Lyle "Gene" Keidel

There is a part of me that loves finding new stories that I have never heard about to research. Then there is the issue that the reason that I have not heard about them is that there generally is not a lot of information available. I came across this case from a more recent documentary show, which is where I get many of the ideas for my cases but I also know going in with those that not all of the information is accurate and is often exaggerated for dramatic purposes. Then the quest becomes trying to find as much information as I can that is not directly related to the television show and determine how accurate it is. It is sometimes quite difficult so when I put them together they often much shorter, which some of you may enjoy, than most of my blogs, but it also opens up to hopefully having someone related to the case to fill in the blanks. This has happened before. I have had friends and family members of victims and perpetrators post comments, not always in nice ways, but I have also had members of a jury come and comment. My research and learning about a case does not always end when I put the case together.

In September of 1966 Lyle “Gene” Keidel reported his estranged wife, Dianne, missing from her Phoenix Arizona home. Gene and his thirty-one year old wife had three children together, Kelly, Greg and Lori. Dianne also had an older daughter, Karen “Suzie” from a previous marriage. It is not clear when the couple met but apparently they had done so when they both lived in Peoria Illinois and soon moved to Phoenix. At the time that Dianne went missing Karen was twelve, Kelly was eight and Lori was five. It appears, although I cannot say for sure that Greg was between Karen and Kelly. Gene would later tell authorities, as well as friends and neighbors that Dianne had ran off with another man, leaving him with all four children.

By January Dianne had still not been found and while authorities found Gene's story suspicious, they had nothing really to go on. Then on January 9, 1967 the four Keidel children (Karen apparently carried the name) were home alone when a fire ignited in their home. Greg was able to escape with minor injuries. Lori would be severely burned but survived. However, both Karen and Kelly would die in the fire. In fact, Karen died protecting Lori. When firefighters got into the home they found Karen's body on top of her youngest sister. It would be said that authorities found the fire suspicious but like with Dianne's mysterious disappearance they could not prove anything it seems. They had determined that the fire had started on the kitchen stove where a burner had been left on and ignited an aluminum pan. They had also noted that when Gene arrived back home he not only admitted to leaving the children alone while they slept he had a distinctive smell of alcohol and seemed indifferent to the fact that two of his children had died and one was in extremely critical condition.

Then in 1993, now in her thirties Lori Keidel Romaneck walked into a Phoenix police department with a letter and a story. She would tell investigators that on the night of September 17, 1966 she and her sister, Karen, had seen an argument between her parents. She had witnessed Gene hitting Dianne in the head to the point in which she fell and yet he continued to hit her. She would say that during this Gene looked up and saw the two girls watching but said nothing. Later that night she and Karen were in their bedroom looking out the window. They saw their mother laying curled up next to the pool in the backyard and their father digging a hole. At five Lori believed her mom was sleeping and only realized later when she was taken to the funeral of a neighbor that her mother was actually dead. She claimed that the children had not been allowed to play in the yard for a long time after this occurred and then Lyle had mysteriously covered the backyard in concrete. According to Lori she had always known where her mother was. This was not a repressed memory coming to the surface, but fear of her father had kept her from telling anyone. She also accused him of starting the fire that had killed her two sisters to keep the girls quiet about what they had seen and knew.

It took another sixteen months before anyone made it to the old Keidel home. They used equipment that found “an anomaly” in the concrete right in the area in which Lori told them her father had buried her mother. They would in fact find a skeleton buried under the concrete. Around the neck was a pair of nylon stockings and remnants of clothing belonging to a woman appeared to be with the skeleton. A tree root had grown through the skull. An anthropologist stated that based on an initial examination it would match Dianne based on the sex and age of the skeleton. Eventually there would be an official identification and on September 24, 1994 Lyle “Gene” Keidel was indicted in the murder of his wife.

The state took Gene to trial and in April of 1995 he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Throughout the years all of his appeals failed and he died in prison on December 7, 2004.

In the meantime, while Gene was never charged in the fire that killed Lori's two sisters, the fire was reclassified in December 1994 from accidental to arson. In 1995 Lori would sue the city of Phoenix for not investigating the home fire properly. The city eventually settled with her for $5.5 million.

I found two other interesting things in my research on this case. The first was after Dianne's mother had been found she wanted to give her a proper burial next to both Karen and Kelly. However, Gene owned the grave site and refused to relinquish it. Whether Lori was ever able to to obtain that grave site or she had her sister's moved is unclear. According to the Findagrave.com website a stone has since been erected that not only have the names of Dianne, Karen and Kelly but also will hold Lori when her time comes.

The second thing I found interesting was a site I came across written by a woman who was the daughter of Karen's biological father. She had never met Karen and was very young at the time of her death but remembered the day her father heard of the fire. It is unclear just how things had ended between the man and Dianne and why he had no contact with his young daughter. However, according to the daughter from the website just after the fire her father decided to be a firefighter and dedicated his life to that profession.