This is 45-year-old Ken DeKleine.
Ken was a police officer for 13 years.
Ken DeKleine was married to 43-year-old Lori DeKleine. Their marriage produced two teenagers, a house and a few problems.
The second biggest problem was that Lori DeKleine was being abused by her police officer husband.
As their relationship deteriorated, she and Ken DeKleine found themselves growing apart. Unfortunately, as in many cases, one person in the relationship - in this instance, Ken DeKleine - couldn’t let the other person go. Ken was a controlling person, as people in law enforcement can be, and as he realized that his wife was slipping out of his grasp, he became more and more controlling.
Ken DeKleine went so far as to access a computer that she used at the church she worked at as a publications editor, reading e-mails where Lori DeKleine discussed divorce and prepared for a seminar on women in abusive relationships. Ken was probably slightly annoyed that his marriage was going to be a case study discussed at the seminar. On the 31st of January, 2007, after Lori was awarded a restraining order against him, Ken DeKleine started thinking about how to address the situation, especially because the restraining order made public the problems that they’d been having.
In the protection order, Lori DeKleine made claims that she had been forced into certain sexual acts many different times during their marriage and that Ken DeKleine had molested her while she was near-unconscious due to sleep medications.
She also wrote:
Ken has been a sexual and emotional bully throughout our marriage, beginning on our honeymoon. His behavior continues to stifle my well-being and safety.
Unfortunately, as Grand Moff Tarkin found out, the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
The biggest problem that the DeKleine’s marriage faced was that Ken DeKleine killed Lori DeKleine. Forgive me if I sound a bit like Dr. Phil here, but it’s impossible to keep a relationship going when one of the two participants is dead. Very little communication is possible at this point, despite what some charlatans would have you believe.
At around 7 in the evening, on the 10th of January, 2008, police responded to an emergency call from the DeKleine’s teenage son, who had come home to find his mother, dead, hanging in the basement with a nylon strap around her neck.
Once the police who arrived realized that the dead woman was the wife of a fellow police officer, they called in the local sheriff’s department, who took over the investigation.
From the start, it didn’t look good for officer Ken DeKleine. The protection order immediately came to the investigators’ attention, plus there were more than a few inconsistencies with the suicide scene that didn’t quite make sense. After reviewing the scene, it became apparent to officers that someone had waited for the kids to leave the house, then had confronted Lori in the kitchen. After a struggle, which ended with some spilled blood and the nylon strap around Lori’s neck, the person who assaulted her took her body to the basement and staged her suicide.
Ken went to talk to the investigators, driven to the station by his brother Keith and his brother’s wife, Jan. According to Keith DeKleine, before Ken went into the interview, he told his brother:
I did this to Lori and I will be going to jail.
The interview, which was taped, was played at Ken DeKleine’s trial, which was held in July of 2008. In that taped interview, Ken DeKleine pretty much confessed. He told the interviewer that his wife’s bi-polar condition, her suicide attempts and his concern for his children’s future drove him to strangle her. He mentioned that Lori’s relationship with her therapist was too close, that the therapist was taking advantage of her and that Lori was the type of person who “latched onto people” and would get closer than they wanted.
He mentioned that his daughter had once told him that she was worried that she’d end up like her mom.
Whether Ken DeKleine meant his daughter was worried she’d be strangled to death by Ken or whether she was worried about turning bi-polar, we can only imagine.
Officer DeKleine had no problem talking about the killing with the detective who was interviewing him, answering all the questions he was asked. He mentioned that after killing Lori, he had tried to stage a hanging suicide in his wife’s basement because she had tried to commit suicide before, but had panicked when he thought someone from her church would stop by:
I was going to try, but I had my doubts I would be able to make it look like a suicide. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do everything I wanted to
Ken DeKleine was even nice enough to tell the detective exactly when he had decided to kill his wife:
When it comes to an act like murdering your wife, like I did, it starts with a thought and that thought started in my head on January 31.
The trial revealed that while Lori DeKleine had indeed had an affair with John Roe, her psychiatrist, Ken DeKleine also had an affair in the Fall of 2006. It was just that Ken was really, really mad that his wife had done what he had done.
He felt pretty good about what he had done to her, however. A note written by DeKleine while he was in jail was presented to the jury that claimed he was sleeping better than he has in years, knowing that his wife is dead and won’t be raising their children.
On the 12th of July, 2008, the jury took about 75 minutes to come back with a “guilty” verdict, convicting Ken DeKleine of first-degree murder. Some of the jurors mentioned to the press that they wondered why there had even been a trial.
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Wow, you don’t run into this kind of arrogance very often. I think Napolean may have had an ego to match Kenny’s, but at least he almost conquered the known world. All dickhead here did was kill his wife. What was especially sweet about Kenny is how he tried to destroy his wife’s reputation. I think it may have backfired on him though, because I did some reading on this case, and it seems that his and Lori’s family remained close & supportive of each other throughout the whole ordeal. I guess that tells you alot about what they thought of Lori.
We can take a little satisfaction out of this really shitty situation: He’s gonna have a fun time in prison though, being an ex-cop. I’d like to ask him how he feels about himself after a year or 2 in Pugsley Supermax. I’ll bet his arrogance quotient drops several points, and his “God-DAMN my sphincter burns” quotient goes through the ceiling. Putz
Max
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This reminds me of the Hans Reiser case — after nearly two years of denial, he just admitted he killed his wife, and claimed he did it to protect his children from her abuse, when every other person says she was a terrific mom. People like Reiser, and Ken DeKleine, are blazing in their arrogance. I hope future parole boards here about his cold premeditation and lack of remorse. And from a cop, no less! He’s a disgrace to the profession.
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Don’t drop the soap, Officer Shitbag.
I hope you get an anal ulcer.
Hey, a few minutes into reading and I thought about the Drew and Stacy Peterson case.
It’s crazy I tell ya.
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let’s not call him Kenny please…let’s keep it at Ken…or Decline (instead of DeKleine) because that about sums his life up to a T. At least so far no one has voted no on hell yet…he’s a complete loser.
Nice use of a Star Wars reference there admin!
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Max The Cat reply on July 14th, 2008:
Sorry man, I didn’t know….maybe I’ll just refer to him as Cornholio from now on. Even though he’ll probably need more than a lot more than T.P. for HIS bunghole when they get done with him in prison.
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If she was so suicidal, he should have just let it happen if he really wanted her dead.
Sounds like he really did not like the kids either, so if she left with the kids, no real loss exceprt for child support…….
Maybe he likes 3 free meals, free room and maybe his new husband Bubba or maybe he has a new wife - Brucie.
I say death penalty and let’s use the space for someone that needs to be punished, but deserves to live.
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TurtleMania reply on July 14th, 2008:
Just one shot between the eyes using his service weapon.
He should be bound and on his knees wearing his Officer uniform minus the badge.
And some lucky guy or gal can point-blank range him.
I’d love to look him in the eye and build up the rage to make it all happen. Priceless.
The other day Indonesia executed a prisoner via firing squad. Why can’t we do the same?
Wimpy wimpy wimpy I tell ya.
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Meaghan reply on July 14th, 2008:
He may end up getting “executed” in prison. Wife-killers may be run of the mill, but most cons HATE cops.
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TurtleMania reply on July 19th, 2008:
Meaghan, I hope so.
I wish to be present the moment he’s executed. I want to pee on him.
Danielle reply on July 30th, 2008:
That would be newsworthy if he was electrocuted.
What an arrogant, selfish bastard. First, he abuses her, then he kills her and then he kills her again by using a mental disorder (that she may or may not have had) against her.
That part hits close to home for me. He says he’d rather his wife be dead than raising their children. I can only imagine how my life would be if my mother felt that way about my father, who really is bipolar. My life is much better because he’s my dad. Sure, there are days when his illness and the meds he requires make him a certifiable pain in the ass, but he’s still my dad. I’d rather have a mentally ill father than no father at all. Just like I’m pretty sure the DeKleine children would have rather had a mentally ill mother (if their father was telling the truth, that is) than a dead mother.
What this bastard did to his wife was horrible. But what he did to his own children was beyond criminal. He claims he killed her to spare the kids her problems. But did he ever stop to think about who would be finding her body? Huh? Douchebag.
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Oh If I were a betting man id say a big dark chocolate “bubba” or two is gonna make some sweet lovin to that ass. OMG they ass-raped kenny! those bastards!
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A man’s ego. “I can sleep around, but you can’t, cause you should be a woman and stay at home. If you did what I did, it would mean that we’re like, equals or something. In that case, you should die.”
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Fred reply on July 15th, 2008:
Let’s see here - if a man is gonna sleep around and his friends are going to sleep around, do the math if every man sleeps around, there’d have to be so many times more women as for each ofthem to be faithful to their shared man. Thus mathematically, if a man is gonna sleep with more than 1 woman, then odds are that some of those woen are going to sleep with more than 1 man!
DUH!
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Wow! Memories of the wise words-of-wisdom from Surgeon General C. Everett Koop!
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C. Everett Kook?
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so the jury thought that it shouldn’t have gone to trial, yet they took 75 minutes to come up with a guilty verdict. That’s a little ridiculous if you ask me.
Oh and ususally if you kill your wife in the kitchen, you should try to stage the suicide in the kitchen. Not move the body. This cop must not watch much tv.
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i see a redeeming factor here, he didn’t hurt his kids!
seriously, with all the preceeding stories being about kids being killed, abused, molested or what not, this doesn’t even look that horrible. man, i gotta try and get my morals straight again, this site is warping them for sure.
he deserves hell though.
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Mazzi reply on July 22nd, 2008:
I know what you are saying, Dual - but he DID hurt his kids.
He left them with no mother, and essentially no father. Those children will live forever with this haunting in their heads - probably layers of guilt that we can’t even imagine, and God forbid if they end up in bad foster care. They already have a high risk for mental disorders - and this may be the trigger to send them over the edge.
This sick fuck could have divorced her, if he really wanted out. He could have fought for custody of the kids if he felt she was unfit. That would have possibly fucked the kids up a little, but THIS?
This bastard deserves hell. Not so much for what he did to his wife (although being a cop bumps up the evil factor), but for what he did to his children.
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Danielle reply on July 30th, 2008:
Wait, why does murdering his wife NOT put him on the hell list?
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Mazzi reply on July 30th, 2008:
Don’t cops get freebies for killing their first wives? Like Drew Peterson?
I thought it only became a no-no when the SECOND one turns up dead (or *ehem* missing)?
My bad!
TurtleMania reply on July 22nd, 2008:
He can redeem these nuts.
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Well of course he deserves hell! Murder is murder, theres no way around it. ‘She had an affair’ THAT DOESN’T MAKE MURDER OKAY. The Bastard
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