Prosecutors said Michael R. Kegg Jr. shot his ex-wife and adult son, then set their Francisco home on fire after a divorce hearing.
PRINCETON, Ind. — An Indiana man was sentenced to 126 years in prison after a judge found he killed his ex-wife and adult son with a shotgun at their home in Francisco on Dec. 31, 2024, and then set the house on fire in an attempt to hide the shootings.
Gibson County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey F. Meade imposed the maximum sentence on Michael R. Kegg Jr., 53, after a jury convicted him of two counts of murder in January 2026. Prosecutors said the killings came about two weeks after Kegg and his ex-wife, Malisa Kegg, appeared in court for a divorce hearing. The case drew sharp attention in southwestern Indiana because investigators said the fire was not the cause of death, but part of a plan to conceal it. Kegg’s then-wife, Amanda Kegg, also faces two murder counts and two conspiracy counts in a separate case tied to the same killings.
Firefighters and deputies were sent to a home in the 7000 block of East State Road 64 in Francisco after a 911 report of a structure fire late on Dec. 31, 2024, and into the first hours of Jan. 1, 2025. After the fire was brought under control, crews found two bodies inside the house. One body, later identified as 34-year-old Michael Kegg III, was in the kitchen near a container of accelerant, according to court records cited by investigators. The second body, identified as 51-year-old Malisa Kegg, was found in the living room. Both victims had been burned, but autopsies later showed each had suffered gunshot wounds to the chest before the fire began. Prosecutors told jurors that fact changed the case from a fatal fire investigation into a double homicide. They argued the blaze was set afterward to destroy evidence and delay the discovery of how the two died.
Investigators said they recovered two spent .410-gauge shotgun shells near Malisa Kegg’s body and another shell near Michael Kegg III. A shotgun with an unfired shell was also found inside the home, according to the probable cause affidavit described in court coverage. The son also suffered multiple lacerations to his scalp, a detail that prosecutors used to argue there had been a violent struggle inside the house before the shooting ended. Kegg denied killing either victim and told investigators he had gone to the house to work on a vehicle. He said his ex-wife and son told him to leave, and he claimed he walked away through a field and saw emergency lights heading toward Francisco while both victims were still alive. Prosecutors rejected that account and said the physical evidence inside the home showed the victims were shot before the fire and left where they fell.
The state also built its case around events before the killings. At the divorce hearing about two weeks earlier, a judge reportedly ordered Michael Kegg to complete several tasks within a short time as the separation case moved forward. Prosecutors argued that tension from the pending divorce helped explain the timing of the attack. They also pointed to an incident the day before the killings in which Kegg went to Francisco Town Hall and asked for water service to Malisa Kegg’s home to be shut off because he no longer wanted to pay the utility bills. That request did not amount to a crime, but prosecutors treated it as evidence of escalating conflict and control in the final days before the shooting. They also told jurors that the victims were attacked in the place where they lived, adding to the brutality of the case and limiting any argument that the killings happened during a chance confrontation somewhere else.
Amanda Kegg’s statements became another major part of the prosecution’s timeline. Investigators said she first told detectives that she argued with Michael Kegg on the night of Dec. 30, 2024, and did not see him at all on Dec. 31. Later, according to the affidavit, she gave a different account and said Michael Kegg told her in the early morning hours to leave her phone at home and drive him to Francisco because he needed to “take care of something.” She said he also left his own phone behind. Amanda Kegg told investigators she dropped him off at a park and waited in the car for about two hours before driving away. Authorities later said bank records showed she went to Michael Kegg’s bank and withdrew $800, which they described as the daily maximum from the ATM. Prosecutors said those details supported their claim that the pair planned the trip, tried to avoid phone tracking and prepared a way to get cash after the killings. Amanda Kegg has pleaded not guilty in her own case, and the charges against her remain pending.
The trial against Michael Kegg focused on whether jurors believed the state’s account of planning, execution and arson, or the defense version that he left the home before anyone was killed. Jurors returned guilty verdicts on two murder counts after a short period of deliberation in January 2026. At sentencing on Feb. 13, 2026, Meade ordered consecutive prison terms of 64 years for the killing of Michael Kegg III and 62 years for the killing of Malisa Kegg, for a total of 126 years. Consecutive terms meant the punishment would be served one after the other rather than at the same time. In practical terms, the sentence means Kegg is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. The ruling closed the criminal case against him, but not the broader legal fallout, because prosecutors still must try the case against Amanda Kegg and present to a second jury how much help, if any, they believe she gave before and after the shootings.
The deaths left a deep mark on the small Gibson County community. Obituaries for Malisa Kegg and Michael Kegg III described a mother and son killed on the same day, and family accounts portrayed Michael Kegg III as someone who had remained close to Malisa Kegg and was living with her in Francisco. Those records also underscored that the fire killed pets in the home, adding another layer of loss to the scene firefighters entered that night. In court, the case stood out not only for the family relationship between the defendant and the victims, but also for the effort authorities said was made to make the crime look like an accidental fire. The sheriff’s office and fire investigators had first responded to what appeared to be a standard emergency call, only to find evidence that pointed to shootings, accelerant and a staged cover-up. That sequence gave the case an especially grim quality and helped explain why prosecutors sought, and the judge imposed, the maximum punishment allowed.
The case now stands at two different stages. Michael Kegg has been convicted and sentenced, while Amanda Kegg still faces prosecution on two murder counts and two conspiracy to commit murder counts in Gibson County. Court coverage has said her trial is scheduled for November 2026. Until then, some questions remain unsettled in public court records, including exactly what prosecutors will say her role was at trial, what evidence they will use to prove an agreement to kill the victims, and whether any additional motions or plea discussions will alter that schedule. For now, the state’s theory has prevailed against Michael Kegg: prosecutors said he shot Malisa Kegg and Michael Kegg III inside the Francisco home, set the fire to cover up the killings and left first responders to discover what looked like a house fire but was, in fact, a double homicide. The next major milestone is the separate November proceeding in the case against Amanda Kegg.