Keiter Jr. indicted in father’s severed legs case, but no homicide-related charge

A Dayton man indicted Friday is facing formal charges after severed legs and other body parts determined to belong to his 75-year-old father were found in Trotwood.

Edgar Stephen Keiter Jr., 52, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court after a grand jury indicted him for gross abuse of a corpse, three counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of theft, all felony charges, in connection with the death Edgar S. Keiter Sr. of Kettering.

Keiter Jr. is held on $1 million bail in the Montgomery County Jail.

Edgar Keiter Jr.

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

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Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Kettering Police Chief Chip Protsman said earlier this week investigators believe the elder Keiter was killed in his Croftshire Drive home in Kettering, where Trotwood and Kettering police responded April 26.

Keiter Sr. died April 22, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office. While the coroner has not ruled on a cause of death, Protsman said he believes it was a homicide.

Protsman would not specify who may face homicide-related charges.

An investigation into body parts found in Trotwood led police to a Kettering apartment on Croftshire Drive Friday, April 26, 2024. MARSHALL GORBY / STAFF

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The case 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, Protsman said.

The chief asked anyone with information to call detective Amy Pedro at 937-296-2460.

Keiter Sr. was identified by Trotwood police using a serial number from a knee replacement surgery from one of the legs found April 22, Protsman said.

The rest of the body was found in a storage unit in the 1700 block of Guenther Road in Trotwood near the Dayton border, about four miles from where the legs were found.

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 Keiter Jr., Protsman said. They have not been charged and their identities have not been released.

Keiter Jr. was arrested May 1 at his Dayton residence for felony theft charges related to appliances and items stolen from his father’s apartment, he said.

Keiter Jr. was arraigned in Kettering Municipal Court Monday in a video appearance on the four charges. He did not enter a plea or speak during court.

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 investigated, as well as an extensive criminal history.”

Keiter Jr. has multiple aggravated drug possession convictions in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. He also was 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 younger than 13 in 2010. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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