Edgar S. Keiter Jr. was arraigned in Kettering Municipal Court Monday morning in a video appearance on one count of gross abuse of a corpse and three counts of tampering with evidence. He did not enter a plea or speak during court.
Judge Frederick Dressel continued the $1 million bond placed on Keiter after he was charged last week following the discovery of body parts belonging to his father, 75-year-old Edgar S. Keiter Sr. of Croftshire Drive in Kettering.
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 additional charges to be filed against Keiter prior to the grand jury meeting Thursday.
The investigation is ongoing and police are still seeking others they think were involved in the case. Protsman declined to identify the others or say what role they’re believed to have in Keiter Sr.’s death and the disposal of his remains.
He asked anyone with any information to call Det. Amy Pedro at 937-296-2460.
Keiter Jr., a 52-year-old Dayton man, was charged days after Trotwood police were first called to a report of human legs found in a bag or tarp.
On April 22, Trotwood police responded 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.
An officer met with a resident and found a white tarp that “smelled to be a deceased human with flies around the bag” near a wooded area, according to a Trotwood police report.
The remains were identified as Edgar Keiter Sr. using a serial number from a knee replacement surgery, Protsman said.
Witnesses told investigators Keiter Jr. was at the Old Dayton Road address the night before the legs were found, according to Kettering Municipal Court records.
On April 26, Kettering police helped Trotwood officers search Keiter Sr.’s apartment in the 4500 block of Croftshire Drive. Carpet had been pulled up from the apartment and there was an area where it looked as though bleach had been poured, according to Kettering police records.
Investigators also reported recovering a tarp, rope, a saw and a saw blade as evidence.
Neighbors reportedly told police they saw Keiter Jr. clearing out the Croftshire Drive apartment during the previous week and driving Keiter Sr.’s vehicle.
A BOLO, or be on the lookout, was issued on April 30 for Keiter Jr.’s pickup truck. The next day the truck was found in Fairborn with two people inside, Protsman said. Neither were Keiter Jr.
He was arrested at his Dayton residence the same day for felony theft charges related to appliances and items stolen from his father’s apartment.
Investigators found more body parts and other items from the apartment while searching a storage unit in the 1700 block of Guenther Avenue on the Dayton-Trotwood border. The body parts were in bags that matched the bag the legs were found in, according to court records.
The person who rented the storage unit said Keiter Jr. asked them to reserve it in their name, according to an affidavit.
Blood-stained carpet from the apartment was also found in a garage behind Keiter Jr.’s Ernst Avenue house in Dayton. The garage didn’t belong to him, but he asked the owner if he could store items there, according to court documents.
During Keiter Jr.’s arraignment Monday morning, Dressel said he kept the $1 million bond “based upon the serious allegations in this case and some of the other issues that are still 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.
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.
If convicted, Keiter Jr. would face maximum sentences of up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine on the former charge, and up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each of the latter charges, the judge said.
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