It’s been almost three weeks since four people were shot dead at the Owl Bar in Anaconda, including bartender Nancy Lauretta Kelley. Now her daughter Kristian is sharing her mother’s story of being a social butterfly who had a long career of caregiving.
Meagan Thompson reports - watch:
Kristian said, "It's incredibly painful. It’s incredibly abrupt and, you know, just with everything going on in the world it’s a lot. It’s a lot. It’s a lot to manage."
Kristian describes her mother as tough and caring, something she applied to her life-long nursing career that began in a Butte intensive care unit and ended in Anaconda as an oncology nurse before she retired and took up bartending at the Owl Bar two years ago.
She says nursing was her mother's calling: "That was what she was supposed to do in life, you know? She was... she was great at it."
Kristian says she cared deeply for her patients: "They say you’re not supposed to bring work home. You’re not supposed to, you know, you leave it at the door, but I don’t know that that ever really happened. She brought people home with her and she cared. She cared about all of ‘ em."
Nancy also cared for her husband Don who passed away in 2018 after a long battle with cancer.
Kristian noted, "She was his caregiver, you know? She’s the one that gave him his chemo, and you just fight for your patients, and she fought for him, and yeah. It’s just. It’s been a lot."
Nancy was described as a social butterfly, outgoing and excited to participate in community activities.
Kristian said, "I mean she was always going here and there, you know, and going to Wise River or going out and about. Just very alive, very outgoing."
The suspect in the murder who lived next door to the bar, Michael Brown, was captured one week after a massive manhunt and is currently being held on a $2 million dollar bond in the Butte jail.
Kristian noted, "You have someone that committed an atrocity, but also, is it a failure? Because it’s not just a loss of four lives, it’s a loss of five. I mean, honestly...how do you fix that?"
A memorial service will be held for Nancy Kelley on September 4th at Holy Family Church in Anaconda.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS - WATCH:
OVERVIEW
- WHAT: A man shot a bartender and three customers; all four died
- WHERE: The Owl Bar in Anaconda
- WHEN: At about 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 1
- SUSPECT: 45-year-old Michael Brown of Anaconda
- VICTIMS: Nancy Kelley, 64; Daniel Baillie, 59; David Leach, 70; Tony Palm, 74
- MOTIVE: Unknown
- STATUS: Brown was arrested on Friday, August 8
The week-long search involved dozens of law enforcement agencies and hundreds of people, aerial resources, tracking dogs, and more.
The search encompassed a large area, and was concentrated in the mountains near Stumptown Road just west of Anaconda.
At this point, authorities do not know of any specific motive for the shootings.
