A custody battle went very wrong when an Indiana woman poisoned her ex-boyfriend’s oatmeal and then strangled him with his favorite tie.
Heidi Marie Littlefield, 42, was found guilty of murder in August as well as conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend Francis Kelley. She now faces more than 100 years in prison after a judge sentenced her for her crime.
Prosecutors claimed Littlefield killed Kelley over custody of their two-year-old child.
The case came to light on Jan. 17 when Kelley’s ex-girlfriend Courtney Nugent told police that Kelley had not picked up their nine-year-old daughter on Kelley’s birthday. She had last heard from him two days earlier.
Carmel, Indiana, police officers knocked on the door but nobody answered. They later returned after Kelley’s ex-girlfriend found his body on his couch on Jan. 18.
A Jan. 20 autopsy found that Kelley’s death was a homicide, and that he died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation. He also suffered from blunt force trauma to the head, left hand, elbow and knees. A toxicology report on Feb. 7 concluded that he also had fentanyl in his system.
After police searched through Kelley’s phone, they came across text messages where Kelley had accused Littlefield of tampering with his oatmeal when she was at his home on Jan. 14.
“Did you do something to the oatmeal that was in my fridge,” he texted her. “You were in my fridge last night and it tasted funny after a couple of bites and now I am light headed.”
Littlefield responded, “Who tf puts oatmeal in a fridge? I don’t know anything you do or want to! Your life and the stuff you say/do is beyond me.”
Police said, “The former couple had an upcoming court hearing scheduled for the end of January. Francis claimed that Heidi was violating the parenting time order. The main concern was Heidi not allowing Francis to pick up his child and that she would stay in his house during his parenting time.”
Police added, “Littlefield’s ex-husband contacted us on January 23. He told us that Littlefield’s daughter, Logan Runyon, had told him a few months earlier that her mom paid her boyfriend, Robert Walker, $2,500 to find someone to kill Francis.”
On January 24, a relative of Littlefield told officers that Littlefield had made several statements after the murder.
“‘He’s better off dead,’ ‘I didn’t mean to kill him last time,’ and ‘I might as well say I did it and just say I’m crazy and pregnant,” the relative quoted Littlefield as saying.
The relative said Runyon was with her mother on Jan. 14 and that both were in and out of Fran’s residence on the evening of Thursday (January 14th) through the afternoon of Friday (January 15th).
Another ex-boyfriend of Littlefield’s told police on Jan. 28, “Heidi told me that Logan put Fentanyl in Francis’s oatmeal sometime on January 14. After he accused her of putting something in his oatmeal, Littlefield told him that she and Runyon went to Kelley’s home the following day and climbed through a window when he didn’t answer the door.”
“Heidi told me that her and Logan found Francis aspirating on the kitchen floor. Heidi also mentioned to me that they used a tie around Francis’s neck to strangle him in the incident,” Heidi’s ex-boyfriend continued. “Heidi had also asked me over the past several months about how much Fentanyl it would take to overdose someone versus killing someone.”
Runyon’s boyfriend Walker was arrested on a separate incident March 23 and later told Carmel detectives that Littlefield allegedly reached out to him in October about looking for someone to take care of ‘her problem.
Walker said, “She gave me $2,500 to hire someone to kill Kelley, but I spent it on drugs and had no intention of doing what Heidi asked.”
Walker also told police he was going to get another $2,500 once Francis was killed. He told police that Runyon told him that when they found Kelley still breathing in his home, Heidi grabbed Fran’s ‘favorite tie’ and tried to strangle him and smash his head into the ‘pavement. Walker stated that Heidi bludgeoned his head against the floor.
“She said he was abusive towards her, their baby, and that she would be failing her daughter if Francis didn’t end up dead,” Walker concluded his statement to police.
Walker also noted during his conversation that Heidi had also put Fentanyl in Kelley’s miso soup in October.
Runyon pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit murder and testified against her mother at her trial. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Walker pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 10 years.
