Peter Keegan died of cancer on November 13, 2017, seven years and two days after the murder of his wife, Susan, and three months after he was arrested for that crime. The case against him has been closed – due to the “death of the offender,” in the District Attorney’s legal parlance. With that, the … Continue reading
Grand Jury Testimony Released
More than 700 pages of Grand Jury testimony have been released to the public, following its decision in August 2017 to indict Dr. Peter Keegan on a single count of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Susan Keegan. Excerpts are now available on a separate page of this website. The seven-year delay following … Continue reading
Indictment! Peter Keegan Will Be Tried for Murder
Peter Keegan has been indicted for the murder of his wife of 32 years, Susan Keegan. After a criminal grand jury handed up the decision earlier this week, Dr. Keegan was arraigned in the Mendocino County Courthouse on Friday, August 11, released on $300,000 bail, and taken to the Sheriff’s office to be fingerprinted and … Continue reading
Magnificent, Irreplaceable Susan
In the words of the Ghost who haunts Hamlet: Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Continue reading
DA Eyster, Please Explain
Ukiah’s unsolved homicide, and justice for Susan Keegan, are in the hands of Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster. And have been for six years. Every year or two, DA Eyster does something dramatic to remind us that the investigation is still open – or perhaps, just to stall bereaved family and friends and stave … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, Susan: Welcome to Age 61
Ah, Susan. 61 today, had your life not been stolen from you. Happy birthday, you rascal. Your family and your friends still grieve, and we still miss you terribly. You are a lady still loved. As to the injustice of your death, sometimes it does seem as if it’s all been said before. A botched … Continue reading
The Investigation Advances. Really.
Norm Rosen, who served as the divorce mediator for Susan and Peter Keegan, has finally been served with a search warrant related to the case. In February 2016, lawyers arrived at his office armed with the legal authority to gather and remove relevant documents. Presumably those documents are, or will soon be, in the hands … Continue reading
Conspiracy Theories, Injustice and Civil Society
An odd letter by one of Mendocino County’s career outlaws, which appeared in a recent issue of the Anderson Valley Advertiser (October 28, 2015), underscores what can happen when a community believes justice has not been served. The writer, a convicted felon named Walter Miller, linked his own legal appeal to claims of a bizarre conspiracy … Continue reading
Bearing Witness to a Missing 60th Birthday
Dear Susan: If only we could hear your birthday wishes. You should be celebrating another turn of the dial today, a decade leap into the once unimaginable age of 60. Knowing you, you would have marked the transition with gratitude, astonishment, optimism, and an adventurous travel plan. Instead, your life was stolen – homicide, according … Continue reading
Building the Evidence Against Doctors Who Murder Their Wives: What the Mendocino DA Can Learn from a Utah Conviction
The story of a Utah physician convicted of murdering his ex-wife last month has remarkable parallels to the unsolved homicide of Susan Keegan. The eerie similarities give us hope that we will also see a conviction in the Keegan case. Uta von Schwedler’s death in 2011 was initially treated as a suicide; four years later, … Continue reading