As Lynn Keel returns to NC, warrants show more than 60 guns were found at home
More than 60 guns and several other weapons were seized from the home where Diana Keel lived with her husband before he was charged with her murder, according to search warrants released Thursday.
The warrants were released as Lynn Keel returned to North Carolina after being arrested over the weekend in Arizona.
According to a warrant to search the home Diana and Lynn Keel shared, authorities seized a variety of firearms, including rifles, pistols and revolvers. Also seized were swords, a machete and several knives.
Although an autopsy has not yet determined an official cause of death for Diana Keel, Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said that it appeared as though she had been stabbed.
"I didn't see any, and neither did my detectives see anything, alluding to gunfire," Stone said when asked if he believed the number of guns found in the Keel home were related to the murder investigation.
Warrants show that authorities found two pages from a diary belonging to Diana Keel's 18-year-old daughter inside a Dodge Ram Lynn Keel owned. When asked, Stone said he did not feel comfortable divulging what had been written on those pages.
Diana Keel's body was found last week in a wooded area about 30 miles from the Nash County home she shared with her husband. Investigators said Lynn Keel originally told them that his wife had left home to run some errands before she vanished.
After being considered a person of interest and questioned by investigators, her husband disappeared for at least two days before he was found last weekend in Arizona while driving his parents' 1998 Chevy pickup truck.
Stone said he could not speculate about where Lynn Keel was heading, but said Lynn Keel told investigators that he drove 65 mph for hours each day in order to head as far west as possible.
Lynn Keel on Friday was flown by private jet from Tuscon, Arizona to Rocky Mount, where he was then taken by car to the Nash County Jail. An arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday morning, Stone said.
He was being held without bond at the Nash County Jail on Friday night.
Stone said he feels "confident" that there is a strong case against Lynn Keel, noting that there was a "key piece of evidence that I do not want to elaborate on at this time."
The death of Diana Keel has now prompted Nash County authorities to look into the death of Lynn Keel's first wife, Bess, who died in 2006.
Lynn Keel told investigators that she fell on some ice going up the steps outside their home and hit her head. Her death was ruled accidental. She was 42.
Stone said Friday that the Nash County Sheriff's Office has received the preliminary report from Bess' death and recently began interviewing the pathologist from that time period. Once interviews are complete, the case will be brought to the district attorney to determine if it will be re-opened.
"What we're trying to do is finish up one investigation before we embark on another," Stone said.
