By  Seamus McGraw

(Continued)

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The estate is perched high on top of Sayre Hill Road, a secluded road that runs from the banks of the Susquehanna River through a dense forest of hardwood and birch and then past small farms. To reach the estate, a visitor must turn off the road onto a path nearly hidden by looming pines, then travel along a narrow, well-paved driveway, with several speed bumps, to a large white electronic gate operated by a keypad with the names of the Keeffes and the other residents of the compound programmed into it. The only other access to the remote property, which boasts a spectacular view of the valley below, is by a clear-cut power line that runs up the side of the mountain and crosses the driveway at the gate.

While authorities did not entirely discount the idea that the crime may have been random, say the locals, few in the valley or in the neighboring communities gave much credence to the notion that a murderous predator was stalking the area. Instead, most believed that David Keeffe has been targeted, and that perhaps his wife, had been killed as an afterthought.

The investigation

It is hard — and perhaps now, almost impossible — to find anyone with a bad word to say about David and Carol Keeffe. The 56-year-old David, an attorney who had moved to this remote region decades ago with his lawyer wife and joined the law firm started by his father-in-law, was widely respected both for his legal skills and his personality. He was, as friends and acquaintances have described him, a dignified but approachable man, whose practice, as one might expect of a small-town lawyer, consisted of everything from personal injury lawsuits to criminal defense cases.

Such was his skill that he was not only among the most sought-after attorneys in the region, but his reputation extended far beyond the valley. One local lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said that Keeffe, who had served as a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, had a reputation for excellence and honesty that reached as far as Philadelphia.

Nor was he known to have any enemies. In fact, by all accounts, both he and his wife were well-regarded in the valley and in the county seat of Towanda.

A grandfather, David Keeffe was immensely devoted to his family, and in an interview last month with the Towanda Daily Review, his daughter, Melissa, also an attorney in the family firm, described her parents as "the foundation" of the family. She did not respond to an interview request from Crime Library.

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