Kettering Police Chief Chip Protsman said investigators believe the elder Keiter was killed in his home in the 4500 block of Croftshire Drive, just south of David Road, where Trotwood and Kettering police responded April 26.
“Right now, there’s evidence to indicate that that is where it occurred,” Protsman said this week.
Keiter Sr. had lived on Croftshire at least a few years, and the defendant “was seen there, very recently,” he added.
Keiter Sr. died April 22, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office. While the coroner has not ruled on any cause of death — including homicide — “I do believe that that will be the case, Protsman said.”
Protsman would not specify who would face that charge.
“There are people of interest that we’re looking for right now, as it relates to homicide (and) as it relates to this entire incident,” he said.
Protsman said the nature of the case is one in which “you don’t see this very often at all. A very heinous crime, obviously. So, it’s not something you experience a lot.”
‘Complicated’ case
Protsman called it a complicated case that has involved police in Fairborn, Kettering and Trotwood along with the south suburban Tactical Crime and Suppression Unit, and aided by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The investigation is ongoing, and police are still seeking others they think were involved in the case. Protsman asked anyone with any information to call Det. Amy Pedro at 937-296-2460.
Edgar Keiter Sr. was identified by Trotwood police using a medical device serial number from a knee replacement in one of the legs found April 22, he said.
The ID came after Trotwood police responded that day to the 7500 block of Old Dayton Road after a man texted Montgomery County Regional Dispatch that human legs had been found in trash bags at the end of his driveway.
Fairborn police stopped Keiter Jr.’s pickup truck on May 1 after an alert for it was issued the day before, Protsman said. Two people were inside, he said, but neither were Keiter Jr.
The pair were “associates, friends” of the defendant who have not been charged, and their identities have not been released, Protsman said.
Keiter Jr. was arrested at his Ernst Avenue home in north Dayton on May 1 for felony theft charges related to appliances and items stolen from his father’s apartment, Protsman said.
After the legs were identified, “our detective started investigating it (and) one address that they would go to would lead them right to another one,” Protsman said. “The truck that was stopped is what led us to the storage unit,” where the rest of the body was found.
That storage unit was on Guenther Road on the Trotwood-Dayton border, about four miles away from where the legs were found.
What’s next?
Keiter Jr. was arraigned in Kettering Municipal Court on Monday in a video appearance on the four charges. He did not enter a plea or speak during court.
Judge Frederick Dressel set a preliminary hearing date for Friday. But he said the Keiter case is expected to go directly to a Montgomery County grand jury.
Protsman said he doesn’t expect more charges to be filed against Keiter prior to the grand jury convening, which he expects will be Thursday.
Dressel said he kept the $1 million bond “based upon the seriousness of allegations in this case and some of the other issues that are still being investigated, as well as an extensive criminal history.”
Keiter Jr. has multiple aggravated drug possession convictions in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. He was also convicted of resisting arrest and obstructing official business in 2021 in Kettering Municipal Court.
Keiter Sr. also had a criminal history, having been convicted of rape and gross sexual imposition against a child under age 13 in 2010. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Dressel said a public defender would be appointed for Keiter Jr. The gross abuse of a corpse charge is a fifth-degree felony while the tampering counts are third-degree felonies, Dressel said.
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