Kelcey Fike: Nebraska's Unsolved House Fire Murder
The 2008 murder of Kelcey Fike remains unsolved.
Who Was Kelcey Fike?
Kelcey Renae Fike was born on March 26, 1987, to Randy and Mary Jo Fike in Wisconsin. She met her best friend, Jami Graham, in kindergarten, and they became inseparable and grew up doing everything together.
Kelcey and Jami attended Monroe High School, where Kelcey was described as a shy, introverted girl with a silly free spirit who sang, danced, and had a good sense of humor. Everybody loved her. After the pair graduated, Jami enrolled in a school-to-work program while Kelcey commuted to Highland Community College in Freeport, Illinois.
Kelcey's Time in Kearney, Nebraska
In the summer of 2006, Kelcey’s parents moved to Nebraska to be closer to Mary Jo’s parents in Omaha. Kelcey moved with her family to Kearney, and her mother got a job working for CHI Health Good Samaritan.
Kelcey and Jami talked on the phone daily after she moved and took many trips to see one another. During one of Jami's visits, Kelcey got a tattoo of a gold koi fish on her back in tribute to their favorite band, Sublime.
Around this time, Kelcey met a young man named Alex Young, a reserve member of the Nebraska Army National Guard. The two were soon inseparable and moved into a remote trailer park home to save for a house. After a year of being together, Alex gave Kelcey a diamond promise ring and vowed to always be there for her and care for her.
The couple had a beloved basset hound named Dante, who was protective of Kelcey.
Night Before the Murder
The night before Kelcey was murdered in 2008, she called Jami about her upcoming trip to Wisconsin. Jami was watching a movie with her boyfriend, so she let it go to voicemail—a decision she would regret. The voicemail left by Kelcey said, “Four more days, woohoo! Love you, dude. Talk to you later.” The trip was to celebrate Jami’s 21st birthday on June 22nd.
Kelcey was alone with her dog in the trailer that day because Alex was out of state in Louisiana doing training with the National Guard. Normally, Kelcey stayed with her parents during these training days as she didn’t like to be alone, but this night was different. She was packing and planning to see her best friend.
Jami Graham and Kelcey Fike, best friends since kindergarten.
Deadly Fire
On the day she was killed, Kelcey got home from work around 5:30 p.m., and neighbors later saw her walking her basset hound, Dante, around 9 p.m. Kelcey sent a text to her boyfriend around 1 a.m. A few hours later, a couple of people out delivering papers noticed smoke coming from her trailer and called 911.
At about 4:30 a.m., the mobile home erupted in flames. The whole backside of the trailer where the bedrooms were located was engulfed in flames. The fire was so bad that neighbors were forced to stay back when the fire department came to extinguish the fire. All they could do was scream and cry out for Kelcey and her dog. Both were well-known and loved in the community.
By the time the fire department got the blaze under control, it was too late. Kelcey’s body was found on the floor outside the master bedroom in the hallway. Her beloved basset hound was found dead in the living room.
The inside of Kelcey's trailer after the fire.
Investigation: From Accident to Murder
At first glance, it looked as though Kelcey's death was an accident due to fire. The mobile home was an older one and had a faulty furnace that could have ostensibly sparked the blaze.
Kelcey's Cause of Death
Upon further inspection, however, investigators noticed that Kelcey’s body wasn’t burned as badly as it should have been if the fire killed her. They considered whether her cause of death was smoke inhalation, but an autopsy proved that idea to be wrong as well.
Most critically, the medical examiner observed that Kelcey had bruising on her body, a broken nose, a busted lip, and blunt-force trauma to the head. The coroner's report concluded that she had been strangled by hand and ligament and was dead before the fire started.
The killer presumably set the house on fire shortly afterward to cover up the crime. It was inconclusive as to how her beloved basset hound died and why he was found so far away from her body.
After Kelcey’s family was notified, they called Jami’s mother and told her what had happened. Jami was at work when she got the news and didn’t believe it until she heard it from Mary Jo herself. Nobody would believe what was going on.
Did She Know Her Killer?
The neighbors said it was a quiet night; they never heard a commotion from Kelcey's trailer or any barking. Given that her dog was a basset hound with a loud and distinct howl, investigators believed that Kelcey's killer probably knew her. The front and back doors had also been unlocked, suggesting no sign of forced entry.
Kearney Police crime scene investigator Doug McCarty later said, "The dog was very possessive, he was very protective. He would bark at anybody that came up near the house, and he was a basset hound, so people knew when he was barking. And nobody heard him barking that night. It seems odd to us."
The police looked into Kelcey's boyfriend, Alex Young, but cleared him of involvement after he passed a polygraph test and submitted a DNA sample. His alibi also checked out: Alex was out of state training with the Army National Guard when the crime was committed.
As to whether someone dangerous had gained proximity to his girlfriend, Alex said, "We were very open with each other. We told each other everything and if she was scared of somebody I'd have known about it. But, I didn't catch a vibe from anybody like that."
Surveillance Footage and DNA Samples
The police did get a sliver of luck with a surveillance camera across the street showing a presumably dark-colored sedan leaving the area just 10 minutes before the home caught fire. Unfortunately, the camera was too far away to get a decent description of the car or the plate number.
Investigator Doug McCarty said they recovered some samples of DNA from Kelcey’s body, but due to the water pressure of the fire hose and the fire itself, Kelcey’s DNA and that of her killer were likely mixed—rendering the results inconclusive.
McCarty sent the two different DNA samples to one of the most sophisticated forensic labs to see if they could be scientifically separated, possibly leading to a match for the unknown person. Unfortunately, the technology to do this was not yet available.
Kelcey Fike Homicide: Updates
There is still a reward of $30,000 for anybody who can provide information leading to the capture of whoever is responsible for Kelcey’s death. In 2018, on the 10th anniversary of her death, Kearney Police Captain Mike Kirkwood said that the department still receives tips about Kelcey every week.
Although they do not have a suspect yet, they believe "that day's coming" and "it's just a matter of time" before the technology to separate the DNA strands in their samples is available.
"Members of the Kearney Police Department remain committed to solving this homicide for Kelcey and her family," the department wrote on its Facebook page in 2022.
Kelcey's Boyfriend, Alex Young
After Kelcey's death, Alex served a year in Iraq and returned home to Nebraska with the rest of the 1195th Transportation Company. He now lives in Lincoln with a new girlfriend. But he said the pain of Kelcey's death never goes away.
"It's constantly there. It's never going to not be there. I'm always going to wonder what's going on. What's happening with it (the case)."
Alex believes that someday Kelcey's killer will be brought to justice:
"It might not be anytime soon. But, the truth always comes out ... Someone's going to slip up somehow and it's going to come out and I hope I'm around for that day because I'd definitely like to see them put in prison for the rest of their lives."
Friends and Family
Jami Graham, Kelcey’s best friend, has found it difficult to move on. She suffered from depression and anxiety attacks for a while after the murder. She also found herself calling Kelcey’s cell phone for months after her funeral because it was such a part of her daily routine.
Jami now has two children and a husband. She talks about her best friend all the time and shares photos of her with her children so Kelcey's memory will live on.
Kelcey’s parents and siblings are moving on but finding it hard. Her mother is especially broken, and every time she hears her remaining daughter laugh, it reminds her of Kelcey. Her mother wants whoever did this to be found as soon as possible—not just to get justice for Kelcey, but so nobody else has to go through the pain and terror that her daughter did.
Contact Information
If you have any information on who killed Kelcey Renae Fike, please call the Kearney Police Department at 308-237-2104 or Crimestoppers at 308-237-3424.
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