JUSTINE KEEFE - 3 yo (2008) - Leominster MA

A soft-spoken and polite Joanne Keefe arrived in Leominster District
Court yesterday morning to face charges of kidnapping her daughter more
than a year and a half ago and fleeing to Tennessee, where she was
found earlier this month.


According to Ms. Keefe’s lawyer, the former Gardner woman had
some miscommunication with the state Department of Children and
Families and with her mother, who had custody of Ms. Keefe’s young
daughter.


Ms. Keefe, 43, was held on $25,000 cash bail yesterday after
she was arraigned on a count of kidnapping a minor by relation. The
charge carries a sentence of no more than a year in the House of
Correction. Ms. Keefe’s case was continued to Nov. 9 and a not guilty
plea was entered on her behalf.


U.S. marshals tracked Ms. Keefe and her 3-year-old daughter,
Justine, to a mobile home in a trailer park in Blountville, Tenn.,
earlier this month. Court officials said yesterday the child is in
state custody here. Authorities in Tennessee called the girl a charmer
and very beautiful.


“Ms. Keefe had been on the run since March 2008,” Assistant District Attorney Anthony J. Marotta said in court.


In March 2008, Ms. Keefe, who last lived on Hemlock Drive in
Gardner, left her child’s grandmother’s house in Yarmouth with her
daughter, who at the time was 2. The state had temporarily placed the
girl in her grandmother’s custody because of Ms. Keefe’s mental health
problems.


State police investigators tracked Ms. Keefe to Tennessee and
contacted U.S. marshals in Boston. Authorities found her in
Blountville, a town of about 3,000 people.


Mark R. Strohl, Ms. Keefe’s boyfriend, who disappeared from
Westminster after Ms. Keefe allegedly took her daughter, also was in
the mobile home. He was not charged.


Ms. Keefe’s lawyer, Timothy W. Murphy, said the girl was
voluntarily placed in state custody more than a year ago because of Ms.
Keefe’s mental health problems.


He said Ms. Keefe believed her daughter was being abused in a
foster home and the child was removed from the home and moved into the
custody of Ms. Keefe’s mother.


“She’s not been hiding per se,” Mr. Murphy said. His client moved to find work, he said.


Ms. Keefe received the attention of Ohio investigators after a
historic roadside marker signifying the birthplace of Wild West
sharpshooter Annie Oakley was stolen from Greenville, Ohio, in 2007.
Authorities questioned Ms. Keefe and Mr. Strohl, but they were not
charged.


Ms. Keefe believes she is a descendant of the legendary sharpshooter.