35°
Harrisburg police officers were called after a maintenance worker found the body of a man in the basement of the home of 48-year-old Calvin Lee Waller Jr.'s at 117 Locust Street around 4 p.m., according to court documents obtained by Daily Voice.
61-year-old Jeffrey Keckler has been identified as the victim and his death was ruled a homicide caused by multiple traumatic injuries on Thursday, Dec. 1, authorities say.
The murder weapon is believed to have been "a claw hammer" found in Waller's kitchen and a “large amount of apparent blood” was also found in the bedroom, according to court records. The police think he was killed in the bedroom and then tossed down the stairs into the basement.
It's unclear how the two men knew each other, but Keckler had recently been experiencing homelessness and Waller allegedly told his probation officer that he had "beaten up a homeless man" over something he said about his girlfriend back in October, but the court documents do not confirm this man's identity.
The records do show that he cut off his ankle monitor on Nov. 12 and had allegedly been on the run with his girlfriend ever since. The latest time he was heard from he was in South Dakota and was calling friends asking for money, they did not send any, according to the police.
Waller was charged with a felony criminal homicide, and two misdemeanors for abuse of a corpse and possession of an instrument of a crime, according to his latest court docket.
He has a serious criminal history for charges in connection with raping a child under the age of 13 years old in 2002, court records show. He served 12 years in prison for his crimes but had to serve additional probation time after violating Megan's Law and not registering as a sex offender with the Pennsylvania State police in 2015, according to older court dockets.
No additional information was released regarding this case at the time of publication.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Lancaster and receive free news updates.
