Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders

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by tpksstories

by tpksstories

The Oklahoma Girl Scout murdersis an unsolved murder case that occurred on the morning of June 13,1977, at Camp Scott in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. Thevictims were three girl scouts, between the ages of 8 and 10, whowere raped and murdered. Their bodies had been left on a trailleading to the showers, about 150 yards (140 meters) from their tentat summer camp. The case was classified as solved when Gene LeroyHart, a local jail escapee with a history of violence, was arrested.However, he was acquitted when he stood trial for the crime.

History

Less than two months before themurders, during an on-site training session, a camp counselordiscovered that her belongings had been ransacked and her doughnutshad been stolen. Inside the empty doughnut box was a disturbinghand-written note, stating in capital letters, "We are on amission to kill three girls in tent one." The director ofthat camp session treated the note as a prank, and it was discarded.

Discovery of the bodies

At around 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 12,1977, the night before camp started, a thunderstorm hit the area, andthe girls huddled in their tents. Among them were Lori Lee Farmer, 8,Doris Denise Milner, 10, and Michelle Heather Guse, 9. The girlswere residents of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. Theywere sharing tent #8 in the camp's "Kiowa" unit which waslocated the farthest from the Camp Counselor's tent, and partiallyobscured by the showers for the camp. At around 6 a.m. on June 13, acamp counselor on her way to the shower found a girl's body in hersleeping bag in the forest. It was soon discovered that all threegirls in tent #8 had been killed. Their bodies had been left on atrail leading to the showers, about 150 yards from their tent. Subsequent testing showed that they had been raped, bludgeoned, andstrangled.

A large, red flashlight was found ontop of the girls' bodies; a fingerprint was found on the lens, but ithas never been identified. A footprint from a 9.5 shoe size was alsofound in the blood in the tent. Between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on June 13, alandowner heard "quite a bit" of traffic on a remote roadnear the camp.

Aftermath

Camp Scott was evacuated and was latershut down.

Suspect

Gene Leroy Hart (November 27, 1943 –June 4, 1979) had been at large since 1973 after escaping from theMayes County Jail. He had been convicted of kidnapping and raping twopregnant women as well as four counts of first degree burglary. Hartwas raised about a mile from Camp Scott. Hart, a Cherokee, wasarrested within a year at the home of a Cherokee medicine man. He wasrepresented by Garvin A. Isaacs, a local Oklahoma attorney. He wastried in March 1979. Although the local sheriff pronounced himself"one thousand percent" certain that Hart was guilty, alocal jury acquitted him. As a convicted rapist and jail escapee, hestill had 305 years of his 308-year sentence left to serve in theOklahoma State Penitentiary. On June 4, 1979, he collapsed and diedof a heart attack, after about an hour of lifting weights and joggingin the prison exercise yard.

Two of the families later sued theMagic Empire Council and its insurer for $5 million, allegingnegligence. The civil trial included discussion of the threateningnote and the fact that tent #8 was 86 yards (79 m) from thecounselors' tent. In 1985, by a 9–3 vote, jurors decided in favorof Magic Empire.

DNA testing

In 1989, DNA testing was conducted thatshowed three of the five probes matched Hart's DNA. Statistically,DNA from 1 in 7,700 Native Americans would obtain these results. In2008, authorities conducted new DNA testing on stains found on apillowcase, the results of which proved inconclusive because thesamples were "too deteriorated to obtain a DNA profile".In 2017, $30,000 in donations were raised by the sheriff in order todo new DNA tests using the latest advances in testing.

Legacy

Richard Guse, the father of one of thethree victims, went on to help the state legislature pass theOklahoma Victims' Bill of Rights. He also helped found the OklahomaCrime Victims Compensation Board.

Another parent, Sheri Farmer, foundedthe Oklahoma chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a supportgroup.