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. We were very close. K: 1970. K: This is one of the only times we ever came across the Sloan family coming to Norman to be involved with the case. In the safe we found some more weapons, one of them was a sawed-off shotgun, which is illegal. K: Next time on Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. Many thought a cop would never commit such a crime. The National Guard was called in to contain the crowd, and shots were fired when students wouldnt disperse. Brake lives in Oklahoma City, working part time as a public information officer for the OKC county commissioners office. Recording of Pearo: So what we had done in retrospect was probably a mistake. Property Crime Rates In Norman 3,261 Property Crimes 2,578.3 Property Crimes / 100k People 31.67% Above National Average He told Jacobson he needed to shift his focus elsewhere, but Jacobson was already convinced Gilley was the main suspect. A tight knit group. Hundreds of thousands of college students were protesting the Vietnam War. Description: DISTURBANCE/DOMESTIC. Just after 3 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a K: Frank Gilley lived in Texas working odd jobs until he died in March 2002, according to the Amarillo Globe-News. 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. Recording of Pearo: We went down and we talked to a judge in Dallas. I hope you do. But then, he got pretty far but not real far, and started thinking. Alex Murdaugh speaks with his attorney during his double murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. My mom, of course, is there, and I was there with her. Recording of Brake: Ava Yvonne Boden, this was her statement on Nov. 14, 1970. Map Browse By State 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: The phone call from the Amarillo TV station eventually prompted some case investigators to seriously look into Gilley. It chronicles what Gilley called a scandal, telling detectives and reporters there was a plot against him. WebAbout 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. What do you think was the change there?, Recording of Linda: I dont know how to explain that. Now he is not working at this time. And even though these statements were coming in after the murders of Sheryl and David, police were including pictures of Gilley. There was a carnival coming to town and classes were ending soon, so students were hosting parties. According to the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office, 30-year-old Austin Blake Godwin was booked into the Cleveland County jail early Wednesday, shortly after surrendering himself at the Norman Recording of Ken: There was just like half a dozen guys on the police department that would even talk to us. Were just, you just dont let it go. She looks like she died almost immediately. The case becomes exceedingly complicated and twisted from here on out, so be prepared. Oklahoma City, OK I think thats what happened and the autopsy points to that as well. 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.. K: By this point, it had been over a year since the murders and the small group of dedicated investigators had spent hundreds of hours on the case. When I googled the names of those involved, dozens of articles popped up, spanning decades. K: Investigators on the case soon discovered that Gilley had been hired by Henslee without a background check or fingerprints taken, which we were told were normal hiring steps at the time. When the couples started coming to police, investigators put together a line up of photos of officers. 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. So I go, Dad did you find Sherry? 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. They tried to set up sting operations, but they came up with no solid evidence. Mike Brake, a police reporter for the Oklahoma Journal in 1970, went out to the crime scene with officers. Hundreds of court documents back that up. Recording of Ken: As far as physical evidence, evidence is required to sustain a murder conviction, we didnt have any. The funnel was just one instance of severe weekend weather in various parts of the U.S. 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. The violent crime rate in Norman is 289.4 per 100,000 people. 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. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded. He was working as a recent recruit to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in 1970 and was assigned to the case full time. The more I learned about that night, the more I realized it started off just like the fraternity parties today. Perrine put in dozens of requests, ranging from declaring a mistrial to requesting that words like grotesque not be allowed in the courtroom. 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. That happens all the time at OU. Recording of Ken: Well it was open but they didnt do anything on it The agent that was signed to that after I left, I doubt if he did half a dozen interviews. 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. K: There were clothes, a bloody blanket, hair and the roughly 30 shell casings that were all missing. Dallas in De Soto, Texas, in the early 90s. K: From interviews, news articles and court documents, we were able to piece together an outline of that night. NORMAN Investigators arrested a man in connection with the death of a woman whose remains were found at Lake Thunderbird last Monday. Of the 249 murders, 139 were cleared by arrest or exceptional means, yielding a 55.8% clearance rate. It was us that broke into your house and youre under arrest. So he started looking around and he looked at me and he said, Where are you from? and I said Norman, Oklahoma. And he said I thought so.. She found the newspaper with the requested photo, but also found what led to the months long Daily investigation into that pair of murders. What do you think was the change there? Crime Rate per 100,000 Pop. This is an 18.6% increase from the previous year. K: Youre listening to Uncovered: the Lovers Lane Murders. They were younger detectives and they knew that was kind of like a festering sore. He said his assault charges and even the call from the Amarillo TV station were retaliation for a contentious sheriff election in Amarillo in 1968, among other things, and that he was being used as a, quote, political football.. Those types of safeguards are in place. They began to feel the full weight of frustration that only a couple of guys were truly working together to bring down a case held back by politics. Bill Maher funeral home. K: He told us about finding the old case information from the murders and becoming interested. Recording of Pearo: Ken never gave up on the case. Recording of Brake: They asked, Were you acquainted with Frank Gilley when he was employed by the Norman Police Department? 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. Seven: How much Henslee knew but wasnt letting on? It was the summer after Woodstock and Americas counterculture was thriving. Today, that house is tall and long, bricked at the bottom. Click on the image below to view the Lexis Nexis Community Crime map. In episode 2, listen to the the story of Sheryls sister, Linda, on the day her family searched for Sheryl. Frank wanted you to know that he was on top of everything and that he was better than these other guys.. I think when you ask around about other places or just other people that are in this profession when they talk about getting hired at Norman youll learn that our process is a lot harder and a lot more scrutinizing than a lot of places We still do psychological testing. They arrested a man who was picked up on the side of the road in a different town because someone reported him as having blood on his clothes. WebOn Feb. 13, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation opened a suspicious death investigation after remains were found at the lake in Norman. I said my dad has been in Norman all day. And its important to remember here that Gilley left the Norman police force on May 15. But there were also bullet casings, almost 30 of them, scattered in the dirt and brush. They covered for one another and allowed scandals and corruption to be swept under the rug. Two counts of first-degree murder. Instead, immediately call the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department at 405-701-7700. 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. And then he comes back. Who knows.. Now detectives believed themselves to be without any physical evidence. It wasnt going to get any better.. K: Thats Chip Minty, a reporter at The Oklahoman who covered the trial, describing Gilleys demeanor on Oct. 21, 1991, as jurors were picked. And we were brought up, we went to church, my dad was a Mason. He might have fired most of the ammunition from it already and he doesnt have the firepower to kill them both. 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. K: They talked to other officers he worked with and they said he liked to run gulleys, a slang term for driving through lovers lane areas and harassing teens. Recording of Pearo: Its bad enough in a normal murder case, I mean we know we take every murder seriously but if theres a dirty cop somewhere, that looks bad on all of us. When officers are tipped off to start investigating Frank Gilley as a suspect in the double homicide of David Sloan and Sheryl Benham, the Norman police force splits into two groups working against each other. Its seized, its packaged. WebNORMAN, Okla. Police have identified the two people killed in a double-homicide in Norman. The two stayed there for an unknown amount of time. But one officer leaves just four days after the murders. K: Along with the drive NPD felt to clear its name, the clock was ticking. Recording of Minty: He just sat there quietly at the defense table the entire time. Why?, Recording of Brake: I think Gilley was just out there trying to get a glimpse of some boobies and harass some kids like hed done many times before and runs into somebody that knew who he was.. I told him we hadnt. Of course Gilley passed the polygraph and we didnt get to talk to him or anything.. 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. Dave and Sherry deserved something better than what they got and their families Maybe there is something in there we missed.. K: Next time on Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. K: After finding the car and the bodies, officers from all of the agencies came together to sweep the area. Recording of Pearo: There were a bunch of them that sat there and kind of kicked it around and decided that they werent going to go for an arrest warrant but wanted to go for a grand jury, which to me was very disappointing because Im a go get them arrest them kind of guy.. Sanchez and his wife lived at the Ann Branden Boulevard apartment until October 2018, according to investigators. 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. 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 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. K: Jacobson, who had been involved with the case from the very morning the bodies were found, was happy another set of investigators would take up where he left off. Recording of Ken: I dont know. David was shot 11 times and Sheryl 14. 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. 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. He hoped to become director of the OSBI, Jacobson said, and a mark like this on someones record could derail a rising career. Any kind of doubt that he could create was important to him. Once completed, we will present the case to the District Attorneys office, who will review the case and file the appropriate charges., Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Recording of Linda: I thought, Ive seen you. Investigators said Sandoval at one time was placed in Griffin Memorial Hospital for mental health treatment, and on Feb. 17, 2018 she filed a report with Norman police stating Sanchez and his wife were abusing her. WebAllegations of obstruction and cover-ups have plagued the Norman Police Department in the years since the murders, but changes made hope to rectify those concerns. Recording of Ken: One of the hardest things about something like this is what you know happened but you cant prove it. Back to Brake reading Bodens statement: Recording of Brake: We watched it go down and when it was down, we were still there for a few minutes and a car drove by and I didnt see it but Rick did. 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? 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. Investigators called former colleagues and bosses of Gilley, looking for character statements. This was the only physical evidence in the entire case. He agreed to give Gilley a polygraph test, unbeknownst to case investigators. 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. Not anyone can walk into property custody Everything is labeled and stored and organized at such a different ballgame and so a lot of those concerns about obstruction, evidence, we as an agency have put a lot of safeguards into place to ensure these things are not happening and that there is a trail. Yeah we should do that. It was really hard for them when we told them we were reopening the case again because it had been so long and sort of accepted the fact as much as they could. He was detained briefly and released. Recording of Ken: Frank stood on the porch and he said, Well Rangers can come in, but you guys from Oklahoma cant come in. And the Ranger said, You dont have any choice Frank, these guys are with us and were all coming in. Frank said, I dont have any .22 caliber weapons, I never owned one, I wouldnt have one. Most of those who were involved in the case have died, but my team and I were able to track down individuals who remember first-hand what happened all those 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. NORMAN, Okla. An Oklahoma man shot and killed his estranged wife and her divorce lawyer, then took his own life, police reported Wednesday. If you see them, do not try and apprehend them yourself as they are most likely armed and dangerous. Brake saved a newspaper article about Sheryls funeral the next day. WebThe following are some of the more dangerous Most Wanted individuals in Cleveland County, the state of Oklahoma and the United States. 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. 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.. When Gilley started work for the Norman police, he was described by other officers as just having shown up one day. 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 showed us this information he had collected over the years. The car was riddled with bullet holes. The place Dave and Sheryl went was popular, though they probably werent expecting to find any company. He was found to not be involved with the case at all. It would be the publics first look at new details and theories regarding the case. WebAccording to the most recent data from the FBI, the total crime rate in Norman is 2,867.6 per 100,000 people. They took the weapons and tried to match them with some of the shell casings from the crime scene, but the tests came back without a ballistics match, Jacobson said. Not only does the department interact with the Norman community on a more regular basis, but the hiring protocols for officers have completely changed. K: They lived in a house off of Northwest 46th Street, a main road in Oklahoma City. On Tuesday, May 5, the University of Oklahoma Student Association gathered hundreds of students to protest not only the war, but the actions of law enforcement in Ohio. Joshua Bookout. Gilley was white, 5-foot-8 and close to 180 pounds. For Linda, talking openly about her sister is something thats relatively new. When he arrived, he was arrested. K: Police had starting investigating where Sheryl and David could have been after Sheryls dad filed the missing persons report. Maybe hes just gone away and somebody will rescue them or find them. What became the most important, Jacobson told us, was finding the murder weapon. Most of these shots were in the upper body and head. 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 WebCBS News Six people were killed in a series of shootings Friday in northwestern Mississippi, authorities said. The next few days were chaos. 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. K: Randall County is a small portion of land encompassing the southern half of Amarillo, a lake and a few other small towns with a current population of about 120,000. 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