared to be a sweet, nice lady, you know, like a grandmother would look like. But she was not what she portrayed to be. Based on this information from her granddaughters, investigators run a background shack, which reveals Frankie's crimes included more than just petty theft. Frankie went by different aliases. She had different social security numbers, different social security cards. One of Frankie's family members said that Frankie would sell her prescription medication to people. She had charges for prescription fraud, regular fraud, and I'm shoplifting. When we get to digging into Frankie's background, we find out she's been a federal prison for drug charges. Her family told us she was actually released in 2010, and that was when she met Dallas. According to Frankie's granddaughter, after seven years in prison and marrying Dallas, things changed. As a family, we were told that he didn't like us. That was kind of heart, and that kind of puts a wedge in between me and my grandmother. I wouldn't like put it past her to keep us away from him. Because maybe she didn't want any of us to tell her secrets. Detectives pay Frankie another visit to confront her with their findings, only to discover she's gone missing. We executed an additional source warrant at the residence again. Investigators are unable to locate the handguns during their search, but they do make another discovery. We found clothes laying on the floor in front of the closet. The clothes were a blouse, some shorts. There was a spot that could possibly be blood. We also collected the clothes that she was wearing back when we arrived in the house. And in her dresser, they find something even more incriminating. We actually locate his wallet and his watch. When investigators found the watch and wallet that Frankie claimed had been stolen, that immediately cast out over the whole robbery theory. It was apparent that it was being concealed or hid from us. When we look in the wallet, all his cards are there, his driver's license is there, and we knew she was lying. Frankie definitely was a suspect. Detectives in North Carolina have just uncovered evidence indicating Frankie Kellis may be involved in the murder of her husband Dallas. When looking closer at the couple's financial records, they provide a potential motive. Dallas was retired. I know he worked all his life, and he worked for that retirement. He was very in a way financially stable, as a checkbook's reliance, payments were on time. And then we started seeing discrepancies. We found bills that looked like they were being paid, where the envelope had the statement and the amount of the check, but the check was missing. We also found some checks that had recently been returned as insufficient funds. There were several checks made out to Frankie, and the signature on it said Dallas, but it was quite apparently not Dallas's signature based on his signature cards from the bank. We started seeing insufficient funding the accounts. She was spending thousands and thousands of dollars, which alarmed us. The evidence we found in the house gave us the impression that Mr. Kellis was being bled dry. It was about $39,000 of debt that had been incurred since Frankie came into the picture. Records indicate Dallas wasn't the only person Frankie was defrauding. They found some checks that were had been written by LaRue Greene to Ms. Kellis. LaRue Greene is the older sister of Dallas Kellis, but there was one check that did not appear that had the same signature on it. We did goodbye interview Dallas's sister, and she said that she was unaware that the checks were missing, and the checks that were cashed and forged, she had no knowledge about. Dallas's sister says she has no idea where Frankie might have gone. The last time they spoke was the morning Dallas was killed. She informed us that she received the call that morning from Frankie telling her that Dallas had passed away. What we found odd with that phone call was that she had called LaRue Greene at 706am, but she did not make the 911 call until 721. That's a big red flag that you're going to call 911 15 minutes later. So how do you go from his dad to I think he's dead? And then she claims to have done CPR. The medical dispatcher asked her to perform CPR on the victim, and you could audibly hear her indicate that she checked the pulse. Okay, pump the champ heart and fast at least twice per second and two into the deep. Okay, one, two, three. Looking at the body, it appeared that he hadn't been moved, which told us that CPR was not attempted. I mean, you are a sweet, innocent, helpless lady. Your husband just was murdered, why lie? But when you're telling me initially that I tried to do CPR, you tell his sister, you know, he is dead, why lie to us? When lab results come in, Frankie's clothing collected at the crime scene offers the strongest evidence against her. The clothing debt we were able to send off, it in fact did have gunshot residue on it. Now, as the manhunt for Frankie continues, police get a tip that suggests this grandmother is on the move, and her crime spree isn't over just yet. I received a phone call from a family member of Frankie's in Georgia. She believed that Frankie and Yoraya were going to kill them. Frankie and Yoraya showed up at the house in Georgia, unannounced. They's not like they speak or have a relationship, so it was odd for them to even show up. They're being really weird, and one point Frankie tells Yoraya, "Hey, grab the candy." He reaches in and grabs something which she felt like was a gun and put it in his waist. At that time, she would unlock the doors and call for the sheriff's office to come out there because she felt frightened. By the time police arrive at the residence, over 300 miles away from Aberdeen, Frankie and Yoraya are gone. Investigators quickly move to obtain an arrest warrant. After I got indictments for the murder, we had witnesses, family members come forward and provide us information that Frankie was actually back in Aberdeen at her residence. - We did a drive-by to verify that she was there, and we actually saw Gariah in the driveway. - But with no sign of Frankie, detectives sit back and wait. - As we set up on the house, we actually see Frankie drive around towards the rear of the house and into the woods and took a side road and awaited, in my opinion, to evade for Mingsen. And when she hit the main road, we initiated a traffic stop. As soon as I pull over and I woke up to the car, a sweet lady, she's just clueless to why we're there. No idea. And then we tell her she's on her rest. She wasn't upset. You're even asked why. Just puts on his persona that she's a sweet old lady. - Coming up, Frankie offers an explanation for her odd behavior. - I'm in the early stages of domestic. - And an alarming pattern is brought to light. - He believed that she was involved with the deaths of her previous husbands. - After two and a half months of investigation, North Carolina police have arrested Frankie Kellis for the murder of her husband, Dallas. - When Frankie Kellis was arrested, her grandson, Yiraya, was at the house. So they brought Frankie to the sheriff's office to talk to her and they also had Yiraya come up to the sheriff's office. - Although Yiraya is not charged with any crime, he agrees to provide a statement. Frankie is much less cooperative. - We placed them in separate interview rooms and I would say the hardest interview I've ever done, look her. She was tough. I would corner her and to, you know, hey, I know you're lying and this is why. She would try to control the interview. - I want you to tell me why I'm here. I got indictment for you. The charges are murder and fordue of instrument and huddering ford's instrument. So that's why I do it. - That's why I do it. How did you do that, Hugh? - I know you have a lot of questions, just like I do. - You can ask me how well we talked about it and I can't tell you but the way it-- - Okay. - In the early stages of the minutes, yeah. - What do you think about what you're charged with? - I think it's wrong. - What? - 'Cause I'm not guilty. I love killing my husband. - She claims she only left town because of her grief over her husband's death. - I can't say they're long good time. I get so much for you. You miss them so fast. - Okay. - Hey, it's good to me. - But when police confront her with the holes in her story, Frankie's demeanor suddenly changes. - That's not true. That's not true. Every time you're down, that's not true. That's a lie. I'm not English because that week the ghost is not true. - She was the sweetest, nicest lady and then in a matter of a second, she would be the devil himself. Any time that we would present evidence to her that would show that she was lying, she would completely change. - Here in last problem too, because 15 minutes after you call her room, you call her 911. - I'm not gonna stress that 'cause I don't know who she is. - Okay. - I'm not one to see. - Listen to me. Come and blame anyone, answer your question here. - I'm sitting over there trying to get my thing out. - No, I'm not. - When detectives question Uriah, he seems reluctant to cross his grandmother. - Uriah was interesting in a way where he was afraid of Frankie. But he was low to her. He would just make comments like you guys don't know who Frankie is, the things that she's done. - According to Uriah, Dallas isn't the first of Frankie's four husbands to meet an untimely end. - She had been married four times and he only knows of one that died of natural causes. He believed that she was involved with the deaths of her previous husbands. He volunteered information about Frankie allegedly overdosing one of her husbands on purpose. - According to Uriah, the victim was Frankie's second husband, Howard. And the two were still newlyweds at the time. - Allegedly, she goes on a honeymoon and comes back and the family's looking for their father and she hasn't been an earned. - She had cremated immediately. - Though the accusations of foul play were well known among both families, the incident was never investigated. And Frankie vehemently denied having a hand in Howard's death. Still, Uriah's statement strengthens the case against Frankie. - She would have been presented well in front of a jury as far as getting rolled out in a wheelchair and having that sweet old lady look. But I do believe that I obtained sufficient amount of evidence to show that that's not who she is. - By prosecutors' worry, it might not be enough for a jury to convict a harmless-looking octogenarian. - We don't have the forensic evidence at this point. This is who did it. Let's say circumstantial case, we just keep building on each piece of evidence. - Frankie had lied to investigators about the revolver and the hangar. - She said she was giving him CPR, but that was not true. While she says it was stolen, and they find a wallet in her room. So it's not one big link, but several small links together. - But there really isn't like a smoking gun. - In October 2016, almost three months after Dallas-Kellus was shot, his wife Frankie is charged with a murder. She was also charged with felony forgery of an instrument for the check belonging to Dallas-Kellus's sister, LaRue Greene. - Based off the evidence, I believe that Frankie was spending Dallas's money without him knowing at first. Dallas found out and confronted Frankie before his murder. - Dallas kept a financial journal and it was very meticulous. There were several cash advance checks that she had signed against Dallas's finances. Then the month or two leading up to his death. - Frankie knew she had bled Dallas out as much as money as she could get and that he was about to cut her off. - I believe that she took the firearm that the neighbor reported seeing and shot Dallas while he was asleep. - To come up with a story to tell law enforcement, she did go to McDonald's. She got food for one. She came back home, called Dallas's sister, told her in a way what happened to, I think, cover her tracks and then decided to come on one. - Unfortunately, the case against Frankie is largely circumstantial. In today's society, you have the CSI effect where people want to see smoking guns, they want to see the ballistics, they want to see DNA evidence and fingerprints. And in this case, we didn't really have it. There were no showcases. Pretty much we just had Mr. Kelly sland there. - We located a small caliber rifle in the house but it didn't turn out to be what he was shot with. It was more of a culmination of the evidence that just kept stacking up over time. She claims she does CPR on them. There's no evidence that CPR was performed on them. She says, well, his wallet and his watch are missing and then we find that hidden in her dresser drawer. - Even the gunshot residue found on Frankie's clothes is of limited value as evidence. - Defensive attorney would say, well, couldn't it bend that? She got gunshot residue on her clothing because she leaned against her husband trying to give him CPR. And so when we were making decisions about what to do with the case, those are the things that we think about. - As her trial date approaches, every court hearing gives prosecutors more cause for concern. - In the courtroom, Frankie didn't really look like the type of person who was capable of killing their husband. [BLANK_AUDIO] He was frail, she was in a wheelchair, she just looked like somebody's grandma. - The jury, if we went to trial, they would see her in the wheelchair. They would see this by now 83 year old woman charged with murder, they're gonna have sympathy for her. - Ultimately, prosecutors decide not to risk putting Frankie in front of a jury. Instead, they offer her a plea deal in June, 2019. - Frankie Kellis played guilty to voluntary manslaughter. She received a sentence of 84 months minimum, 113 months maximum. She got credit for that time she spent in the More County jail. So from the October 4th of 2016 until October 2nd of 2023, she served my math is correct. Seven years. - It really blows my mind that she was able to put on this sweet old lady persona, at least it appearances. And you know, when you dig into all the facts and all the details, he starts to see him just a monster. - I was told that if she can be incarcerated in the past and get through it, that she could get through it this time. And she did, she made it out. I have contact with her, you know, I talked to her. I know that some of my family doesn't have any contact with her whatsoever. - I wish there would have been something that we could have done to make a difference in that. I think the world uncle Dallas and nobody deserves to have done what he had done to him. (dramatic music) (upbeat music)