Body found identified as man wanted in 3 shootings

GARY -- A man wanted in the shooting deaths of a suburban Cincinnati teenager and two convenience store employees in northwestern Indiana probably shot himself to death the day after the slayings, a coroner said Thursday.\nMelvin Keeling, 43, of Loveland Park, Ohio, used a .40-caliber Glock to shoot himself behind his right ear, Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick said. His death was ruled a suicide.\nPatrick's ruling came a day after teenagers found the body near train tracks a few hundred yards from where Keeling's van had been found Sept. 20, the morning after the three slayings. Pastrick said he believed Keeling probably committed suicide Sept. 20.\nKeeling probably killed himself in a hidden area, on a blanket, and wild animals probably later dragged the remains out to the open, Pastrick said.\nKeeling was wanted in the shooting of 13-year-old Katelind Caudill in her grandmother's Ohio home as the girl got ready for school Sept. 19.\nAbout four hours later, two convenience store employees, Lisa Kendall, 29, of Rensselaer, Ind., and Kendora Furr, 38, of Remington, Ind., were shot and killed at a Family Express store in Remington off Interstate 65.\nDennis Caudill, grandfather of Katelind Caudill, said he was notified of the identification by Gena Eaton, the girl's mother.\n"It was some kind of a closure, but it will never be a complete closure," Dennis Caudill said. "Knowing that he didn't get completely away with it is some kind of closure."\nThe body was decomposed but was identified through medical and dental records, Pastrick said.\nThe serial number on the gun matched one Keeling bought at a Cincinnati pawn shop two days before the shootings, said Mike Brooks, a spokesman for the FBI office in Cincinnati.\nAuthorities did not immediately know if the gun was used in the killings.\nJust days before the deaths, Katelind Caudill's best friend -- a daughter of Keeling's live-in girlfriend -- told Katelind that Keeling had been molesting her for three years. Katelind confronted him and called him a pedophile, according to a sheriff's department affidavit.\nKeeling's body and handgun were found about 100 yards from an area that had been searched several times, said Stanley Borgia, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cincinnati office.\nAfter he fled Ohio, Keeling was indicted by a Warren County, Ohio, grand jury on 33 felony counts of gross sexual imposition and two counts of rape.\nThe FBI had offered a $25,000 reward for help finding Keelig. The Family Express company put up $10,000.