Woman pleads guilty to husband's death

PENSACOLA, Florida (WALA) - There is finally some closure in a murder that happened 15-years ago. Kimberly Cannon has plead guilty to murdering her husband. It's something the victim's family has been waiting for.

It's been 15 years since Lorna Kelly last saw her son alive. Daren Kelly had been married for just days when he disappeared in 1995. All signs pointed to his wife, Kimberly Cannon, murdering him. However, investigators didn't have much to go on. It remained a cold case for 13-years.

"Information was developed, such as forged letter that had Ms. Cannons' DNA. Other forgeries she had created. She had given a statement to investigators that Kelly disappeared in June, just a few weeks after they were married," said Assistant State Attorney, Bobby Elmore.

All that evidence wasn't enough to charge her with the crime. In 2008, they found a human bone at the site of the crime and linked her to it.

"The third major search of that property was conducted. An anthropologist stumbled upon what looked like a bone. It turned out to be a portion of human fibula. She determined it had mitochondrial profile that was consistent with the DNA profile of Kelly's mother and his brother," Elmore said.

Prosecutors had to work with evidence and testimony that was 15-years old but now they won't have to use any of it. Tuesday, Cannon plead guilty to the murder. She detailed how she killed Kelly and why.

"She said they were involved in a physical fight. She claims he grabbed her around the neck. She then grabbed a hammer, struck him with a hammer, ran out of room, found out she had killed him. She drug his body out of the house and burned his body in a burn pile on their rural residence outside of Milton," explained Elmore.

For the family and investigators, it hopefully means the book will close on this real life murder mystery.

"Any mother that has a child should never ever quit looking. One day they will find theirs," Kelly's mother, Lorna told us back in 2008.

Cannon is now being held in the Escambia County jail due to other violation of probation charges. She will be transferred to a state prison after she is sentenced.