Teen killed 'trying to help abused friend'
A 13-year-old girl found shot dead in her bedroom in Ohio died because she told authorities her best friend was being molested, family members say.
Katelind Caudill was killed early Monday, and authorities were searching for the friend’s stepfather, Melvin Keeling, 43. He also is a suspect in the fatal shooting of two convenience store clerks in Indiana about four hours after Katelind’s body was found.
Warren County sheriff’s officials said that Katelind became “involved” in a sex abuse investigation of Keeling less than two days before she was killed. They declined to give details except to say she was not the victim in the case and was a friend of Keeling’s oldest stepdaughter.
Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said arresting Keeling earlier would have been premature.
“You cannot go arrest someone until you’ve investigated the case,” Hutzel said. “At the same time, could the investigator on the case, 32 hours into it, have predicted this, given this guy’s history? I don’t think so.”
After the killings, sheriff’s detectives filed two counts of rape and 24 counts of gross sexual imposition against Keeling.
Federal authorities joined in the search for Keeling, and Indiana state police said Keeling’s van was found abandoned in Gary, Indiana, about 60 miles north of Remington, where the convenience store clerks were killed.
