View on Google Maps Street View. The next few days were chaos. No murder weapon, no footprints, no tire tracks. About 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City, the Norman Police Department responded Sunday night to storm damage on the south and eastern sides of Norman. There would have been music, talking, some drinking, maybe dancing. Maybe altered and those things would be extremely difficult to occur today based on the procedures that are in place.. It was like, Hey look, that case will probably never go anywhere, so forget that one, you can look at the rest of them. But he signed off on the search warrant.. K: In the search warrant, officers claimed that Gilley likely still had possession of items from the crime scene, like Davids shoes and car keys, a scrapbook of newspaper articles and personal photos of the scene and possibly the murder weapon. An officer who cut into the plastic detected an odor that they could identify with a decomposing human corpse.. You know, you think youre going to get out of this, youre going to go to class the next day or go to work or whatever you do. Recording of Ken: The reason a .22 was used is because you cant do any type of ballistics on them like you can with larger guns. Norman violent crime is 14.7. While Sandoval lived with Sanchez and his wife, there were multiple reports filed with law enforcement and state agencies, investigators said. He questioned witnesses intensely, returning again and again to the lack of physical evidence and the 20-year gap between the murders and the trial that might affect recollections of what happened. I was able to talk to my supervisor, went up the chain and went to the chief and said Hey look, can we maybe open this case back up and take another look at it, see where we can go with it? He said yeah, but go to the DAs office and talk things over with him.. But in March of 1970, just two months before the murders, he was hired, by police chief Bill Henslee. The family was polite and helpful after the murders, but wanted more than anything to just move on. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded. Police are still investigating the homicides of Elijah Mothershed, his fiancee Carnesha Powell and their daughter Roshawna Stevens. They were younger detectives and they knew that was kind of like a festering sore. The OSBIs Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and State Incident-Based Reporting System (SIBRS) are part of a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort WebUPDATE: Two people killed during shooting in Norman residential area, police say possible murder-suicide MAPS 4 planning improvements for OKC parks Local News / Feb 21, 2023 Before she left that house, she turned to my mother and said, Here mom, heres your Mothers Day present early the next day was Mothers Day. Recording of Kayla: Is that difficult to do?, Recording of Brake: Let me tell you, its not difficult to do for a true sociopath., K: Ex-policeman appears victim of hate plot, headlines a June 2, 1970 article in the Norman Transcript. The Girl Scout Murders of 1977 still remains unsolved to Recording of Linda: This was one of the weirdest things ever. Recording of Pearo: Its always a let down. He has an old binder with newspaper clippings, police reports and photos he took of the crime scene when it was discovered. K: Gilley rushed home to a frenzy of officers. After picking Sheryl up at her Oklahoma City home, the pair drove down to Norman to attend a party at Daves fraternity. August Murders accounted for 1.5% of all violent crimes and 0.2% of reported index crimes. The more I learned about that night, the more I realized it started off just like the fraternity parties today. Certain convictions you cant have to get hired at a police department. Now, Gilley was living in Amarillo, presumably with his parents, Jacobson told us. But agents like Ken Jacobson didnt believe that and kept investigating. Recording of Pearo: The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, because they had helped out on the murder investigation as well and theyre the ones that have the labs and everything in the state of Oklahoma, so the evidence was all turned over the the OSBI. Fraternity parties always being what they were, I suspect David had a few beers., Recording of Jacobson: They tell us David was a hot head and David said youre not the sheriff. K: Thats Chip Minty, a reporter at The Oklahoman who covered the trial, describing Gilleys demeanor on Oct. 21, 1991, as jurors were picked. Theyd see Gilleys pictures in the papers, on TV Amarillos not that big of a town. K: They lived in a house off of Northwest 46th Street, a main road in Oklahoma City. Thats where Dave would have walked when he came to pick Sheryl up for their date Saturday night. K: Undeterred by the two passed polygraphs, investigators kept digging. Frank wanted you to know that he was on top of everything and that he was better than these other guys.. This meant that investigators were not only working a difficult case, but also working against bosses and colleagues, politics and public perception. Maybe the war protesters from earlier that week had started rioting. And theres probably a million cases like that This one is really unique in that it involved a police officer and I think that if we had had 100 percent cooperation from the get go, that we could have cleared it., K: It wasnt until 1972 that the case seemed like it might pick back up again. FIND A FACILITY. Police traveled to the There were press conferences asking for information and a reward fund was set up, raising thousands of dollars to give to anyone who could provide helpful details. In the safe we found some more weapons, one of them was a sawed-off shotgun, which is illegal. They take that very seriously because they testify to that in court as to who exactly has touched that piece of property, analyzed it, when it left to go to OSBI, when it returned. Henslee backed him, saying Gilley wasnt the kind of man to commit any serious crimes, definitely not murder. I hope he died alone and a very painful death. And about 10 or 15 minutes later, we looked up and dont know how long this guy had been standing there, but we looked up and there was a man standing there and he had a badge and he showed it to us. That was good enough for me to go after him with everything I had.. He told Jacobson he needed to shift his focus elsewhere, but Jacobson was already convinced Gilley was the main suspect. Yeah we should do that. K: With Gilley arrested, Pearo believes detectives can finally charge him with the murders of Sheryl and David, but the Cleveland County DA wants to give a grand jury another try. Recording of Ken: Its my opinion that there were a lot of folks working against us. K: Most of these testimonies didnt come as a shock to those intimately involved with the case. Recording of Pearo: So we went to De Soto, went in his house, we found a gun safe in his house that we couldnt get in to Frank was at work, so we got a locksmith to come out and get us in the safe. Recording of Ken: But we jumped in the car in Oklahoma City and drove out to Lubbock, drove all night. K: Police had starting investigating where Sheryl and David could have been after Sheryls dad filed the missing persons report. Recording of Ken: Well Frank and Henslee and the sheriff were all buddies from out there and so we asked Henslee if we could take a look at that letter and he couldnt produce it. A tight knit group. It was pretty tough. K: Four days later, Pearo and other officers arrested Gilley at the auto parts store where he worked and booked him once again into the Dallas County jail. Recording of Brake: Wish we could have put the son of a bitch in the electric chair.. And the further you get into it, the further you want to get into it. For Linda, talking openly about her sister is something thats relatively new. (The US average is 35.4) NOTE: Click on the links below to see charts for each crime category. And so were not letting that go. Sheryl graduated from Putnam City High School in 1969 and was living in Oklahoma City with her parents, her older sister Linda and Lindas oldest son. Not only does the department interact with the Norman community on a more regular basis, but the hiring protocols for officers have completely changed. Now you dont die right away from a wound in the lung unless there is a major artery hit. They believe the incident started before Gilleys NPD shift started around midnight Saturday. The medical examiner said Byron The place Dave and Sheryl went was popular, though they probably werent expecting to find any company. The driveway is to the left, the sidewalk running along the length of the house for a few yards before the steps to the front door. The last known report was on April 16, 2018, investigators said. Eventually, Jacobson told Ben Benham, Sheryls father, to try writing a letter to Oklahomas attorney general and see if a grand jury could be convened, effectively skipping the need for authorization from heads of local agencies and instead giving officers a way to immediately close in on Gilley. Recording of Pearo: Ken never gave up on the case. So I wanted to file impersonating an officer and he would tell these kids he was the sheriff and the DA refused to file. Compare Norman crime data to Well we thought that was unusual because Frank lived in Amarillo.. Recording of Linda: He looked at my mom and said, Sue, Im going after him and theyre not going to do anything, and he got his truck and took off and I know he had a rifle. Recording of Pearo: So what we had done in retrospect was probably a mistake. WebCrime Map. They covered for one another and allowed scandals and corruption to be swept under the rug. Another unsolved case is that of 2-year-old Riah Thomas. He hoped to become director of the OSBI, Jacobson said, and a mark like this on someones record could derail a rising career. The two stayed there for an unknown amount of time. NORMAN Investigators arrested a man in connection with the death of a woman whose remains were found at Lake Thunderbird last Monday. She talked about Sheryl like this every time we had a phone call. Officers also started looking into Gilleys personal life, interviewing the woman he was married to in the 70s about his whereabouts the night of the murders. She suggested we go to the police station and see if anythings come up. It was another disappointing end again.. The OSBI later identified the The jury went on for a few days, but thats really the end of it. Cold Cases, Missing and Unsolved Crimes. Six: Why Gilley was allowed to resign days after the murders? The verdict was inevitable in my opinion. K: In fact, for 20 years, he, the initial investigator and pursuer of justice, kept a single shell casing in an envelope, one he picked up while walking the fields after finding the bodies of Sheryl and Dave. She would drive it to work, drive it to see her friends She loved life, she loves everything that everybody did, and she looked for that in people.. DNA testing wasnt being used yet, so police had few options. Hes reading a statement from a boy in Amarillo who witnessed a crucial altercation involving Frank Gilley. Plus the chief added some automatic disqualifiers to that on drug usage, domestic issues that you may have that will automatically disqualify you from our process. WebNORMAN, Okla. Police have identified the two people killed in a double-homicide in Norman. The case becomes exceedingly complicated and twisted from here on out, so be prepared. And that pool cue was over on the passengers side, on the floor and it was completely wiped clean, didnt have anybodys fingerprints on it., Recording of Brake: So I think Sloan grabbed that pool cue handle and said Ill kick your ass and Gilley shot him with the handgun. Its just that willingness to listen and to take action on those things.. With the information from the previous investigation, the gun turning up and interviews with every single original witnesses, except one that died, detectives decided to try and get a warrant to search Gilleys De Soto residence. So if you come across something at a department where something may have beentried to be swept under the rug because the department didnt want to look bad, the current chief or sheriff didnt want to look bad for whatever reason you might think that happens. So I think in this case, at least from what Ive been able to read about it, there were a lot of questions about things disappearing or not being there. Crime news across America. Gilley said he was not guilty. Today, that house is tall and long, bricked at the bottom. Map Browse By State A lot of blood and congestion in the right lung from a wound in the lung. Recording of Linda: Early the next morning, my sister had not come home and we knew something was wrong I remember my mother shaking me saying, Linda, Linda. Im like, What? She said, Have you heard from Sherry? Im like, What are you talking about? And I begin to hear all this, She never came home last night. My very first thought was Oh my god, Sherry, are you in trouble now. My dad was gone before daylight driving to Norman. Using the testimonies from other young couples and from Butch Green, they eventually secured a warrant to search Gilleys home in Amarillo in December of 1970. He said yes Do you know if Gilley owned or had in his possession any .22 caliber weapons? I told him we hadnt. The initial investigation putters out after obstruction from local law enforcement agencies. Recording of Minty: his job was to cast some kind of doubt on the jurys mind about whether, you know, the validity of those claims. WebNorman police shoot suspect who allegedly killed 1, shot another The shooting happened around 6 p.m. Thursday in the 300 block of East Comanche. At the end of episode two, we first heard the name Frank Gilley as a possible suspect in the murders of Sheryl Benham and David Sloan in early May of 1970. K: Eventually, Norman prosecutors declared they would be seeking the death penalty for Gilley due to the period of torture and terror David and Sheryl endured while being locked alive in the trunk. Two counts of first-degree murder. At the end of episode four, police called Frank Gilley at work and told him to hurry home. He was arrested early May 6, 1977, after being found by a neighbor asleep outside the bloody apartment. Brake lives in Oklahoma City, working part time as a public information officer for the OKC county commissioners office. My mother finally said, Ive got to call Ms. Sloan and tell her what is going on. My mother hung up the phone and said, She is on her way.. Most of these shots were in the upper body and head. K: Lubbock and Amarillo are nearly two hours away from each other. Sheryl met David Sloan at Steak and Ale, a restaurant in Oklahoma City where they both worked. Sheryls family started thinking of possibilities of what could have happened. Why that change?, Recording of Foster: Its just due to the public pressures on things and us relooking at things and listening to the public go Oh yeah yeah, that does make sense, that would be a lot better. Joshua Bookout. Bill Maher funeral home. We had talked about wanting to devote resources to an investigative piece, and what unfolded left us determined to tell the stories of not only of those who died, but really about those who spent their lives with the case and how police at the local and state level conduct investigations. On the way up, Mr. Gilley made several remarks to the Mexican, one remark was that he didnt like his face. Ended up, I dont know how many days and nights we first worked on that, several, and now 48 years later, its terrible.. WebThis Cleveland County Oklahoma Most Wanted List posts the top 50-100 fugitive criminals on the run. Recording of Brake: 200 people. Authorities found a 9mm handgun inside a trash can in the garage, according to an arrest warrant. K: But investigators did find .22 caliber weapons in the house, however they were technically owned by Gilleys father. Two days later, testimony began. Other officers also took the stand, saying Gilley kept several guns in his work locker at the police department, one of which was a .22 caliber rifle with a hexagon barrel, the specific caliber of weapon used in the murders. Pearo and his fellow investigators would drive to Dallas frequently, watching Gilleys house, following him to work, trying to put together enough evidence to arrest him. NORMAN Police conducting a murder investigation say the decomposed body of a woman with special needs was found inside a container in the basement of a home about three years after she went missing. He was taken before a grand jury in Amarillo and indicted, given a suspended sentence and put on probation for an aggravated assault charge, though it was deemed a misdemeanor. WebNORMAN Police conducting a murder investigation say the decomposed body of a woman with special needs was found inside a container in the basement of a home about Recording of Pearo: You could see some of the resentment from people who are now adults still going back to their college days and being really critical on the police. Its every single step we take in our evidence transfer or testing or anything and is logged in a computer system. Theres a large backyard shaded by multiple trees. When we found Lindas phone number and reached out to her, she had reservations about telling her story to another set of reporters, but she became an invaluable source, sharing personal details from a family struck with tragedy. K: In the spring of 1971, the bodies of Gilleys former partner Butch Green and Greens mistress were found after her husband shot and killed them when he found the pair together. 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