By Paul Purpura, The Times-Picayune
May 18, 2010, 10:24PM
Drawing from her experiences as a child of the military and a soldier's wife who tended their children while her husband of a decade was deployed overseas, Kimberly Kelly was in her final months as a graduate student at Tulane University, expecting in December to earn a master's degree in social work.
A nondenominational ordained minister, she poured her educational efforts into seeking counseling services for the spouses and children of military families, her classmates said. She had an internship at the Veterans Administration. And working with two fellow graduate students, her master's thesis involved seeking grants to provide services to military families.
"She was using social work as her ministry," said Kendyl Tipton, a fellow graduate student. "She told me on numerous occasions she wasn't up on the pulpit, but she felt this was her calling in life,"
On Saturday, Kelly, 32, a native of Indiana who moved frequently throughout her youth with her military stepfather, was shot to death in her home at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse. Her husband, Maj. Detric Kelly, 37, an assistant professor of military science at Tulane and a member of the school's Army ROTC cadre, is a suspect and is in custody at Fort Polk, according to the Army.
An Army spokesman on Monday called it "a domestic violence incident." The Army offered few new details Tuesday, including whether Detric Kelly has been accused of a crime by the Army's Criminal Investigations Division.
Army is investigating her death
"The circumstances of her death are under investigation," said Mike Johnson of the Army's Cadet Command at Fort Monroe, Va., the headquarters for ROTC programs nationwide. "We cannot provide additional information at this time pending the ongoing investigation."
Details about Detric Kelly's military career were not available Tuesday, but Kimberly Kelly told her friends he had deployed overseas several times and had experienced combat.
Because Kelly is a soldier, the Army would handle a prosecution regardless of the homicide happening on the Navy's base, an Army lawyer said. If formally charged, Kelly could be tried before a jury of military officers in Virginia, where the Cadre Command is located, or at Fort Polk. If convicted of homicide under military law, he could face life in prison and dismissal from Army, the lawyer said.
A blended family
The couple had two young children together, a daughter younger than 13 and a son younger than 10, her friends said. He fathered two other children from a previous relationship, they said, and Kimberly Kelly cared for and worked with her husband's troubled teenage son. At times, her friends said, Kimberly Kelly brought her children to Tulane when they were not in classes. Her friends said the Kellys moved to Louisiana last year, and she enrolled at Tulane in the fall.
"She was absolutely dedicated to helping veterans, said Ronald Marks, dean of Tulane's School of Social Work. "I'm confident she would have gone on to work with veterans."
None of her friends know whether the children were in the home when she died or who is tending to them now. Few friends knew about her death until Tuesday, when word spread across Tulane's campus. The news provided for some, an explanation for her atypical absence from classes on Saturday morning.
"It just doesn't make sense," said Marquita Davis of Houma, a fellow graduate student. "You know her, and you know him at the same time. Of course, I would say most of us felt strangely about him. I had a couple of conversations with him. There was something a little off about him. To some degree, she told people there were some issues in the marriage, but we didn't know the full extent of what was going on."
10th wedding anniversary
Davis said Detric Kelly at times appeared to be controlling, calling his wife while she was in classes and appearing unannounced. He seemed threatened by her independent nature and pursuit of a career, but he also appeared to care for her, she said.
"It's just really difficult to me, because her husband is someone everyone in the (social work) program knows as well," Davis said.
They recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary, and Kimberly Kelly had told her friends about how they moved to Germany early in the marriage when the Army stationed him there. She returned to classes from a semester break with a new wedding ring, saying "it was her 10-year upgrade," classmate Robyn O'Toole said.
"She was someone I really looked up to," O'Toole said. "She was a full-time grad student, and she was a full-time mother. She was always there to listen."
Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3791.
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