We announced that we were going to go for the death penalty on those cases because of the circumstances. And after almost 50 years, she said the pain is more manageable. She was just, oh, well-respected, very intelligent, just you know My dad was a very strict father, but he, uh, you just knew what to do and what not to do.. How did you kill them? It was the first night of Girl Scout camp when 3 young girls were killed and sexually molested. Six: Why Gilley was allowed to resign days after the murders? He told Jacobson he needed to shift his focus elsewhere, but Jacobson was already convinced Gilley was the main suspect. At the end of episode four, police called Frank Gilley at work and told him to hurry home. Munoz told investigators he last saw Sanchez in May of 2020 when Sanchez was trying to get into the house uninvited, according to the search warrant affidavit. It may have been almost 50 years since the murders, but Linda said it rarely feels that long. I think he locked them in the trunk after wounding David., Recording of Brake: I think at this point hes just got the little .22 pistol. Soon after he testified, the jury began deliberations. When you read Davids autopsy report, you find massive right hemoral thorax. Munoz said he had to call police to get Sanchez to leave. My mom, of course, is there, and I was there with her. WebThis horrific crime happened on June 13, 1977 at Camp Scott in Mayes County. He still lives in the area. I think dad was with him for a long time with what was going on He was so honest and wanted justice done. But amid the chaos, David Sloan and Sheryl Benham were preparing for a date. Most of the case takes place in central Oklahoma and Northern Texas, but our story begins five days earlier in Kent, Ohio, on Monday, May 4, 1970. Recording of Kayla: What was it like for you at the time that you retired was the case still open or had it kind of effectively gone cold?. He brought up the likelihood that Butch Green, his former partner who died a year after the murders, was the real potential suspect. Except one, a few days later. Impersonating an officer today can lead to jail time and thousands of dollars in fines, but in 1971 Gilley didnt spend any time in jail. Recording of Ken: Im thrilled that somebody is still interested enough in it to try to put something together, thats why I didnt hesitate to meet with yall. It says after being acquainted with Frank Gilley, it was the opinion of this officer that Gilley is very capable of committing such an act of which he is being investigated by your department. Dave Pearo and some of those guys, they really wanted to go after it.. The call came from a TV station in Amarillo, Texas, a few days after the murders. K: At this point, as we were learning all of this and trying to connect the dots, we started to have some questions. Henslee claimed that he had gotten a letter of recommendation from one of Gilleys old bosses, but OSBI agent Ken Jacobson said when case detectives asked him to show them the letter, he couldnt find it. Recording of Brake: He told me that if anyone asked me about a .22 rifle, which he might own, to tell them no. Re-reading articles and court documents, its clear he challenged every step of the trial. Rarely did he make any type of gestures that would draw any interest.He was quiet and he didnt do anything to call attention to himself.. The murders are intrinsically tied to the decade they occurred the type of technology available for investigations, the loss of trust in police and the beginnings of harsh public scrutiny into government bodies. On Nov. 21, 1990, officers were able to search Gilleys residence. They had broken up a few months before, but Jacobson said he just wasnt the type to commit a murder. Hundreds of thousands of college students were protesting the Vietnam War. He sent it to the Norman mayor, the DA and even Mike Brake, who still has an original copy. The Girl Scout Murders of 1977 still remains unsolved to It is like a fairy tale now. Recording of Kayla: Can you speak about the relationship between Henslee and Gilley? Linda, Sheryls older sister by two years, stayed at their family home in Oklahoma City with her mom. Were just, you just dont let it go. 112 GREAT OAKS DR, NORMAN, OK 73071 Property Report 145441690 Having a conversation with Gilley in reference to his activities when he was a deputy sheriff in Amarillo, he told me of several investigations he had made and also relayed to me that during patrolling for our police department, he asked where any parkers went. NORMAN, Okla. - Special agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation have arrested a man in connection to the murder of a woman who was found at Lake Thunderbird. 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. There was every bit of circumstantial case you could have wanted to the point of you have to ask, who else in the world could have done it? A suspect is in custody, the sheriff's office in Tate County, Mississippi, He spoke of how Gilley admitted to him he did know David before the murders, though Gilley previously testified he had never met David. K: Gilley was living close to Dallas in De Soto, Texas, in the early 90s. Linda and Sheryls parents, Ben and Sue Benham, moved around for Bens different jobs until settling their family in Oklahoma City for good. He called us one night and said Franks agreed to take a polygraph and were going to do it in Lubbock. 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. K: This was one of the houses Gilley lived in full-time while he was on the Norman police force and on and off for a few months after the murders. I told him we hadnt. It wasnt going to get any better.. A monthslong extradition fight began, ending in May 1991 with Gilley being brought to the Cleveland County jail. Sarah Jensen, a spokeswoman for the Norman Police Department, said the investigation is active and ongoing. Now you dont die right away from a wound in the lung unless there is a major artery hit. DNA testing wasnt being used yet, so police had few options. Recording of Brake: Henslee, I think, after the murder happened, I think he thought right away Oh this guy might have done it and Im going to look terrible for hiring him, so lets just get him the heck out of town. So Henslee was in cover up mode at that point. There was a lot of talk about cover up from the chief of police back then and everything, so the whole thing just had kind of a bad smell to it I guess. After President Richard Nixon announced plans to invade Cambodia, riots, protests and demonstrations broke out all over the country. Two: Why Henslee hadnt focused the investigation closer on Gilley from the beginning? Maybe altered and those things would be extremely difficult to occur today based on the procedures that are in place.. .. On June 8, 1970, they had driven down to Norman It says Well we were on a dirt road and had pulled up toward the west to where the sun was going down.. WebOKLAHOMA CITY - Authorities have identified the two men shot in an apparent murder-suicide Wednesday in the backyard of a Norman home. The Whoever did that knew about crime scenes and knew about firearms they knew what they were doing. He told me that if he asked Rick if I were a virgin and he told him I was and he asked me if I myself was and I told him no. Its been 48 years and the case has been closed and reopened, seen two grand juries and one trial. We talked to more than just that agency to try to uncover those things and those issues such as in this case an issue we had in Amarillo., Recording of Kayla: You mentioned that that was kind of a change. You know and Frank and David were both described as hotheads and so you put two hotheads together I think Frank his only choice was to shoot him to protect himself and then Sherry probably just did whatever he wanted her to do., Recording of Brake: heek. Ronald Lee McMullen Jr., who hails from Norman, was charged with first-degree murder after Kailee Jo McMullen was found deceased from a single gunshot wound to the face on the morning of June 29, 2017, according to a People Magazine report. Description: DISTURBANCE/DOMESTIC. As a matter of fact, he, even all those years later, he kept track of where Gilley was on the sly, would leave him a little note on his car every once in a while, Gilley wouldnt know where it came from, but were still looking at you, that kind of stuff, a little psychological warfare. The OSBI later identified the Grady. WebOn Feb. 13, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation opened a suspicious death investigation after remains were found at the lake in Norman. K: The lost evidence and the hiring of Gilley in the first place played major roles in the Benham-Sloan case, but so did the alleged obstruction by the various law enforcement agencies. I dont think Henslee was convinced that Gilley had done it at that point. Five days later, a few miles west of OUs campus, shots were fired again, ending the lives of two college students. And then we sort of told him Weve got some good news and bad news. Thats where Dave would have walked when he came to pick Sheryl up for their date Saturday night. 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. Every issue theyve had including internal affairs investigations at the current agencies theyre with, talking to officers that they work with those agencies also and friends neighbors and things to see if anything else comes up. WebCrime Map. He resigned and worked for an amusements company before being hired at the Norman Police Department, according to articles in the Norman Transcript. Joshua Bookout. Recording of Foster: One, we have basic requirements of age. After 20 years, they couldnt see putting a guy to death. They just couldnt get past the death penalty portion., Recording of Brake: I think there were people on that jury who said I believe he did it but I can not send him to the electric chair When NPD first contacted me back then and said they were going to try and revitalize the case and they started running through all the material again, I remember sitting down there in the homicide office down in Norman with the file sitting on the desk between us saying Its great what you guys are doing but I dont think you can nail him. The case is almost 50 years old and remains unsolved. He was found to not be involved with the case at all. No murder weapon, no footprints, no tire tracks. 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. Im Kayla Branch and at the end of episode three, investigators had taken testimonies from 14 young adults who came forward claiming Frank Gilley had harassed them while they parked on lovers lanes. Be When these kids started coming up and picking his picture out of a photo lineup is when I really started believing they knew what they were talking about.. Then here we can and were visiting it again, making the news again. Everytime I just about get it out of my head, somebody calls and says weve got a guy that thinks hes got the gun. In the safe we found some more weapons, one of them was a sawed-off shotgun, which is illegal. Recording of Linda: I dont know how to explain that. WebNORMAN, Okla. Norman police on Thursday released the identities of two men who died in an apparent murder-suicide. K: The caliber of the weapon that killed Dave and Sheryl. 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. The verdict was inevitable in my opinion. And then all of a sudden one day, he said he found it. 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. I know who you are, youre Frank Gilley, Recording of Brake: So what I think happened is they stopped there to make some whoopie, and I think maybe Sherry was already undressed when Gilley approached. Recording of Sarah: And I think even evidence management is like a totally different ball game in the sense of how we now use a locker system. Address: 6400 BLOCK OF 36TH AVENUE NW, Norman, OK. View Source Square with arrow pointing upper right. K: This is one of the only times we ever came across the Sloan family coming to Norman to be involved with the case. Hes got a big smile, seems confident. Weve got pictures of them but thats it. Many thought a cop would never commit such a crime. K: This was the same polygraph Henslee had Gilley take shortly after the murders, the test Henslee said proved Gilleys innocence. Recording of Linda: Well, she loved her job I love, theres this one picture of Sherri, she looked so cute she had the little red skirt and the white top, you know, and she was just so cute in it.. Recording of Pearo: So what we had done in retrospect was probably a mistake. 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. Did they find Sherry? Yes. K: Solorzano said protocols for handling evidence have become much more strict in the last 50 years, every step being documented in a complex computer program. David came to OU as a student from Amarillo, Texas, in 1966. Recording of Ken: There was just like half a dozen guys on the police department that would even talk to us. I didnt really want to, but I thought itll be pretty easy; I live in Midwest City and Ill drive down there and we can process that car in an hour or two. Cold Cases, Missing and Unsolved Crimes. K: Ballistics tests had come back negative for guns collected from a search of Gilleys home in November 1990, when officers found a sawed-off shotgun and tried to connect it with the murders of David and Sheryl. This was a disappointment, but it paled in comparison to the news detectives received when they went to the OSBI to retrieve the rest of the case evidence. Potter County, where Gilley was working directly before he came to Norman, covers the northern half of Amarillo. W. E. Joslin, a worker on the Norman dairy farm owned by Charles Haynes in western Norman, said he arrived at the property, which has a view of the lovers lane where David and Sheryl were killed, at about 3 a.m. to go to work on Mothers Day 1970. Brake lives in Oklahoma City, working part time as a public information officer for the OKC county commissioners office. When the OSBI, along with the Norman Police Department and the Cleveland County Sheriffs Office, found the bodies on Monday, May 11, Sheryl and David had been missing for just over 24 hours. And even though the gun turned over by Gilleys landlord wasnt the murder weapon, it gave Pearo a path to officially reopen the case. Two days later, testimony began. Recording of Ken: Its my opinion that there were a lot of folks working against us. According to articles, testimonies and interviews, Henslee was worried. The only thing we had to work with was the shell casing that had been ejected, and the firing pin makes a distinct impression on the shell casing, and this one was unusual But we could never match them. Christopher Sanders. 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. And now I can talk about it without breaking down and crying. Way past that 1991 trial. Due to the current status of the case, information is limited at this time, Jensen said. The calls got further apart, but somebody would always call and would say what do you think about this thing, did you look at this, and all that. 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. K: There was plenty of evidence in the case right after the murders happened that today would have most likely garnered a conviction through DNA testing, said Jordan Solorzano, the public information officer at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The violent crime rate in Norman is 289.4 per 100,000 people. NOTES: GRADY CO But the DA at that time was adamant that the case was going to go to trial with what we had because, you know, the case wasnt improving. And the further you get into it, the further you want to get into it. We think David recognized him from that trial in Amarillo, Recording of Brake: Heres whats interesting about the autopsy report that told me at the time how I think it transpired. K: Gilley had a clean official record until this incident in 1968. 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