Former Wasilla man accused of killing infant

WASILLA — A former Wasilla High School hockey player is being held on more than $1 million bond in a Colorado jail, accused of causing injuries that killed a 19-month-old boy.

Justin Lee Keel, 26, a 2004 Wasilla High graduate now in custody in the Mesa County Detention Facility in Grand Junction, Colo., was caring for Owen Reak, the infant son of girlfriend Amber Reak, the morning of April 10 when the boy apparently suffered a blunt-force injury to the abdomen, according to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Lissah Norcross, an investigator with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department.

That trauma crushed the child’s internal tissues, ruptured part of his small intestines and caused the boy to bleed internally, according to the affidavit.

In interviewing the forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Owen Reak, Norcross writes the pathologist “explained Owen had visible facial and buttocks bruises, which he estimated to be about 24-48 hours old at the time of death.” Norcross continued that the pathologist stated that “the injuries could have been caused by someone punching or kicking the child’s abdomen or an object hitting the child’s abdomen.”

That seems to fit the timeline from Keel, Amber Reak and other family members put together during interviews leading up to Keel’s May 24 arrest. Keel was apprehended in Grants, N.M., on a warrant alleging one count of child abuse resulting in death. He’s being held in Grand Junction, Colo., on $1,001,000 bond.

Norcross’ affidavit details a domestic relationship between Keel and Amber Reak that includes a sketchy history of injuries to the child. The pair was romantically involved while Amber Reak was pursuing a divorce from her husband, Jared Reak, the baby’s father. That history includes an incident where Owen Reak suffered a broken leg while in Keel’s care. Keel said the injury occurred when the child became tangled in his high chair.

In an interview with Norcross, Amber Reak said her child seemed fine the morning of April 10, when she and Keel were at her apartment. Owen was eating oatmeal at about 8:30 a.m. when she went in to take a shower. While in the shower, she heard two loud noises she described as “booms.”

She got out of the shower and found Keel holding Owen, “who was ‘fussy,’” Norcross wrote. “Ms. Reak stated Mr. Keel said the first ‘boom’ was a tippy cup falling off the kitchen table, and the second ‘boom’ was Owen falling off the bed.”

Less than 24 hours later, the child was found dead in his crib while visiting his paternal grandparents in Montrose, Colo., about 45 minutes south of Grand Junction, according to the affidavit. The time between that fall and the infant’s death included a visit to a local hospital, but the child’s symptoms were attributed to an illness and not trauma.

After the fall at about 10:30 a.m., the couple took Owen to visit Amber Reak’s father, Jim Milligan, who would often babysit the child, Norcross wrote. Shortly after leaving the child, Milligan called Amber saying “Owen was vomiting and insisted she take Owen to see a doctor immediately.” An examination included an X-ray of the child’s abdomen and hospital staff reported he likely had a case of stomach flu.

In the meantime, the child’s paternal grandparents were in town and asked if they could take Owen for an overnight visit, and Amber Reak said she dropped the boy off with them at about 4 p.m. At 1 a.m., the boy’s grandmother checked on him in his crib and he seemed OK, the affidavit says. When she checked again at about 4 a.m., he was not breathing and cold to the touch.

Following the child’s death, both Keel and Amber Reak denied in multiple interviews that they abused Owen or caused fatal injuries. The mother, however, admitted the child had some visible bruising, but said that happened while Owen was in Keel’s care and that he told her the child “had tripped over a wooden puzzle in his room and hit the closet door,” the affidavit says. “Ms. Reak denied seeing this incident and stated she and several other family members bruise easily, so the bruises did not cause her alarm.”

In a separate interview with Keel, he told investigators that the child was “very clumsy” and active, and that he enjoyed being around Keel, Norcross wrote. “Mr. Keel explained he felt he was having a positive role in Owen and Ms. Reak’s life, and said ‘my childhood wasn’t great.’”

Keel said he felt he “should have maybe stepped in” after Owen was injured, and said that when Amber Reak and the boy returned from the hospital, Owen looked “terrible” and like “absolute s---, he didn’t look like that that morning.”

At first, Amber Reak denied to investigators that herself or Keel could have been responsible for the child’s fatal injuries. When told of the autopsy findings and the timeline the pathologist put on when the fatal injury probably happened, she “repeated several times, ‘what the f--- happened to him’ and ‘oh God, we didn’t do anything to him,’” the affidavit says. Four days after that interview, investigators spoke with Amber Reak again, this time with her attorney present.

That’s when she provided additional information, the affidavit says. She told of another incident on about March 6 when she left Owen alone with Keel while she went to the store.

“Ms. Reak explained when she got home, Mr. Keel was shaking and described spanking Owen while she was gone,” Norcross wrote. She later saw bruises on the child’s buttocks. She also said that “she now accepts Mr. Keel had to have caused Owen’s death because she did not and there is no one else.”

While Amber Reak and Keel denied harming Owen, members of the boy’s father’s family said the feared Keel had been abusive in interviews with investigators, Norcross writes in the affidavit.

“When asked what she thought may have occurred, the 73-year-old great-grandmother stated … it was obvious to her from what she saw that ‘somebody beat the hell out of him,’” the affidavit says. “Almost everyone on Mr. Reak’s side of the family stated they were concerned that Mr. Keel may have harmed Owen. … They were all aware Owen’s leg had been broken while in Mr. Keel’s care and they have noticed Owen has had increasing amounts of bruises over the last two months, which they have learned is when Mr. Keel began spending time around Owen.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.