Keith Mars - Background

Background

After going after popular billionaire Jake Kane for the murder of Jake's daughter Lilly, an emergency recall election removed him from office. His credibility was hurt even more after Abel Koontz confessed to the crime. Shortly thereafter, his daughter, Veronica, became a social outcast for siding with her dad and his wife, Lianne, left them. However, he refused to leave town and instead became a private investigator under the name Mars Investigations. Veronica does most of her sleuthing through Keith's numerous contacts and resources.

At the end of "Like a Virgin," Abel Koontz implied that Veronica was the biological daughter of Jake Kane. Veronica had a chance to find out who her father was in the next episode, "Drinking the Kool-Aid," but she shredded the paternity test. In "Hot Dogs," Keith sent in his own paternity test, which proved that Veronica is his biological daughter.

Since Veronica's mother, Lianne, left the family, Keith has been in three romantic relationships: one with Veronica's guidance counselor, Rebecca James, one with Wallace Fennel's mother, Alicia Fennel, and another with a client, Harmony Chase. His relationship with Rebecca was short-lived, because Veronica was uncomfortable with her father's dating, as she felt he should be looking for Lianne. He dated Alicia for several months, but they broke up in "Blast from the Past," after he confronted her about her lying to Wallace about his biological father, and, in the ensuing argument, Alicia questioned Keith's parenting skills. Keith began an affair with Harmony Chase after she hired him to find out whether her husband was cheating on her. Though Keith had strong feelings for Harmony, Veronica convinced Keith that it was a huge moral failing to be involved with a married woman, and Keith ended the affair in "Of Vice and Men."

After the revelation at the end of Season One that Aaron Echolls murdered Lilly, he ran for Sheriff against incumbent Don Lamb in Season Two. He lost by a narrow margin after Lamb accused Keith of being indirectly responsible for the bus crash that killed several Neptune High students. Several years earlier, Keith had pulled bus driver Ed Doyle for DUI but had not charged him. Ed Doyle was the driver in a bus crash which killed several students, and many, Sheriff Lamb among them, believed that Doyle crashed intentionally as a suicide attempt. He said after the election that "we'll get 'em in 2010," so, barring another recall election, Lamb's position appeared safe for another four years. After Sheriff Lamb's death in "Mars, Bars", he is asked by the County Commissioner to return as acting sheriff. In the final episode, he is up for election for the post he once held, and the series ends without clarity as to whether he won.