Dateline: Who was Kelly Raisley and what do we know about his crimes? Details of the 2017 incident, explored

Among the many true crime cases covered on Dateline, the case of Kelly Raisley and Randy Baker was particularly disturbing. As revealed on the Dateline episode, Randy Baker was a fifty-nine-year-old Substance Abuse Counselor who was gunned down in his own home by his own nephew, Kelly Raisley. Subsequent investigation by the police revealed that Baker was murdered as the culmination of a well-planned conspiracy that also involved Baker's elder sister and his wife. Here's everything that we know about the Dateline episode in question.

Dateline: Kelly Raisley initially looked up to Randy Baker

As mentioned on Dateline, Kelly Raisley was the son of Randy Baker's elder sister Carol, and did look up to him. Baker himself had a somewhat rough past as he struggled with alcohol addiction and drug abuse for a while in his life. It all started back when he was twenty-eight and working for the local power company as a lineman. During a tragic accident, Baker was severely electrocuted, and that caused him to suffer from permanent heart damage along with excruciating pain. In order to remedy the pain, Baker turned to substance abuse. Per his ex-wife Dori Baker:

"There was just so much pain there and he didn’t know what to do with it."

While being addicted to drugs, Baker even started dealing them on the side and frequently rubbed shoulders with other addicts. At the end of his three-year stint with addiction, Randy Baker turned his life around and quit his addictions, also becoming a Substance Abuse Counselor to help others struggling with addiction. He happened to help Raisley recover from his addictions, and the nephew was all in praise of his uncle in a 2015 Father's Day message:

"My dearest uncle, … not only have you been a role model and inspiration to me, but the closest person I’ve ever had as a real father figure."

Dateline: Randy Baker was murdered by Raisley at the insistence of his mother and aunt

Trending

According to Dateline, Kelly Raisley was a convicted criminal. Apart from his battles with addiction, Raisley had been a member of a white supremacist gang and had also done prison time. Detective Mike Prill and the police had their first breakthrough when they discovered his Pontiac car, which had been missing since the murder. The car was discovered in an alley within South Greeley and had been wiped clean of fingerprints and the number plate. Upon further investigation, the police were able to find out that the car had been put for sale on Facebook, and Baker's sister, Carol Baker, was the one to pass it over.

The police finally cracked the case when they got Carol to confess that she and Baker's wife, Kelly, had been planning Baker's murder for a while and had gotten Raisley to pull the trigger for the sum of $10,000. While Raisley and Kelly were sentenced to life in prison, Carol was put behind bars for thirty years.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback