Witnesses Describe Keadle Appearances In Search For Thomas

BEATRICE – The state continued to present evidence Friday in its case against a former Peru State College student accused of murdering  the college’s dance team leader in December of 2010.

Prosecutors say Joshua Keadle, 38, killed Tyler “Ty” Thomas after driving her from the campus to the Peru Boat ramp. Defense attorneys  say there is no scientific way to know how Thomas died, if she is dead, because her body has never been found.

RyanMcClarty of Omaha was dating Ty Thomas’ cousin Jade Gordon. He described a confrontation between Thomas and another student, Myneeka Childs, at a college party the night Thomas disappeared.

 

McClarty: “She was angry. I mean she was cursing. In my opinion, if no one were to hold her back they probably would have fought.”

McClarty said he tried  to calm Thomas down, but she kicked a hole in the wall. He said he heard Thomas say she was going back to Omaha before she left the building.

Thomas’ roommate, Whitney Medlock, worked with Thomas to revive the dance team and was vice president of the group.

 She said she learned that Thomas was missing when Childs came to the dorm looking for her.

 

She said although she had never spoken with Keadle before and they did not associate, he came to her door.

Medlock: “As she was kind of explaining, you know, she hadn’t seen her in a while. She was missing. Joshua Keadle poked his head around the door and asked, he said, is she in there?”

 

Jade Gordon said she didn’t socialize  with Keadle either, but knew him because he helped with the weight training  for a basketball team.

She was in her dorm room when Chloe Courtier’s phone range. They didn’t answer because they figured  Thomas would tell them to the return to the party, but a text message shortly followed saying
“I am lost.”

Then came a knock on their door and it was Keadle, wearing shorts but no shirt and drying himself with a towel.

Gordon: “Then we left out to go and see if we could figure out where she might have been because she didn’t respond. Didn’t answer the phone calls. We called and called and called, she didn’t answer the phone calls. I text and text. There was no response to the text messages, so we went out. We went out blind. We didn’t know where to start at.”

She said they told Keadle they were going out to look for Thomas. They searched through the early morning hours and resumed their search after sunrise.

Gordon said they drove to the Peru Boat Dock and saw Keadle there.

 

Gordon: “We saw Josh out there. He was standing outside of his driver’s side door and we kind of asked him what you doing out here? ‘Cause it’s just weird being out here to this river, like there’s nothing out here. You don’t have boat. You can’t fish out here.

“He said I ain’t doing nothing. I was just smoking some weed, about to go back to my dorm.”

Prosecutor Doug Warner also asked McClarty about his contact with Keadle during the initial search for Thomas.

Warner: “Did he say anything about seeing Tyler at the river. McClarty, No.”

The trial recessed for the weekend and is expected to resume again on Monday morning.