Woman's body removed from Crystal home; police say death is suspicious

Authorities removed a woman's body from a house in Crystal in what police are calling a suspicious death.

Also, a man was brought out from the home late Tuesday in the 5600 block of Adair Avenue and taken to a hospital in an ambulance, but he was later released, said Police Chief Stephanie Revering.

A friend next door who would have become the woman's sister-in-law this summer identified the woman as 33-year-old Kellie Lillehei.

Revering said emergency personnel were dispatched to the home about 11:35 p.m. "on a report of an unconscious female."

Once at the scene, "We started life saving measures but were unsuccessful," said Revering, who declined to reveal more about the case.

Neighbor Hannah McGeehan, in an emotional interview on north suburban television station Channel 12, said, "I was just waiting for Kellie to come out of the house. And she didn't come out."

McGeehan told Channel 12 that she saw her brother brought out of the home, and "they took out another man on a stretcher, and there was no Kellie. And I kept asking, 'Where's Kellie?' "

At one point during the emergency call to the home, a responder on the scene was heard over 911 dispatch saying, "We need another ambulance. We've got a second party down inside the residence. ... Advise them of an OD."

McGeehan said Lillehei had battled addiction and wondered whether drug use played a role in her death.

"Kellie was just at an AA meeting before the incident," McGeehan said. "She was really proud of the life she made sober."

Lillehei was engaged to McGeehan's brother Shawn. An August wedding was planned.

"He's absolutely devastated," McGeehan said. "She wanted a family. She wanted to get married and have babies, and that's all she really wanted."