ON the surface, 15-year-old Kaleigh Fryer looked like any other angsty teen as she angrily scribbled in her diary the words: ‘I hate my dad!’
It was a sentiment probably echoed by millions of other teenagers worldwide, who all – at some point in adolescence – were annoyed they were grounded, or not allowed to go out with their friends.
However in this particular case – as police and Kaleigh’s devastated brother Keith Fryer, now 32, would later discover – the statement proved to be a lot more sinister.
As, unbeknown to anyone at the time, the twisted teen would later convince her older boyfriend to kill her and Keith’s father in a brutal, frenzied stabbing.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun Online, Lewy’s son and Kaleigh’s heartbroken brother Keith says: “It’s been 14 years since I lost my dad, and I also lost my sister that day really, too. For a long time I just felt intense sadness.
“I’ll always miss dad, but even now I don’t know how I feel about my sister. When she calls from prison I do speak to her because I know that’s what dad would want.
“I haven’t visited her, but despite what she did I still have a sense of love for her because I know dad would never have given up on her, no matter what.
” I like to think I could maybe forgive her, because I genuinely don’t think she understood the full consequences of her actions and the hurt it would cause.”
Before that fateful day, there was very little to suggest there was much untoward going on within the Fryer family home.
Successful frame designer Lewis, 50 – or ‘Lewy’ as he was known to his friends and family – was a family man and proud single father to Keith and Kaleigh.
After divorcing ex-wife Trisha in 1997, he’d been there to support both his children when their mum struggled with addiction.
Keith says: “For most of my life it was me, my dad and my sister – just the three of us.
“Dad was my rock. He loved to tell stories, knew everything about sport and he always had the answer to any problem you went to him with. We’d play video games together and that time meant a lot to me.
“He was constantly just trying to make our lives better.”
As a child, for some time Keith also had a typical sibling relationship with his sister.
“Dad was my rock… For most of my life it was me, my dad and my sister – just the three of us.”
Keith Fryer
He says: “As children my sister and I were like partners in crime and would sneak out together, but as we grew older we grew apart and she began to go off the rails – drinking and taking drugs. She was known for getting in fights too.
“I tried to speak to her about it but she wouldn’t listen, and she definitely had mental health issues her entire life.”
Speaking about his sister’s relationship with their dad, Keith adds: “I know she definitely loved him, because it would be hard not too, but she didn’t like being told what to do and she was a problem from an early age.
“We all knew she had a dark side. She was quick to fight anyone, and could fly off the handle.”
On May 13 2010, police were stunned when they received a hysterical call just after 7am, alerting them to a bloody crime scene at the Fryer family home in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
“My dad’s dead… There’s blood everywhere, I can’t go in there,” Kaleigh sobbed in a recording of the emergency call, played in Hayu documentary, Snapped: Killer Couples.
In the chilling call, she adds: “He didn’t wake me up in the morning. His car’s gone. Everything’s gone. There’s blood all over the floor. I tried to wake him up and he didn’t wake up.”
She was sobbing. This was a young lady who had just found her father deceased.”
Special Agent Michael Dean
Within minutes, first responders arrived and were confronted by a gruesome sight in the master bedroom, where Lewy had been stabbed multiple times with a knife taken from his own kitchen.
Describing how Kaleigh seemed at the time, Special Agent Michael Dean says: “She was sobbing. This was a young lady who had just found her father deceased.”
Recalling what he had also witnessed at the scene, Guthrie Police Department’s Michael Loya says: “I saw lacerations on his back, lacerations on his head, torso… he looked like he’d been in a fight.”
Kaleigh told police her and her dad had watched a film that night, before they both headed off to bed at around half 10.
Keith, then 18, had gotten into a fight at school, and so Lewy, to teach him a lesson, had told him he couldn’t stay at home, so had moved out to stay with friends three days earlier.
Describing being told the devastating news of his father’s death at school the following day, Lewy’s son Keith recalls: “There was a knock at the classroom door.
“I was joking around, and asked what my sister had done, as she was always getting in trouble. When they told me Dad was dead I screamed [at the officer], and I told him he was lying.
“I grabbed the chair from under me and I threw it against the wall. I just punched the principal’s door and ran out into the hallway.”
Speaking to authorities, Kaleigh claimed she’d slept the whole night and woken up at around 7:30am – and that’s when she found the horrifying scene.
There was no denying what had happened was a brutal, and violent attack.
As Chris Evans, Editor of the Guthrie News Page, explains: “There was blood on the bed, there was blood on the pillow, there was blood on the wall.”
Special agent Michael Dean says: “The room was in disarray, there were obvious defensive wounds to his body.”
But what didn’t make sense was how Kaleigh had slept through such an incident – and Keith knew right away something wasn’t right.
Keith says: “Just after I was told dad was dead, my mum and sister showed up at school to see me and as soon as I saw Kaleigh’s face I just knew she was lying about something and I was immediately suspicious.
“I told her I didn’t want to talk to her, and I felt physically sick. I just went to a friend’s house and slept.”
Kaleigh’s friends also came clean to police, and shared a different side to the story Kaleigh had already given.
She had not been going to school for some time, and she would invite friends over when her dad was out.
She was using drugs and alcohol, and had a secret boyfriend Keith had met a couple of times, Jay Chiles, who was 21 while Kaleigh was just 15 – making it illegal.
Knowing her father wouldn’t approve, she kept their relationship hidden.
But just three days before his murder, Lewy had discovered Kaleigh’s secret romance – and was far from happy.
Given this new information and its seeming significance, Jay was picked up and taken into custody.
Former Logan County District Attorney Lesley March says: “On the day of the murder, Kaleigh had asked Jay to come round when her father had gone to bed at night and told him she’d leave the backdoor open.”
Initially, Jay claimed he just panicked after Mr Fryer appeared armed with a golf club, and so he went to the kitchen to get a knife to defend himself.
But when confronted with the evidence to discount his version of events, Jay quickly changed his story, and implicated Kaleigh in the attack by saying she asked him on numerous occasions to murder her father.
According to Jay, Kaleigh had grown tired of her father’s rules, and when her brother got kicked out, she seized the opportunity.
Former Attorney Lesley says: “She wants her dad dead because she believes with him dead she’ll be allowed to live with her mum and she’ll be happy and she and Jay can be together.”
In order to persuade her boyfriend to carry out her wishes, it was then police believe Kaleigh came up with a manipulative plan.
She convinced the 21-year-old to carry out the heinous crime was by telling him she was pregnant, and this would be the only way they could be together as a family.
Special agent Michael Dean says: “[Jay] was told by Miss Fryer that she was pregnant with his child.
“She wanted to live with him and have a family together and… She had given him this plan of how they were able to do this.”
Keith says: “When I found out what happened, I couldn’t even really feel angry, as for a long time I was just engulfed in sadness, grieving for my dad, and losing my sister too.
“I lost my entire immediate family overnight.”
Jay was then charged with first degree murder, and police also obtained an arrest warrant for Kaleigh, less than 16 hours after she had made the first emergency services call, and she was also charged with murder.
Phone records provided damning evidence to prove her version of events was lies, and police also found her diary – which included several different entries saying how much Kaleigh hated her father.
Former District Attorney Lesley says: “The fact Kaleigh was not pregnant came out in jail phone calls with her mother.
“This was another piece of the puzzle – the fact that she was not pregnant is Kaleigh manipulating Jay Chiles to do what she wants.”
Keith says: “It was a hard time and I suffered severe depression and drank a lot.
“I’ve had counselling, but looking back I’m not sure how I got through it to be honest – I just had to take one day at a time.”
Jay Chiles plead guilty and agreed to a plea bargain of life with the possibility of parole – in exchange for giving evidence against Kaleigh.
Aged 16, Kaleigh was also charged with first degree murder and tried in court as an adult having denied the claims – however, the jury needed just two and a half hours to also convict her of first-degree murder.
Guthrie City Attorney Billy Wheeler says: “At trial, Jay took the stand and testified against Kaleigh.
“It was an emotional testimony. He was very honest, and it was a brutal account of what happened.”
In July 2011 Kaleigh was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, as was Jay.
Keith says: “I had complete faith justice would be served, and I think that was fair.”
Attorney Billy adds: “Jay made his own decisions, and he stood over an innocent person with a knife and brutally stabbed him to death.
“[But] Kaleigh was the mastermind behind this.
“If it hadn’t been for her, this would never have happened and her father would still be alive.”
Despite what he’s been through, Keith adds: “I feel stronger now, and more able to handle the emotional toll this has all had. I’ve found sharing my experience makes it feel less painful.
“I speak to Kaleigh on the phone, and she still maintains what happened wasn’t really her fault – which is why I haven’t been able to forgive her yet.
“It’s sad, but I’ve just accepted that’s the way it is.”
Episodes of Snapped: Killer Couples are available to stream on Hayu in the UK.
