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September 22, 2005
Girl Killed For Confronting Molester, Family Says
Suspect Also Wanted In Death Of Convenience Store Clerks
A 13-year-old Ohio girl found shot to death in her bedroom may have been killed for trying to help an abused friend.
Relatives say Katelind Caudill had alerted authorities that her friend was being molested.
Police are now looking for her friend's stepfather, Melvin Keeling. Officials say he's also a suspect in the fatal shootings of two Indiana convenience store clerks a few hours after the teen's body was found.
Katie Caudill's dad said Keeling had threatened her and that police should have protected the 13-year-old, who was helping them in a child rape investigation against the accused killer, Cincinatti television station WLWT reported.
"(Keeling said), 'You guys took my family, so I'm going to take yours,'" Charles Caudill told the station.
"I'm mad. Warren County did absolutely nothing about it," Katie's father said. "They had him and let him go. They should have held him knowing he had threatened my daughter and her sister. They should have had a cop or something patrolling there, but they didn't."
Katie's grandmother said Katie had confronted Keeling, her next-door neighbor, about allegedly molesting his stepdaughter, who was Katie's best friend.
"His stepdaughter had told Kaitlind and her grandma what her stepdad was doing, and when he came to her, Kaitlind told him, she said, 'I hate you,' and said, 'You will pay for what you've done,'" Revetta Caudill said.
Warren County investigators said they believe Keeling shot Katie Monday in retaliation. However, Sheriff Tom Ariss said they never had Keeling in custody over the weekend and didn't know about the threat her father described, WLWT reported.
Ariss said the investigation was still in its initial stages when they talked to Katie Saturday. Ariss said deputies were looking for Keeling over the weekend and probably would have arrested him if they had been able to find him.
Investigators said Katie's help was minimal, but that Keeling wouldn't have known that.
It wasn't until after Katie was killed that investigators filed two counts of child rape and 24 counts of gross sexual imposition against Keeling.
Keeling walked into Katie's house in Deerfield Township Monday morning and shot her in the head as she was getting ready for school, police said. She was a seventh-grader at Kings Junior High.
For three days, police have been on the lookout for Keeling from Cincinnati to Chicago. After Katie was killed, Keeling drove toward Chicago on Interstate 65 and shot two female store clerks to death in Remington, Ind., police said.
Police found Keeling's van in Gary, Ind., Tuesday afternoon, but he is still on the loose.
Katie's father said he wasn't surprised she would put her life on the line for a friend.
"She was nice and she would go out of her way to help anybody. She helped a friend out and ended up dead," he said.
"I've just got one thing to say: If anybody's out there who knows him, find him, turn him in," he said.
Posted by Nealus at September 22, 2005 06:50 PM
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