Ontario man found NCR for terrorizing grieving grandparents not ready for conditional discharge

The Ontario Review Board denied a conditional discharge to a man who made more than 30 harassing calls to a set of Indiana grandparents whose granddaughter had been murdered. Photo by Thitima Uthaiburom /Getty Images

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It would be premature to grant a conditional discharge to an Ontario man who terrorized the grandparents of one of two Indiana girls murdered in 2017 by calling them more than 30 times to say the dead girls had been seen in Canada a year after the killings and that their deaths were a hoax, according to the Ontario Review Board (ORB).

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The eighth graders — Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14 — were killed near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Ind., on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were discovered the next day with their throats slit.

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Jeffrey Keddy, who called himself “the bridge guy” or “the troll under the bridge” in his many calls to the grandparents between August and September of 2021, left one message saying, “I am never going away, I am never going to stop.”

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The murders had garnered a lot of media attention and the grandparents Keddy plagued with his phone calls did dozens of televised interviews after the killings.

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The grandparents went to police, who identified Keddy as the caller and arrested him on Sept. 15, 2021, said the recent ORB decision.

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Keddy — who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder — was found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder in November 2022 on charges of conveying false information with intent to injure or alarm, repeatedly communicating with intent to harass, and failing to comply with probation.

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“Mr. Keddy reported that he began using marijuana in high school, and was smoking three to six joints a day at the time of the index offences,” said the June 5 decision from the independent tribunal that regularly reviews the status of individuals found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.

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The 60-year-old was discharged from a Hamilton hospital last June. He’s now living in a small apartment “in a small rural town” about an hour’s drive from Hamilton with a woman he’s been in an “on again/off again” relationship with for three decades, as well as his son, who uses cannabis, and daughter-in-law, said the decision.

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Keddy was seeking a conditional discharge, but wasn’t agreeable to a “clause requiring attendance at the hospital upon request,” said the decision.

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He’s “noted to have a history of making repeated calls to both law enforcement and family members who had been victimized by violent crimes, and espoused conspiracy based theories,” said the ORB decision.

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Keddy has criminal convictions from 1986 until 1994, “consisting primarily of drug offences along with escaping custody and obstructing a peace officer,” said the decision. “The second set were in 2021 and 2022 and were for breaches of recognizance, failure to comply with a release order, and two counts of criminal harassment.”

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He was charged twice for harassing neighbours, “leading to no-contact orders,” said the decision. “Following one conviction, he had to sell his house, as he was forbidden to enter the town as a condition of his probation.”