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. Re-reading articles and court documents, its clear he challenged every step of the trial. Decades of investigations followed, creating ripples in the Norman community still felt today. And he answered a crucial question about why the case came into the spotlight again after nearly 20 years since the initial investigation. 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. K: This is Dave Pearo, a Norman police officer from 1981 to 2004. Recording of Pearo: The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, because they had helped out on the murder investigation as well and theyre the ones that have the labs and everything in the state of Oklahoma, so the evidence was all turned over the the OSBI. We still do a complete background on these people talking to everybody looking at everything. A Daily staffer began flipping through pages in our large, dusty archive books. Recording of Brake: Some friends told me that the man was Frank Gilley and that he hit me in the head with a flashlight. The But it was one that, it was kind of a taboo subject., Recording of Kayla: Why? A lot of blood and congestion in the right lung from a wound in the lung. Sloans was in Amarillo at the First Presbyterian Church that Wednesday. Recording of Linda: Early the next morning, my sister had not come home and we knew something was wrong I remember my mother shaking me saying, Linda, Linda. Im like, What? She said, Have you heard from Sherry? Im like, What are you talking about? And I begin to hear all this, She never came home last night. My very first thought was Oh my god, Sherry, are you in trouble now. My dad was gone before daylight driving to Norman. 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.. The Hippie Era was still blazing, but now, the kids coming of age had become increasingly politically active. Recording of Linda: When something like this happens, you feel like, What could I do? And the neighbor across the street had gone to OU So I called her and explained that you know Sherry went on this date last night, and she isnt home yet. 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. 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. It was pretty tough. He said the politics were too much, that true policing was impossible because of it. In addition to debris, there are cars with I mean this guy was a cop and he did this stuff. Date: 2/28 #1 DRIVING W/ LICENSE CANC/SUSP/REVOKED. Recording of Pearo: And he told us where hed gotten it. 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. 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. WebOklahoma Bookings. 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. Now you dont die right away from a wound in the lung unless there is a major artery hit. Here, Linda Adams, the sister of Sheryl Benham, is describing the first time she had come in contact with Frank Gilley, the man she believes killed her sister and her date, David Sloan, 21 years earlier. Im Kayla Branch and Ill be your host as we hear stories and first-hand accounts from those involved with the case. They checked his police car, finding that on an average night, he would drive well over 100 miles on patrol. I can talk about it now, I can., Recording of Kayla: Why do you think that is? And so were not letting that go. 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. It was another disappointing end again.. Keep in mind that they had been at a fraternity party at the SAE house. There arent families like that now, I dont think. Recording of Brake: He contacted somebody here, said theres a guy in your town there who was a bad apple out here, who is known for messing with Lovers Lane couples, and they started checking into him and found out he is on probation and shouldnt have ever been hired by the Norman Police Department in the first place., Recording of Ken: Frank made a couple of comments to me after the bodies were taken out of the car. K: Boden and her date Rick had been west of Norman, in the same area that David and Sheryl were just 30 days earlier. So he passed the polygraph. What we think happened is Sloan and Benham were up on the lovers lane and Gilley approached them, probably came up to David Sloan, his side of the car, and said Im the sheriff of Cleveland County, probably made David get out and talk to him. It was like, Hey look, that case will probably never go anywhere, so forget that one, you can look at the rest of them. And then relayed to me that that rifle actually belonged to his wife so he wasnt lying. 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. 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. I dont think Henslee was convinced that Gilley had done it at that point. WebBest Places to Live | Compare cost of living, crime, cities, schools and more. The explanation that Gilley was being framed ended up as somewhat of the official stance of the police department. WebRT @dtblove05: Oklahoma University football team helping out one of their teammates clean up after a tornado destroyed his house in Norman, OK. 28 Feb 2023 01:09:39 Get full property details, plus crime rates, environmental hazards, natural disaster risks and more at HomeDisclosure.com 202371154. 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. But by that point, he was gone. The family was polite and helpful after the murders, but wanted more than anything to just move on. 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. 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. 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. K: Gilley was living close to Dallas in De Soto, Texas, in the early 90s. 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. Mike Brake, a police reporter for the Oklahoma Journal in 1970, went out to the crime scene with officers. 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. 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. Jacobson pointed to the unusual handling of the case and what he considered obstruction that interfered with the investigation. Episode 1 explores how The Daily came across the story of the two murdered teenagers, David Sloan and Sheryl Benham. These types of crimes may include homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and physical In episode 2, listen to the the story of Sheryls sister, Linda, on the day her family searched for Sheryl. It was just gone, all the evidence was just gone.. Allegations 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. Oklahoma is 10.8% cheaper than Norman, Oklahoma. K: But investigators did find .22 caliber weapons in the house, however they were technically owned by Gilleys father. He was going to drive to Amarillo, Texas, and kill him. 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. 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. 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. Words he said he believes she would have said.. Recording of Minty: He just sat there quietly at the defense table the entire time. You know and Frank and David were both described as hotheads and so you put two hotheads together I think Frank his only choice was to shoot him to protect himself and then Sherry probably just did whatever he wanted her to do., Recording of Brake: heek. But he signed off on the search warrant.. Henslee is quoted saying this in multiple articles and testimonies. 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? NORMAN, Okla. An Oklahoma man shot and killed his estranged wife and her divorce lawyer, then took his own life, police reported Wednesday. They didnt know anyone new was being hired. They believe the incident started before Gilleys NPD shift started around midnight Saturday. WebExplore recent crime in Norman, OK. SpotCrime crime map shows crime incident data down to neighborhood crime activity including, reports, trends, and alerts. WebIf you reside in Norman, then there is a 1 in 321 chance that you will experience a violent crime. WebCBS News Six people were killed in a series of shootings Friday in northwestern Mississippi, authorities said. Recording of Pearo: He thought we were just working the dickens out of his burglary. 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. This is an 18.6% increase from the previous year. But I was. A suspect is in custody, the sheriff's office in Tate County, Mississippi, I told him we hadnt. 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? K: Linda told us about her dad, overcome with anger and sadness, jumping in the car one night a few months after the murders to go find Frank Gilley himself. 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: After finding the car and the bodies, officers from all of the agencies came together to sweep the area. I said my dad has been in Norman all day. Maybe hes just gone away and somebody will rescue them or find them. Case Number: 2023-00010701. Recording of Linda: I thought, Ive seen you. 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 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. Just after 3 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a He gets the rifle, which is a high capacity rifle, a .22 rifle might have a magazine of 22 rounds or more. What became the most important, Jacobson told us, was finding the murder weapon. It was the summer after Woodstock and Americas counterculture was thriving. Munoz told investigators he knew nothing about a dead body in the basement and gave them his consent to conduct a search. Joshua Bookout. 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. On Thursday. The calls got further apart, but somebody would always call and would say what do you think about this thing, did you look at this, and all that. Gilley was white, 5-foot-8 and close to 180 pounds. When I googled the names of those involved, dozens of articles popped up, spanning decades. Well start back up with thoughts from Linda Adams, Sheryls older sister. 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. K: This is one of the only times we ever came across the Sloan family coming to Norman to be involved with the case. TWO FOUND DEAD IN TRUNK. Those five words, in large bold font, headlined a story on the bottom right corner of the May 12 front page. Tornado hits Norman damaging the electric system and causing power cuts. Thousands gathered for a demonstration on the Kent State University campus in Ohio. And my mother still to this day, Why did she give that to me? Was there a premonition, I dont know, no one will ever know.. Police reported that in 2018 Sandoval described Sanchez as her brother and that he and his wife were abusing her. .. Henslee is quoted saying this in multiple articles and court documents, its clear he challenged every of. 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