The close-knit town of Exeter, N.H., was stunned when 88-year-old Janet Rischeill Kelsen was found dead in her home in February after what authorities say was a brutal attack.
In the quiet New England community, residents and local business owners said they were accustomed to worrying about minor crimes, not homicide, according to Seacoastonline.
“You have something like that happen, especially to an elderly person who is defenseless, it’s not really on your mind,” Ward Dilmore, whose wife manages Exeter Fine Crafts on Water St. in Exeter, told Seacoastonline in February.
Nine months later, authorities have arrested a suspect: Kelsen’s daughter-in-law. Danielle Kelsen, 55, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the elderly woman’s Feb. 9 death, the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General said in a Nov. 25 release.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Danielle “recklessly caused the death of Janet Kelsen under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life by inflicting blunt head trauma.”
Danielle also faces charges of wiretapping and eavesdropping for allegedly using “an electronic device to intercept oral communications between herself and Janet Kelsen,” the office said.
Danielle and her husband were living with Janet in an apartment on Front Street at the time, WMUR reports.
Just before 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 9, a relative called 911 to report a medical emergency, police said, per WMUR. Janet’s death was initially investigated as a possible accident, the outlet reports, but the case shifted after detectives determined her injuries were not consistent with a fall, police said, according to WMUR.
Danielle was later taken into custody in Southwest Harbor, Maine, the Attorney General’s Office said.
In an interview with WMUR, Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati said Danielle is “the only individual who’s been arrested because that’s the only individual that we believe was responsible for this action. There shouldn’t be any sort of speculation with regards to another person that was living in the home at the time.”
Authorities have not revealed a possible motive or what they believe led to the alleged killing.
After a preliminary hearing on whether she was a fugitive from justice, Danielle is scheduled to appear for an extradition hearing on Dec. 10.
If she is extradited to New Hampshire, Danielle is expected to be arraigned in 10th Circuit Court in New Hampshire.
It is unclear whether she has retained an attorney to speak on her behalf.
