GARY, Ind. (AP) - A man wanted in the shooting death of a suburban Cincinnati teen-ager and two convenience store employees in northwestern Indiana shot himself to death, a coroner confirmed Thursday.
Melvin Keeling, 43, of Loveland Park, Ohio, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick said. His death was ruled a suicide.
The ruling came a day after teenagers found the body near train tracks a few hundred yards from where Keeling's van had been found on Sept. 20, the morning after the convenience store shootings.
Keeling 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.
About 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.
Dennis Caudill, grandfather of Katelind Caudill, said he was notified of the identification by Gena Eaton, the girl's mother.
"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."
The body was decomposed but was identified through medical and dental records, Pastrick said.
A handgun was found near the body. The 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.
Authorities did not immediately know if the gun was used in the killings.
Just 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.
"Once I see the body and I can see for myself that it's Melvin, it will be a big relief for this family," Katelind's mother, Gina Eaton, told WCPO in Cincinnati. "We will be able to grieve for Katie and we won't have to live in fear."
Keeling'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.
After he fled Ohio, Keeling was indicted by a Warren County grand jury on 33 felony counts of gross sexual imposition and two counts of rape.
The FBI had offered a $25,000 reward for help finding Keeling. The Family Express company had put up $10,000.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
