Man indicted in father’s severed legs case, but no homicide-related charge
Edgar Stephen Keiter Jr. to be arraigned Tuesday.
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.
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.
The case has involved police in Fairborn, Kettering and Trotwood along with the south suburban Tactical Crime and Suppression Unit, and was 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 937-2962460.
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 on felony theft charges related to appliances and items stolen from his father’s apartment, he said.
Keiter Jr. was arraigned on the four charges in Kettering Municipal Court on Monday in a video appearance. 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 being 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.