This my brother Tommy Kelly's story

[dannielle]

Police request help in finding Phoenix boy, 17

Police are still looking for a 17-year-old Phoenix boy who's been missing for three weeks.

Further search by air will be under way today for Tommy Kelly, who was last seen Jan. 26. Pioneer Road residents had seen him running with his face covered with blood; he said people were after him and asked to be hidden, his mother, Vicki Kelly, said earlier.

Jackson County sheriff's detective Hugh Crawford said Wednesday his agency was told that Tommy had been seen at the Rogue Valley Mall, but stressed that the sighting was unconfirmed.

Police had asked people who live in the area bordered by Pioneer, Dark Hollow, Coleman Creek, Voorhies and Carpenter Hill roads to check sheds, outbuildings, brush thickets and other hiding places for the boy.

Tommy is white, 5 feet 8 inches tall, and weighs 170 pounds. He has brown hair, hazel eyes, and was last seen wearing light-colored denim jeans, a blue shirt and black Nike shoes. The family is offering a reward. Anyone with information is asked to call Crawford at 774-6815.

Skull might belong to missing boy

Dental records should show if it’s from Thomas Kelly

By JOANNA COLLINS

Police believe a human skull found in an orchard Monday may belong to a missing Phoenix teen.

The skull was found in the Gore Creek drainage between Carpenter Hill and Camp Baker roads outside Phoenix — the area where Thomas Kelly Jr. was last seen. Kelly has been missing since Jan. 26, 1999. He was 17 at the time.

"I’m just praying that it’s not (him), but at the same time I have to be realistic," said his mother, Vicki Kelly, who lives on Coleman Creek Road in Phoenix.

According to Lt. Dewey Patten of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, an expert will compare Kelly’s dental records with the skull to make an identification.

The skull, missing the lower jawbone, was found at 1 p.m. Monday by Bear Creek Corp. orchard workers in the creek bed.

Deputies looked for more clues near Gore Creek Tuesday but couldn’t fully search the area where the skull was found because of overgrown blackberry bushes. There are no immediate plans to continue the search.

Although the cause of death is not yet known, police do not believe foul play was involved.

Kelly was last seen by two men who said the teen was running by Gore Creek near Pioneer Road. The two said he claimed he was being chased and begged them for help but ran off before they could stop him.

Vicki Kelly, who believes her son was using drugs, does not rule out the possibility that he slipped or developed hypothermia in the winter weather.

Since her son’s disappearance, Kelly has worked with a national organization and started creating a television program to shed light on the issue of missing children. She is also working on legislation to better train police officers in missing-children searches. Even if the skull is identified as her son’s, she said she will to continue to be active with the issue of missing children.

Results of the dental exam are expected today.

 

Dead boy’s alleged drug dealer charged

A White City man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly giving methamphetamine to Thomas Kelly, the Phoenix boy whose remains were found in an orchard creek bed last month.

Jackson County sheriff’s deputies arrested Phillip Harrison Bendell, 30, at 7:10 a.m. and charged him with distributing a controlled substance to a minor.

Kelly was 17 when he disappeared almost a year-and-a-half ago. He was seen running near Gore Creek by Pioneer Road in a state of panic, according to two men who police believe were the last to see Kelly.

A skull found downstream in Gore Creek June 10 was identified as Kelly’s, along with additional remains and clothing found June 21.

The cause of death is still unknown, said sheriff’s Detective Eric Fox. Investigators and Kelly’s mother believe he was using drugs at the time of his disappearance.

Fox said there is "very good evidence" that suggests Bendell was the one that gave Kelly methamphetamine. Bendell was lodged on $100,000 bail in the Jackson County Jail Tuesday.

"We were greatly relieved that Phillip Bendell will now be held accountable for his actions on Jan. 26, 1999," said Kelly’s mother, Vicki. "Tommy had to pay the price for his judgments and now it’s time for Phillip to be held accountable."

Fox said he doesn’t expect the sheriff’s department to file any additional charges against Bendell. There is no evidence to directly relate Bendell to Kelly’s death, he said.

"We cannot, beyond a reasonable doubt, prove a manslaughter charge," said Vicki Kelly. She said she’s worked with the district attorney’s office throughout the investigation.

Bendell, a former friend of the Kelly family, was questioned in February after Kelly’s disappearance. Fox said deputies waited to file charges against Bendell until they learned what happened to Kelly.

A memorial service for Kelly is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Litwiller-Simonsen Funeral Home.

 

Jail time given in death of teen

By Chris Bristol

A White City man pleaded guilty to a drug charge Thursday and was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for his role in the disappearance of a Phoenix teenager whose skeletal remains were later found in an orchard.

Phillip H. Bendell, 31, hung his head as members of Tommy Kelly’s family denounced him as an agent of death. As part of his plea, he admitted that he injected Kelly with meth hours before the 17-year-old disappeared in an apparent psychotic reaction to the drug.

"You didn’t load bullets into a gun, but you loaded methamphetamine into a syringe," the teen’s mother, Vicki Kelly, told Bendell. "You didn’t pull a trigger, but you pushed the plunger ... and shot him full of poison."

"You destroyed my family," sobbed Dannielle Trotter, the boy’s older sister. "Who are you? You’re not God. It was Tommy’s life, not yours."

Kelly was last seen alive Jan. 26, 1999, bloodied and covered in mud as he ran down Pioneer Road near his home, telling neighbors, "They’re after me." His remains were found in a nearby orchard creek bed June 12, almost 1½ years later.

After the remains were discovered, Bendell and co-defendant Tina Damon, 38, were arrested on charges they gave the teenager meth at a party the night before at Damon’s home.

Bendell and Damon each pleaded Thursday to one count of delivering a controlled substance (meth) to a minor. In exchange, prosecutors dropped less serious drug-possession charges against both defendants.

Jackson County Judge Patricia Crain sentenced Bendell to a stiffer-than-normal sentence of 2½ years in prison because he actually administered the injection. Damon provided the drug, and for her role was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years supervised probation.

Prosecutor Matt McCauley told the court the cause of Kelly’s death was never established. Sheriff’s detectives previously had ruled out foul play.

According to court records, Bendell has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1990, including convictions for DUII, unlawful possession of a firearm, burglary, theft and attempting to elude police.

Damon’s criminal record exploded this year, including convictions for drug possession, DUII, forgery and theft. Her sentence includes in-custody treatment for drug addiction.

Neither Bendell nor Damon had anything to say for themselves Thursday. Instead, they sat impassively while members of Kelly’s family expressed hard feelings — especially for Bendell, once a friend of the family.

"When you look at me or my family, do you even care?" asked Katie Trotter, Tommy Kelly’s niece. "I hate you, and though God tells me to forgive, I can’t."

"He was just a boy, shot up with meth by a man who knew it could lead to his death," said Kelly’s aunt, Linda Whichard, who read from a poem titled "Taken From Me."

At one point, Vicki Kelly held aloft a photo of her son’s remains, as well as actual pieces of his bones and a jar containing dirt from his resting place in the orchard.

"Tommy paid the ultimate price for his bad choices," she told Bendell. "Legally, you will spend a small amount of time in prison for your actions. But morally you have a lifetime sentence of accountability in what happened to our son."

Lucille Harrell said she rested easy knowing her grandson was a believer in Jesus Christ and that he was waiting for her in a better place.

"I’ll see him again someday, waiting at the Pearly Gates, wondering what took me so long," she said. "Heaven is where he is now. I’m not going to cry."

[Rhiannons Mom]

They should have been held accountable and charged for giving him the drugs that contributed to his death and gotten life imprisonment. Our laws need to change.