Two teenagers are under arrest and charged with murder in Conroe, and now Montgomery County Sheriff’s investigators are trying to determine if revenge was the motive.
Firefighters responding to a house fire near Lake Conroe Monday morning found the body of Michael Fred Gloede, 55, inside the smoldering wreckage of his trailer home on West Creed Drive. An autopsy determined he did not die in the fire. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reported Friday that Gloede died of gunshot wounds to the head.
The cause of death report came the same day investigators announced the arrest of Keith Ryan Randall, 18, and a 15-year-old girl. Both have been charged with murder.
"This was my worst fear,” Ashley Gloede-Jones told 11 News as she stood next to her father’s trailer. “My dad was my whole world.”
Her fears date back to 2006.
Michael Fred Gloede and his son Brandon Gloede, 30, were charged in the death of Lori Ann Randall, 32, the younger Gloede’s girlfriend. She died from a head injury on May 4, 2006 that investigators later determined was suspicious. An autopsy listed her cause of death as blunt-force trauma. Both men were charged two years later in 2008.
Brandon Gloede was convicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter last year and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors confirmed that the elder Gloede’s trial was still pending at the time of his death.
Keith Ryan Randall, the suspect in the murder and subsequent fire at the Gloede trailer home, is the son of Lori Ann Randall: the woman both Brandon Gloede and his father were charged with killing.
“The motive for the killing this week is still under investigation,” said Lt. Dan Norris of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. “I don’t think the sheriff’s office is prepared to say that the reason that this murder occurred was the result of the murder in 2006. The investigators are, of course, taking that into consideration and will review those facts in total before the case is complete.”
But the Gloede family says the death and fire were clearly acts of revenge.
"He said everything was going to be OK. That nobody was going hurt him,” Gloede-Jones said about the response her father gave when asked about numerous reported death threats.
"Life's too short and they've got it wrong,” she said. “And I understand everybody wants somebody to blame, but you never go this far. This is sick. This is beyond sick."
Michael Gloede’s stepson Jason Bridges agreed with her.
"I just wish they would have thought about it before they followed through with what they were going to do,” he added. “Because now it affects them and a lot of other people."
The Gloede and Randall families live just down the street from each other. 11 News reached the Randall family at their home, but they declined comment on the tragic family feud.
“You have one family where the father is now dead and the son is going to prison,” said Norris. “And you have an 18-year-old whose mother was killed and now it has all the appearances that he may be going to prison too.”
