Cold Cases That Were Finally Solved: The Murder of Jessica Keen

Jessica Lyn Keen was born on September 24th, 1975 in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio to Rebecca Keen Smitley and James Keen. She was 15-years-old an honor student and a cheerleader. Everyone loved her. Jessica composed music and wanted to become a singer or an actress. She also had a huge passion for animals. She was planing on studying Zoology when she got to college. 

Things were going great for Jessica and then she met 18-year-old Shawn Thompson. Soon after she quit cheerleading. Her parents objected to her seeing Thompson. Jessica's grades started to suffer because she would skip school to see Thompson. Jessica and her mom began arguing a lot and couldn't stand to be around each other. Her parents didn't know what to do so they placed her, so on March 4th, 1991 they placed Jessica in a home for troubled teens called "Huckleberry House".

For the first few weeks that Jessica attended counseling at the Huckleberry House, things seemed to be going well. She was making peace with her mistakes and owning up to the problems that she had caused.
On March 15th, Jessica had a bad argument with Thompson over the phone that ended their relationship. After she departed Huckleberry House to go to the mall. Jessica was last seen alive at the bus stop at around 6 p.m. This was the day before she was going to be released to go home.

At 11 p.m., bed checks at Huckleberry revealed that Jessica hadn't returned. Jessica's mom was contacted and she was so concerned that she put in a missing persons' report with police. Jessica's mom thought that maybe she was with Thompson.

After being missing for two days, Jessica's body was found at the back of Foster Chapel Cemetery, 20 miles from Huckleberry. She had been raped and bludgeoned to death. She was wearing a mangled bra and one sock. She still had on her ring and watch, but a pendant with the word "taken" was nowhere to be found. Jessica had duct tape around her hands and her head covering her mouth.

Investigators believed that Jessica was abducted from the bus stop or coerced into a vehicle, raped, and held for at least six hours. Then sometime in the middle of the night on March 16th, she escaped from her attackers and ran towards the cemetery. Evidence showed that she hid behind several tombstones. One of her socks  her knee print was found behind one of the tombstones. Also, one of the tombstones had her blood on it along with a big crack.

It is surmised that she saw a light from a farmhouse and while running towards it, she slammed into a fence post. This allowed her attackers to catch up with her. They raped her, beat her to death by hitting a tombstone against her head. This would explain the blow to the forehead and the evidence of rape that was discovered in her autopsy. The autopsy also showed that Jessica had no alcohol or drugs in her system.

Initially, the police directed their focus on Shawn, but he and several friends had left for Florida during the time that Jessica was killed, and DNA evidence cleared him in the case.

Crimestoppers anonymous and police together put up a reward on information in Jessica's murder.

Jessica's parents put a cross with her name on it where her body was discovered.

Jessica is buried 7 miles from the scene of her death, in Sunset Cemetery on Rt. 40 in Franklin County.

"I try to imagine her as older. . . . I dream about that, envision what her life would have been," said her sister, Heather. "But she'll always be just my little sister."

Chantal Lewis was Jessica 's best friend. "She was a very beautiful person," Lewis said. "She had this sparkle in her eye. You knew she was gonna be something."

Seventeen years later, based on DNA evidence taken from Jessica's body, Marvin Lee Smith was arrested for her abduction, rape, and murder. He had been charged with assaults against two Columbus women and was out on bond when she was killed. He eventually was convicted for the two Columbus attacks and served nine years in prison. Since he was a felon, he had to submit his DNA, which led to the match.

In 2009, Smith confessed to Jessica's murder to avoid the death penalty. His details from the confession matched with that at the crime scene. He also confirmed that he was the only person responsible. Smith revealed that he had used a seventy-pound tombstone to strike her over the head. In February 2009, he pled guilty to aggravated murder, kidnapping, and rape, and was sentenced to life in prison and will not be eligible for parole until 2038.