SOUTHPORT — No one can ever know exactly what led Mack Kilpatrick to shoot his ex-wife and then himself, but records of an investigation into the March 4 murder-suicide provide a glimpse into a relationship that was troubled for years.
Deputies with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t speculate at the time whether Kilpatrick shot Kelley Dickson or she shot him, but the medical examiner’s autopsy report concluded she was shot first, before Kilpatrick turned the pink .380-caliber pistol on himself.
Chris Dickson, Kelley Dickson’s sister, said Kilpatrick had been dealing with a series of physical and emotional difficulties before he died. The couple divorced, and Kelley Dickson, who worked for a defense contractor, moved away for a time while Kilpatrick, who worked for a while as a martial arts instructor and private security guard, dealt with a painful nerve disorder.
A few months earlier, Kilpatrick told Chris Dickson he had attempted suicide. Dickson was helping out with some yard work when Kilpatrick described swallowing a bottle of pills, putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. The gun didn’t fire, and Kilpatrick threw up, Chris Dickson said.
“I’m not real sure how we got on to that conversation,” he said, “but it did come up.”
Kilpatrick loved Kelley Dickson enough to let her move back in with him about a year before they died, his family members told investigators, but he had come to believe she was cheating on him.
Chris Dickson said the couple’s relationship was not romantic after the divorce, but Kilpatrick felt like it was exclusive. He began to show up out of the blue at places Kelley Dickson went; it was never clear how he’d found her, Chris Dickson said.
“He always thought she had something to hide from him,” Chris Dickson said.
The couple had been fighting the day before their bodies were discovered in their home; by all accounts they fought frequently. Kelley Dickson’s daughter told investigators the pink pistol matched one that belonged to her mom. Kilpatrick’s sister told investigators he usually would give her some space when they fought and that he didn’t have guns.
On the other hand, Kilpatrick told her and at least one friend Kelley Dickson had pulled a gun on him not long before they divorced. Several people interviewed during the investigation said they were aware of threats of gun violence between them in the past.