The Keeffes Murdered in Their Home (Pennsylvania)

[LurkerXIV]

To take two lives over an acre or two of ground. And a first cousin, yet!

Here are more details of the ongoing dispute, and the evidence reviewed by the Grand Jury:

http://www.wbng.com/news/local/More-...111596004.html

[Moab]

Thanks so much for the updates Lurker!!!

[Elle_1]

Originally Posted by Elle_1

What a sad state of affairs, Lurker. Oh my goodness, this is the second murder we have heard of being solved within a few days of each other Everything happens in threes, they say(?). Will we hear of a third one this week?

To take two lives over an acre or two of ground. And a first cousin, yet!

Here are more details of the ongoing dispute, and the evidence reviewed by the Grand Jury:

http://www.wbng.com/news/local/More-...111596004.html

This had to be a murder of family hatred, Lurker. Why would an old guy in his 70's carry out such a horrendous murder on his cousin and husband? Too many guns around!

[JC]

Originally Posted by LurkerXIV

A man from New York state has been charged with the deadly shooting of an attorney in Bradford County and his wife.

State police announced the arrest of John DeSisti, 73, of Waverly, New York. He is charged with killing David Keefe, 56, and his wife, Carol, 60. They were found shot to death in their home near Sayre in November, 2006.

Police said the Keefes were ambushed in their garage after returning home from an outing.

At the time of the killings, state police said they did not consider the murders a random act. "Most homicides are committed by people who know each other. There was some kind of interaction with those who did this and the victims. We have to determine that interaction," said Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Frank Hacken in November, 2006..

State police said Wednesday the Keefes and DeSisti were involved in a long-standing property dispute.

David Keefe had a law firm in Sayre, which offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Newswatch 16 has a crew working on this developing story and will have more information

That's some good news to read first thing this morning!

[JC]

Originally Posted by LurkerXIV

To take two lives over an acre or two of ground. And a first cousin, yet!

Here are more details of the ongoing dispute, and the evidence reviewed by the Grand Jury:

http://www.wbng.com/news/local/More-...111596004.html

The grand jury found that both victims were initially shot in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun blast in an ambush-style execution. After Carol Keeffe suffered the fatal shotgun wound, she was shot two more times, in the head, from close range, with a .22 caliber gun.

Her husband, David, was also shot in the head with a .22 caliber gun following the initial shotgun blast.


I don't recall reading about them being shot in the head with a .22 to boot. Talk about overkill.

[Elle_1]

Originally Posted by JC

The grand jury found that both victims were initially shot in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun blast in an ambush-style execution. After Carol Keeffe suffered the fatal shotgun wound, she was shot two more times, in the head, from close range, with a .22 caliber gun.

Her husband, David, was also shot in the head with a .22 caliber gun following the initial shotgun blast.


I don't recall reading about them being shot in the head with a .22 to boot. Talk about overkill.

Vendetta comes to mind JC!

[LurkerXIV]

Yes, indeed...vendetta and overkill. Carol's father did not have to give this punk ANYTHING! He was only a nephew. All these years, his rage over his first cousin's good fortune in inheriting 84 acres of prime hunting land simmered in his fevered mind until he decided to kill her and her husband.

The seven capital sins are what drive most murderers. This guy was consumed by envy and anger.

[koldkase]

Yes, thanks for the update, Lurker.

I read some of the articles and watched the news video report. Here's what I find odd: LE had the weapons used to murder the victims, plus the bullet casings, all found in the old man's possession; they had bloody boot prints and the boots which matched them found on the alleged killer DeSisti's property; they had the motive--the feud over the land. Why did it take them this long to arrest this old killer? He sounds mean enough to kill again, especially knowing he might go down for this double murder.

Okay, here's a great article which outlines much more about the land dispute--which was over land in New York where the alleged killer lived, not in Pennsylvania where the victims lived and were slain. And the father of victim Carol Keeffe was not even dead at the time she was murdered--am I reading that right? So the "gift" of land was while he was still alive?

This article is fantastic, laying out the land dispute in detail, the issues and character of the alleged killer, and the evidence. I have copied some here for discussion, but if you really want to know the whole story, read the article in full. There are some aerial photos of the house/crime scene, as well, here: http://thedailyreview.com/news/arres...effe-1.1074879

Also, some "comments" in the comment section imply that a judge might have been the "hold-up" on the charges. As in, sounds very Ramsey to me....

Arrest made in homicide case of David and Carol Keeffe

By C.J. Marshall (Staff Writer)Published: December 9, 2010

A major development was reported Wednesday in the criminal homicide case of David and Carol Keeffe with the arrest of John J. DeSisti of Waverly.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed with Magisterial District Justice Michael Shaw, DeSisti, 73, of 87 Shepard Road, has been charged by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office with two counts of murder and one count of burglary. DeSisti was arraigned Wednesday afternoon before Judge Shaw, who ordered the defendant incarcerated in the Bradford County Correctional Facility.

David and Carol Keeffe were found dead in their home on Moore Road on Sayre Hill in Sayre on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006.

[snip]

The reports indicated that Carol Keeffe had been involved in a dispute with DeSisti, her cousin, concerning adjoining properties they own in New York. The properties were initially 84 acres of land owned by Michael DeSisti, Carol Keeffe's father and uncle of John DeSisti. Michael DeSisti gave seven acres of the property to John DeSisti, the paper said, and the remaining 77 acres to Carol Keeffe, which surrounded those owned by John DeSisti. John DeSisti built a house as well as several other structures adjacent to his residence on the land in question.

After receiving the seven acres, the information continued, John DeSisti purchased additional land which adjoined Carol Keeffe's property, but was prevented from having continuous access to those lots from his residence because of the location of the acreage owned by Carol Keeffe.

"John J. DeSisti has long been an extremely avid and experienced trapper and hunter," the information in the affidavit said. "As part of his trapping activities, he routinely shot animals in the head with a .22 caliber weapon, in order to kill the animals after they were caught in traps. He also frequently hunted small game and water fowl using shotguns, including 12-gauge shotguns, and was very proficient at shooting such game and fowl with shotguns. As a frequent visitor to the home of Michael DeSisti, John DeSisti was very familiar with the above described hill-top property, which included the murder site, and even occasionally hunted on that property."

For a number of years, the report continued, Carol Keeffe was involved in a dispute with John DeSisti over the land in question, contending that some of the John DeSisti's buildings had been constructed on her property. DeSisti in turn insisted that he owned the property the buildings were on.

"The dispute crystallized and intensified, in the weeks leading up to the murders, due to Carol Keeffe's having the land logged and surveyed," the report said.

[snip]

On Dec. 11, 2006, the state police executed a search warrant at John DeSisti's residence. Among the items taken into custody included 12-gauge shotguns with ammunition, a .22 caliber revolver as well as ammunition, and two .22 caliber rifles, as well as several pairs of Cabela's Outfitters Series boots, size 10.5 EE.

[snip]

Another piece of evidence obtained by the state police at the homicide scene was a bloody boot print. A state police footwear impression expert eventually was able to determine that the print was consistent with those made by Cabela's Outfitters Series boots, and that the size of the print indicated it was made by a size 10.5 EE. The report said that a more positive identification - based on characteristics such as knicks, cuts, or other damage - was not possible because the blood obscured such information.

[snip]

The next phase of the case will be John DeSisti's preliminary hearing before Judge Shaw. However, the date of the hearing is unknown at this time.

[koldkase]

Googled up this update on the Keeffe murders. Looks like the crazy cousin is going to trial this summer:

http://74.95.82.237:591/rconline/FMP...2639576&-find=

Accused Slayer of Keeffes Faces Trial - by Wes Skillings - 2/17/2011

Special Prosecutor Patrick Blessington described it as a "compellingly circumstantial case" in his brief closing remarks Friday morning. Magisterial District Judge Tim Clark apparently agreed. After more than a full day and part of another morning of testimony, Clark ruled that there was sufficient evidence to bind John J. DeSisti, 72, over for trial for the murders of David and Carol Keeffe on Nov. 17, 2006, in the garage adjoining their remote Athens Township home.

The scheduled arraignment in the Bradford County Court of Common Pleas on first-degree murder charges filed against DeSisti, Carol Keeffe's first cousin, will be March 14 at 8:30 a.m. From there the case will move toward a trial date, with the option of a plea agreement in the interim. DeSisti's attorneys, Arthur Donato and Joshua Lock, indicated that they will take the case to trial, with Donato labeling crucial firearms and footwear evidence as "ambiguous."

"He's a hunter," said Blessington of DeSisti in his closing remarks. "This time he's hunting humans."

Particular attention was made in the case presented by the Commonwealth that DeSisti, an accomplished hunter, would allegedly "finish off" animals via shots to the head with a .22-caliber handgun or rifle after downing them with a shotgun or rifle as a hunter or as a trapper. This was exactly the way the Keeffes met their end, apparently minutes after pulling into their garage on that Friday in November—the day before they were to leave on a holiday excursion to Cape Cod. Their killer was waiting for them, with the sole intention of murder and no interest in any other crime on the premises.

According to Dr. Samuel Land, who performed the autopsy on Carol Keeffe in Allentown and who also testified on the autopsy results of David Keeffe, Carol Keeffe was struck with a shotgun blast to the top left of her head from a distance of a little more than four feet away. She was outside the vehicle she had just arrived in with her husband and in front of an interior door to the adjoining house.

It appears, according to Land's testimony, that Mrs. Keeffe dropped to the floor immediately from what was a fatal shot that Land described as "near total destruction of the major portions of the brain." However, the killer then used what appeared to be a .22-caliber handgun to fire two other shots to her head. There was a purse near her hand which contained about $1,200 in cash, apparently ruling out robbery as a motive. The murders have been described from the beginning as execution style.

Getting Out of Car

As for Mr. Keeffe, the autopsy indicated that he was still partially in the car, in the process of emerging with the door open, when a shotgun blast struck him in the left eye area of the head. That shot came from slightly above him. DeSisti was considerably shorter than Mr. Keeffe, and that may indicate Keeffe was not yet in a standing position outside the car when struck.

As was the case of his wife, the shotgun blast absorbed by Mr. Keeffe was fatal in itself, causing major destruction to the brain and skull. Dr. Land testified that he would have gone down immediately by the open door of the car. Then a .22-caliber handgun was literally put against the victim's temple and fired as he lay on the floor.

Much of the opening day's testimony Thursday brought out a feud over some land between the cousins, Carol Keeffe and John DeSisti, and that this was the apparent motive for DeSisti wanting her killed. The daughter, Melissa Keeffe, had testified that her mother was having the land surveyed and would be requiring DeSisti to remove buildings constructed on her land if warranted. DeSisti, testimony indicated, was well aware of the survey being conducted. Melissa Keeffe, an attorney in the law firm in which her father had been senior partner, said that her father had no involvement in the land disagreement.

There was a sand pit on the property belonging to Carol Keeffe that her father, Michael, had always said was very valuable and that its aggregates had been used in the construction of Route 17. It was John DeSisti allegedly changing the lock on that access that was the final straw that convinced Carol Keeffe to do the survey.

Logger Arlyn Stanton testified that he was with Michael DeSisti in the summer of 2006 when he realized his nephew, John, had changed the lock.

"They were both furious about it," said Stanton referring to both Carol and her father. He said that Carol also told him he should be careful in dealing with John because he was "big trouble."

Disagree on Survey

However, it appears Michael DeSisti did not agree with his daughter about having the land surveyed.

Housekeeper, Winifred Perry, who worked for Carol and David Keeffe, as well as for Michael and Ann DeSisti, was there when Carol had a conversation with her father on the phone not long before the murders. They were having a disagreement over the survey.

"She wanted it done and her father didn't want her to have it done," Perry testified. She said Carol started crying after talking to her father and stating she was moving ahead with the survey.

"He did not want her to have the land surveyed because he was afraid of what Johnny would do," Perry recalled, adding that Carol made a comment that “whatever Johnny gets he wants more.”

This was the day before she was killed.

Melissa Keeffe testified about the land dispute between the two cousins in which John DeSisti had apparently encroached on some of the 77 acres near his home on Shepard Hill Road in Waverly, NY, that was surrounding his property and owned by Carol Keeffe.

Surveyor Michael Joyce was hired by Carol Keeffe to resolve the boundary issue “so she could pass it on to her heirs." Joyce added that, "She had reason to believe there may be some encroachments by Mr. (John) DeSisti."

Boots and Prints

As far as tying John DeSisti to the murder scene, bloody footprints match a unique pattern on Cabela’s hunting boots he owned. In fact, he owned four or five pairs. Lt. Kevin Deskiewicz provided the expert testimony on footwear impressions and said that the buildup and viscosity of blood in the prints kept him from making a positive identification. However, he testified that John DeSisti’s boots came the closest of numerous other tread designs it was compared to.

“It’s the only boot that could have made that impression,” Deskiewicz said.

Lock aggressively attacked the state police evidentiary expert’s findings in his cross examination. He grilled Deskiewicz about whether he was certain the photos of the prints he examined were properly gathered at the evidence scene.

“You’re asking me about things that happened at the crime scene I wasn’t at,” a frustrated Deskiewicz finally blurted out. Judge Clark eventually asked Lock to move on to other areas with his questioning.

The defense team also attacked firearms testimony that concluded all the shots were fired from the same weapon and that shotguns owned by John DeSisti could have fired those shots. They also compared shotgun shells in DeSisti’s possession to the ones believed used in the murders, stating they were consistent. Unlike rifles and handguns, shotguns are almost impossible to positively link to a murder weapon via ballistics testing alone.

As it stands going into the trial that probably won’t take place until summer, the evidence is almost all circumstantial. The motive for murder, a land dispute, will also have to be sold to a jury.

In a statement to the press on Friday, Melissa Keeffe said that her father "believed deeply in the criminal justice system" and that she and other family members share that belief.

"We trust the criminal justice system and we must allow the process to take its course," she stated. "We should always remember all victims of violence and today, in particular, we remember my parents, David and Carol Keeffe.”

[LurkerXIV]

Lock and Donato can knock themselves out trying to defend the nut. They will not succeed. The evidence is airtight--PA State Police made sure they dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" before arresting the vicious old creep.

Hope they lock him up in a cell with Richard Illes.

[koldkase]

Originally Posted by LurkerXIV

Lock and Donato can knock themselves out trying to defend the nut. They will not succeed. The evidence is airtight--PA State Police made sure they dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" before arresting the vicious old creep.

Hope they lock him up in a cell with Richard Illes.

Well, that's good news. It was odd that they took so long to arrest him, since they had his shoes which matched prints at the crime scene, his guns that were the weapons used, etc. But as long as they got him.

This creep obviously is one of those really terrifying, violent, unreasonable, unlawful sociopaths it's so unfortunate to deal with in life. I've met people who lived through hell dealing with someone like this. I even remember reading about a town full of people who got tired of being bullied, beaten, robbed, and threatened by a man like this that the gov't. didn't seem to be able to stop, so they shot and killed him in town one afternoon as a group and that was that. NO witnesses and everyone had an alibi. I really couldn't blame them, because he'd almost killed an old man and his wife when robbing them in a hardware store they owned in town. Yet he kept getting let out of jail by judges and slick lawyers. But he won't be menacing or stealing from anyone anymore.

I hope they do nail this man. What a monster.