February 16, 2025 • 15 mins
This episode takes us to Traverse City, Michigan for the 1998 murder of Kalee Joy Bruce. For more information on the Kalee Bruce Memorial Scholarship, please click here.
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Website - www.greatlakestruecrime.net
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All music by Kai Engel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more info, please visit https://www.kai-engel.com/.
Produced, written, edited, and hosted by Steve from Great Lakes True Crime.
**Positive reviews really help out the show and are always appreciated**
Sources
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/where-kevin-holtzer-today-whereabouts-explored-ahead-murder-heartland-id
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-miwd-2_06-cv-00169/pdf/USCOURTS-miwd-2_06-cv-00169-0.pdf
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/mi-court-of-appeals/1014572.html
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/traverse-city/year-1998
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32479755/kalee_joy-bruce
https://mdocweb.state.mi.us/OTIS2/otis2profile.aspx?mdocNumber=291530
https://gtrcf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1098
Buy Me Coffee (please!) - https://paypal.me/greatlakestruecrime
Website - www.greatlakestruecrime.net
X - https://twitter.com/greatlakescrime
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/greatlakescrime
All music by Kai Engel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more info, please visit https://www.kai-engel.com/.
Produced, written, edited, and hosted by Steve from Great Lakes True Crime.
**Positive reviews really help out the show and are always appreciated**
Sources
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/where-kevin-holtzer-today-whereabouts-explored-ahead-murder-heartland-id
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-miwd-2_06-cv-00169/pdf/USCOURTS-miwd-2_06-cv-00169-0.pdf
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/mi-court-of-appeals/1014572.html
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/traverse-city/year-1998
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32479755/kalee_joy-bruce
https://mdocweb.state.mi.us/OTIS2/otis2profile.aspx?mdocNumber=291530
https://gtrcf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1098
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the evening of February sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight, eighteen
year old Kaylee Joy Bruce reported to her job at
the front desk of a condominium complex called The Beach
Condominiums in Traverse City, Michigan. Not long after beginning her shift,
Kaylee would be murdered, the victim of a brutal and
(00:22):
senseless attack from the south shore of Lake Erie. This
is Great Lakes True Crime, and before we continue, remember
(02:47):
that you can say hi to us on Facebook and
x just search for a Great Leaks True Crime. You
can also check the show notes for sources and more
information about this episode. Also, please please send any thoughts
or case suggestions to Great Lakes True Crime at gmail
dot com. And if you like the show, we would
(03:07):
love it if you'd give us a positive review and
encourage your friends as a subscribe. We always need new
subscribers and reviews to stay visible among the many corporate
podcasts out there. Now, let's get back to this episode.
Traverse City is located in the northern part of the
US state of Michigan along Grand Traverse Bay, which is
(03:31):
a bay on Lake Michigan about four miles from the
center of Traverse City are the Beach Condominiums, which is
a complex of thirty privately owned residential units. The condominiums
are primarily used as vacation homes. Kayleie Bruce had taken
a job at the complex's rental office to make some
(03:51):
extra money for college. It was a fun job where
she got to work with her good friend Kim. As
we said, this was February nineteen ninety eight, and if
you've ever been to northern Michigan in February, you would
know that it is cold, very cold. It's very likely
that the people who were renting condominiums at that time
(04:13):
of year were longer term residents that worked in the
area rather than vacationers. February sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight, was
actually relatively warm for that time of year in Traverse City.
The high temperature was forty eight degrees fahrenheit. Kaylee clocked
into her job at eight pm, and police would later
(04:34):
determine that not long after she began her shift, Kaylee
was viciously attacked in the utility room at the condominium complex.
The attack was particularly brutal. In fact, first responders could
not believe how vicious the attack was without going into
too much detail. Kaylee had suffered many lacerations and blunt
(04:57):
force trauma to her body. Was also sexually violated in
an extreme way. She had a large amount of blood
on her some of which appeared to have been smeared intentionally.
On top of all this, there was money missing from
the condominium office. Whoever committed these horrendous crimes must have
(05:19):
been severely deranged, and it's likely that the killer knew
Kaylee based on the vicious personal nature of the murder.
The person likely knew that she would be alone at
the office, and there were no security cameras in the area,
so the killer knew that Kaylee would be particularly vulnerable.
(05:41):
Her lifeless body was found by a maintenance supervisor on
the morning of February seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight. Detectives were
able to piece together a rough timeline of Kaylee's final hours.
As we said, she clocked into work at eight pm.
(06:02):
The body temperature at the time she was found indicated
that she was likely murdered only a short time after
she began work. In looking at the blood found at
the scene, it seemed that it was all Kaylee's. There
were not many residents renting condominiums this time of year.
Those who were there, however, were all questioned by police,
(06:25):
although not much information was generated from those interviews. The
crime scene, of course, was intensively searched by police. They
collected one hundred and seventy eight pieces of evidence. Yet
with all that searching, there were no fingerprints found other
than those belonging to Kaylee and other office workers. It
(06:49):
was suspected that the killer must have worn gloves, and
while no fingerprints were found, there was a series of
bloody footprints found at the scene, and they were not
Kayley's footprints. They determined the size of the boots by
first treating the partial prints with a substance called Leuco
(07:09):
crystal violet or ELCV for short, which is a compound
that will turn purple when it comes into contact with blood.
LCV can enhance visible and invisible blood traces, fingerprints and footprints,
so this was used to help clarify the bloody footprints,
(07:31):
and then police photographers took high quality thirty five millimeters photographs.
It was concluded that the killer's footprints were a size
men's twelve or twelve and a half. Police then took
the photos to local shoe stores and discovered that the
prints were most likely from a Caterpillar brand work boot.
(07:55):
At this point they had identified the killer's footwear. Because
of the time and nature of the murder, it seemed
likely that the killer was someone who was familiar with
Kaylee and her routine rather than some random stranger, and
the fact that he wore work boots led police to
(08:16):
think the killer was perhaps a repairman or other worker
that spent time at the complex. Suspicion quickly turned to
the elevator repairman, who was described by some other workers
in the area as quote creepy. He was questioned by
police but had a solid alibi for the night of
(08:38):
the murder. It was also noted that while he wore
work boots, they were not the Caterpillar brand. Not surprisingly,
Kaylee's boyfriend was also looked at early on in the investigation.
The relationship was described as being on again, off again,
particularly after Kaylee went away to college. So police questioned
(09:02):
the boyfriend at his workplace and lo and behold, he
was wearing Caterpillar work boots. What's more, they appeared to
be about a size twelve, but there turned out to
be no evidence. Potentially connecting the boyfriend to the murder,
police concluded that he had nothing to do with it.
(09:24):
Investigators started to wonder whether the killer may have in
fact been orandom stranger. One other intriguing piece of evidence
found that the crime scene was a tire valve stem,
the little black part where you put the air in
a tire. There was actually a hair stuck to the stem. Unfortunately,
the route was not attached to the hair, so there
(09:46):
was no way to extract any DNA evidence from it.
So this piece of evidence was set aside temporarily. As
the investigation looked like it might slow to a crawl,
the last decided to go public with some of the
evidence to get some tips. Specifically, they wanted to speak
(10:06):
to anyone in the area who wears size eleven or
twelve caterpillar workboots. The very next day, a phone call
came into the tip line. The caller stated that he heard
a very unusual conversation while sitting in the waiting room
at a local tire shop called the Tire Factory. He
(10:27):
heard one worker telling another worker that a third co
worker wore that type of workboot and had not been
showing up to work recently. It turns out that said
worker was twenty five year old Kevin Holtzer, who not
only worked at the tire shop, but was the son
of the shop's owner. All of a sudden, that tire
(10:51):
valves STEMB found that the crime scene was very important.
On top of that, it turns out that Kevin Holtzer
was actually a tenant living in one of the condominiums
at the complex. He had been interviewed the morning that
Kaylee's body was found. Police didn't observe him behaving in
a suspicious manner, although in retrospect they noted that he
(11:14):
was the only one of the residents interviewed that didn't
ask what happened. In later discussions, Kaylee's friend Kim recalled
Kaylee saying that Holtzer would come into the office from
time to time and kind of linger he was a
bit of a creeper, but Kaylee wasn't overly concerned about him.
(11:35):
But now, of course police wanted to talk to him.
The only problem was they couldn't find him, So a
warrants was issued for the arrest of Kevin Holtzer and
a search warrant was issued for his residence. Investigators searched
the condominium unit that Holtzer had been renting, but it
(11:56):
was empty, like super empty. No boots, no receipts or
credit card records, no blood, and notably no caterpillar work boots.
They could not find any evidence connecting him to Kayley's murder.
Police did collect some items anyway, including a pair of
case with tennis shoes, but still there was no Kevin
(12:17):
Holtzer to be found. He was on the run, but
eventually authorities caught up with him. Not in Michigan, though,
Holtzer was arrested on a commuter train in Chicago, Illinois.
He had been traveling under a false identity, but after
being taken into custody, Holtzer lawyered up and wouldn't say anything,
(12:39):
and since there was very little physical evidence connecting him
to the murder, they had to release him. Just after
Holtzer was released, a pertinent development came to light. It
seems that three weeks prior to Kaylee's murder, another young
woman was attacked and severely beaten in nearby Traverse City.
(13:01):
It was a gruesome attack and the woman only survived
because she pretended to be dead. Not much physical evidence
was collected from that crime, scene other than a large
footprint in the snow. When the footprint was entered into
a database that identified footwear brands, it was determined to
be from a case Swiss tennis shoe, the same type
(13:23):
of shoe that was taken as evidence from Holtzer's condominium.
So that case Swiss shoe, which seemed to have no
relevance to the case involving Kayley, was sent to a
lab to be tested for blood. The results came back
to show that the shoe did have blood on it,
(13:44):
and the blood was from the woman in the Traverse
City attack. Finally, there was enough evidence to put Holtzer
in jail and keep him there for a while. Back
to that tire valve stem that was found at the
crime scene, you'll recall that there was a hair found
stuck in it, and that hair was sent for testing
(14:04):
under a relatively new investigative technique. At the time, it
was known as mitochondrial DNA m DNA for short. This
type of analysis allows investigators to look for DNA matches
when there is only a very small amount of DNA
evidence available, or if the evidence is severely degraded. It
(14:25):
was not used in the prosecution of criminal cases until
nineteen ninety six, or about two years before Kaylee's murder.
In any case, it was determined that the hair strand
found in that tire valve did indeed belong to Kevin
Holtzer was eventually put on trial for the murder of
Kaylee Bruce in December nineteen ninety nine. In the trial,
(14:49):
the defense attorneys attempted to have the m DNA evidence
thrown out, saying that it was too new of a
technology to be relied on. After hearing from several experts, however,
the trial judge decided to admit the evidence, and Kevin
Holtzer was ultimately convicted for the murder of Kaylee. Holtzer
(15:11):
appealed the conviction, and in his two thousand and three
appeals court trial, he again claimed that the m DNA
evidence should not have been admitted, and also that he
was denied the right to a speedy trial, But the
trial court relied heavily on experts to conclude that m
DNA testing was by this time generally accepted by scientists
(15:35):
as a valid investigative technique, so the appeals court found
no error with the use of m DNA evidence. Holtzer's
conviction of first degree murder was upheld, as was his
sentence of life in prison with no possibility of perol.
According to the latest records, Kevin Carter Holtzer is fifty
(15:59):
ti two years old and is being held at Lakeland
Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. He's being held for life
with no possibility of parole. Kaylee Joy Bruce is buried
at Blaine Township Cemetery in Blaine Township, Michigan. Of the
(16:21):
many ways she has remembered is through the Kaylee Bruce
Memorial Scholarship offered by a foundation in the area where
she lived. And that's all for this episode of Great
Lakes True Crime. This has been Steve, your host and producer.
As always, thanks for listening. Guys. Dept. Putt probat contempt
(17:13):
at Conte
On the evening of February sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight, eighteen
year old Kaylee Joy Bruce reported to her job at
the front desk of a condominium complex called The Beach
Condominiums in Traverse City, Michigan. Not long after beginning her shift,
Kaylee would be murdered, the victim of a brutal and
(00:22):
senseless attack from the south shore of Lake Erie. This
is Great Lakes True Crime, and before we continue, remember
(02:47):
that you can say hi to us on Facebook and
x just search for a Great Leaks True Crime. You
can also check the show notes for sources and more
information about this episode. Also, please please send any thoughts
or case suggestions to Great Lakes True Crime at gmail
dot com. And if you like the show, we would
(03:07):
love it if you'd give us a positive review and
encourage your friends as a subscribe. We always need new
subscribers and reviews to stay visible among the many corporate
podcasts out there. Now, let's get back to this episode.
Traverse City is located in the northern part of the
US state of Michigan along Grand Traverse Bay, which is
(03:31):
a bay on Lake Michigan about four miles from the
center of Traverse City are the Beach Condominiums, which is
a complex of thirty privately owned residential units. The condominiums
are primarily used as vacation homes. Kayleie Bruce had taken
a job at the complex's rental office to make some
(03:51):
extra money for college. It was a fun job where
she got to work with her good friend Kim. As
we said, this was February nineteen ninety eight, and if
you've ever been to northern Michigan in February, you would
know that it is cold, very cold. It's very likely
that the people who were renting condominiums at that time
(04:13):
of year were longer term residents that worked in the
area rather than vacationers. February sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight, was
actually relatively warm for that time of year in Traverse City.
The high temperature was forty eight degrees fahrenheit. Kaylee clocked
into her job at eight pm, and police would later
(04:34):
determine that not long after she began her shift, Kaylee
was viciously attacked in the utility room at the condominium complex.
The attack was particularly brutal. In fact, first responders could
not believe how vicious the attack was without going into
too much detail. Kaylee had suffered many lacerations and blunt
(04:57):
force trauma to her body. Was also sexually violated in
an extreme way. She had a large amount of blood
on her some of which appeared to have been smeared intentionally.
On top of all this, there was money missing from
the condominium office. Whoever committed these horrendous crimes must have
(05:19):
been severely deranged, and it's likely that the killer knew
Kaylee based on the vicious personal nature of the murder.
The person likely knew that she would be alone at
the office, and there were no security cameras in the area,
so the killer knew that Kaylee would be particularly vulnerable.
(05:41):
Her lifeless body was found by a maintenance supervisor on
the morning of February seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight. Detectives were
able to piece together a rough timeline of Kaylee's final hours.
As we said, she clocked into work at eight pm.
(06:02):
The body temperature at the time she was found indicated
that she was likely murdered only a short time after
she began work. In looking at the blood found at
the scene, it seemed that it was all Kaylee's. There
were not many residents renting condominiums this time of year.
Those who were there, however, were all questioned by police,
(06:25):
although not much information was generated from those interviews. The
crime scene, of course, was intensively searched by police. They
collected one hundred and seventy eight pieces of evidence. Yet
with all that searching, there were no fingerprints found other
than those belonging to Kaylee and other office workers. It
(06:49):
was suspected that the killer must have worn gloves, and
while no fingerprints were found, there was a series of
bloody footprints found at the scene, and they were not
Kayley's footprints. They determined the size of the boots by
first treating the partial prints with a substance called Leuco
(07:09):
crystal violet or ELCV for short, which is a compound
that will turn purple when it comes into contact with blood.
LCV can enhance visible and invisible blood traces, fingerprints and footprints,
so this was used to help clarify the bloody footprints,
(07:31):
and then police photographers took high quality thirty five millimeters photographs.
It was concluded that the killer's footprints were a size
men's twelve or twelve and a half. Police then took
the photos to local shoe stores and discovered that the
prints were most likely from a Caterpillar brand work boot.
(07:55):
At this point they had identified the killer's footwear. Because
of the time and nature of the murder, it seemed
likely that the killer was someone who was familiar with
Kaylee and her routine rather than some random stranger, and
the fact that he wore work boots led police to
(08:16):
think the killer was perhaps a repairman or other worker
that spent time at the complex. Suspicion quickly turned to
the elevator repairman, who was described by some other workers
in the area as quote creepy. He was questioned by
police but had a solid alibi for the night of
(08:38):
the murder. It was also noted that while he wore
work boots, they were not the Caterpillar brand. Not surprisingly,
Kaylee's boyfriend was also looked at early on in the investigation.
The relationship was described as being on again, off again,
particularly after Kaylee went away to college. So police questioned
(09:02):
the boyfriend at his workplace and lo and behold, he
was wearing Caterpillar work boots. What's more, they appeared to
be about a size twelve, but there turned out to
be no evidence. Potentially connecting the boyfriend to the murder,
police concluded that he had nothing to do with it.
(09:24):
Investigators started to wonder whether the killer may have in
fact been orandom stranger. One other intriguing piece of evidence
found that the crime scene was a tire valve stem,
the little black part where you put the air in
a tire. There was actually a hair stuck to the stem. Unfortunately,
the route was not attached to the hair, so there
(09:46):
was no way to extract any DNA evidence from it.
So this piece of evidence was set aside temporarily. As
the investigation looked like it might slow to a crawl,
the last decided to go public with some of the
evidence to get some tips. Specifically, they wanted to speak
(10:06):
to anyone in the area who wears size eleven or
twelve caterpillar workboots. The very next day, a phone call
came into the tip line. The caller stated that he heard
a very unusual conversation while sitting in the waiting room
at a local tire shop called the Tire Factory. He
(10:27):
heard one worker telling another worker that a third co
worker wore that type of workboot and had not been
showing up to work recently. It turns out that said
worker was twenty five year old Kevin Holtzer, who not
only worked at the tire shop, but was the son
of the shop's owner. All of a sudden, that tire
(10:51):
valves STEMB found that the crime scene was very important.
On top of that, it turns out that Kevin Holtzer
was actually a tenant living in one of the condominiums
at the complex. He had been interviewed the morning that
Kaylee's body was found. Police didn't observe him behaving in
a suspicious manner, although in retrospect they noted that he
(11:14):
was the only one of the residents interviewed that didn't
ask what happened. In later discussions, Kaylee's friend Kim recalled
Kaylee saying that Holtzer would come into the office from
time to time and kind of linger he was a
bit of a creeper, but Kaylee wasn't overly concerned about him.
(11:35):
But now, of course police wanted to talk to him.
The only problem was they couldn't find him, So a
warrants was issued for the arrest of Kevin Holtzer and
a search warrant was issued for his residence. Investigators searched
the condominium unit that Holtzer had been renting, but it
(11:56):
was empty, like super empty. No boots, no receipts or
credit card records, no blood, and notably no caterpillar work boots.
They could not find any evidence connecting him to Kayley's murder.
Police did collect some items anyway, including a pair of
case with tennis shoes, but still there was no Kevin
(12:17):
Holtzer to be found. He was on the run, but
eventually authorities caught up with him. Not in Michigan, though,
Holtzer was arrested on a commuter train in Chicago, Illinois.
He had been traveling under a false identity, but after
being taken into custody, Holtzer lawyered up and wouldn't say anything,
(12:39):
and since there was very little physical evidence connecting him
to the murder, they had to release him. Just after
Holtzer was released, a pertinent development came to light. It
seems that three weeks prior to Kaylee's murder, another young
woman was attacked and severely beaten in nearby Traverse City.
(13:01):
It was a gruesome attack and the woman only survived
because she pretended to be dead. Not much physical evidence
was collected from that crime, scene other than a large
footprint in the snow. When the footprint was entered into
a database that identified footwear brands, it was determined to
be from a case Swiss tennis shoe, the same type
(13:23):
of shoe that was taken as evidence from Holtzer's condominium.
So that case Swiss shoe, which seemed to have no
relevance to the case involving Kayley, was sent to a
lab to be tested for blood. The results came back
to show that the shoe did have blood on it,
(13:44):
and the blood was from the woman in the Traverse
City attack. Finally, there was enough evidence to put Holtzer
in jail and keep him there for a while. Back
to that tire valve stem that was found at the
crime scene, you'll recall that there was a hair found
stuck in it, and that hair was sent for testing
(14:04):
under a relatively new investigative technique. At the time, it
was known as mitochondrial DNA m DNA for short. This
type of analysis allows investigators to look for DNA matches
when there is only a very small amount of DNA
evidence available, or if the evidence is severely degraded. It
(14:25):
was not used in the prosecution of criminal cases until
nineteen ninety six, or about two years before Kaylee's murder.
In any case, it was determined that the hair strand
found in that tire valve did indeed belong to Kevin
Holtzer was eventually put on trial for the murder of
Kaylee Bruce in December nineteen ninety nine. In the trial,
(14:49):
the defense attorneys attempted to have the m DNA evidence
thrown out, saying that it was too new of a
technology to be relied on. After hearing from several experts, however,
the trial judge decided to admit the evidence, and Kevin
Holtzer was ultimately convicted for the murder of Kaylee. Holtzer
(15:11):
appealed the conviction, and in his two thousand and three
appeals court trial, he again claimed that the m DNA
evidence should not have been admitted, and also that he
was denied the right to a speedy trial, But the
trial court relied heavily on experts to conclude that m
DNA testing was by this time generally accepted by scientists
(15:35):
as a valid investigative technique, so the appeals court found
no error with the use of m DNA evidence. Holtzer's
conviction of first degree murder was upheld, as was his
sentence of life in prison with no possibility of perol.
According to the latest records, Kevin Carter Holtzer is fifty
(15:59):
ti two years old and is being held at Lakeland
Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. He's being held for life
with no possibility of parole. Kaylee Joy Bruce is buried
at Blaine Township Cemetery in Blaine Township, Michigan. Of the
(16:21):
many ways she has remembered is through the Kaylee Bruce
Memorial Scholarship offered by a foundation in the area where
she lived. And that's all for this episode of Great
Lakes True Crime. This has been Steve, your host and producer.
As always, thanks for listening. Guys. Dept. Putt probat contempt
(17:13):
at Conte
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