On April 1st, 2025, multiple emergency calls flooded dispatch centers across Claremont County, Ohio.

VICTIM PROFILE

Kelsey Hildal was a 34-year-old resident of Blue Ash, Ohio, known to her family as a former mixed martial arts competitor who had been struggling with severe mental health challenges for years. Her mother Robyn and father Rick described a daughter caught in cycles of paranoia and delusion, convinced that cartels and demons were pursuing her. In the weeks leading to that April night, Kelsey's condition had deteriorated rapidly—she had changed all her locks, parked her vehicle defensively in her yard, and made frantic calls to family members asking if police had "gotten to them" and "killed them." Despite her family's attempts to help, Kelsey refused treatment, leaving them helpless to prevent what they feared was inevitable.

CASE SIGNIFICANCE

This episode examines a tragic intersection of mental health crisis, law enforcement response, and the devastating consequences when systems fail to intervene before catastrophe. Kelsey's case represents thousands of similar incidents across America where individuals in psychiatric crisis encounter armed police rather than mental health professionals. The wrong-way driving incident that triggered the April 1st confrontation was not random chaos—it was the culmination of months of escalating paranoia that her family had documented through multiple attempts to get her help. The investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation would ultimately rule the trooper's use of deadly force justified, but the question remains: Could a different response have saved Kelsey's life?

CONTENT WARNINGS

This episode contains explicit law enforcement radio traffic, descriptions of a fatal officer-involved shooting, and discussions of severe mental health crisis including paranoid delusions and suicidal ideation.

EPISODE DETAILS

Part Two provides the complete timeline of April 1, 2025, beginning with the first 911 calls reporting a wrong-way driver on Interstate 275 near the Five Mile Road exit. You'll hear actual dispatch audio as multiple witnesses reported the gray SUV traveling eastbound in westbound lanes, then switching to northbound travel in southbound lanes. The pursuit culminated when Ohio State Patrol Trooper Andrew Francher performed an intentional vehicle collision—a "forward escape" maneuver—to stop Kelsey's Ford Escape against the median barrier wall near State Route 32. Body camera footage captured the harrowing final moments when officers discovered Kelsey was armed with a handgun. Despite repeated commands to show her hands, the situation escalated to gunfire. Kelsey was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation that followed revealed the full scope of Kelsey's mental health history through interviews with her parents Robyn and Rick Hildal, her aunt Laura McComas, her cousin Grant, and other family members. Their statements painted a portrait of a woman who had "been suffering all year long and refused help," whose paranoia had been building to the point where, as her mother stated, "she was looking to end it." Robyn's final words to investigators were heartbreaking: "I hope Kelsey is at peace, because she hadn't been for a long time."

PRIMARY SOURCES

This episode is based on official Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation reports, dispatch audio recordings from April 1, 2025, body camera footage from Ohio State Patrol, witness statements, family interviews conducted by BCI investigators, news coverage from Fox 19 Cincinnati, and the Clermont County Prosecutor's Office decision clearing Trooper Francher of wrongdoing in May 2025.

SUPPORT RESOURCES

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) or the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). For information about mental health crisis intervention training for law enforcement, visit www.nami.org/CIT.

OBSCURA ACCESS

Join our listener community for exclusive content, extended episodes, and in-depth research at www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast. For the darkest cases with no censorship, explore BLACK LABEL premium episodes at podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/black-label/id6443660911. Visit our complete episode archive and case resources at www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura.

SUPPORT RESOURCES

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) or the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). For information about mental health crisis intervention training for law enforcement, visit www.nami.org/CIT.

OBSCURA ACCESS

Join our listener community for exclusive content, extended episodes, and in-depth research at www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast. For the darkest cases with no censorship, explore BLACK LABEL premium episodes at podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/black-label/id6443660911. Visit our complete episode archive and case resources at www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura.

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