Man charged with murder of Kalamazoo mother of eight

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A man has been formally charged with murder in the disappearance of a Kalamazoo mother of eight, court records show.

Carlos Watts Jr., 39, was charged with the murder of Heather Kelley on Monday in Kalamazoo. The charge was initially approved in January .

Kelley, 35, was last seen alive in December 2022. No remains have been found, but in a probable cause affidavit, investigators said they have found nothing to indicate she’s alive. Her boyfriend, Watts, has long been a suspect and investigators say she was with him when she disappeared.

Her car was later found in Kalamazoo with her blood on the front and back seats .

Cellphone data shows Watts walking away from the area where Kelley’s car was found and toward the KPEP halfway house in Kalamazoo where he lived while finishing a federal sentence for a 2010 cocaine conspiracy, court records show. His tether was inactive for several hours the night Kelley went missing, court records show.

After he was questioned about Kelley’s disappearance the next morning, Watts cut off his tether and escaped through an emergency exit, federal attorneys said. He was arrested days later at a standoff in Battle Creek.

The charge of open murder carries the possibility of a sentence of life without parole, if Watts is convicted of first-degree murder. If convicted of second-degree murder, Watts could be sentenced to up to life in prison or any number of years.

A probable cause conference has been scheduled for July 23 and an examination is set for July 30.

— News 8’s Katie Rosendale and Michael Oszust contributed to this report.

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