Murders of David and Carol Keeffe: Preliminary Investigation
No Comment
In February 2007, Crime Library contacted Chief Hurley and asked him for an update on the status of the investigation.
"There is nothing more since I talked to you last time," he said. "Nothing to release publicly. We are still waiting for lab tests."
The lead investigator with the state police department is Lt. Frank Hacken. After many failed attempts to reach Hacken, Crime Library was finally put in touch with Corporal Grimes, an investigator from the North Towanda barracks who is assisting in the investigation. According to Grimes, there was "no new information." When asked if the investigation was moving forward, he replied, "I have no comment."
Two months later Crime Library again contacted Chief Hurley. After several unreturned phone calls, David Lohr finally managed to get through to him. However, when Lohr identified himself and stated the reason he was calling, Hurley had this to say:
"Maybe you ought to talk to Lt. Hacken. I don't like to release anything without talking to him first because it is a co-investigation. We work well together, and I don't want to say anything without talking to him first."
After multiple failed attempts, Crime Library got in touch with Corporal Grimes again, but once again, he had "no comment."
Crime Library was finally put in touch with a Trooper Kelley from the PSP barracks in Wyoming County.
"As far as my knowledge, you would need to speak to Corporal Grimes, an investigator from the North Towanda barracks," Trooper Kelley said.
When informed that Grimes was unreceptive to the media, Trooper Kelley said he would personally call him for an update. True to his word, Trooper Kelly called back fifteen minutes later.
"I spoke to one of the investigators, and basically, what I got from him was that it is still progressing," Trooper Kelley said. "But the problem is that with him (David Keeffe) being a defense attorney, there is a lot of people who may have had ill feelings towards him. They're basically making their way down the proverbial list, if there was onepeople that he either represented or had encounters with or people who their investigation has led them towards...anyone who had a reason or motive."
When asked if they were focusing on a family member, Trooper Kelly's response suggested they had at one point and possibly still were.
"They did interview the family extensively. I know they were waiting for results to come back on some evidence that was collected. One of the family members was a trapper or something like that, and there were some tests conducted, animal blood versus human blood, but the guy was a trapper, and there was blood on everything he had, and so far, there is nothing concrete."
Trooper Kelley had little information about the murder weapon. When or if it had been recovered, he said he did not have any knowledge about it and had little else to share about the case.
"It's a high profile case, but as far as anything new, there is nothing groundbreaking."