GUILTY MN - Michael Delmore, 53, shot to death, Mound, 19 June 2005

This is an older story, but I thought it was a strange one...

Murder Suspect Confessed To WCCO Radio

WCCO) Minneapolis A Mound, Minn. man suspected of murder is in custody Sunday after he apparently confessed to the crime to a WCCO Radio reporter.

While the search for Jeff Skelton was in full gear, the suspect called the station and confessed to shooting the man he said was his wife's boyfriend.

Jeff Skelton was apparently listening to WCCO Radio's news update in the afternoon and didn't like the story. So, he called in to reporter Bruce Hagevik to tell his side of what happened.

Hagevik rolled tape as this admitted killer blamed his wife for cheating on him.

"It's been tearing me apart for a long time," Skelton said in the recording. "I've lived with a lot of lies and a lot of deceit for a long time and all I wanted to do today - well she left me on Friday. She didn't, you know, go to a co-worker's house for safety or anything like that. She went to this guy she's been shacking up with."

Jeff Skelton apparently decided to get his gun, leave his home in Mound and drive nearly three miles to the home of the man he believed was sleeping with his wife.

"(I was) running on basically two days with no sleep," Skelton said. "I decided I was going to go over there and I was gonna shoot this guy in the foot and make him sit there and listen to me and suffer a little bit while he listened to me, so at least he could hear my side of what he did to my family."

"He came after me," Skelton said," and the rest is history."

More: http://wcco.com/crime/local_story_170181309.html



Jeff Skelton

Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? Sorry guy, I don't. You took the gun to the guys house, and you pulled the trigger. Off to court you go! See if the jury feels sorry about what you did.

Divorce would be easier. All he had to do was hire a PI for proof.

From June 2009:

http://mn.gov/web/prod/static/lawlib/live/archive/ctapun/0906/opa080572-0602.pdf

Skelton... pleaded guilty to second- degree intentional murder in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2004) and was sentenced to 396 months (33 years) in prison.

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I just watched an older episode of ID Discovery "Dark Waters" s1 e2 that was on this case.

I grew up in Mound, MN and lived in another suburb in 2003. I never heard of this case. Very interesting that they all worked for the same company and lived 3 miles apart. Mound is about 10k and most people know each others business. I'm surprised he didn't kill her too. Wasn't really about deep waters except they lived by/on a big metro lake and he threw her overboard beforehand.

of course skelton is a brutal murderer who was an obsessed psycho who belongs in prison for life, BUT please stop calling delmore "real nice guy". the guy was sneaking around with a married woman. the wife & him were both not nice people. nice people tell their mate, theyre not happy, theyre leaving & getting a separation, if thats what they want. & nice people who meet married people who want an affair, say no, sorry, i dont believe thats right. theyre upfront & honest & respectful of the other people involved. how all 3 adults comported themselves hurting this child too is terrible.

What are you, a friend of the killer? Everyone sins and makes mistakes. It doesn't mean the person who died wasn't a nice person. They certainly did not deserve to die.

Take the rafter out of your eye before you extract the straw from a dead person's eye. I am sure the victim was very loved by his family and friends. Regardless of his relationship choices taking a life is not acceptable.

Let this man rest in peace.

savannahNYC said:

of course skelton is a brutal murderer who was an obsessed psycho who belongs in prison for life, BUT please stop calling delmore "real nice guy". the guy was sneaking around with a married woman. the wife & him were both not nice people. nice people tell their mate, theyre not happy, theyre leaving & getting a separation, if thats what they want. & nice people who meet married people who want an affair, say no, sorry, i dont believe thats right. theyre upfront & honest & respectful of the other people involved. how all 3 adults comported themselves hurting this child too is terrible.

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Thank you! I so agree! I just saw the Dark Waters episode and it was so sad! The victim was divorced after his wife cheated on him so I don't know how this was a good idea? I don't understand the good guy thing the same could be said about Jeff, I'm sure some thought he was a good guy before this all happened too. Most people are good people until they do or say something to prove otherwise! He was a homewrecker along with Marilyn and Jeff ended up being a murderer! I believe too that if either had just thought to be up front, then most importantly the victim would still be here and the poor daughter would have never tried to commit suicide and have to go through this devastation! Affairs are ALWAYS selfish acts and you never know the devastation they could lead to because we only get to choose our actions we don't get to determine how someone reacts to those actions!

It's not the victims fault that this guy reacted with murder. An affair is a terrible thing to do but it's a far cry from attempted murder and murder. And it certainly doesnt justify what he did.
The Dark waters episode actually really annoyed me because they spent the beginning half basically making it out to be like "oh poor murderer his wife cheated on him so he becomes abusive and homicidal but it's not really his fault!" and then that one speaker who says Jeff saved Marilyn's life... After he's the one that threw her in the water knowing she couldn't swim. I'm just so annoyed that Jeff actually then gets mad she leaves him after that?? Like he just tried to murder her, any sane person would run after that regardless whether or not he changed his mind.
I also think it's really crappy that when he calls his daughter on the phone he still makes it all about himself and how he's having a hard time even though his daughter just tried to commit suicide.

Actually a member of my family is very closely related to Michael. We were unaware of this program. That “man” needs to spend the rest of his life in prison. Also if she was so unhappy why not get divorced. I blame her too.