Holly Keegel

Holly Keegel is a retired Minneapolis police sergeant who has a passion for finding missing persons and giving back to the community.

Holly was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She studied at the University of Minnesota and North Hennepin Community College where she received an associate degree in law enforcement.

Holly says she furthered her love for the City by joining the Minneapolis Police Department in 1987 and served with gratitude for thirty-one and a half years before retiring in 2019.

She began her career, which she describes as “a calling,” working the streets of Minneapolis as a patrol officer, gaining twelve years of invaluable experience. Holly was promoted to sergeant in 1999 and she held a variety of assignments, both as a patrol supervisor and as an investigator.

Holly enjoyed her time in specialty units such as the Organized Crime Unit which focused on repeat offenders convicted of violent sex crimes. At one point, she went undercover in an area that was being targeted by a serial rapist and she was part of the team that was able to get the offender committed to a state institution.

At the time Holly retired, she had supervised the department’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) for eight years.  The team of six officers in her unit worked statewide, assigned to locate and apprehend the most violent offenders, wanted for crimes such as murder, sexual assault, aggravated assault, stalking, robbery and burglary. Many involved high-profile cases, including  missing persons and kidnappings.

In her role at VCAT, which she considers her favorite assignment, Holly personally arrested an Isanti businessman and hockey dad linked by familial DNA to a decades-old murder.

In the past couple of years, Holly has devoted her time, with her sister Heidi, to volunteering on missing persons cases. Their main focus has been on a University of Minnesota student, William “Bill” Campbell Underhill, who disappeared from a party in the Dinkytown area, in 1969. Bill was twenty years old when he went missing.

Holly has also been a strong advocate for women’s personal safety and co-wrote two books on the topic. Over the years, Holly has participated in numerous safety workshops. As a mother of a daughter in her twenties, the topic hits close to home for Holly.