Man strangled, oatmeal laced with drugs. Mom, daughter and boyfriend charged in murder-for-hire plot: cops

A mother, her daughter,and her daughter’s boyfriend were arrested in connection to a murder-for-hire in Ohio.

The mother, Heidi Marie Littlefield, 41, allegedly strangled the victim after lacing his oatmeal with fentanyl, according to Cleveland 19 News.

Littlefield, her daugher Logan Marie Runyon, 22, and Runyon’s boyfriend Robert James Walker, were arrested in connection to the crime.

Francis Kelley, 46, was found dead in his home on Jan. 18. An autopsy found that he had been strangled, and toxicology reports later showed that he had Fentanyl in his system.

During questioning, Walker told police that Littlefield drugged Kelley, then went back to his house to find him on the floor, barely breathing. She then allegedly used his favorite tie to strangle Kelley, and bludgeoned his head against the floor. 

Kelley had been in a custody battle with Littlefield, was killed inside the house three days before he was found dead, according to Cleveland 19 News.

A friend told police she hadn’t heard from Kelley in a couple of days before his body was discovered.

According to a text message exchange between Kelley and Littlefield, Kelley said he tasted something odd in his oatmeal, Cleveland 19 News reported.

“You were in my fridge last night and it tastes funny after a couple of bites and now I’m lightheaded,” Kelley wrote to Littlefield.

The lightheadedness reportedly came from the fentanyl. It was not the first time that Littlefield had laced Kelley’s food with a drug, adding it to his soup in the past, according to Cleveland 19 News.

According to court documents, police were notified of recorded conversations with Littlefield in which she said she wanted Kelley dead and that she had plans of overdosing him and planting drugs on him.

Last year, Littlefield and her daughter, Runyon, allegedly paid Runyon’s boyfriend, Walker, to have Kelley killed.  Investigators say that they gave him $2,500 to find someone to kill Kelley. 

Walker told police he had used the money to buy drugs and had no intention of following through.

Littlefield and Runyon were charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, while Walker was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.