Lori DeKleine

Less-than-lethal force

Police responded to the DeKleine family home at around 7 p.m.., after one of two teenage children found their mother, Lori DeKleine, dead in the basement. Lori DeKleine was separated from her husband, officer Ken DeKleine, and was in the process of getting a divorce. Ken DeKleine was on duty that night, police said, and had participated in a training exercise. Initially, detectives thought Lori DeKleine had killed herself, but soon concluded Ken DeKleine had killed her. In the months before her murder, Lori DeKleine had confided in others about the abuse and manipulation she was subjected to by her husband. DeKleine confessed to murdering his wife and said he'd strangled her with a climbing strap, then dragged her body into the basement and tried to stage a suicide. In his confession, he admitted to botching the scheme when he could not lift her body and simply left the unattached strap dangling from a rafter. A jury convicted Ken DeKleine of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.