Jacobson said calls flooded in, but every one of them led to a dead end. The final episode explores the trial that took place 20 years after the murders and follows up with current law enforcement administrations on evidence and hiring protocols. So we got Ken involved and he became really instrumental in being able to help us out with kind of what happened back in the beginning, how the case got convoluted into this big cover up thing by the then chief of police.. K: Boden and her date Rick had been west of Norman, in the same area that David and Sheryl were just 30 days earlier. And then, on the last full day of trial, on Friday, Nov. 8, Perrine put Gilley on the stand. But handwritten here, in Ken Jacobsons handwriting, Gilley made a verbal statement on 5-12-70 to this agent that he was personally acquainted with Sloan and had trouble with that wise punk in Amarillo two or three times.. Six: Why Gilley was allowed to resign days after the murders? WebNORMAN, Okla. Norman police on Thursday released the identities of two men who died in an apparent murder-suicide. K: Sheryls mom died in 1995 and her dad in 2001. While Sandoval lived with Sanchez and his wife, there were multiple reports filed with law enforcement and state agencies, investigators said. There is no other perpetrator that makes any sense at all, none., Recording of Ken: When you get in a situation like that, you never really think youre going to die. They left the fraternity house around 11:30 p.m. and went to a place in western Norman known as Lovers Lane. In 1970, Norman was going through a period of growth, but this part of town, out past the main highway and now home to a large residential area with houses and schools, was still just farmland and brush. Maybe altered and those things would be extremely difficult to occur today based on the procedures that are in place.. 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. Recording of Foster: Back then a lot more of that stuff what went on. Linda, Sheryls older sister by two years, stayed at their family home in Oklahoma City with her mom. The jurors came back Monday, Nov. 11 with a verdict. And they did a good job, far as cleaning it up and everything.. NORMAN Investigators arrested a man in connection with the death of a woman whose remains were found at Lake Thunderbird last Monday. . In the safe we found some more weapons, one of them was a sawed-off shotgun, which is illegal. 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. According to articles, testimonies and interviews, Henslee was worried. Everytime I just about get it out of my head, somebody calls and says weve got a guy that thinks hes got the gun. Grady. WebNORMAN, Okla. Police have identified the two people killed in a double-homicide in Norman. And its important to remember here that Gilley left the Norman police force on May 15. K: From interviews, news articles and court documents, we were able to piece together an outline of that night. Decades of investigations followed, creating ripples in the Norman community still felt today. The Benhams became close with investigators, especially Ken Jacobson, the lead investigator from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. WebBest Places to Live | Compare cost of living, crime, cities, schools and more. WebIn April 2004, the Oklahoma Senate, by a vote of 38 to 7, and the Oklahoma House of Representatives, by a vote of 92 to 4, approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.On November 2, 2004, Oklahoma voters approved Oklahoma Question 711, a constitutional amendment which banned same-sex marriage and any "legal incidents FOX23 spoke with survivors who are just grateful to be alive following Sundays EF-2 tornado that ripped through Norman at around 9:20 p.m. 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. When Gilley started work for the Norman police, he was described by other officers as just having shown up one day. 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. Recording of Brake: Wish we could have put the son of a bitch in the electric chair.. 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? It was the first night of Girl Scout camp when 3 young girls were killed and sexually molested. Munoz told detectives he moved into the home in 2019, and allowed a friend, Octavio Sanchez, 34, to store items in the basement. So we had him with an illegal weapon there in Dallas County. Why? He says he found the gun in Aug. of 1970,, Recording of Pearo: but kept it for 20 years and didnt know that there was any significance to the fact that it was a .22 rifle and that it may have belonged to Gilley So we didnt know if this was the gun or not, but it sort of caught Gilley in a lie. It was like, Hey look, that case will probably never go anywhere, so forget that one, you can look at the rest of them. 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. Many thought a cop would never commit such a crime. 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. And then he said something about Well you couldnt even convict him again or something like that. According to newspaper articles in the Norman Transcript from that first week, David was set to graduate the upcoming December with a business administration degree and then be commissioned through the Naval ROTC. 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 K: Next time on Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. 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. Said if I went out in the woods and took off all my clothes, he wouldnt take me to jail.. It is like a fairy tale now. 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. They patted each other on the back, good to see you, and all that stuff. Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. And he told me, he said if I file a case like that, itll set law enforcement back 20 years in Oklahoma., Recording of Kayla: Now what does that mean? I dont think Henslee was convinced that Gilley had done it at that point. 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. Around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, police were called to reports of a shooting in the DALLAS -- A 56-year-old former Oklahoma policeman has been arrested and charged with killing two University of Oklahoma students on a rural lovers lane more than 20 years ago. He had lived in small towns in northern Texas his whole life and spent over a decade in the Amarillo area as a sheriffs deputy for Potter County. Recording of Ken: There was just like half a dozen guys on the police department that would even talk to us. The daughter of one of his wives said Gilley had answered yes when she asked if hed ever killed anyone, though there is no record of a lawful killing on Gilleys police file. They spoke to an ex-girlfriend of Davids, who said they had sometimes went to the Ten-Mile Flats area after dates. 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. We never found anyone from Daves family to speak to like this, so we were given a much clearer look at the Benham family from Lindas vivid recollections of almost 50 years ago. Dave Pearo and some of those guys, they really wanted to go after it.. 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. The violent crime rate in Norman is 289.4 per 100,000 people. He said the politics were too much, that true policing was impossible because of it. On the night of the murders , his car logged only about 30. K: Undeterred by the two passed polygraphs, investigators kept digging. And now I can talk about it without breaking down and crying. The Girl Scout Murders of 1977 still remains unsolved to 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. Well we thought that was unusual because Frank lived in Amarillo.. 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. Gilley was white, 5-foot-8 and close to 180 pounds. 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. Tornado hits Norman damaging the electric system and causing power cuts. And if he did know, what did he think when investigators were first tipped off by an Amarillo reporter to look into Gilley as a possible suspect in the murders of Sheryl and Dave? 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. Recording of Pearo: This case was in there. WebBest Places to Live | Compare cost of living, crime, cities, schools and more. 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. And your first thought is Good! Description: DISTURBANCE/DOMESTIC. When you read Davids autopsy report, you find massive right hemoral thorax. Recording of Pearo: Frank had rented a house from this guy and he brings in this .22 caliber rifle.. Recording of Brake: This is a contact with the Dave Kelley, who was with the DA office in Potter County, Texas. He was working as a recent recruit to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in 1970 and was assigned to the case full time. A Norman man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Wellston woman whose remains were found at Lake Thunderbird, the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation reported Wednesday. By early morning Sunday, Sheryls dad had driven to Norman to speak with police and report her missing. 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. An old pool cue, broken in half, was in the front seat. Then Mr. Gilley said are you accusing me of stealing your $10? Ten years later, his mother, Sharleen Resor, is finally close to experiencing closure. 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. Frank wanted you to know that he was on top of everything and that he was better than these other guys.. Recording of Brake: They asked, Were you acquainted with Frank Gilley when he was employed by the Norman Police Department? It was private enough for young couples to park their cars and be intimate. Recording of Jacobson: David Sloan was from Amarillo, and when they tried Gilley on his aggravated assault out there, they tried it like a murder case because it was a horrible thing for a law enforcement officer to be accused of aggravated assault. He moved to Edmond as an administrator for the Edmond Police Department and died in May 1999. That's 22.24% higher than the national rate of 2,346.0 per 100,000 people The state Medical Examiners Office confirmed the body as that of Sandoval. Police were spread thin. Date: 2/28 #1 DRIVING W/ LICENSE CANC/SUSP/REVOKED. Well pick back up the day the bodies were found. A daughter of an ex-wife said Gilley told her he had killed someone and kept a diary of old cases with pictures of dead bodies. I call, my dad picks up the phone. Sloans ex-girlfriend, who helped find the car after Ben Benham reported his daughter missing, told the jury she drove to the lovers lane area and happened upon the car, but left and reported it to police when she realized there was blood in the front seat and she smelled what she described in news articles as the smell of death. The medical examiner explained in detail how Dave and Sheryl died, both shot over 10 times, including bullets fired directly into each of their eyes. But when you cant because of the way things are done, thats hard.. But again, a guy has knowledge of firearms would pick a .22 to use, you know, all you have to worry about is that firing pin, and if you throw the gun in the river, the evidence is gone. Investigators said Sandoval was last known to be alive and residing with Sanchez and his wife in an apartment in the 1600 block of Ann Branden Boulevard. And then he comes back. He was found to not be involved with the case at all. When the husband went to court, it was speculated that Gilley was involved, that maybe he had tipped off the husband to the affair. This is an 18.6% increase from the previous year. K: Next time, on Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. K: Youre listening to Uncovered: the Lovers Lane Murders. They tried to set up sting operations, but they came up with no solid evidence. The car was riddled with bullet holes. DNA testing began right around the time this case was reopened for trial, but when it was discovered that almost all of the evidence had disappeared, it didnt matter. On the way up, Mr. Gilley made several remarks to the Mexican, one remark was that he didnt like his face. Lets go! Well, they did find her. A Norman man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Wellston woman whose remains were found at Lake Thunderbird, the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation reported Wednesday. Shortly afterward, he heard gunshots. You know they were sort of at least at peace, at least a little bit. So he opens the trunk and he stands there with the rifle and just starts emptying the rifle into them. The next few days were chaos. K: Thats Chip Minty, a reporter at The Oklahoman who covered the trial, describing Gilleys demeanor on Oct. 21, 1991, as jurors were picked. Recording of Kayla: Can you speak about the relationship between Henslee and Gilley? He then cut the body up into a hundred pieces and cooked and ate from them for days. WebThe following are some of the more dangerous Most Wanted individuals in Cleveland County, the state of Oklahoma and the United States. On Saturday, May 9, 1970, Dave was 21. An officer who cut into the plastic detected an odor that they could identify with a decomposing human corpse.. WebCBS News Six people were killed in a series of shootings Friday in northwestern Mississippi, authorities said. I can talk about it now, I can., Recording of Kayla: Why do you think that is? We were never able to get in contact with any of these family members, though. K: Back to that Tuesday in 1970: the OU protest ended peacefully, but police and residents were on edge for the rest of the week. As the night hours of May 9 wear on, Sheryls dadbecomes worried. Investigators called former colleagues and bosses of Gilley, looking for character statements. But there were also bullet casings, almost 30 of them, scattered in the dirt and brush. After President Richard Nixon announced plans to invade Cambodia, riots, protests and demonstrations broke out all over the country. NORMAN, Okla. An Oklahoma man shot and killed his estranged wife and her divorce lawyer, then took his own life, police reported Wednesday. Dallas in De Soto, Texas, in the early 90s. It chronicles what Gilley called a scandal, telling detectives and reporters there was a plot against him. Shes a grandmother too, visiting her grandchildren as they graduate from college and get drivers licenses, close to the same age Sheryl was when she died. 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. The verdict was inevitable in my opinion. Those pressing to charge Gilley uncover what they believe to be undeniable evidence, but the stakes may have been too high for those who wished to keep Gilley from being arrested. K: We heard this again from Brake, who had a copy of the official police reports Ken filed the day they found the bodies. 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. 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. They felt the options were running slim, until February 1991. The explanation that Gilley was being framed ended up as somewhat of the official stance of the police department. I think when he came back he stood back and fired a couple rounds in the side of the car to see if they were still in there and alive and he probably heard them oh please you know and he popped the trunk and started killing. They were spurred on by the initial evidence; the assault charge, Henslee hiring Gilley out of line with protocols and Gilley disappearing. Because there was not a hard piece of evidence to put him on the trigger. Joshua Bookout. Keep in mind that they had been at a fraternity party at the SAE house. Date: 2/28 #1 stephens co hold. Recording of Ken: It turns out, there werent that many people working toward the same goal., Recording of Brake: Frank Gilley did it. He maintained that his wife at the time of the murders was with him before he started his night shift, though she denied it. Due to the current status of the case, information is limited at this time, Jensen said. The articles mention the relationship between Henslee and Gilley, that they had worked numerous cases together when Henslee was a Texas Ranger assigned to Pampa, Texas and Gilley was still in Potter County, about an hour southwest. One of them was Butch Green, who had ridden with Frank, who gave the statement that Frank did in fact carry a .22 rifle on duty in the car. K: Perrine also focused on technicalities, like Gilley not being read his Miranda Rights at certain points or the lawfulness of using testimony from witnesses who had died before the trial started. Now Im almost like, not mad, I dont wanna use that word but damn, I wish they had had DNA back then.. There was a carnival coming to town and classes were ending soon, so students were hosting parties. Recording of Linda: Ken Jacobson, I remember that name a lot. I think while he was shoving her into the trunk he had to slug her a couple times. A Daily staffer began flipping through pages in our large, dusty archive books. 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. 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. An article almost 15 years later cites the grand jurys final decision, saying, We have investigated any and all complaints against the district attorney or his office and find them without merit., Recording of Ken: Some people just couldnt believe that a police officer had done something like this and of course I didnt believe it at first. He still lives in the area. And then we sort of told him Weve got some good news and bad news. Map Browse By State He asked me if Id ever had sexual intercourse. During the May 14 search of Sanchezs home, authorities made contact with Sanchez near his garage. He told them that Gilley was their main suspect, but they were struggling to convince other law enforcement officials, like the DAs office or the OSBI, that he could be charged with the murders of Sheryl and David. 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