The model and the millionaire

Andy Slater: We needed to do a bond hearing to keep him in custody.

Most bond hearings are routine affairs, but this one would be a shocker. The prosecution called to the stand Brian Bohlander, a son of Keller’s first wife whom Keller had adopted during the marriage.  He’d tell the court how far Fred Keller would go to have his way when the legal system didn't work for him.

Andy Slater: His wife filed for and received the divorce from him and it was the early 1960s at this point. The wife got custody of the children. And apparently Mr. Keller didn't like that very much. Mr. Keller had arranged for visitation with the wife and the children in a park in upstate New York.

What happened next would change Brian Bohlander's life forever.

Brian Bohlander: He told us boys to get in the car, I want to talk to your mother alone.  We got in the car, he did a 50-yard dash, jumped in the car and that's the last I saw of my mother.

Keller, still known as Fred Bohlander, drove the three young boys to Canada, then boarded a plane with them to Germany where they set off traveling throughout Europe for almost a year. along the way, Fred Bohlander changed his name to Fred Keller. And how did he explain to the children their mother's absence?

Andy Slater: All of this time, the young sons were asking of their father, " Where's Mom?" and Fred Keller told his sons "Your Mom is dead. She died in a automobile accident."

Ultimately, Keller brought the boys back to Virginia, where an observant social worker happened to hear young Brian’s story.  She did a little research, uncovering the twisted truth and after nearly a decade the boys were reunited with their mother. While two of the sons maintained a relationship with Keller, Brian Bohlander never saw him again.

Doug Duncan: I think it's important that he was never prosecuted for any kidnapping or any child abuse charges.

Keller had never answered for the incident, but now the judge viewed Keller as a definite flight risk and denied bail.

Rose’s family, the Keils, would wait two years for the second trial. Her sister Angie was raising the boy, Fredchen. If Fred Keller was found not guilty in the makeover trial, they were certain he'd want to get his son back under his roof.

Angie Bovi: He certainly would have had enough money to fight everybody to get him back.  And that was just unthinkable.

In January of 2007, Fred Keller once again stood trial for his ex-wife's murder.  Prosecutors felt they'd learned something by talking to the previous jury after it had deadlocked.

Dennis Murphy: What was the wobbly part of the case for that foreperson in trial one?

Andy Slater: They were having some trouble understanding some of the aspects of the physical evidence and so whereas we relied upon diagram in the first trial, we had a scale model of the office, of the scene actually built.

Dennis Murphy: Now a new set of jurors heard accounts of that horrible morning.

Wolfgang’s story:

Wolfgang Keil: I was thinking I'm going to die. I'm dying today. I can't believe its happening.

The prosecutor's: 

Andy Slater: A person who's afraid does not do what defendant Fred Keller did on the morning of Nov. 10, 2003.  They do everything but.

The defense:

Doug Duncan: Fred Keller would not and did not as the evidence shows shoot Rose Keller leaving his son without a mother.

And so a second jury retired to deliberate.  Rose’s family didn't know what to expect.

Angie Bovi: It could be another mistrial. It could be a not guilty verdict. I mean it could be anything. And it's really scary.

After a scant five hours, the jury was coming back with a verdict.

Foreperson: "As to count one we find the defendant, yes, guilty of 1st degree murder."

Dennis Murphy: The jury hadn't believed Keller’s account of self-defense.

Wolfgang Keil: I'm so relieved that finally we got some justice. I'm sure Rose is watching from heaven.  She's happy.

Keller sat stoically through both trials, but at his sentencing the cork came out of his bottle.

Larry Keller: He proceeded to just light into Rose's family. He called them greedy opportunists.  He looked right at Wolfgang and said "You're responsible for your sister's death and  you've been lying about it. It was quite amazing.

Keller was sentenced to life in prison and most expected a control freak like Keller to have trouble doing time. But…

John Herring: My understanding was he pretty much controlled the prison. People were saying "Sir" to him.

Dennis Murphy: In those audio tapes, made from behind bars, Keller put an oddly positive spin on his incarceration.

Fred Keller: It has not been completely negative here. I have a lot of respect here.  I'm the only person here that they call "Mr Keller" and that includes the deputies.

Once upon a time in Germany, a pretty young girl answered a lonelyhearts ad -- and now the unhappy little fairy tale was over, promise turned to ruin.

Fred Keller said all along that Rose would never get a dime of his money and ultimately she didn't.

Dennis Murphy: Did he win in the end?

John Herring: In his mind, he did. In his mind this is the way it's going to be.

Fred Keller succumbed to leukemia and died in prison in August of 2007, leaving his son Fredchen, both a very rich young boy, and an orphan.

Angie Bovi: I try to tell him as much as I can that his Mom loved him more than anything in the world.

Rose Kiel and Fred Keller were hardly a blip on the Palm Beach radar, but the tiny island meant a great deal to both of them, each hungry for something they felt they'd found in this place.

Laurence Leamer: Illusion is fantasy on this island, but you peel it away and you find greed and money.

In the end, though, it would turn out nothing was found: Only a great deal lost.

While Fred Keller left his multi-million-dollar estate to his son with Rose, the legacy remains clouded by a swarm of lawsuits -- many of them begun by Keller himself in the years before he died.

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