K: After Ken Jacobson left the OSBI, he eventually started working as security for a company in Dallas. Two decades had gone by and the investigators werent going to gather much more than they already had, Ken Jacobson, the 1970s OSBI investigator, said. Another unsolved case is that of 2-year-old Riah Thomas. They picked through old evidence and files, contacting anyone who would still have a good recollection of what happened two decades before. 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. Born on Dec. 28, 1935, he was in his mid-30s during the early 1970s. Whoever did that knew about crime scenes and knew about firearms they knew what they were doing. WebCrime in Norman, Oklahoma. Recording of Linda: Our family was very close, very close. Because there was not a hard piece of evidence to put him on the trigger. Well, we shared the same bedroom. . Recording of Brake: 200 people. 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. I was taken into his car and handcuffed to be taken to the jail, along with some of the other boys . 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 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. The Benhams were traditional. 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. K: At this point, as we were learning all of this and trying to connect the dots, we started to have some questions. K: The Norman Police Department also changed its evidence protocols, said Sarah Jensen, the public information officer for NPD. So theres checks and balances to make sure the stuff isnt happening. Address: 6400 BLOCK OF 36TH AVENUE NW, Norman, OK. View Source Square with arrow pointing upper right. So when I walked in there, and they say, Can we help you? And Im just here, My sister is missing and Ive just wondered, and they stopped me and go, What is her name? And when I said Sherry Benham, they turned to me and say, You need to go home. Im like, Well my dad-, No, you need to go home, now. Youre probably gonna think, how could anyone be as nave as I was. 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. Splashed along the front pages of newspapers and TV station headlines were two words: not guilty. 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. Potter County, where Gilley was working directly before he came to Norman, covers the northern half of Amarillo. 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. And we were brought up, we went to church, my dad was a Mason. K: Linda lives in Oklahoma City and has multiple children of her own. Two: Why Henslee hadnt focused the investigation closer on Gilley from the beginning? De Soto PD called him, and said Is this Mr. Gilley? and he said yeah. Witnesses were dying, people were moving or losing track of them. 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.. But this night ended differently. 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. 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. K: Undeterred by the two passed polygraphs, investigators kept digging. 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. Pearo also testified, noting that almost all the evidence from the crime scene had disappeared, except one bullet casing. It was a much smaller department then, often only a few police officers would be out patrolling the city at a time. Gilley was white, 5-foot-8 and close to 180 pounds. On Nov. 21, 1990, officers were able to search Gilleys residence. Tornadoes tore through Oklahoma, leaving severe damage in Norman, home to the University of Oklahoma. And your first thought is Good! 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. It was the first night of Girl Scout camp when 3 young girls were killed and sexually molested. Per page 1; 2; 3 > Christopher Sanders. Jacobson said calls flooded in, but every one of them led to a dead end. I think he was but was not dying or dead, maybe not even dying. Gilley was brought in to the Amarillo police station and had his mug shots taken. 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. Compare Norman crime data to 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. Recording of Brake: Wish we could have put the son of a bitch in the electric chair.. August Murders accounted for 1.5% of all violent crimes and 0.2% of reported index crimes. Recording of Brake: Some friends told me that the man was Frank Gilley and that he hit me in the head with a flashlight. 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. But agents like Ken Jacobson didnt believe that and kept investigating. The case is almost 50 years old and remains unsolved. Recording of Ken: I dont know. Three, four and five: Why before Gilley was hired, he didnt take a polygraph test, have a background check or enter his fingerprints into the system? So I think that helped cloud their decision was the fact they thought he was guilty by a good percentage that he was guilty, probably enough to convict. Mr. Gilley asked him another question and the boy answered it. Theres a large backyard shaded by multiple trees. She suggested we go to the police station and see if anythings come up. He then cut the body up into a hundred pieces and cooked and ate from them for days. Date: 2/28 #1 stephens co hold. Two years later, it seems like charges might be put against Gilley, but nothing is certain. Enhanced Cost of Living Calculator Now includes childcare, taxes, health, housing for home owners vs renters, insurance costs and more when you upgrade to premium. We still do polygraph examinations. So we called him at work. Did Henslee know about the assault charge? The two stayed there for an unknown amount of time. And then relayed to me that that rifle actually belonged to his wife so he wasnt lying. Brake saved a newspaper article about Sheryls funeral the next day. Re-reading articles and court documents, its clear he challenged every step of the trial. Pearo retired in 2004 and moved to Florida where he spends time scuba diving. A reporter there had a tip about someone on Normans police force. And they are locked in the trunk now, what are they going to do. They patted each other on the back, good to see you, and all that stuff. We flipped through the following days, seeing article after article following police officials and community groups. Sheryl met David Sloan at Steak and Ale, a restaurant in Oklahoma City where they both worked. Oklahomas Failure to Protect law treats those who enable child abuse the same as actual abusers. She found the newspaper with the requested photo, but also found what led to the months long Daily investigation into that pair of murders. K: Youre listening to Uncovered: The Lovers Lane Murders. But amid the chaos, David Sloan and Sheryl Benham were preparing for a date. 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. K: Police had starting investigating where Sheryl and David could have been after Sheryls dad filed the missing persons report. One: Why a man with an aggravated assault charge in Texas had been hired as a Norman cop? 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. 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. 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. They covered for one another and allowed scandals and corruption to be swept under the rug. Perrine put in dozens of requests, ranging from declaring a mistrial to requesting that words like grotesque not be allowed in the courtroom. Today, that house is tall and long, bricked at the bottom. If you come across them, do not attempt to apprehend them yourself. Just after 3 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a He said yes Do you know if Gilley owned or had in his possession any .22 caliber weapons? 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. Hogue is now charged with first-degree murder in her sons death. 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.. There would have been music, talking, some drinking, maybe dancing. He was found to not be involved with the case at all. Joshua Bookout. K: Gilley was living close to Dallas in De Soto, Texas, in the early 90s. Heres a quote about Sher right there: She loved life and lived to make people happy. Dr. Bailey said he told her young friends that detailing her high moral character and firm Christian beliefs, then urged the crowd especially the young to trust in God. Gilley said he was not guilty. He showed us this information he had collected over the years. 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. Two counts of first-degree murder. What do you think was the change there? 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. In the following months, officers deliberated how best to pin Gilley down for the murders. 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. 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