The True Story of a Real Stalker and Manipulator - Part 2

When Kelsey was born, there were two birth announcements for her. One for Baby Girl Smith and one for Baby Girl Briggs. When Kelsey passed, there were two obituaries for her. One for Kelsey Shelton Smith and one for Kelsey Shelton Briggs. There were also two funerals as the Briggs refused to have a funeral with the Smiths. Shortly before Kelsey's death, her stepmother informed Lance she was divorcing him and the divorce was finalized just a month after Kelsey's passing.


Two weeks after Kelsey's passing, the autopsy report came out and proved without a shadow of a doubt that Kelsey was murdered. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the abdomen. Mike was then arrested and charged with murder. His bond was set at $1 million but was later lowered to $250,000 and he bonded out.


Within a week of Kelsey's death, Kathie had a website called Kelsey's Purpose. A few weeks later, she formed a messageboard on there. That's when she started talking about how cold and evil Raye was. She stuck with the story that Raye had something to do with Kelsey's death. The more people who joined her forum, the more lies she told about Raye and therefore, gathering a lynch mob to have against Raye. Since Mike's arrest, there was a gag order in place, so the Smiths stayed quiet. Kathie, however, didn't. She accused Raye of everything from having an abortion with her first pregnancy, to letting Mike abuse Kelsey to even killing Kelsey herself. It was all vicious and vile things.


Shortly after Mike's release, he started e-mailing with Kathie's daughter, Shirica, posing as his sister and telling Shirica lie after lie about Raye. Shirica then told Jeanna about it and that's when the correspondance between Mike and Jeanna started. Seventy-nine days after Kelsey's death, Mike opened up the lines of commnication between Mike Porter and Kathie Briggs started. This was a violation of the gag order to even e-mail with each other, but Kathie went beyond that. They'd talked on the phone and even met in person. When they met, Kathie claims she wanted to know what happened to her granddaughter, but Kelsey never came up. Their main topic was Raye. It was always Raye. In November, Raye and Lance went to court to fight over Kelsey's estate, which Lance won. He then filed a lawsuit against DHS that would get him $15 million if he won. Being Kelsey's mother, Raye would be entitled to half of that, $7.5 million. Kathie found out that the only way Raye wouldn't get her half of the money would be if she was convicted of a crime connected to Kelsey's death. Kathie and Mike set out to plot against Raye, trying to get the murder charge pinned on Raye. Kathie even promised Mike she'd help him if he helped her. After she was finished talking to Mike, she threatened the District Attorney, Richard Smothermon, and told him she'd ruin his career if he didn't charge Raye with something that would stick. On February 26, 2006, Raye Dawn Smith was formally charged with Enabling Child Abuse and Child Abuse. She was released on bond.


In April, the police confiscated Mike's computer and found pictures and videos of child porn on there. They then went to the Briggs and asked their permission to exhume Kelsey to check for any sexual assault on her. The Briggs said yes and Kelsey was exhumed. There was evidence of sexual abuse on her and Sexual Assault was added to Mike's charge of murder.


On April 11, Raye gave birth to she and Mike's son, who was taken from Raye immediately by DHS. Raye and Mike were allowed to see him with supervision until their trials. Raye gave two interviews in 2006, talking about the part of the case she could talk about. On August 23, Raye testified at Mike's preliminary hearing, talking about the day Kelsey died.


In early 2007, Mike was about to go to trial when Kathie told the DA she wanted him to give Mike a plea deal, which he did. The charges of murder and sexual assault were dropped and was replaced with Enabling Child Abuse. He was tried and convicted, being sentenced to 25.5 to 30 years in prison. When he gets out, he will never have to register as a sex offender.


Raye's trial started on July 10, 2007. It lasted eight days, after which she was convicted and sentenced to 23-27 years for Enabling Child Abuse. She walked out of the courthouse crying, "I don't understand. I love my baby!"

The jury recommended the 27 year sentence and the day of Raye's sentencing, the judge asked Raye if she had anything to say to the Briggs. Raye stood up, turned to Kathie, looked her dead in the eye and said, "Kathie, I forgive you."


Kathie, her family and army of supporters (which included a jury member) scoffed and Kathie said, "Take her away. Keep her. Let her think about what she's done."

After Raye's sentencing, she filed an appeal. There were nine propositions showing she had an unfair trial. The judge denied her appeal going on just the statement given by Royce Briggs against the statements of 13 other witnesses.


Soon after Raye was sent to prison, a lady from Oklahoma who's an author and befriended Raye, decided to make a website dedicated to Raye. The website was called Free Kelsey's Mom. It was through this that Raye's story started coming out and people started seeing that the Briggs had been lying and that Raye was railroaded in prison.


In December, Kathie shut down Kelsey's Purpose and that's when her supporters started looking more into the story and realized that Raye was innocent of any and all crimes. It was then that Kathie realized that she was losing supporters so she reopened Kelsey's Purpose and started gaining more (new) members and fed them the lies she fed everyone else. The people on Kathie's forum left nasty messages on there regarding Raye. They don't limit their hate toward just Raye, they spew hate toward Raye's mother and grandmother as well. And it doesn't just stay on Kelsey's Purpose, they post it on a blogboard called Topix as well.


Kathie continues to accuse Raye, Gayla and Gayla's mother of committing crimes as well as accusing the Smiths of stalking them.


In 2008, Raye wrote a letter to lawmakers, trying to get them to help. The following month, Gayla and the rest of the Smith family put together a Raye of Hope Rally for the Wrongfully Convicted. It was a success.

In 2009, the lawsuit against DHS was settled and Lance walked away with $625,000. Raye got a letter asking her to not try to get her share of the money. She contacted her close friend who was starting to work on a book with Raye and told her she still intended to go anyway. She said, "I don't want that money to go up his arm or up his nose." She testified at that hearing, which was in January of 2010, but was denied her share of the money.

Starting in January of 2009, four Appelet Judges were reveiwing her trial and requested a hearing be held to determine jury misconduct. The hearing was to be held in Kay County on September 1, 2010. Unfortunately, the DA brought in several of the jurors from Raye's trial and they all claimed that the juror in question did absolutely nothing wrong. Therefore, the judge ruled against Raye. The good news is, the Appelet Judges can still overrule that decision. Until then, Raye is continuing the mentoring she's got a certificate for in prison and has worked her way up the system very quickly and is a model prisoner.

In the fall of 2010, the author who is planning on writing Raye's book wrote one about Raye's case. Because she's associated with Raye and her family, she herself has been stalked endlessly and harrassed online by Kathie's followers. At one time, her name was posted on Kathie's forum, along with the name of her business, her address and a picture of her with the orders of "go get her". Shortly after that, she had bullet holes in her truck, her truck was keyed and her home was broken into, but nothing was taken. She's written this book, The Naked Truth Bound In Scorn, to not only tell Raye's story, but hers as well. It's a book about stalking and harassment not just online but off as well.


In the spring of 2010, two journalists, Britten Follet and Cherokee Ballard have written a book based on the Briggs side of the story called Who Killed Kelsey? Britten and Cherokee have openly admitted the book isn't based on pure fact, just the Briggs side of the story. The mother of Kelsey's stepmother has questioned Kathie about some of the facts she heard about in the case and now she and her daughter are viciously attacked by Kathie and her followers. She's befriended the author of The Naked Truth Bound In Scorn on Facebook, after which Lance sent her this meesage. The spelling mistakes were also made by him.


"I can't believe how fake you have been and you would stoop to the level of the Smiths. I don't think you wana open that can of worms. You are truly a dissapointment and acting no better than Gayla. Honestly, nobody cares about your opinion and you need to keep them to yourself. You and your entire family have never TRULY care about Kelsey. Go on with your life and keep your mouth shut."

This is a picture from 2007. Left to right (not counting the kids): Kathie, Royce, Jeanna, District Attorney Richard Smothermon, Shirica, Robynn and Lance.

The Smith women. From left to right: Raye, Kelsey, Raye's great-grandmother, Raye's grandmother, Mildred Fowler and Gayla Smith.




I've been involved in this story since October, 2007 when I saw a video posted by a Briggs supporter on YouTube. From October-December, I was an avid Briggs supporter. After I found out about the e-mails between Kathie and Mike, I read more into the case and realized I was supporting an evil person. I've since been supporting Raye and her family. I've been in contact with Raye through letters and hold her as a close friend to me. The author of the book The Naked Truth Bound In Scorn is also someone I consider a close friend. The fact that she's still being harassed and stalked, I worry about her every single day. I pray for her, as well as Raye and her family every night.


So, knowing all that, how can anyone really believe Kathie's lies? Maybe since they didn't know about Raye's story or just prefer to believe Kathie Briggs instead of researching the truth. I can say this, I am one of many who have taken the time to research the case and read up on both sides of the story and in so doing, realized that Kathie Briggs wouldn't know the truth if it slapped her in her lying face. But if people want to believe her, that's their problem. Last year, Teri Sigman questioned Kathie about some of the facts in this case and has since been viciously talked about by Kathie and her supporter. Lance Briggs even threatened Teri to move on with her life and keep her mouth shut. That's the way Kathie, her family and supporters work. If anyone dares to tell the truth, they're threatened by not just the family, but the pack of wild dogs that Kathie has rounded up and lied to for the past 5 years.

One thing that Kathie Briggs, Lance Briggs and the entire Briggs family need to remember is the one thing they've lost sight of. The whole reason this fight started. Kelsey. Kathie and her family have never truly cared about Kelsey. To the Briggs, Kelsey is nothing more than a money-maker. A poster child for abused children. Whenever Lance and Ashley had Kelsey in their home, Lance consistantly told Ashley to take Kelsey away and leave him alone so he could watch the game, or so he could watch NASCAR. He never wanted Kelsey. He even admitted that the picture below was taken by Kathie and was staged.

And the following pictures were taken in December, 2005. Lance and Kathie wanted to give the appearance of Lance coming home from Iraq to bury his daughter. He'd been discharged from the military for three months by this time.

What kind of war hero is Lance Briggs? A man who beats women is no hero. A man who is discharged from the military due to drugs and violence is no hero. Lance Briggs beat both of his wives. Raye Dawn Smith and Ashley Gober are both victims of domestic violence at the hands of Lance Briggs. They're both very strong women and escaped the violence from a man who chooses drugs over his own child, let alone his wife. Lance Briggs has been in rehab centers more times than I can count and does whatever it takes to gain sympathy just because he lost his daughter. The daughter he never cared about. The daughter he admittedly had staged pictures with. Lance Briggs is a man who thinks of no one but himself and what's most important to him. When he settled his DHS lawsuit out of court, he used it to have a new house built and bought a new truck. It wasn't long before he got drunk and totaled the truck. He also spent some of it in stip clubs. Is this a war hero? I think not.

Kathie herself has never liked Raye Dawn Smith. Even when Raye and Lance dated in high school, Kathie always showed her dislike toward Raye. When Raye and Lance got married, she saw that the Briggs family was completely unlike her own. Raye's family are very close-knit. Raye would call and talk to her mother and grandmother several times a day and they never went a day without seeing one another. The Briggs family would go days, weeks or even months without seeing or speaking to each other. After Raye first filed for divorce, she exposed Lance as an abusive man. Kathie then began talking trash about Raye. From the time it was found out that Kelsey was Lance's daughter, Kathie tried with everything she had to take Kelsey away from Raye. She wanted to push Raye out of the picture altogether and have Lance and Ashley raise Kelsey. Under normal circumstances, it would seem sweet that a grandmother would want to keep her grandchild, but Kathie was so desperate to get Kelsey from Raye and push Raye out of the picture completely that it went to criminal proportions.

Kathie and her family prove in their actions that they never loved Kelsey and never cared about Kelsey. They only want Kelsey now as a way to gain sympathy and make money. They've lost sight that this child was killed by a child rapist, whom they gave a plea deal to in order to put away this child's mother. The day Raye was sentenced she was asked if she had anything to say to the Briggs. She stood up, looked Kathie dead in the eyes and said, "Kathie, I forgive you." Kathie says she doesn't, but she knows why Raye said that. She knows what she's done and she knows it's wrong. What she may not know is that Raye is a strong Christian woman and showed her strength in forgiving Kathie. I was raised to believe that when someone has done you wrong in one way or another, forgive them. When you forgive them, they don't have a hold on you anymore, no matter how much they think they do. Once you forgive them, they no longer have that hold on you. So, in forgiving Kathie, she no longer has a hold on Raye that she may think she has.

What the Briggs need to stop and think about is how to help this precious little girl rest in peace, because they're not letting her by disrespecting Raye, the Smiths, their friends or their suporters. Kathie talks about how Raye should think about how Kelsey would feel about the things that have happened to her. Kathie needs to think about how Kelsey would feel if she knew the things that she and her family are doing. Has Kathie ever wondered why, at every KP function, every rally for Kelsey, every Kelsey walk they have, it rains. Could it be because Kelsey is crying in Heaven because she knows grandma Kathie is doing nothing to truly honor her memory like the Smiths are trying to? I think so. But no matter what happens, no one can bring Kelsey back. That's why the Briggs should do what the Smiths are trying to...let Kelsey rest in peace.