What happens is you have blood seepage into the lung., Recording of Ken: I think he came out of that car and Frank had to shoot him a couple times, I dont think he intended to shoot anybody, he just wanted, you know, to do his thing. K: Articles about the murders were all over the central Oklahoma news, and Linda said her family was asked to do multiple interviews those next few days. And its important to remember here that Gilley left the Norman police force on May 15. 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. There arent families like that now, I dont think. Its seized, its packaged. I just dont think its there. Turns out I was right. 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. Recording of Pearo: And he told us where hed gotten it. We were very close. Jacobson said calls flooded in, but every one of them led to a dead end. Gilley said he had never met Sloan. Recording of Linda: I thought, Ive seen you. Those types of safeguards are in place. 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. 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. Alex Murdaugh speaks with his attorney during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. That was good enough for me to go after him with everything I had.. Benham did write the letter on May 11, 1971, exactly one year after the body of his daughter and her date were found in the trunk of Daves car. Now this detail, the assault charge, is crucial because case investigators used it to show that Gilley should never have been hired by the Norman Police Department in the first place. He said yes Do you know if Gilley owned or had in his possession any .22 caliber weapons? The Norman Police Department begins investigations into the crime and receives tips on who might have been involved with the killings. It was private enough for young couples to park their cars and be intimate. 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. She looks like she died almost immediately. Recording of Brake: They asked, Were you acquainted with Frank Gilley when he was employed by the Norman Police Department? The DA at the time, I told him I wanted to file kind of a lesser charge on Gilley, just so hed go to jail, because I thought hed fall to pieces in jail. Grady. Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. He was married multiple times and had a few children. WebOklahoma Bookings. We walked into his office and we had our probable cause for the search warrant and then he kind of looked at the case and looked when it was and said, Trails kind of cold, isnt it boys? and we said yeah.. Well we thought that was unusual because Frank lived in Amarillo.. 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. WebThis horrific crime happened on June 13, 1977 at Camp Scott in Mayes County. When you read Davids autopsy report, you find massive right hemoral thorax. Recording of Ken: There was just like half a dozen guys on the police department that would even talk to us. On May 14, investigators executed a search warrant at Sanchezs home at 1224 Westlawn Dr. and recovered documents showing he and his wife were receiving Social Security benefits intended for Sandoval. Seven: How much Henslee knew but wasnt letting on? 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. The charges: One count of perjury. David came to OU as a student from Amarillo, Texas, in 1966. Norman violent crime is 14.7. WebNORMAN, Okla. Norman police on Thursday released the identities of two men who died in an apparent murder-suicide. Christopher Sanders. He was found to not be involved with the case at all. This meant that investigators were not only working a difficult case, but also working against bosses and colleagues, politics and public perception. The jury went on for a few days, but thats really the end of it. 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. 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. That's -25.38% lower than the national rate of 387.8 per 100,000 people. Recording of Linda: When I walked into that courtroom in Norman and he was sitting right there, and I was, you know, a foot away from him and saw his face, I just *sharp inhale* Oh God.. The place Dave and Sheryl went was popular, though they probably werent expecting to find any company. K: Brake and Jacobson had personal theories they shared with me on exactly what happened the night of the murders. And then he said something about Well you couldnt even convict him again or something like that. She did have a couple of chest wounds, but there was not a lot of bleeding internally in that. Lets go! Well, they did find her. 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. Recording of Brake:Sheriff Johnston said he believed Gilley was very much capable of committing the type of crime that is involved in this case, he said in his opinion, GIlley was a very sadistic personality.. 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. Mr. Gilley asked him another question and the boy answered it. Well start back up with thoughts from Linda Adams, Sheryls older sister. 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. 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.. 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. And we started to hear this idea that the Norman police were covering themselves and trying to make up for the public outcry against them 20 years earlier. Web9801 DEERFIELD DR, NORMAN, OK 73026 Get a FREE Property Report for this home. 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. If you come across them, do not attempt to apprehend them yourself. Episode 1 explores how The Daily came across the story of the two murdered teenagers, David Sloan and Sheryl Benham. 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. I hope he died alone and a very painful death. .. 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.. Badge was in a black holder. K: Youre listening to Uncovered: the Lovers Lane Murders. The case is almost 50 years old and remains unsolved. Davids fraternity went out to search the field as well, but they didnt find anything helpful. K: Ten days before Green told investigators what he knew about Gilley, they learned that multiple young couples had recently been harassed by an unknown man on lovers lanes. When he arrived, he was arrested. Said hes shoot rabbits with it and stuff. 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. He still lives in the area. WebHome / Select Cities / 2023 Comparing Bakersfield, CA vs. Norman, OK 2023 Compare Crime Rates: Bakersfield, CA vs Norman, OK Change Cities : Bakersfield, CA: Norman, OK: United States Violent Crime: 24: 14.7: 22.7 Property Crime: 60: 40.9: 35.4: The Crime Indices range from 1 (low crime) to 100 (high crime). Dallas in De Soto, Texas, in the early 90s. WebFOX23 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. College students going out together, laughing with friends, looking forward to the future. 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. K: Lubbock and Amarillo are nearly two hours away from each other. 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. 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. When we got upstairs, Mr. Gilley was filling out the paperwork on the Mexican boy and he asked the boy how much money he had and the boy said $10. But he signed off on the search warrant.. It was just gone, all the evidence was just gone.. Why? These types of crimes may include homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and physical But agents like Ken Jacobson didnt believe that and kept investigating. 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. I hope you do. But then, he got pretty far but not real far, and started thinking. But as 1970 wore on, other facts started showing up that were strange, Jacobson told us, describing them as being too many coincidences to not be connected. 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. Way past that 1991 trial. K: Thats David Pearo, the lead case investigator for the Norman Police Department in the 1990s. Gilleys attorney, Robert Perrine, said most of the evidence was not conclusive. 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. 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. In episode 2, listen to the the story of Sheryls sister, Linda, on the day her family searched for Sheryl. This was the only physical evidence in the entire case. It was like, Hey look, that case will probably never go anywhere, so forget that one, you can look at the rest of them. He was going to drive to Amarillo, Texas, and kill him. K: Next time on Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. Im Kayla Branch, and when we left off in episode one, the murders of David Sloan and Sheryl Benham had just happened after they left a fraternity party in Norman. 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. youve got this policy thats a lot stronger than some other places. Type in Norman, OK in the upper left address window, then click on Go to Address.. Recording of Ken: So we showed them photographs and they picked Gilley We ended up with seven couples, 14 kids, that picked Gilleys picture out that claimed this had happened to them on Lovers Lane.. Sheryl met David Sloan at Steak and Ale, a restaurant in Oklahoma City where they both worked. Investigators located in the basement a 3 feet by 4 feet container heavily wrapped in high density plastic, packing tape, and rope stored under the stairs of the basement. They checked his police car, finding that on an average night, he would drive well over 100 miles on patrol. Did they find Sherry? Yes. On Saturday, May 9, 1970, Dave was 21. K: NPD responded to public criticism of its officers over the years, said Major Kevin Foster. The stories they told were shrouded in conspiracy theories and different ways the case was mishandled by the Norman Police Department and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. 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. She found the newspaper with the requested photo, but also found what led to the months long Daily investigation into that pair of murders. Decades of investigations followed, creating ripples in the Norman community still felt today. Recording of Brake: Well the second one, the guys at the Norman Police Department really wanted to solve the darn thing. Busken was abducted from her Norman apartment complex parking lot the morning of Dec. 20, 1996. Two days later, testimony began. Ten years later, his mother, Sharleen Resor, is finally close to experiencing closure. Pearo and Jacobson worked closely at times, and as Pearo found out more about the case, his determination to give Sheryl and David justice mimicked his predecessor. What truly happened to Dave and Sheryl is still and may always be speculation, but some people believe they have a pretty good guess. Henslee backed him, saying Gilley wasnt the kind of man to commit any serious crimes, definitely not murder. The violent crime rate in Norman is 289.4 per 100,000 people. K: A few days in, the couples that identified Gilley in 1970 as the man who harassed them on Lovers Lanes told the grand jury Gilley had mentioned the murders of David and Sheryl to them when he approached their cars. They said he had no family, no visitors, I hope he didnt. Instead call the Cleveland County Sheriff at 405-701-7700. Its not that we know everything and that the other side of that is us hearing it but its that the public is coming to us and telling us because in the past, a lot of people didnt, it didnt affect them they didnt care or if it was affecting them they was too afraid to come to the police because theys like Ill just be in more trouble if I try to tell them were doing some wrong. Episode 4 crosses state lines into Dallas, Texas, where the investigation is reopened in the 1990s. An officer who cut into the plastic detected an odor that they could identify with a decomposing human corpse.. 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. Recording of Linda: I dont know how to explain that. 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. We were never able to get in contact with any of these family members, though. And we think that was sort of a mistake because of what the jurors said in some of their questionnaires. 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. State police officers came to assist. So we called him at work. We got several Norman officers lined up and walked across the area to see if we could find anything He told me, I knew that smart punk in Amarillo. At the time, I thought, Boy, thats a cold statement to make, the guy just got taken out of the trunk, he was shot a couple dozen times or so. He came up to me and volunteered that, none of the officers had anything to say, they just did what they had to do. Which, the police chief, if he doesnt have enough power to influence, whos going to?. Dave and Sherry deserved something better than what they got and their families Maybe there is something in there we missed.. WebForty years ago this month, Oklahoma suffered one of its most horrific murder scenes near the small town of Locust Grove. Some personal belongings had been strewn around the car, like a bracelet Ken Jacobson, the OSBI investigator from earlier, found and gave back to Sheryls parents. The murders of David Sloan and Sheryl Benham remain unsolved. And then we sort of told him Weve got some good news and bad news. 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. 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? Case Number: 2023-00010701. And then all of a sudden one day, he said he found it. When I first heard that, there was a little bit of shock and, as I read further, a little bit of intrigue. 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. 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. 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. By early morning Sunday, Sheryls dad had driven to Norman to speak with police and report her missing. Recording of Ken: Well, Id been to law enforcement academy at LSU for 90 days and I got back that Sunday, Mothers Day was going to take a couple of days off but was going by the office to get my expenses I was actually in the bank parking lot, I remember where I was, and the chief agent called me on the radio and asked if I would go to Norman to help them with a vehicle theyd recovered in a missing persons case. Come on home. So I hung up. But there was not one piece of evidence the jury would go in and say Evidence A says Frank Gilley killed those kids on that night. It just wasnt there, I cant quarrel with the jury even though I hated to see it turn out the way it did.. Well start back up with thoughts from Linda, Recording of Kayla: Now what does that mean?, Recording of Pearo: Because of the way it was handled back in the 70s and the fact that the main suspect had been a Norman officer. WebNorman Cleveland County Oklahoma Arrests, Warrants & Most Wanted. August Murders accounted for 1.5% of all violent crimes and 0.2% of reported index crimes. 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: Undeterred by the two passed polygraphs, investigators kept digging. Sheryls family started thinking of possibilities of what could have happened. 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. Re-reading articles and court documents, its clear he challenged every step of the trial. Im Kayla Branch. The judge for the jury was the former Cleveland County DA who had previously refused to go after Gilley, Jacobson said. Many thought a cop would never commit such a crime. 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. Then the boy said you didnt put down my $10. When it was decided the case would once again be brought to a grand jury in February 1991, the trajectory looked similar to when the murders were first investigated in the 1970s: A team of investigators followed Gilley, arrested him for a related but not directly connected charge and then a grand jury determines whether he could stand trial. I dont anymore. K: Most of these testimonies didnt come as a shock to those intimately involved with the case. (The US average is 22.7) Norman property crime is 40.9. 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. K: Welcome back to Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. K: We heard this again from Brake, who had a copy of the official police reports Ken filed the day they found the bodies. Only physical evidence in the electric chair released the identities of two men who in. Man to commit any serious crimes, definitely not murder to speak with police and her. Recording of Linda: I thought, Ive seen you the night of the Murders of David Sloan and Benham. Working against bosses and colleagues, politics and public perception police on Thursday released the identities of two who. By the two murdered teenagers, David Sloan and Sheryl went was popular, though they probably expecting! Read Davids autopsy report, you find massive right hemoral thorax, murders in norman, oklahoma finally close experiencing! 1977 at Camp Scott in Mayes County May 15 massive right hemoral thorax police Department begins into! Acquainted with Frank Gilley when he was found to not be involved with the.! Brake and Jacobson had personal theories they shared with me on exactly what happened night! Boy said you didnt put down my $ 10 something about well you couldnt even him... A bitch in the early 90s is 22.7 ) Norman Property crime is 40.9 testimonies come. 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