AboutAnita Roberts Expertise I can answer questions on how to begin a search, I can look up ancestors, descendants. My main search area is the Carolinas but I will search any state.
Experience I have been researching genealogy for 15 yrs. I have found ancestors
for people that have been looking for years
I'm trying to find a classmate I went to school with for about 3 years, in Highschool. About 1 year after I moved from the area, I learned that he had been killed in a shooting. I saw an article of it at my sister's house on their computer, but I never thought to send it to my email, stupid I know now.
I've tried searching in the past, but to no avail. I got closer now, but still not there. I found his full name, the date, and how he died. I'll post the information below. I'm moving back into the area, and going there later this week.. I would like to know what cemetary he's buried in, so I can pay my respects. Even an article about it, if you're able to. Please help if possible. Thanks alot..
Name: Blake Darren Kelly
Cause of Death: Shooting
Area: Michigan City, Indiana
Date: September 21-23, 2004
Thanks again, and all possible information would be appreciated.
Kelly, Blake (15 yrs) shooting Sep 21, 2004 Mich City News Disp pg 1 col 2
Kelly, Blake Darren (15 yrs) Sep 23, 2004 Mich City News Disp pg 2 col
Answer Matt,
Here are an article I found on the shooting:
News-Dispatch, The (Michigan City, IN) - September 21, 2004
Deceased Name: Blake Kelly: Gunman kills teen
High school student shot afte getting off school bus
A Michigan City High School student on Monday became the area's fourth young male, age 17 or younger, to die violently in just about two months.
Three of the victims were students at Michigan City High School and one was in elementary school.
Blake Kelly, 15, 340 Lincoln Ave., was shot to death just before 3 p.m. Monday at Ninth Street and Willard Avenue on the city's West Side.
According to a press release from the Michigan City Police Department, officers were dispatched at 2:54 p.m. after someone reported shots fired. When police arrived, they found Kelly lying in the street, fatally wounded.
"Witnesses advised Kelly had been shot by a black male in his 20s, wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants who fled the area in a green-colored vehicle," the release said.
Some people in the small crowd gathered at the scene told The News-Dispatch that Kelly, a Michigan City High School student, had stepped off a school bus just minutes before he was shot to death.
On a nearly perfect September afternoon, under a sky that couldn't be bluer, the death scene was protected by yellow police tape, with some observers confined to the west side of the site and others to the east.
One young woman stood shaking her head as officers and emergency personnel worked at the scene. The young woman, who said she did not know the victim, had brought along her three toddler daughters.
West Side resident Donald Taylor, who stood behind the police tape line in the sunshine on Monday afternoon, said, "Blake didn't bother anybody."
Others in the crowd made similar comments.
"Blake didn't carry heat (gun)," one man said.
Several young men took issue with police officers who attempted to calm and comfort a man the young men identified as Kelly's father.
"They don't need to be telling him to relax," one man said. "That man's son has been killed."
Michigan City Police Corporal Walter Day did succeed in getting the man to sit down for a few moments, and the man seemed a bit calmer as he approached the spot on the street where his son's body lay.
After Kelly's remains were removed, officers worked at cleaning his blood from the street. By about 6 p.m., police were gone and the yellow tape had been removed.
Dawn Cook, deputy LaPorte County coroner, said she was dispatched to the scene at 2:57 p.m. An autopsy is scheduled for today at South Bend Memorial Hospital.
Cook, who also had been assigned to the case of 10-year-old Richard Isenbletter, who was shot to death on Saturday, Sept. 4, said, "It is so sad" to see young people dying such violent deaths.
Here is Blake's obituary:
News-Dispatch, The (Michigan City, IN) - September 23, 2004
Deceased Name: Blake Kelly
Blake Darren Kelly, 15, Michigan City, died Monday (Sept. 20, 2004) in Michigan City.
The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 730 W. Sixth St., with the Rev. Eddie Jenkins officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation is from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at Coleman-Williams & Hicks Funeral Home.
Blake was born April 24, 1989, in Michigan City to Camel (IeShensa) Kelly Jr., Michigan City, and Angela (William Garrett) Williams, Michigan City. He was a freshman at Michigan City High School. Blake was an avid basketball player and played with local A.A.U. teams from sixth grade until his untimely death.
Survivors also include two brothers, Tristan and Prentiss Kelly, Michigan City; one sister, Princess Kelly, Michigan City; grandparents Randy and Betty Williams, Michigan City, and Camel Kelly Sr., Chicago; and a host of loving aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Also preceding Blake in death were his paternal grandmother, Maggie Kelly; and maternal aunt, Joyce Birdsong.
Blake will be greatly missed by a whole community who loved him.
