Thad Messimer is a retired insurance salesman who molested and murdered six-year-old Tommy Keegan in 1961, a crime that went unsolved for 30 years.
Background
Messimer was an insurance salesman and family man in the 1960s, liked and respected by his neighbors. However, in his private life, he was a child molester who used his social standing to prey on young boys. His wife Catherine and daughter Julie were completely unaware of his crimes. However, he was quietly fired from his job at Genuine Life and Casualty for propositioning an adolescent boy. In 1961, Messimer befriended Tommy, the son of his neighbor Doris Keegan, a single mother. He molested Tommy and killed him when the boy threatened to tell his mother. He then buried the body in the basement of his apartment building. Julie, who was Tommy's age at the time, saw her father washing Tommy's blood off his shirt, but was so frightened and confused that she repressed the memory. Messimer bullied and manipulated Julie throughout her childhood, and as an adult, she distanced herself from both of her parents. Tommy was officially listed as a missing child, and suspicion fell on a homosexual couple who lived in the building. Over the next 30 years, Messimer kept his secret as he drifted from job to job and abused other children.
In Memory Of...
When Tommy's remains are unearthed during a maintenance check, Detectives Cerreta and Logan interview the people who knew him. When they talk to Messimer and his wife, Messimer denies knowing anything about the murder, while trying to cast suspicion on the gay men who once lived in the neighborhood. When they talk to Julie, however, she begins to unearth long-repressed memories that implicate her father. Stone and Robinette look into Messimer's past and discover his history of abusing children, and eventually indict him for Tommy's murder. Messimer protests his innocence, and manipulates Julie into recanting her testimony against him. However, Julie eventually learns to stand up to her father with help from Olivet, and she once again testifies against him. With no other option, Messimer pleads guilty to Tommy's murder, and is sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. (L&O: "In Memory Of...")
Known Victims
- Several unnamed boys (all sexually abused)
- Tommy Keegan (molested, then murdered and buried his body)