Joe Cool Mystery Solved

Kelley loved sports. She saved every penny from her allowance to ski at Timber Ridge, a local slope. She was a tomboy; her favorite superhero was Wonder Woman, and she adored He-Man. She went through an Egypt phase at age seven — she loved the "Mummy Room" at the Kalamazoo Public Library. The rambunctious girl was a cheerleader in junior high school and even played on the boys' football team. She also adored pets. "I cannot tell you how many stray animals came into our house," Leanne says. "If they died, we would have these elaborate funerals; Kelley would make us sing 'Amazing Grace.'" Later, when Kelley was a teenager, the stray animals were replaced by needy kids, who often got a free meal, courtesy of Leanne.

Ever the small-town girl, she was amazed by Miami — especially by the blue water, the beach, and the ostentatious wealth. One day, while driving to Miami Beach across the MacArthur Causeway, she looked to her left at Star Island. There, on the tip, was a white mansion, all columns and arches. She called her mother. "Someday," she said, "I'm going to live in a house like that." Leanne thought it odd that Kelley would say that. Her daughter was no gold digger.

Though they were close, Leanne didn't visit Kelley much in Miami during those years; she had a busy life in St. Louis, and her daughter was doing well in her new home. The 26-year-old worked as a waitress at a Coconut Grove bar and hung out there too. Sometimes she'd challenge the regulars to a game of pool. That's how Kelley met Jake Branam in 2003.

Jake had longish curly hair that was bleached blond by the sun. There was usually a few days' stubble on his chin. He was tan because he often fished. Jake was 23, three years younger than Kelley, but she loved hearing his stories of sailing around the Caribbean and reeling in big catch. He was studying for his captain's license, and his dream was to own a fishing boat charter service. Kelley envisioned herself on board with Jake, diving into the blue water or angling for tarpon.

A bonus: Jake's family was superrich. His grandparents founded and owned LR Alliance Manufacturing, a business they started in the Seventies that made metal trash cans, benches, and other products in Opa-locka. The Branam clan lived in a mansion worth more than $10 million on Star Island — where Gloria Estefan lives — one of the area's most exclusive addresses.

Jake lived in that mansion, Kelley told her mother, the same white beauty she had seen years before while driving over the MacArthur Causeway. Kelley and Jake's relationship evolved at warp speed, and within a few months, he asked her to move to Star Island to live with him in what he called "the beach house." That was late 2003.

"It's free, mom," she told Leanne.

"Honey," Leanne replied in a soft, mom-knows-best voice, "nothing's ever free."

As Jake and some relatives prepared to launch the charter boat business, Kelley worked part-time at a veterinary hospital in Miami Beach. Her life was seemingly blessed: a small-town girl living in a waterfront mansion with her dashing sea captain boyfriend.

But it wasn't that simple. What Jake had called "the beach house" was really an apartment above the garage. It was mildewy and moldy, and the toilet rarely worked. Even what the family called "the big house" — the huge white mansion that looked so elegant from afar — had electrical problems, plumbing issues, and rats scurrying around the foundation. Property records showed the family had bought the place for only $250,000 in 1976, and Kelley would often joke that she lived at the "Star Island Trailer Park" or the "Star Island Ghetto," family members later recalled.

Then there were the disconcerting details about Jake's relatives, many of whom lived at the Star Island estate. First was Jeannette Branam, his grandmother. A short woman with wild curly blond hair and a white streak in the middle like Cruella DeVille, she and Jake's grandfather, Harry Branam, had finished a nasty divorce in 1997; according to court documents, she had been arrested for DUI after the split. (The charge was later dropped.) And Jeannette had filed a restraining order against her ex, alleging he had been violent with her. She also consulted regularly with a Jamaican fortuneteller, which made Kelley uneasy.