GRUNDY CENTER --- Law enforcement's first question to Michelle Kehoe days after one of her sons was discovered dead and another injured was met with another question:

"How are my boys?"

The query came during an Oct. 28, 2008, interview with the Division of Criminal Investigation at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Kehoe, 36, of Coralville, was recovering from self-inflicted wounds to her neck and wasn't able to speak, so she wrote her answers.

Chris Callaway, a DCI special agent, testified Friday at Kehoe's first-degree murder trial, that he didn't answer her question.

"I really didn't know how to respond to that at that point," he said.

Kehoe eventually admitted to killing Seth, 2, and injuring Sean, 7, on Oct. 26 at the Hook-N-Liner pond near Littleton. She initially claimed an unknown man kidnapped the family. Police say she cut the boys' throats and her own with a camouflage hunting knife.

Seth died, but Sean survived his wounds. Kehoe also is charged with attempted murder and child endangerment resulting in serious injury.

The interview was presented in a PowerPoint presentation to jurors, with both Callaway's questions and Kehoe's answers.

Kehoe told Callaway she started planning the killings a few months prior to the Oct. 26 trip. She bought the Winchester folding knife from a local sporting goods store. She also purchased duct tape and began writing the first draft of a note explaining the incident.

"I can't explain it. I can't face anyone. I want to be killed or locked up forever," she said.

Story unfolds

Originally, Kehoe told Callaway that she and the boys were headed to Sumner to see her mother, who was in a nursing home there. They left Coralville around 11:15 a.m. She stopped in Jesup around 12:30 p.m., for snacks and to let the boys burn off some excess energy at the St. Athanasius School playground.

It was there, Kehoe said, the man likely climbed into the back of her van and hid. She said he was in his 50s, with a beard and long, graying hair under a stocking cap. He had two scars on his face and was wearing a trench coat. She didn't see him until his head popped up in the rearview mirror, she said.

Kehoe eventually ended up at the Hook-N-Liner pond, where she said she tried to fight the man using pepper spray. She hoped to escape, but the man kicked the canister away.

"I was trying, trying, trying to get away," she wrote. "He'll have nasty bruises on his shins."

The man banged her head against the van and knocked her out. When she came to, she was in the back of the vehicle. Her wrists and ankles were bound with duct tape.

She also found the boys injured. Sean was still bleeding. Kehoe tried to administer first aid. Seth's lips were already purple.

The man came back and assaulted her. He cut her throat and then she blacked out, she said. The next day, she managed to make it to Debra Hinde's house a quarter-mile up the road. Hinde called 911, and first responders discovered the van.

Kehoe appeared worried in the interview about what family members said during hospital visits.

"When Aunt Colleen was here yesterday, Sean said I was trying to hurt him," she said. "(I was) trying to stop the bleeding."

Story unravels

Callaway told jurors details of the story didn't match up with the evidence they already had, including a statement from Sean Kehoe that Michelle cut him.

"The mystery assailant, we didn't think was true," he said.

He confronted her in the same interview, and she confessed she hurt the boys. She couldn't say why.

"I want to die. I can't explain this to anyone. Just kill me," she wrote.

Kehoe said she intended to kill the boys and herself. She drove them out to the pond and told them she had to take care of something. She then bound Sean with tape and covered his eyes. She chose him first because he was older, she said. She killed Seth next, she wrote.

"I knew they would go up to heaven, and I would go to hell," she said.

She cut her throat about 5 minutes later. Michelle went to the road and curled up in a ball and "waited to finish dying." In the meantime, Sean had crawled into the van to hide, though Kehoe didn't see him.

Several family members had gathered at the hospital, though Kehoe declined the offer by Callaway to have them come into her room.

"I don't want to see anyone, I don't want to face anyone, once they know I'm not OK," she said.

During the testimony Friday, some family members of her husband, Gene Kehoe, cried. Michelle Kehoe held a tissue in her left hand.

Chain of evidence

Investigators also recounted how they tracked down the knife used by Kehoe.

Kehoe said she bought it from Paul's Discount Store in Iowa City. The knife was part of a special sale at the store, said Steve Dalton, the sporting goods buyer and manager.

Credit card records showed Kehoe made a purchase at the store on Sept. 14, 2008, but receipts or a cash register tape weren't detailed enough to show individual items, like the knife.

Scott Kinseth, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, said he helped recover the knife from the pond on Oct. 27. It was found about 10 feet from shore. The knife looked relatively clean, which led Kinseth to believe it had been there just a few days.

"Normally, the water will rust it or it will stain," he said.

Testimony in the trial will resume Tuesday morning. Prosecutors will call Dr. Dennis Klein, a state medical examiner, as their only witness. Defense attorneys will then begin presenting their evidence.

Judge Bruce Zager said the case could be handed to jurors for deliberation by Thursday afternoon.