The whirlwind romance began 10 years ago with an advertisement in a German newspaper by a wealthy Palm Beach investor seeking an attractive female companion. Within months they were married, a son was born in 1995, but recent years were taken up by an acrimonious divorce with millions of dollars at stake in a punishing legal battle.

It all ended in a deadly shooting Monday morning, during a meeting to begin dividing the couple’s assets under a court order not yet two weeks old.

Sheriff’s investigators said the German woman, Rose Marie Keller, 34, was fatally shot inside her husband’s Riviera Beach business, Keller Trust Co. Her wealthy husband, Fred Keller, 69, and her brother, Wolfgang Keil, 31, were both wounded. Investigators said late Monday they were uncertain about other aspects of the shootings because the two men were giving conflicting accounts.

About 10 minutes after the 8:30 a.m. meeting began, Fred Keller’s personal assistant said he heard gunshots and ran out the back door.

“The first thing I thought was the bullets were going to be coming at me,” Roy Bourgault said. “I ran out of there.”

Bourgault, 50, said he began banging on nearby doors at the Fairfax Center plaza looking for help. Riviera Beach police got a 911 call at 8:40 that several people had been shot.

Fred Keller will be charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, said Diane Carhart, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He will be charged with an additional gun-related charge, she said.

Keller remains in St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

In court filings, Rose Marie Keller accused her husband of threatening to harm her and mistreating their 8-year-old son.

“The husband has threatened the life of the wife on more than one occasion,” her attorney, Martin L. Haines, wrote in an August 2000 divorce petition. “He is and has been a dangerous person who has no respect for the courts or its pronouncements.”

Haines said he was in agony Monday over news of Rose Marie Keller’s death.

“When I got done crying, I started getting angry,” he said. “This was an extremely nice human being. She had enough abuse at home, in her marriage. She finally had received a just decision and the case was finally over.”

Three years ago, Fred Keller put his net worth at $30 million in a financial statement. His wife’s attorneys, though, say the opulent lifestyle Fred Keller’s investment acumen afforded came out of a new life he created after disappearing with his children from a prior marriage 40 years ago.

Fred Keller, then known as Fred Bohlander, took his two sons and a stepson and left his then-wife’s life, according to court documents. He told his sons that their mother had died, but when she tracked them down after nine years he told his sons she had been a bad mother. He claimed to have been born in Germany, to being a sports star in college and receiving a Purple Heart in Korea. None of it true, according to court documents.

“[Fred Keller] has for years practiced elaborate ruses in order to evade his legal obligations, both personal and monetary, including tax obligations,” one of Rose Marie Keller’s attorneys wrote in a lawsuit against her husband. “These ruses include organizing corporations in different states with identical names so as to shift assets and liabilities around as if he were playing a shell game or Three Card Monte. They also included changing identities and kidnapping. They show the defendant will do whatever is necessary, either inside or outside the bounds of the law, to have his way.”

Fred Keller has leukemia and is expected to live 21/2 years, according to the 39-page final judgment in his divorce, issued Oct. 30 by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Kroll. The judge has presided over the divorce and a number of related legal battles between Fred Keller and his wife.

The complex divorce case alone takes up 29 volumes and was a bitter legal fight from the beginning. Rose Marie Keller won a 50 percent share of most of the assets — two dozen land trusts, an 11,600-square-foot Palm Beach mansion on the Intracoastal worth more than $6 million and a 950-acre Virginia horse farm that served as a summer home. Fred Keller was living in a $1.1 million condo on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, which he bought during the divorce proceedings.

Before the August 1992 marriage, the couple signed a prenuptial agreement. Last year, Judge Kroll upheld the deal, which provided Rose Marie Keller with no alimony. The order on that issue outlined some of the circumstances of their meeting and marriage.

In 1992, Fred Keller was approaching age 60 and had significant health problems. Rose Marie Brigitte Sabine Keil was in her early 20s, an aspiring model with limited financial means. It would be his fifth marriage, her first. They met for the first time when she flew to Miami in March 1992.

In the late 1990s, Rose Marie began harping on her husband about becoming a co-owner of all of his assets, the judge wrote. She was already a 10 percent owner of some of the land trusts.

“Rose’s demands continued as the years progressed but reached a crescendo in March 1999 while Fred was in the hospital after suffering a heart attack,” Kroll wrote. “Finally, Fred told Rose he would make financial changes.”

Fred Keller later tried to disavow the land trust changes, which granted his wife 50 percent ownership. Kroll ruled that the changes were valid.

Fred Keller’s attorney declined to comment Monday. Haines said he received a motion from Fred Keller’s attorney asking the judge to reconsider elements of the final divorce judgment.

Fred Keller has been buying and selling commercial properties in northern Palm Beach County for more than 20 years. He is known for making low offers and walking away if he thinks the price is too high.

“He’s an honest and straightforward and to-the-point businessman,” said Daniel P. Lewis, a commercial real estate broker in West Palm Beach who has helped buy and sell his properties since 1984. “He bought properties at the right price, the right time and the right locations.”

Michael Falk, a partner with McCraney Falk Commercial Realty Group in West Palm Beach, said Keller has been successful.

“He was an aggressive buyer who didn’t want to pay top-of-the market prices,” Falk said. “His timing was always good and he would be aggressive.”

When Bourgault, who doubles as Fred Keller’s chauffeur, arrived at his boss’ Palm Beach condominium Monday he thought it was going to be just another day at the office.

“He didn’t seem to be upset,” Bourgault said. “He told me to remind him to get a haircut when we left here.”

He described his employer as a dedicated father and a “shorts and T-shirt” kind of man who didn’t flaunt his wealth.

“When he went into public you wouldn’t have a clue,” he said.

Staff Writers Neil Santaniello and Prashant Gopal and Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

Peter Franceschina can be reached at or 561-832-2894.