And inside the trunk were the bodies of David and Sheryl, shot and mutilated. An old pool cue, broken in half, was in the front seat. 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. 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. 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. What happens next leaves him and his family reeling while the Norman Police Department begins investigation. 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. K: Most of these testimonies didnt come as a shock to those intimately involved with the case. Map Browse By State He sent it to the Norman mayor, the DA and even Mike Brake, who still has an original copy. And then we sort of told him Weve got some good news and bad news. 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. He showed us this information he had collected over the years. They were from a .22 caliber weapon. But when you cant because of the way things are done, thats hard.. 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. The OSBIs Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and State Incident-Based Reporting System (SIBRS) are part of a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort 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. Recording of Linda: Ken Jacobson, I remember that name a lot. 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. WebOn Feb. 13, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation opened a suspicious death investigation after remains were found at the lake in Norman. It was just gone, all the evidence was just gone.. But I was. The initial investigation putters out after obstruction from local law enforcement agencies. And theyre almost all headshots at that point. Recording of Pearo: Ken never gave up on the case. You know they were sort of at least at peace, at least a little bit. Recording of Solorzano: Theres definitely more rules in place documented. WebBest Places to Live | Compare cost of living, crime, cities, schools and more. As he was leaving the barn about 7 a.m., he saw two men standing next to two parked cars. K: The first full day of the July hearing had testimony from seven witnesses, including Gilleys parents, a former wife and the Norman police chief from the 1970s, Bill Henslee. An officer who cut into the plastic detected an odor that they could identify with a decomposing human corpse.. Property Crime Rates In Norman 3,261 Property Crimes 2,578.3 Property Crimes / 100k People 31.67% Above National Average As the night hours of May 9 wear on, Sheryls dadbecomes worried. Recording of Brake: There was no official record at any check in Texas to indicate that Gilley had ever made contact with Sloan, officially. A Daily staffer began flipping through pages in our large, dusty archive books. The cloudy past of the man suspected for the murders is investigated in episode 3, as well as the beginnings of a cover-up, a retracted alibi and testimony from various couples who were also harassed on Lovers Lanes. The OU Daily, in a new podcast series called Uncovered, investigated a pair of murders that took place May 9, 1970 in Norman. Tornado hits Norman damaging the electric system and causing power cuts. The funnel was just one instance of severe weekend weather in various parts of the U.S. 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. K: Youre listening to Uncovered: the Lovers Lane Murders. Recording of Linda: This was one of the weirdest things ever. Everyone was referring to the idea that during the time of the murders, the men stuck together no matter what. The place Dave and Sheryl went was popular, though they probably werent expecting to find any company. They took in Sheryls ex-boyfriend for questioning. Pearo retired in 2004 and moved to Florida where he spends time scuba diving. Sloans was in Amarillo at the First Presbyterian Church that Wednesday. Linda, Sheryls older sister by two years, stayed at their family home in Oklahoma City with her mom. Thats where Dave would have walked when he came to pick Sheryl up for their date Saturday night. Now Im almost like, not mad, I dont wanna use that word but damn, I wish they had had DNA back then.. K: This is one of the only times we ever came across the Sloan family coming to Norman to be involved with the case. The explanation that Gilley was being framed ended up as somewhat of the official stance of the police department. 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.. Sheryls family started thinking of possibilities of what could have happened. 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. 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. Gilley took the test four days after the bodies were found. 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.. Then Mr. Gilley said are you accusing me of stealing your $10? Yes, he had a badge in a black badge holder that was for the sheriffs office.. K: There were clothes, a bloody blanket, hair and the roughly 30 shell casings that were all missing. Theres a large backyard shaded by multiple trees. We got out there and the polygrapher is an old Texas Ranger, one of Hensleys buddies. Address: 6400 BLOCK OF 36TH AVENUE NW, Norman, OK. View Source Square with arrow pointing upper right. K: This is Linda Adams, the older sister of Sheryl Benham. K: Boden and her date Rick had been west of Norman, in the same area that David and Sheryl were just 30 days earlier. 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. 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. Certain convictions you cant have to get hired at a police department. If you come across them, do not attempt to apprehend them yourself. 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. When Davids mom arrived at the Benham house later that Sunday, Linda decided she was going to leave for Norman to see if she could help find Sheryl. They were spurred on by the initial evidence; the assault charge, Henslee hiring Gilley out of line with protocols and Gilley disappearing. K: The defense strategy was one of continual questioning. On the way up, Mr. Gilley made several remarks to the Mexican, one remark was that he didnt like his face. Frank wanted you to know that he was on top of everything and that he was better than these other guys.. -36.90% lower than the Oklahoma violent crime rate of 458.6 per 100,000 people. 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. Brake lives in Oklahoma City, working part time as a public information officer for the OKC county commissioners office. Gilley said he was not guilty. DNA testing wasnt being used yet, so police had few options. 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.. 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. Well we thought that was unusual because Frank lived in Amarillo.. 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. That was good enough for me to go after him with everything I had.. 112 GREAT OAKS DR, NORMAN, OK 73071 Property Report 145441690 Well start back up with thoughts from Linda Adams, Sheryls older sister. What really happened? But one officer leaves just four days after the murders. K: From interviews, news articles and court documents, we were able to piece together an outline of that night. Jacobson pointed to the unusual handling of the case and what he considered obstruction that interfered with the investigation. The case becomes exceedingly complicated and twisted from here on out, so be prepared. 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: 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. K: Almost two days later, their belongings were found dropped in and around Daves car, a 1966 Pontiac GTO. Recording of Ken: It turns out, there werent that many people working toward the same goal., Recording of Brake: Frank Gilley did it. Pearo and his fellow investigators would drive to Dallas frequently, watching Gilleys house, following him to work, trying to put together enough evidence to arrest him. They felt the options were running slim, until February 1991. 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. 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. I hope he died alone and a very painful death. He questioned witnesses intensely, returning again and again to the lack of physical evidence and the 20-year gap between the murders and the trial that might affect recollections of what happened. 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. Busken was abducted from her Norman apartment complex parking lot the morning of Dec. 20, 1996. He gets the rifle, which is a high capacity rifle, a .22 rifle might have a magazine of 22 rounds or more. K: Brake had the actual statements that Jacobson is referring to, from when Butch was questioned by investigators on Nov. 24, 1970. 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