Found Deceased CO - Joseph Keller, 18, Antonito, 23 July 2015 - #1

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Just paid for a four-week subscription to The Pueblo Chieftain, but subscription doesn't start until tomorrow, so I won't be able to access the full article until tomorrow :(.

OT: I just got off the 'phone with my specialist, and I will probably have to be admitted over the next couple of days for a procedure. I usually get quite "loopy" for a day or two after the treatment, so I will most likely be offline for a few days. I will try to post the rest of the above article before I go in.

Off Topic:

Good Luck with your procedure! :)
 
It was never explained why they searched for Joe at La Jara Reservoir just days after he disappeared, while he could have still be alive.
 
I have a feeling we will all be here next july on the one year anniversary of joe being missing.
 
YES!!!

http://www.chieftain.com/news/crime/4024654-120/keller-sheriff-galvez-investigation

"But the elder Keller did leave the meeting with a vow from Sheriff Howard Galvez that he would try to arrange a dive team for a limited search and that one of the commissioners would serve as a point of contact for the family."

-RBBM-

Getting ready to pay and log in to access the full story. I have had a feeling all along that there was a good reason as to why they searched those two reservoirs relatively early on (about a week after Joe went missing). Within a couple of days of that, search activities were suspended.

Here is the rest of the article. If I am in violation of TOS (for copyright-related reasons, especially), please delete. Thanks:

The latter point was reached after the sheriff’s office came under a deluge of criticism on Facebook and after Galvez acknowledged he will no longer speak to Neal Keller.
“I have not been dealing with Neal because he and I don’t see to-eye” he said.
A point of contention by commenters on the Facebook pages for the sheriff and on another dedicated to Joseph Keller is that Galvez has not requested enough help in either search efforts or the investigation.
Keller asked specifically Thursday that the sheriff request assistance of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
“I, as the father of a missing boy — my only son, actually — would like to have as much resources as could possibly be made available,” Keller told the commissioners.
He also said a CBI agent told him that the bureau was not involved in the investigation.
“The day after Joe went missing, I had called CBI up that day,” the sheriff said. “I knew they couldn’t help me because it was a missing person.”
Galvez said CBI personnel ended up coming down roughly a week to 10 days after the search started.
The agency did not return a request for information Thursday afternoon on its status in the investigation.
Galvez said FBI personnel from its field offices in Colorado and Tennessee also are involved in the investigation.
He also defended the ongoing investigation and the 11-day search for Keller in the southern San Juan Mountains that included aircraft, search dogs and roughly 200 people.
He did, however, vow that he would try to arrange for a dive team to search Spectacle Lake, which sits roughly 5 miles up the canyon from the ranch where Keller was staying.
Since his department has neither the equipment or personnel for that effort, he cautioned it would be dependent on another jurisdiction agreeing to do it.
The commissioners, who have no authority over the sheriff’s department other than its budget appropriation, were quick to intervene in the personal exchanges between Keller and Galvez.
“Anything we can do, we will within our ability to do it,” Commissioner Mitchell Jarvies said. “I think Sheriff Galvez has done that and will continue to do that.”
 
Find Joe Keller FB page just posted an update on the Conejos County Comissioners Meeting, and once again, their/page admin's tone is extremely critical of Sheriff Galvez .... I'm starting to feel as though the FB page is becoming somewhat of a hindrance to the investigation.

The update says a dog showed interest in the lake, but doesn't say which one; they could be talking about either La Jara Reservoir or Elk Creek, I suppose, since -at least as far as I know- those two "lakes" have been searched. To what extent, I'm not sure. Or, it could be Spectacle Lake, too, since that is where Joe's dad is requesting that they search:

https://facebook.com/FindJoeKeller
 
Find Joe Keller FB page just posted an update on the Conejos County Comissioners Meeting, and once again, their/page admin's tone is extremely critical of Sheriff Galvez .... I'm starting to feel as though the FB page is becoming somewhat of a hindrance to the investigation.

The update says a dog showed interest in the lake, but doesn't say which one; they could be talking about either La Jara Reservoir or Elk Creek, I suppose, since -at least as far as I know- those two "lakes" have been searched. To what extent, I'm not sure. Or, it could be Spectacle Lake, too, since that is where Joe's dad is requesting that they search:

https://facebook.com/FindJoeKeller

Comments by MR on that page are very interesting.
 
Yes, indeed. They are very interesting. This might explain quite a lot of the parents' bizarre behavior and the aunt's silence. Similar thoughts have been advanced on the facebook page previously and have been rapidly quashed with extreme prejudice by the admins. MR's comments may not be there for long.

I'm more hopeful than I've ever been previously that Joe is alive and deliberately re-establishing himself far away from what may have been, for him, an untenably painful family and community situation.
 
It saddens me to see the DIVIDE on the facebook page for Joe.
Not only a divide but it is tasteless.
Very sad!

IMOO.
 
Yes, indeed. They are very interesting. This might explain quite a lot of the parents' bizarre behavior and the aunt's silence. Similar thoughts have been advanced on the facebook page previously and have been rapidly quashed with extreme prejudice by the admins. MR's comments may not be there for long.

I'm more hopeful than I've ever been previously that Joe is alive and deliberately re-establishing himself far away from what may have been, for him, an untenably painful family and community situation.


This would be a wonderful scenario if he left on his own, and is alive.
The problem I personally have with that, or with Joe, is if he left on his own, he is causing pain to his family.
Why not be honest and tell authorities he is safe but he doesn't want to go back home.
There may be a problem still, but at least the family and community would know he is alive.

When people leave and don't tell people that they are ok, they worry, and it is emotionally painful.

My grandfather went MISSING.
NOBODY knew what happened to him or where he was.
He left. He died ten years later.
He was ALIVE for TEN YEARS but told NO ONE!!!!!

I was able to find his death certificate, 60 years later, SIXTY YEARS!!!!! We then knew what happened to him.
The death certificate was in a DIFFERENT STATE.

So, you know, people DO LEAVE and DON'T TELL ANYONE.

It is SAD but it happens.

I hope if it happened to Joe, if he left on his own, he would STOP this, and at least tell his family
that he is alive. STOP THIS IMMEDIATE PAIN. The Pain can last for years if no one knows what happened to him.
And I will add that the pain I am sure continues even if they would know what happened, but if they knew he was alive,
that would be a blessing.

And as I have mentioned before, he could have left on his own, but something happened to him. Perhaps
he is not alive.

I don't feel he was kidnapped.

IMOO.
 
I understand what you're saying. I don't know that the Kellers would respect Joe deliberately distancing himself from them. And, if emotions and possibly bigotries were running as high as some of the comments on the FB account and elsewhere suggest, he might have reason to believe himself to be unsafe if his whereabouts are known. This, of course, could also add up to a motive for suicide. If there was foul play involved in his disappearance, I now suspect that his family was involved and their hostility toward the sheriff and the locals who participated in the search to be misdirection or some strange psychological...thing. More likely are, I believe, either misadventure with fatal consequences or deliberate escape from an oppressive family -- possibly with cooperation from someone at the ranch.

Come to think of it, I wonder if the sheriff does know where Joe is and is respecting Joe's adult right not to reveal his whereabouts.

^^All speculative and opinion-y.
 
Not sure exactly what you mean: which "DIVIDE"?

The Divide among the people of Conejos County and Colorado inhabitants, and the people from Tennessee.

It is sad to read the comments from Some of the people from Tennessee knocking the sheriff.
I read Positive statements from Conejos County residents supporting the sheriff.
It seems, to me, the people that don't even live in the state are very Quick to Judge negatively.

From what I have read from following this case, the Sheriff has done A LOT.

People DID go out looking for Joe.

Even My county, El Paso County, Colorado; went looking for Joe.

It is sad that Joe hasn't been found.

I understand that everyone wants Joe to be found.
I want him to be found as well.
IMOO.
 
It saddens me to see the DIVIDE on the facebook page for Joe.
Not only a divide but it is tasteless.
Very sad!

IMOO.

Things are completely out of control, with now even the mother of Chief Galvez' children and Joe's mom joining in (I feel so, so bad for this woman; I wish I could just give her a big hug). Personally, I wish they would remove the entire "commissioners meeting update" post and subsequent replies ....
 
Maybe they are growing Some MaryJane up there?

Hi sorry, I'm only half through this but it gave me a chuckle! Even if they ARE, it is legal to do so. I really doubt this is the case though ;)
 
This would be a wonderful scenario if he left on his own, and is alive.
The problem I personally have with that, or with Joe, is if he left on his own, he is causing pain to his family.
Why not be honest and tell authorities he is safe but he doesn't want to go back home.
There may be a problem still, but at least the family and community would know he is alive.

When people leave and don't tell people that they are ok, they worry, and it is emotionally painful.

My grandfather went MISSING.
NOBODY knew what happened to him or where he was.
He left. He died ten years later.
He was ALIVE for TEN YEARS but told NO ONE!!!!!

I was able to find his death certificate, 60 years later, SIXTY YEARS!!!!! We then knew what happened to him.
The death certificate was in a DIFFERENT STATE.

So, you know, people DO LEAVE and DON'T TELL ANYONE.

It is SAD but it happens.

I hope if it happened to Joe, if he left on his own, he would STOP this, and at least tell his family
that he is alive. STOP THIS IMMEDIATE PAIN. The Pain can last for years if no one knows what happened to him.
And I will add that the pain I am sure continues even if they would know what happened, but if they knew he was alive,
that would be a blessing.

And as I have mentioned before, he could have left on his own, but something happened to him. Perhaps
he is not alive.

I don't feel he was kidnapped.

IMOO.

Treelights - the very same thing happened in my family. My grandfather left in the Great Depression. I was finally able to find his death certificate almost 65 years later. Mom and her sister finally learned where and how he died almost 35 years from when he left them. I know this is an entirely different situation from Joe's, but, as you said, people do leave of their own accord. I thought it was amazing that you had a very similar situation to ours.

I have read the Comments on the Find Joe Keller page and was pretty much disgusted by them. People are taking the reporting of the Commissioner's meeting as fact when I know it has to contain a certain amount of bias against the sheriff and the county. IMO . I understand why the Kellers feel as they do, but these people making negative comments about the sheriff were not there to hear what and how things were said, etc. I agree with those who have stated that the page may be a hindrance to the investigation. It certainly does seem to have already caused a lot of bad feelings. IMO.

Hopefully, these bad feelings can be put aside and all can work together towards the common goal. My prayer is that Joe is found alive and well.
 
Treelights - the very same thing happened in my family. My grandfather left in the Great Depression. I was finally able to find his death certificate almost 65 years later. Mom and her sister finally learned where and how he died almost 35 years from when he left them. I know this is an entirely different situation from Joe's, but, as you said, people do leave of their own accord. I thought it was amazing that you had a very similar situation to ours.

I have read the Comments on the Find Joe Keller page and was pretty much disgusted by them. People are taking the reporting of the Commissioner's meeting as fact when I know it has to contain a certain amount of bias against the sheriff and the county. IMO . I understand why the Kellers feel as they do, but these people making negative comments about the sheriff were not there to hear what and how things were said, etc. I agree with those who have stated that the page may be a hindrance to the investigation. It certainly does seem to have already caused a lot of bad feelings. IMO.

Hopefully, these bad feelings can be put aside and all can work together towards the common goal. My prayer is that Joe is found alive and well.

Hi! :)

Off Topic:

It is sad when someone abandons the people in their life.
It is very sad when someone abandons the people in their life and you don't know
where they went or what happened to them until Years later!

Sorry to hear that your situation was similar to mine. Hugs to you and your family!

IMOO.
 
It seems like the ranch is the only profitable business for miles and miles. The whole county is extremely impoverished and then there's this ranch that charges $2200 a week with all of these wealthy out of towners coming and going. it's an interesting mix of cultures IMO. It's like if you went to South Central LA and built a mansion. It's just weird to me.

I keep reading about how everyone has been leaving the area, businesses closing, homes abandoned. And it makes me think that this could have been planned to draw negative press to the ranch on purpose so that they would lose customers and eventually be forced out of business. Maybe certain locals are just waiting for guests to venture off of the property for that purpose. Then there would be no outsiders with prying eyes into their little land of mischief.

But anyhow, back to the facts. I still haven't heard anyone mention wild animals in the area. There are bears and mountain lions right? I looked at several FB profiles of people in the area and I saw several black bear photos taken from people's back yards. I wonder if the ranch staff brings guns along when they go on hikes. Do they warn people about going exploring unarmed? I'm a city girl so I have no idea how that plays out but I personally would be terrified.

Sorry I am STILL catching up on this but I do really feel this is far fetched. HWY 285 may be used for trafficking (what auxiliary HWY isn't?), but I just don't see gangs going this far off base to cause "mischief". Antonito may very well be a stopping point, but I see no reason to drive 25 miles off course to check and see what's up at the ranch. JMO
 
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