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Susan Keegan Was Murdered

Susan and Peter Keegan

The cause of death on Susan Keegan's death certificate has been changed from “accidental” to “homicide,” meaning that Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster has new evidence that the popular Ukiah woman did not die in November of 2010 from an accidental fall in her bathroom as initially found by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department.

Dr. Peter Keegan said only he and his wife were in the Keegan home the night of Mrs. Keegan's death. Dr. Keegan told police he found his wife dead in her bathroom early in the morning after her return from a visit with friends in Santa Rosa.

Peter Keegan is as well-known in the Ukiah Valley as his late wife was. He has functioned as family doctor to many inland families and was briefly notorious a few years ago as an advocate for marijuana. As a pot advocate, Dr. Keegan also did a thriving business in medical marijuana prescriptions.

Mrs. Keegan, as her husband told investigators, allegedly died while she was under the influence of alcohol and drugs in a bathroom fall, managing to twice lacerate the top of her head in what has been characterized as a vertical drop. Her husband, the only other person in the house at the time of his wife’s death, said Mrs. Keegan was drunk, and probably had been drinking after taking the pain medication he said she regularly took for a back injury.

The doctor told police that his wife was addicted to both drink and pharmaceuticals, but Mrs. Keegan's closest friends said they had never seen Mrs. Keegan take more than a social drink or two, and that they had never seen her drunk.

The night of her death, Mrs. Keegan had visited friends in Santa Rosa. She had consumed one glass of wine with her friends, then drove north to her South Ukiah home, arriving at about 10pm. Friends say it is highly unlikely that Mrs. Keegan began drinking at that hour. Her husband said the couple lived separately in their home each with his and her bathrooms.

Dr. Keegan said he found his wife dead in her bathroom the morning after she had visited her Santa Rosa friends. She had a deep gash or gashes to the top of her head, which officers investigating the scene, led by Sgt. Poma of the Sheriff's Department, concluded had resulted from a fall in the bathroom where Mrs. Keegan was found. An autopsy revealed alcohol and prescription drugs in her blood.

It is known that Doctor Keegan had demanded a divorce from his wife of 32 years with whom he has two grown sons. Friends of the couple say that Peter Keegan had become verbally abusive towards Mrs. Keegan, and unreasonably irate when he discovered that under California law a wife is entitled to half a couple's property. Mrs. Keegan had planned to resume her life as a single person in the Santa Rosa area where she'd been the night before her death looking for possible places to live.

Soon after his wife's death, Dr. Keegan began a relationship with Elizabeth 'Libby' Crawford of the Ukiah Valley's Crawford Ranch. He also soon retained the services of the talented Ukiah criminal defense attorney, Keith Faulder, causing persons following the case to wonder why a man would need a criminal defense lawyer if his wife had died accidentally.

Doctor Keegan presently works at the Indian Health Center in Covelo. He had been quick to brandish the old death certificate that said his wife had died accidentally in a bathroom fall. He isn't likely to brandish the re-write that strongly suggests he's a killer.

8 Comments

  1. humbilly August 25, 2012

    Bruce, that’s what you say and have said for a year, can it be proven? Highly doubtful, look OJ walked and he was covered in blood and sin..this guy is slick and connected up…he walks too…sorry Sarge…

    • Bruce Anderson Post author | August 26, 2012

      Whether or not it can be proven is up to the DA. Since the death certificate has been changed to ‘homicide” it’s safe, isn’t it, to assume that Mrs. Keegan was murdered.

      • JANICE FREEMAN May 15, 2014

        I sure hope it wasn’t the same Pathologist that got fired last year from Mendo. County that did My Son’s Autopsy in May 2013. Van Patten and Poma hasn’t done anything to change the time of death when Van Patten admitted that my Son most likely passed a day or 2 earlier. My Son’s injuries were not consistent with the so called “Dirt Bike Accident.” How can a bike supposedly doing an estimated 50mph have no damage or no marks in the dirt where it landed? But then again that was on the Round Valley Rez and as Van Patten told Our Family was “Well You Know Covelo Has There Own Set of Laws.”

  2. Congodog August 29, 2012

    The pressure brought to bear on this ‘doctor’ must be strong and surgically applied. Without his confession, the State is fairly far up Shit Creek.
    As we apparently have no witnesses and snitches to come to the copper’s aid, the autopsy and a precise forensic investigation of what it reveals wil be the DA’s only hope. Something is wrong with the signs left on the dear woman’s body, thus the ‘homicide”. The memory of Susan will be clear to all when the MD fold’s as I am certain he will. The taking of a life is no mean feat and unless the guy is a bonafide psychopath he will eventually break under the pressure.

  3. CloserToTheTruth January 9, 2013

    Does anyone find it strange that her friends had never seen her intoxicated? But a little over nine hrs after she was with a bunch of her friends, she has what has been put in these reports as “high levels” of alcohol and pain killers in her system. So the doc has all these skeletons in his closet and he’s a psychopath but she has no dark side at all. Just not possible nor reality.

  4. waswithsusannotlongbefore February 6, 2013

    Worked with susan during hamlet just days before her death. She did not appear to me to be a person addicted to drink or narcotics. She was of perfectly soind mind mibus the divorce issue she spoke of for months before the sudden death…. alot of us assumed foul play when we heard of the death and are very much happy that it has finallu come to light. We even were hosted at her house for the cast partyH to which i never saw her consume more than two glasses of wine..m not usual for an addict. Hopefully susan gets her justice.

  5. Art February 9, 2014

    Libby Crawford has a history of bad relationships so the newest one is no surprise. I think she’s a marriage counselor now. Amusing.

  6. DEAN STEVENS July 19, 2017

    DR DEATH HOW MANY MEDICAL DEATHS WERE NEVER DICOVERD AND RULED A MEDICAL TRAVISTY WE WILL NEVER KNOW FOR SURE BUT WHAT WE DO KNOW FOR SURE IS THAT DR KEEGAN DID IN FACT HAVE A VERY BIG FIGHT WITH MRS KEEGAN IN THE DIVORCE LAWYERS OFFICE WITNESSED BY MANY LAWERS WHO STATED THIS FACT ON RECORD FOR THE SHERIFF DEPARTMENT THAT NIGHT SHE WAS DEAD PEOPLE FORGET THIS FACT NOT I AND I REMIND ALL WHO TRULY CARE AS I DO OF THIS TRUE FACT THE POWERS THAT BE WANT US TO FORGET LET’S NEVER FORGET ANY THING AND DONT FORGET THAT HIS PLAN WAS TO DUMP MR’S KEEGAN FOR LIBBY THIS IS CLEARLY PREMEDITATED ANY PERSON IN THEIR RIGHT MIND KNOWS DAMN WELL THAT THE WIFE GETS 50% THIS IS FACT AS WELL THE FIGHT IN THE LAWYER OFFICE WAS BECAUSE DR KEEGAN THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO DICTATE JUST HOW MUCH MR’S KEEGAN WAS GOING TO GET DR KEEGAN BLEW UP WHEN HE FOUND OUT HE WAS IN FACT GOING TO LOOSE 50% PLUS ALIMONY THEREIN IS THE MOTIVE TO KILL HIS CHILDREN’S MOTHER TO HARM ONE IS TO HARMM ALL THAT DR TOOK AWAY A SISTER A MOTHER AN AUNT A FREND TO MANY LET’S NOT FORGET DR KEEGAN WAS THE ONLY ONLY ONE HOME WITH MR’S KEEGAN THIS NEEDS NO EXPLAINING LET’S NOT FORGET THAT THE TWO SLEPT IN DIFFERENT ROOMS ALSO A FACT.NOR MUST WE FORGET WHO THE SHERIFF THAT RULED IT AN ACCIDENT THAT IN IT SELF EXPLAINS THE MISTAKE OF THE FIRST RULING IT’S A FACT IT WAS NO ACCIDENT AN ACCIDENT IS NOT PREMEDITATED THAT IS CLEARLY OXIMORON AND LET’S NOT FORGET DR KEEGAN WAS A SHADY POT DR LET’S NOT FORGET GANG STALKING LOOK THAT UP ON THE NET TO SUM IT GOD HELP US ALL WE HAVE TO RELY ON THE POWERS THAT WE ELECT I MUST STOP THERE BECAUSE IF I WAS THE DA THIS DR WOULD GET THE DEATH PENALTY…

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