Jessica Keen

A fifteen-year-old cheerleader is murdered in a desolate cemetery.

Jessica Keen

Her body was found in a cemetery

CASE DETAILS

On March 16, 1991, a Madison County, Ohio, teenager was abducted and raped.  Her clothes had been torn off.  But somehow she escaped into a cemetery, only to end up hiding behind tombstones.  She attempted to flee the graveyard, but in the pitch-black she smashed into a fence post.  Once her assailants caught up with her, they struck her in the face with a blunt object and left her to die.  Her name was Jessica Lyn Keen and she was only 15-years-old.  Later, investigators were able to pinpoint Jessica’s final moments based on clues in and around the crime scene.  There was mud on the fence, a sock that belonged to her, and an impression of her knee in the ground. But the police didn’t have a clue why anyone wanted to kill her.

Did Jessica go off with a stranger?

The gruesome murder of Jessica Lyn Keen has baffled local and state detectives for years. Jessica had been a popular cheerleader, an honor student and a talented performer.  According to her mother, Rebecca, Jessica had many goals and dreams:

“Jessica, idealistically, would have loved to have been a singer, an actress.  I guess, realistically, Jessica loved animals and wanted to go to college to be a zoologist.”

In high school, Jessica’s life began to have its ups and downs.  It had to do with being a teenager and with meeting her first love, 18-year-old Shawn Thompson.  Jessica’s relationship with Shawn was new and exciting.  But according to her mother, the romance began to distract Jessica from her schoolwork:

“I had forbidden her to see Shawn. I said you can’t see him till your grades come up.  And as far as her going to college, she knew she’d have to keep a good grade average in order to get a scholarship. And her grades started dropping. She had skipped school a couple times to be with Shawn.  And of course, she was threatening, ‘I don’t want to live with you anymore.’  But I knew I had to do something.”

Arguments between Jessica and her mother escalated.  They both knew they needed a cooling-off period.  Mother and daughter mutually decided that Jessica should spend two weeks at a local live-in counseling center for teenagers.  On March 15th, the day before she was to move back home, and just hours before she died, Jessica spoke to Shawn.  According to Special Agent Gregg Costas of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Jessica became upset:

“Jessica and Shawn ended up getting into an argument that day on the telephone, at which point they broke up.  Numerous people witnessed this telephone call and said that Jessica was very, visibly upset.”

This sock matched the one on Jessica’s foot

After the call, Jessica told a friend that she was going to the mall.  She was last seen at a bus stop near the counseling center at 6:00 PM.  It was there that Special Agent Costas suspected that Jessica was abducted:

“There is a chance that maybe it was somebody who Jessica kind of knew—maybe wasn’t really good friends with, but familiar enough with them to trust them enough to get into the car… Not knowing what would ultimately happen.”

Jessica’s body was found 42 hours later, 20 miles from the bust stop.  Investigators believed that after Jessica was abducted, she was held captive for at least six hours.  Based on a semen sample, Special Agent Costas believed she was raped between two and four hours before her escape from the car:

“I don’t think she had any idea at the time that she was actually climbing into a cemetery to hide.  But at that point, that was her only means for getting away from whoever was chasing her. This is the area where the crime scene investigators found one of Jessica’s socks. She obviously lost it while she was running.”

According to Special Agent Costas, the sock that was found matched the one that remained on Jessica’s foot:

“We do know that she hid behind this headstone. That was based on the crime scene investigators who found her knee print in the soft ground behind the headstone. We are pretty certain that Jessica saw the light on from the farmhouse.  And that’s what she turned to run for when she collided with the fence post in the back of the cemetery.  Because it’s so dark out here at night—she was not able to see the fence back here and collided with this fence post. Once she collided with the fence post, she knocked herself down, and at that point, her assailants were able to catch up with her.  This is the spot where she was ultimately killed… I’ve never been so passionate about anything that I’ve ever worked on in my life. The thought of this young girl, 15 years old, who had such a bright future, being murdered in such a horrible, horrible fashion, you cannot help but want to do everything humanly possible to find out who did this.”

Jessica hid behind a gravestone

Sheriffs in Madison County turned their attention to Jessica’s boyfriend, but Shawn Thompson wasn’t in Columbus.  He had left for Florida with some friends.  According to Sheriff Stephen Saltsman, Shawn and his friends were eventually returned to Ohio:

“Shawn was questioned. The friends that had gone with him were also questioned.  And through the questioning, examination of physical evidence, we all but eliminated the boyfriend and the friends.”

DNA evidence from the semen sample did not match Shawn or the others.  The group was cleared of any wrongdoing.  But for investigators, an entire week had been lost.  The trail of the actual killer or killers had grown cold.  Still Jessica’s death never stopped haunting her mother:

“What they did to her, the fear that Jessica felt, she would do anything to get away.  And I can feel her heartbeat, running through the cemetery.  I can feel the deep breathing she was probably doing when she knelt behind the tombstone.  I can hear her praying.  And I realize that that was the worst thing that I believe anyone could go through.”

UPDATE:

Seventeen years to the day that Jessica Keen was murdered, authorities match DNA from her case to a convicted felon name Marvin Lee Smith, Jr.  He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

 

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season ten with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

 

10 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    In February 2009, Marvin Lee Smith, Jr. (DOB: 11-11-56) and Madison County prosecutors reached a deal that would spare him the death penalty in exchange for his guilty plea. Smith pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated murder, with specifications of rape and kidnapping. The deal called for Smith to be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 30 years.

    Reply

  2. Anonymous

    Thank GOD for a fine police/Agent. He never gave up! GOD bless him for bring justice and peace to Jessica and hopefully her family. May she finally rest in peace!

    Reply

  3. Amber

    I know Agent Costas personally. He worked tirelessly on this case from the time he re-opened it until the time he solved it (12 years). Thank God there are law enforcement officers such as him who have the passion and perseverance to never give up on such a horrific murder. My Jessica rest in peace, and may her family have some closure that they deserve.

    Reply

  4. kelly

    The THOUGHT of what this poor girl went thru ALWAYS Haunted me since I heard this story on UM. May She Rest in Forver Peace & for what its worth, I HOPE her family found some sort of closure

    Reply

  5. ab

    I remember watching this on UM. i was terrified just sitting there. So glad it was solved.

    Reply

  6. Jen

    I’ve just (March 2016) learned of this case via On the Case with Paula Zahn. Does anyone have a copy of the Unsolved Mysteries segment? Terms to be worked out privately.
    jennielucas@gmail.com

    Reply

  7. Linda

    i was just 10 years old when this happend she is my cousin from my moms side of the family i often think of her and pray that she gets justice and our family can get the peace

    Reply

  8. Johnny

    I’m glad that Jessica’s case was solved. Beautiful young girl life extinguished too soon. That recreation of Jessica running through the cemetery was haunting. Running for her life. Such a senseless murder. I thought this case would be solved quick but lasted many years. Thanks to DNA technology some of these cold cases can be solved. Marvin Lee Smith Jr took something precious from Jessica’s family and deserves the ultimate punishment.

    Reply

  9. angie

    This is the most horrific things I have heard. Jessica had to be so scared! I cried when I read what happened to her. I want to school with Jessica and knew her sister. My heart goes out to her family!

    Reply

  10. Miranda. shortt

    I hope Jessica’ s family. Can. Be. Relieved. Now that her killer has been found

    Reply

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[DO WE DO THIS??]

 

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4.1 This Website may make available chat rooms, blogs, forums, message boards, and news groups. Please remember that any information that you disclose in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information. Information disclosed by you or by others enters the public domain and may be freely used by any other persons or entities using the site.

ARTICLE 5. Information Sharing With Third Parties
5.1 From time to time we may enter into a special relationship with another company that is not owned by Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. to provide additional features at this Website. These special relationships may include “powered by” partners, business partners, sponsors, and co-branded sites (referred to here as “co-branded pages”). These might include, for example, pages that share our name and that of another entity. You should look for a specific privacy statement on any such co-branded page. Any personal information that you provide when signing up at one of those co-branded pages may be shared with our third party partner. You should also check our partner’s website for information regarding its privacy policies.

5.2 Also, the nature of some features of our Website may require that we share personal information about you with persons or companies outside of Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. For example, this may occur at a feature that enables you, via our Website, to ask questions of persons or entities that are not part of Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. By responding to those features of the site, whether by email or direct entry of information on our Website, you are consenting to our transferring that information to such persons or entities.

5.3 With respect to specific registration modules, like contests, we may disclose personal information collected, and we may post a conspicuous statement on the registration module to the effect that we will be disclosing the information collected with third parties.

5.4 Finally, we may share any of the information collected from you with these other non- Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc companies in an aggregate basis. The aggregated information is not linked to any information that can identify you.

ARTICLE 6. IP Address and Log Files
6.1 We may use your IP address to administer our Website, to help diagnose problems with our server, to analyze trends, to track users’ webpage movements, to help identify you and your shopping cart, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

ARTICLE 7. Cookies
7.1 This Website may use a standard technology called a “cookie” to collect information about how you use the Website. Cookies reside on your computer and help our Website to recognize your computer’s browser as a previous visitor. This information allows us to customize delivery of information. For example, our Website may use cookies to save and remember registration information or preferences that you may have set while browsing the Website, to keep track of your shopping cart, to ensure you don’t see the same ad content repeatedly, to deliver content specific to your interests, and to save your password so you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit our site. We use cookies only to gather information as indicated in this policy.

7.2 In addition, on occasion our site may also set a “session cookie” which helps us administer the Website. The session cookie expires when you close your browser and does not retain any information about you after it expires.

7.3 Finally, we may also use an ad network provider to help present advertisements on this and other Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. websites. This ad network provider, like other advertising service vendors, uses cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies on the hard drive of your computer to serve you advertisements tailored to interests you have shown by browsing on this and other sites you have visited, and to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before and to avoid sending you duplicate advertisements. In doing so, the provider collects non-personal data such as your browser type, your operating system, web pages visited, time of visits, content viewed, ads viewed, and other clickstream data. The use of cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies by these ad network providers is subject to their own privacy policies, not ours, and Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the collection or use of such information.

ARTICLE 8. Banner Advertising
8.1 We have contracted with an ad-service to place banner advertising on our Website. All of the data provided and generated by the ad-server software remains in our possession. This feature of our Website may, on occasion, set “cookies” on your computer. Any information collected or stored by the ad-service or the cookies is treated in the same manner as other information described in this statement.

ARTICLE 9. Children’s Personal Information
9.1 Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act:

9.1.1 This site does NOT collect, use, or disclose personal information (including online contact information) of children under the age of thirteen (13).

9.1.2 In the event that a child under the age of 13 attempts to register on our site, we will NOT accept the registration and will delete information received from the child.

9.1.3 In the event that a child posts personal information in a public forum such as a chat room, we will attempt to delete that information once we become aware of it.

ARTICLE 10. Security of Your Personal Information
10.1 Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. employs reasonable security measures consistent with standard industry practice, for information collected through this Website. We believe that we have adequate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information we collect on our Website. We also use internal protections to limit access to users’ personal information to only those employees who need the information to perform a specific job.

ARTICLE 11. Sale or Merger
11.1 If this Website is sold to, or merges with, another company not owned by Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc., you should expect that some or all of the information collected from this Website may be transferred to the buyer/surviving company. If so, CMP will seek to obligate the acquiring company to use any personal information transferred by this Website in a manner consistent with this statement, but cannot guarantee that it will be able to impose that requirement or that the acquiring company will comply.

ARTICLE 12. Legal Process
12.1 You should be aware that Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. may be required to disclose your personal information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, such as in court or regulatory proceedings.

ARTICLE 13.  Contacting the Website

13.1        If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, the practices of this Website, or your dealings with this Website, please contact us at: unsolved@unsolved.com.

ARTICLE 14.  general information

14.1        Choice of Law:  This Agreement and the Additional Terms shall be governed by, construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of California , as it is applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within such state, without regard to conflict of law principles.

14.2        Choice of Forum:  You agree that any cause of action you or Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. brings to enforce this Agreement and/or the Additional Terms, or in connection with any matters related to this Website and/or the Privacy Statement, shall be submitted to arbitration in the County of Los Angeles, State of California, United States of America in accordance with the commercial rules and regulations of the American Arbitration Association then in effect (as amended herein), provided that said arbitration shall be heard before a single arbitrator, who shall be a retired judge, selected pursuant to such rules and regulations, and shall be conducted on an expedited basis and in confidence. The arbitrator’s decision shall be controlled by the terms and conditions of this agreement and any other agreements I may enter into with you, and shall be final and binding, and shall provide for each party to bear its own costs of arbitration and attorneys’ fees.  Each party expressly waives any right to a jury.  Judgment upon the award of the arbitrator may be entered or enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction. 

14.4        If any provision of this Agreement, or the application thereof to any person or circumstances, is held invalid or for any reason unenforceable then such provision shall be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that matches, as closely as possible, the original provision, and the other provisions of this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect.  The failure of either party to insist upon strict performance of any provision of this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.  Unless expressly provided otherwise, this Agreement is the entire agreement between you and Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. with respect to the use of this Website and shall not be modified except in writing, signed by an authorized representative of Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc.

ARTICLE 15.  European Union and Other Foreign Nations

15.1        This Website is governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of United States of America and is intended for enjoyment of residents of the United States.  Cosgrove Meurer Productions, Inc. makes no representation that this Website is governed by or operated in accordance with the laws of other nations.  By using this Website and submitting any personal information, visitors from outside of the United States acknowledge this Website is subject to U.S. law, consent to the transfer of personal data to the U.S., and waive any claims that may arise under their own national laws.