Feb 07, 2020

Jury hears recordings of Keadle leading police to boat ramp

Posted Feb 07, 2020 10:57 PM
Joshua Keadle
Joshua Keadle

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) - A man on trial for the death of a Peru State College student whose body has never been found led investigators to a Missouri River boat ramp where he said he left her alive in 2010, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors played recordings Thursday made of Joshua Keadle showing investigators the boat ramp, after denying for days to police that he had been with Tyler "Ty" Thomas, 19, of Omaha, the night she disappeared, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

Keadle is charged with first-degree murder, accused of killing Thomas, of Omaha. Thomas disappeared Dec. 3, 2010, after leaving a party near the southeast Nebraska campus. Although her body was never found, the state issued a death certificate in 2013.

The recordings of Keadle were made four days after her disappearance, and in them, Keadle is heard telling investigators that he encountered Thomas at the boat dock and agreed to drive her to Omaha in exchange for a sex act. He said she later threatened to report he had raped her and got out of his vehicle, and he left.

The recordings were played a day after a jailhouse informant testified that Keadle had told him he killed Thomas but "they'll never find the body."

The trial is expected to continue through next week.