13 May 29th-June 4th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | develop probable cause. Speaking recently by phone to New Times, Owens declined to comment on the status of the investigation. As for the septic tanks, he said digging them up could connect the dots or reveal nothing — even if Keith’s body was actually dumped in them 19 years ago. “In my experience, most of the flesh would be gone,” Owens said. “But depending on the chemicals and the things inside the septic tank, we could expect to possibly recover bone material or bone fragment material and be able to analyze that.” The Cold Case Unit that Owens over- sees has scored some successes, cracking two unsolved murders in and near Prescott. In 2023, the unit reportedly helped solve the 1987 murder of 23-year- old college student Cathy Sposito. And in 2020, a cold case volunteer helped solve the 1980 shooting death of Michael E. Lee outside of town. Owens acknowledged the King family’s frustrations and asked for patience. Cold cases are difficult to investigate, he said. “People get older, they forget minor details, and in a cold case, it’s the minor details that point us into the direction of where to go,” he said. In Keith’s case, several principals are dead. But Lindsey King remains skeptical. In a follow-up interview on the patio of The Main Ingredient, Lindsey said she found Higdon and Owens to be “trustworthy” but felt they were giving her conflicting messages. They asked her to be “patient” while harping on how complicated and expensive it would be to dig up a septic tank. “‘We’re not going to go into this until we have a smoking gun,’ is how they were trying to present it to me,” she said. “I don’t feel they’re doing anything more than has been done before.” She wants more giddy-up-and-go from the sheriff’s office, particularly when it comes to the tanks she’s convinced hold her father’s remains. The issue is not a new one. Though the sheriff’s office has been responsive of late, the King family has long complained about the office’s lack of interest in the case. In a 2007 letter to an attorney, Linda King – Lindsey’s grandmother and Keith’s mom – detailed a series of perceived missteps and displays of indifference on the part of the sheriff’s office, concluding that its investigators didn’t care because “Keith had been a drug addict from time to time.” Lindsey made the letter available to New Times. An ordained minister in the Church of Science of the Mind, Linda King died in 2019 at 81. She never learned the fate of her son Keith, the fourth of her six children. Keith’s ghost doesn’t just haunt the King family. Employees at the Seligman outposts the Black Cat Bar and the Roadkill Cafe recalled seeing Keith and Wells together and the missing person posters the family put up when Keith vanished. One waitress told New Times that after Keith disappeared, Wells and Wilkins were seen together and tongues wagged, suggesting the pair had offed him. Lindsey said that initially, her main goal in partnering with Waldrip was to find out what happened to her father and possibly recover his remains. Ideally, she’d like the sheriff’s office to pump the septic tanks, do a criminal investigation and seek the pros- ecution of her dad’s killer. But she knows that justice is elusive and that she may never be able to prove who murdered her dad. Still, she wants to send a broader message to the person or persons who may have taken her father’s life: That he was not garbage. And that he’s been sorely missed. “I want the person who killed my father to know that he had kids and that his life was valuable, and it meant something to me,” she said. “It felt like he was just thrown away or something. My dad deserved a lot better than that. I want people to know he was loved.” The Ghosts of Seligman from p 12 Keith King with one of his daughters, decades ago. (Courtesy of Lindsey King)
