Wife of Fallen Deputy: 'We Loved Each Other Fiercely'

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL — The wife of fallen McHenry County Deputy Jacob Keltner shared a heart-wrenching letter Monday as she recalled her husband fondly as not just "another statistic" but as a caring father, devoted cop and doting husband who surprised her with the "best gifts, nights out and heartfelt notes."

"We loved each other fiercely. He was a tough guy but a secret sweetheart," Becki Keltner, 33, of Crystal Lake, wrote in the letter published on the McHenry County Sheriff's Office Facebook page Monday. She also touched on the feelings of deep sadness she's faced since the death of Keltner, a deputy assigned to the U.S. Marshal's Office Task Force. He was shot Thursday while serving a warrant to a fugitive at a motel in Rockford last week.

"I was so lucky to have found a love so good and a man worth spending my life with," Becky Kentler wrote in her letter.

Keltner, 35, and his wife had two young sons, ages 4 and 6 years old.

"Telling my children he was taken from us was the worst moment of my life," she wrote in a letter published on the McHenry County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.

Becki and Jacob met at Western Illinois University and married in 2007. They had their first son, Caleb, in 2012, and their second son, Carson, in 2014.

"He was an amazing dad. He always found ways to have fun with the boys. The night before he died, he was teaching them how to catch and throw to get them ready for little league," she wrote. "He built forts and set up family movie nights and 'boy's nights' with the kids. We spent our summers relaxing and swimming in the pool."

Keltner's visitation will be Tuesday and his funeral and arrangements for a police procession are planned for Wednesday.