The True Story of a Real Stalker and Manipulator - Part 1

I decided to post this blog to let everyone know that, for the last 11 years, a woman from Oklahoma named Raye Dawn Smith, has been the victim of unrelentless stalking. This is the story of a woman who is a stalker and a very sick person. Kathie Briggs is a stalker and a manipulator. This is the story of how Kathie Briggs and Raye Dawn Smith.

Kathie Briggs was born Kathie Jo Batt in 1956. Not much is known about her childhood, until she was around 17. Kathie and her boyfriend, Kevin Robinson, became parents at that time. In January, 1973, they had their daughter, Shirica. I don't know whether it was before or after Shirica was born that Kathie and Kevin got married, but they did get married at some point. Then, exactly a year after Shirica was born, Kathie gave birth to her second daughter, Jeanna. Sadly, Jeanna is not Kevin's daughter. After Jeanna's birth, Kathie and Kevin didn't have another child until their son, Raymond Lance, was born in April of 1977. Finally, in August of 1978, Robynn was born. Again, this child was not Kevin's.


Sometime in 1979, Kevin and Kathie were getting a divorce and Kevin reportedly told Kathie he wanted joint custody of the children and Kathie refused. It wasn't long after that, that Kevin was found dead from a gunshot wound. Kathie claims Kevin had been depressed over not being able to see his children. Due to the actions she's shown since, it's questionable whether Kevin's death was a suicide or not. After Kevin's death, however, Kathie took her children (Shirica was 6, Jeanna was 5, Lance was 2 and Robynn was 1) to the Pottowatomie County Courthouse, stood on the steps and yelled, "Take these kids or I'll kill every one of them!" Needless to say, Department of Human Services (DHS) did take the kids away from her. Kathie then rarely went to visit them, opting to party instead. She soon met a man named Royce Briggs. They dated, got engaged, then got married. After the wedding, not to mention two years without her kids, she got her kids back. Royce wanted to adopt all the kids, but Kathie refused because they supposedly had an inheritance coming from Kevin's death.


Not much else is known until 2000. In that year, her son, Lance, legally had his last name changed from Robinson to Briggs. Then on July 15 of that year, Lance married his girlfriend, Raye Dawn Smith. This is a small hint as to the kind of person Lance is, which I feel can be blamed on Kathie and her inability to love her children.


Lance and Raye went to high school together and dated when he was a senior and she was a sophomore. After he graduated, they broke up. Two years later, after Raye had graduated, she and Lance had become re-acquainted at a party and started dating again. Before anyone knew it, they were engaged. It was around this time that they moved into a house together. Raye then noticed Lance's drug addiction. It's also this time that she found out that the man she was engaged to was a domestic abuser. He hit Raye on a daily basis. Raye was in college and several of her classmates saw black eyes and bruises on her frequently. After two years, Raye finally had enough of the abuse and kicked Lance out in March of 2002. He'd broken into the home when Raye wasn't there and left a threatening note, prompting her to take him back, which she did and that was in April. After another month, Raye knew that if she didn't leave him, he would end up killing her so she kicked him out again and then filed for a divorce. This is a statement from Raye regarding the relationship.


"I married Raymond Lance Briggs July of 2000. I lost my first child that month at three months due to a blow to the stomach by the fist of Lance. Other than that time, he had hit on me several times leaving black eyes, a bruised rib, my hair pulled out and a lot of my stuff throughout the house that all meant something to me he would break. He even threw my Pomeranian dog against the wall at one time. He busted my nose at the river in front of all our friends one summer. I finally got enough of all of that and left. I went to live back with my parents. Lance, a few weeks later, broke into the house we lived in while we were married and broke a bathroom mirror, threw groceries all over the kitchen, threw stuff in the pond, in the creek, and plus some some school albums."

After she left Lance, he moved on with his life. He'd been cheating on Raye with an 18-year-old girl (who's name will be withheld for her privacy). He never gave Raye a second thought. Kathie, however, took his place in that respect. She heard that Raye was telling people about the abuse Lance had inflicted onto her and started spreading rumors about Raye and calling her names such as slut and whore. Soon after the divorce was final, Raye found out she was pregnant. During she and Lance's first separation, she started dating another man so she was unsure who the father of her baby was. Kathie confronted her and said that she'd heard a rumor that the baby could be Lance's so she wanted Raye to take a paternity test after the baby was born. Raye herself wanted to know so she willingly agreed. Lance was telling everyone that he hoped the baby wasn't his so he could go on with his life. On December 28, 2002, at 10pm, Raye gave birth to a beautiful 19 inch, 7lb. baby girl she named Kelsey Shelton Smith. When Kelsey was 3 months old, the paternity test was taken and it was proven she was Lance's daughter. Kathie, not Lance, then demanded Raye add Briggs to Kelsey's name. Lance did call Raye and tell her, talking about Kathie, "It will have my last name." Raye did have Briggs added and now Kelsey was known as Kelsey Shelton Smith-Briggs. Then, another month went by and the Briggs never bothered to come visit Kelsey or call and check on her. Raye then called Kathie and asked if they wanted to see Kelsey. Kathie said yes and in April, 2003, when Kelsey was four months old, the Briggs finally met her. This is when the trouble started.


When Raye left Lance and told people of the kind of person he is, Kathie formed a grudge against Raye. A grudge she holds to this day. It started with the names and the rumors. After Kelsey came into their lives, Kathie wanted to take Kelsey from Raye. She basically wanted Raye out of the picture so she'd never have to deal with her. For the first two years of Kelsey's life, Kathie followed Raye to school, to work and anywhere else she would go. In June of 2003, Lance and his second wife got married and Kathie told her new daughter-in-law to follow Raye and to call the Smith house to look for Raye. At this time, Raye's father, Ray Smith, was dying of cancer and Kathie would call or have her daughter-in-law call and bother Raye. Kathie would call in false reports on Raye to DHS and the police, trying to make Raye look like a bad mother and then get Kelsey taken from her. At one time, Kathie was following Raye driving down the road and called in a report saying Raye was driving erratically and at excessive speeds. What Kathie didn't know is that there was a police car on that road who saw nothing wrong. Finally Kathie was told that if she wanted to get Kelsey from Raye to start a custody battle. That sounded like a good idea to Kathie.


In April of 2004, Raye's father lost his long battle with cancer. It hit the Smith family hard and it seemed that Kelsey is the only thing that held them together. It was at this time that Kathie stepped up her stalking. After her father's death, Raye moved into an apartment with Kelsey. On two different occasions, Kathie had told someone that she'd seen Raye setting up for a yard sale at her apartment and then the very next day, told someone she'd seen Raye had a yard sale. At one point, someone had asked Raye whether or not Kathie had a job. Raye stated, "I am Kathie's job!"


In August, 2004, Lance joined the Army (somehow, considering he was still a drug addict) and left Oklahoma. Therefore, his wife and mother got his visitation, which was standard visitation. Kathie and Raye had a verbal agreement on visitation and they both abided by it. However, Lance didn't like that his mother and ex-wife were getting along so he recommended Kathie take Raye to court to force her to put it in writing. Then, in September, Kathie did just that and Raye had it in writing to her agreement on Kathie and her daughter-in-law's visits with Kelsey. Then in October, Raye met and started dating a man named Michael Lee Porter. Mike had two children of his own (by two different women). A daughter who was 7 at the time he and Raye started dating and a son who was slightly younger than Kelsey. When Kathie got her visitations with Kelsey, Kelsey's daycare worker noticed that Kelsey had bruises and marks on Kelsey after a weekend with Kathie. The daycare provider notified Raye of this and took notes on the bruises and marks and they were always consistant with her visits with Kathie.


In January, 2005, Raye and Kelsey were staying at Mike's house (it's unclear where Mike's daughter was at this time) and, in the middle of the night after everyone went to sleep, Kelsey climbed out of the crib Raye had put her in, slipped and landed on a plastic slide that was in the room, breaking her collarbone. The following weekend, Lance (who was home on leave) and his wife came to get Kelsey to take her to a birthday party. Raye had picked Kelsey up at daycare at 5:30pm and changed her diaper at 6. Kelsey sat in that same diaper until 10pm, when her stepmother put her in the bath and saw bruises and lesions on her bottom. She showed them to Kathie and Kathie suggested they take Kelsey to the ER. Once there, Kathie told the doctor that she suspected Raye was abusing Kelsey. She and Royce then went to Judge Craig Key and requested emergency guardianship of Kelsey. He granted it and then Kelsey was taken from Raye. Raye then went to DHS and asked them what she needed to do to get Kelsey back by June. They notified her she had to take a parenting class, a six-week domestic violence class, an anger management class, a domestic violence invetory test. Then she took several more evaluations which were all normal or above. She got certificates for all that and her counselors said she didn't need anymore counseling.


From January-May, 2005, Kathie had custody of Kelsey. After the broken collarbone and bruises and lesions, January was uneventful. In February, Kelsey lost an unimaginable amount of weight. In March she started losing her hair and at one point, was almost completely bald. In April, she was at the zoo with Raye's sister-in-law and her two kids when she fell and sprained her ankle. On Monday, April 18, Raye and Mike eloped at the Lincoln County Courthouse. There's a picture to prove Kelsey was standing and walking that day.

Raye took Kelsey back to Kathie later that day. When she went back to get her on April 21, Kelsey couldn't walk, she was crawling. Kathie told Raye that Kelsey walked a few steps, fell and wouldn't walk after that, but didn't bother taking Kelsey to the doctor. Kelsey'd had a bump on her nose at one point and Kathie took her to the hospital for that, but didn't see the need to take her when she quit walking. Raye figured Kelsey's foot was hurting from not walking on it so she had her walk on it and then noticed Kelsey's legs were swollen and hot to the touch. Monday, April 25, Raye took Kelsey to DHS and asked them what to do and they suggested she take Kelsey to the ER immediately. When Raye and her mother got there, they were informed Kelsey had two broken legs. The doctor informed Raye to keep Kelsey overnight and bring her back for her casts. She gave Kelsey back to Kathie and then got her back the following weekend. She returned Kelsey on Sunday, May 1. The reason she returned her on Sunday instead of Monday was because Raye's great-grandmother had passed away and they were going to the funeral. On Monday, May 2, Kathie took Kelsey to OU Medical Center and told Dr. Andrew Sullivan that she wanted Kelsey's growth plates checked and told him the story about Raye taking these classes and tests and he suspected abuse and took Kelsey's casts off and then told Kathie the broken legs were abuse and they were spiral breaks, which they weren't. He also said Kelsey didn't need the casts. Tuesday, May 3, DHS took Kelsey from Kathie's custody. They kept her overnight and then placed her in the home of a foster mother, which was Raye's mother, Gayla.


At this point, Kathie and Raye had supervised visits with Kelsey at the DHS office. During Kathie's visits, Kelsey screamed, kicked, bit, pinched, pulled hair, hit herself, threw things, cried and hid. At one time, Kathie claims that Kelsey told her, about Mike Porter, "Daddy Mike hurt my leg." Strangely, no one seemed to have heard that but Kathie. Then later, when Raye was visiting with Kelsey, Kelsey said, "Daddy Mike hurt my head." Raye then laughed and told her, "Daddy Mike couldn't have hurt your head because you haven't seen him in a long time." Another time, Raye brought Mike with her and Kathie claims Kelsey climbed into her lap (Kathie's) and stated, "I don't wanna see Daddy Mike." However, during the visit, it showed Kelsey showed no fear of Mike. In fact, he had a sucker in his mouth and Raye, being playful, took it and put it into her own mouth. Kelsey marched up to her mother and said, "Give that sucker back to Daddy Mike." That doesn't sound like she was afraid of him to me.


While she acted out when Kathie came to visit her, it was completely different with Raye. She wanted to hug and kiss her, love on her, play with her, watch movies with her, do puzzles, paint pictures, paint nails, cuddle and had laughs. The only time Kelsey cried during Raye's visits was when Raye was leaving.

Eventually, Kathie stopped visiting Kelsey and sent her daughter-in-law in her place because she "didn't like what was being said" about her in court. Finally, on June 15, Raye regained custody of Kelsey. From that point on, there was not one mark on Kelsey. No bruise, no bumps, nothing. That is, until August 19. Raye, Mike and Kelsey were in Mike's truck coming home at about 10pm and were hit by a drunk driver, bending the frame of the truck and smashing the back glass where Kelsey was. The cost of the repairs was over $14,000. Raye and Mike took Kelsey to the hospital and after two hours, were told by the attending nurse that since Kelsey was up, running around, eating Doritos and drinking Dr. Pepper she must be fine so they could go home. They did and Raye then took Kelsey to her pediatrician. She had bruises on the left side of her face, down her left arm and retinal hemmoraging in her left eye.


On August 27, Kelsey had a five hour visitation with her stepmother. Kathie, Royce as well as Kelsey's stepmother's parents were there as well. They'd give Kelsey candy and then Kathie would tell them to take it from her and then take pictures of Kelsey. Pictures like this.

Kathie then took those pictures to DHS and insist that the abuse is getting worse, attempting to regain custody of Kelsey. DHS told her that the bruises on Kelsey were the result of a car accident and not abuse. Kathie was irate and accused DHS didn't care and that Kelsey wouldn't be here when her dad came home from Iraq in two months. Then in late August, Raye enrolled Kelsey in Child Role Play Therapy to find out what was wrong with Kelsey.


On September 8, there was a hearing to stop all paternal visits to more closely monitor the seizures Kelsey'd been having. Everyone in the Smith family was there, as well as Kelsey herself. However, nobody from the Briggs side showed up, nor did their attorney. Kathie even sent a letter stating they weren't attending. This was on September 6.


"After much consideration, we have decided that no one from our family will be in court on Thursday. DHS has been fighting any kind of reunification with our family since the beginning. Why hasn't the EEG been scheduled? She is the sister of Raye Dawn's attorney. She did have two night terrors while she was in my care. Kelsey seemed heavily medicated on her five hour visit last week. She seems to have lost weight. My daughter-in-law can no longer take off work to attend such visitations so we will concede this fight and pick up again when her father comes home."


In the beginning of October, Mike told Raye he was renting out his home to make more money. He was taking care of his family business, but Raye hadn't been able to work since they'd been married due to the Briggs. Therefore, they bought Raye's childhood home from her mother.


Finally, on October 11, at 2:45pm, Raye left the home to pick up her stepdaughter from school, leaving Kelsey sleeping in her (Raye's) bed to go on the 40-50 minute round trip. She was alone with Mike. While on the trip, Raye stopped by the post office and saw that the acceptance papers arrived for the Child Role Play Therapy. When she got home, she saw her mother there, as well as an ambulance and First Responders. She asks her mother what happened and Gayla says she was told by Mike that Kelsey'd had a seizure. After so much time, Kelsey's taken to the hosptial where she's worked on for another 45 minutes. At 4:45pm, Kelsey was pronounced dead. Raye, who was pregnant with Mike's baby at the time, went into the room, held and rocked Kelsey and asking through tears, "Why did God take my baby?" After two hours, she was getting into the truck when Mike asked about an autopsy. "They're not gonna cut her open, are they?" Raye said, "I have to know what was wrong with her." Mike then faked two heart attacks and fainted. Once he was taken in, checked out and released, they went to Raye's sister's house. Raye, depsite pregnant, wouldn't eat or sleep. Meanwhile, Mike ate a sandwich, searched for chips and slept through the night.


Kathie, however, talked to Lance a half hour after she found out about Kelsey's death and informed him. Lance, at this point, was in Ft. Benning, Georgia in drug rehab. They got him home that night. Kathie then called the police and told them that Kelsey's death was a murder and that her ex-daughter-in-law, Raye, had done it.