Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Mysteries and Mimosa's, I'm Max and with me as always is your co-host
(00:15):
Arya.
Hi everyone.
Hi Arya, thank you for joining us for another Mystery Monday episode.
Just a reminder, every Monday we give you an additional episode.
We like to cover cases that don't have a lot of coverage in an effort to spread the
word to generate discussion and hopefully reach someone who holds information that might
crack the case.
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(00:37):
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Last week we featured an adorable black lab named Jackson sent in to us from listener
(00:57):
Bill Old Faithful, I like to call him.
But I completely forgot to post Jackson's picture on Facebook and Instagram.
So I want to take this as an opportunity to apologize to Jackson and let everyone know
his picture is now posted.
Well today's episode is brought to us by an Australian Cattle Dog by the name of Moonshine.
This pet pic was sent in to us from listener Joy.
(01:20):
Thank you Joy for the pet pic.
Please visit us on Facebook and Instagram at mysteriesandmimosa'spodcast to take a look
at both Jackson the black lab and Moonshine the Australian Cattle Dog.
Yeah thanks Joy.
That's a joy to have your Australian Cattle Dog.
Wow.
Moonshine.
Nice.
Yeah.
He's so cute.
Love both of those names by the way.
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Okay.
Let's get into today's episode.
Today we're going to be talking about 19 year old Tyler Marie Thomas.
Tyler Marie Thomas was born on September 7th, 1991.
Tyler went by the nickname Ty.
In December of 2010, Ty was a freshman at Peru State College, a small private college
about an hour south of Omaha, Nebraska.
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Ty graduated from Omaha Bryan High School and hoped to become a teacher and she had
been named captain of the school's dance team.
On the evening of December 2nd, 2010, Ty attended an off campus party where she reportedly consumed
beer and several shots of tequila.
Ty became intoxicated and got into an argument with her best friend.
(02:24):
The argument apparently became so heated that Ty was actually asked to leave the party.
Wow, some girl drama.
Yeah, I don't know what the argument was about but Ty left the party and decided to
walk alone to her dorm room which was less than a mile away.
When Ty left the party, she was wearing dark green sweatpants, a long sleeved shirt, a
(02:44):
black scarf, and earmuffs.
Ty had reportedly left her coat and purse at the party.
It was very frigid on the night of the party.
The temperatures had dropped into the teens.
Tyler was last seen walking near the town water tower located at 5th and Nebraska streets
at around 1.30 in the morning.
Wow, so it's late and it's cold.
Yeah, apparently the temperatures had dropped pretty quickly that night.
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And she forgot her jacket.
Yeah, she didn't have a coat, just a long sleeved shirt.
Just minutes later, Ty sent a text message to friends saying she didn't know where she
was.
Even though Ty said she didn't know where she was, a witness reported seeing Ty near
the water tower within mere yards of her dorm.
Wow, so I wonder if the intoxication from the alcohol made her disoriented or something.
(03:31):
I think that must be what happened because she was seen right around her dorm.
So I think she just was confused maybe.
When Ty's friends received her text saying she was lost, they went out to search the
campus.
At 3 a.m., Ty's friends reported her missing to police after they were unable to locate
her.
So good friends.
(03:51):
They went right out and looked for her.
An hour later, they're like, okay, this isn't good.
They're concerned due to the freezing temperatures.
They knew Ty should have made it back to her dorm by then.
It wasn't that far away.
So they were concerned enough and did the right thing and reported her missing right
away.
Yeah, those are really good friends, especially considering she just got in an argument and
(04:12):
it was so heated that she kind of stormed off without her jacket, but the friends are
still caring enough to be able to report her missing.
Yeah.
So days later, when Ty still hadn't been seen or heard from, police began to zero in on
fellow college student Joshua Keedle.
Although Keedle was older than most of the college students on campus at 28 years old,
(04:33):
he and Ty had dated at some point earlier that year.
I've read that they only went on one date, but I'm not certain if their relationship
went on any longer than that.
According to Ty's friends, Ty did not like Keedle and she actively tried to avoid him.
Yeah, so maybe when she was dating him or went on the date with Keedle, she probably
got some weird vibes from him.
(04:54):
Yeah, it sounds like it.
For whatever reason, she didn't like him.
Didn't connect.
No.
When questioned by police, Keedle initially said he saw Ty walking, but he hadn't spoken
to her.
Keedle then changed his story and said he had given Ty a ride.
Keedle said he drove to the Peru boat dock on the Missouri River where they smoked marijuana
and she performed a sexual act in exchange for a ride to Omaha.
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Keedle said that after she performed the act, she became angry and they became involved
in a verbal and physical altercation.
He said Ty accused him of raping her and threw her cell phone at him.
Keedle said he left her at the dock around 2 a.m. and went back to his dorm room to take
a shower.
So he goes from saying, yeah, I saw her walking, but I hadn't spoken to her.
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I didn't talk to her.
I didn't have any involvement.
And then his story changes to, oh yeah, actually, you know what?
We were hanging out.
We went to a boat dock where she performed some sexual act on me.
And then it just continues to grow and continues to change and escalate.
Right.
Exactly.
To the point where it becomes, oh, now we're in a physical altercation.
Yeah.
So on December 9th, so this is six days after Ty goes missing, Keedle was arrested and charged
(06:07):
with evidence tampering and providing false information to law enforcement.
So law enforcement got right on top of this case, it sounds like.
Like they zeroed in on him for whatever reason right away.
And he's, you know, his story is changing.
They're not exactly sure what they have.
They still haven't found Ty.
So they charge him with what they can charge him with, which is lying to them, right?
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Faking false information because his story keeps changing.
Okay.
And who else, who knows what other evidence they have too?
Right.
Yeah.
There's some kind of evidence tampering and I don't know what that was related to.
So several days later, a woman came forward and said Keedle had sexually assaulted her
three times on October 31st.
Keedle was charged with felony rape and false imprisonment in that case.
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So what day did she go missing?
December 3rd.
Okay.
So on December 3rd, Ty goes missing, but on October 31st, just a couple of months, like
a month and a half or so, a month.
Earlier another woman comes forward and says that she was sexually assaulted three different
times I'm presuming on the same night of Halloween by the same guy.
(07:14):
Yeah.
That's what her report is.
And he was charged and arrested?
Yes.
Interesting.
So they must've had some kind of evidence or a strong enough case to believe that to
be true.
Yeah.
Well, that's not it though.
Another girl then came forward and reported that in 2008 when she was 15 years old, Keedle
sexually assaulted her while she was spending the night at Midland Lutheran College.
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Keedle was attending school there at the time.
And so he was charged with first degree sexual assault of a minor in connection to that case.
So he's got a lot happening now.
Wow.
So two years earlier, another female, juvenile might I add, says that he sexually assaulted
her.
And you know, cold sex assaults are extremely difficult to solve.
(07:59):
A lot of times, you know, and people hate, I actually hate using the word, but it becomes
he said, she said without any evidence.
So they must've had something to lead them to believe that, you know, her story is more
believable than Keedle, assuming that he denied it.
But those are really tough cases to charge.
And in order to get an arrest and charge them with that, they must've had, you know, somewhat
(08:21):
of a strong case to make that happen.
Yeah.
So that it doesn't end there.
It was then discovered that Keedle had exposed himself to a woman in Norfolk, Nebraska in
April of 2010.
And he was charged with indecent exposure in that case.
Okay.
So multiple accounts of sex assault.
So he clearly has a problem, right?
(08:42):
I mean, he's sexually assaulting various people.
He's exposing himself.
You know, a lot of times with sex offenders, those public indecency charges or exposures
often escalate.
They'll start very, very small.
And once that gets boring, they'll escalate to the next step.
And then once that gets boring, they'll continue to get worse and worse and worse over time
because the thrill of exposing himself probably no longer excited him.
(09:06):
Well, and for him, he's already, this happened, the exposure happens in 2010.
He's already raped a girl in 2008.
Which makes me wonder where it started and how much has been not reported.
Oh, I'm sure.
Yeah.
So during the investigation, it was discovered that the location of the sexual assault on
October 31st also started at that same dock where Ketel had reportedly been with Ty.
(09:30):
When police went to the dock to investigate, they discovered tire tracks matching up to
Ketel's 1996 Ford Explorer.
In addition, they found drag marks down to the river's edge.
So he has a favorite location then.
Apparently, yeah.
This is the same spot where he sexually assaulted a woman a month before.
In March of 2012, Ketel was found guilty in that 2008 rape and sentenced to 15 to 20
(09:54):
years in prison.
Ketel would become eligible for parole in 2018 and would be mandatorily released in
2021.
However, in October of 2017, before he could be released, Ketel was charged with first
degree murder in Ty's case.
Ketel was finally tried in January of 2020.
During the trial, another Peru college student testified that she had been with Ketel the
(10:18):
night of December 2nd.
She said they saw Ty wandering around without a coat on near the dorms.
She said Ketel was supposed to come up to the dorm room and smoke marijuana with her
and some friends, but that he never showed up.
They tried calling him, but he never answered.
Yeah, you know what actually stands out to me in this whole thing that you just told
me was an independent witness saw her walking around without a coat.
(10:41):
And that's corroborated by the people at the party who said that she left without a coat
after getting in an argument.
So I would say that that witness has some credible information.
Right.
I would believe most everything that witness has to say.
Yeah.
Ketel was eventually found guilty of second degree murder.
In July of 2020, Ketel was sentenced to 71 years in prison.
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Ty's mom filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Ketel and Peru State College in 2012.
The week before Ty went missing, the director of campus security had actually recommended
that Ketel be expelled from the school because he was failing his classes.
He was facing criminal charges for kicking in the door of his dorm room.
Two other students had accused Ketel of sexual harassment and the director was aware of the
(11:27):
of a rape accusation from another Nebraska college.
The school, however, opted to allow Ketel to remain in school to finish that semester
and then stated they would not allow him to return after that.
In 2015, though, the judge in the wrongful death case dismissed it dismissed the case
against the school.
However, in 2016, a jury in the civil case against Ketel awarded Ty's family 2.64 billion
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in damages.
2.4 billion of that amount was awarded for punitive damages.
But in Nebraska, any punitive damages received in a civil suit must be given to the local
school district instead of the plaintiffs in the case.
Of course, the family doesn't expect anything from Ketel, who has no assets.
Right, and he's probably not earning a decent wage inside prison either.
(12:16):
Right, exactly.
While Ty's family has received some justice with the murder conviction of Ketel, her body
has never been recovered.
If you have any information on the location of Ty, please reach out to the Neemaha County
Sheriff's Office at 402-274-3139 so that her family can lay her duress properly.
(12:38):
Well, thank you so much, Aria, for that episode.
And thank you for listening to Mysteries of Mimosa.
We hope you enjoyed listening to today's mystery as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you.
And I think you did a really good job on Mystery Monday.
I mean, I know there are short episodes to bring attention to those cases that don't
otherwise get the attention that they really do deserve.
So I think you did a great job.
(12:59):
Thank you.
Absolutely.
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Thanks for tuning in and spending time with us today.
We'll be right here Thursday for another exciting mystery and, of course, more mimosas.
Until then, this episode is done, son.
(13:41):
No.
Yeah.
Cheers.
Cheers.