Brutal Murder Of 2 Girls Spreads Fear
Oklahoma Cops Still Have No Motive In Fatal Shooting Of Best Friends, Ages 11 And 13
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Skyla Whitaker, 11, left, and Taylor Paschal-Placker,13, each suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest. (AP Photo/Ruth Kelly Studio)
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A memorial to Taylor Paschal-Placker and Skyla Whitaker is pictured in Weleetka, Okla., Tuesday, June 10, 2008, at the spot along a rural road near Taylor's home where the girls' bodies were found. (AP Photo)
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The slayings of two girls - ages 11 and 13 - who were shot along a rural back road have baffled investigators and struck fear into townspeople, who are now afraid to let their children out of their sight.
"Still no motive, and I hate to say that," Ben Rosser, an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Wednesday. "This could be some kind of random thrill killing, it could be an attempted abduction, it could be somebody that just for whatever reason had a personal motive, maybe mistaken identity or possibly they did interrupt something down near the bridge. We just don't know."
Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, and Skyla Whitaker, 11, were killed Sunday afternoon near a bridge. Both had been shot in the head and chest.
The brutality has rattled this working-class community of 1,000, situated 70 miles south of Tulsa.
Weleetka has long been the type of place folks moved to escape many of the evils of the world. But townspeople said methamphetamine use - a particular scourge in small-town Oklahoma and elsewhere in the nation's heartland - has gotten bad around here, and crime is up.
"You think you're safe anywhere, but you're not. All the thugs is moving out here, too," said Skyla's grandfather, Jimmie Farrow. "It's a whole new ballgame."
Investigators said two guns were used in the killings, which suggests there were two gunmen. But beyond that, locals have been left to guess who did it and why.
"I could walk down Main Street in Weleetka and maybe pass the individual and I wouldn't know it right now," Rosser said. He added: "This should just hit to the very core of America. I just think two little girls can't go walking down a country lane road in this day and age. It's pretty sad."
Authorities are examining tire tracks, shell casings, bullets and shoeprints for any possible leads. They said they suspect a local person was involved because the killings occurred in such an isolated area. Rosser said that nothing is being ruled out but that there is no indication family or friends were involved.
Full autopsy results have not been released, but investigators said it appears the girls were not molested. They noted the youngsters were clothed and the bodies were found only about a half-hour after the girls began walking.
Sheriff Jack Choate, admitted: "We don't know what the threat is, but if it were me, I wouldn't let my kids out walking unless there were other people around, you know, that you knew."
Children are heeding the warning.
"I'm scared to go out of my house right now," said 14-year-old Tyler Couch, who knew the victims.
Taylor's family moved here to get her away from the violence in Oklahoma City, according to her uncle, Joe Mosher. Skyla's moved from Baxter Springs, Kan., outside of Joplin, Mo., for a taste of the simple life, Farrow said.
Both families thought they found what they were looking for along an isolated country road, where the neighbors are hidden from one another by the thick woods, Farrow said.
Farrow and other neighbors said they have noticed a change in the backwoods. Time was, Farrow said, he could go hunting on his property, leave his gun propped up against the house, and nobody would touch it. In the past 10 years, he has been robbed three times, he said.
The dirt roads, which Skyla and Taylor walked dozens of times for sleepovers, have changed, too, according to Farrow.
"It just went downhill out in the country," he said. "These roads ain't nothing but drunks and dopeheads on the weekends. Sometimes, you have to drive around them, they're passed out in the middle of the road."
Mosher said drugs may have played a role in the death of his niece and her girlfriend.
"The girls might have walked up on some guys cooking dope," he said. "There's been more of that stuff going on here in the past two years."
A neighbor, Ross Padgett, said drugs and the criminal element are worse than ever.
"Marijuana, meth, coke, you name it," he said. "A number of the meth cookers are right over in this community. They are busting them so hard in the cities, they are going rural." He lifted his shirt to reveal a 9 mm pistol, saying, "I'm not worried."
He said his 10-year-old son, Dakota, arms himself with a knife when he goes out to play on the family's land. The boy has also been trained with a gun.
"I'm good with a shot," Dakota said. "I'm pretty good with almost any gun."
A reward for information leading to an arrest in the case was increased Wednesday to $25,000.
Michael Grigsby, chaplain for the Sheriff's Office, called the killings "a tremendous slap in the face of reality."
"This is not supposed to happen in the heartland of America. Everyone wants to live where their kids can walk down a gravel road," Grigsby said. "It takes a while for a community like ours to wrap our minds around it."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 314 CommentsPosted by vnveteran72 at 10:14 AM : Jun 10, 2008
AMEN Brother!
What have we become, as a nation?
Stuff like this tears my soul.
To live in fear and not do the things we love is not the answer. They win when we give that up.
A kid should be able to ride her bike or take a walk without this kind of horror taking place. It''s sick and this monster should live the rest of his miserable life in a cell directly across from a full wall mural of these girls to look at every day as bubba the cell mate beats the shat out of him.
To live in fear and not do the things we love is not the answer. They win when we give that up.
Posted by hambonehd
Hambonehd, this is not the concerted effort of a movement to deny people the right to safety and security. These are the sick actions of a sociopath that wants to prey on the weak.
Those who believe in prayer, please join me in a prayer that justice will be served with a mighty hand on those who did this.
Posted by zoe2006
I figured it was a matter of time before somebody would blame gun control. Try blaming the insensitive "animal" that has no compassion for human life. This person(s) has no place in society.
Ditto!
Ditto!
Posted by drivelphobe
ditto
Aggravated assault accounted for the majority of violent crimes, 60.7 percent. Robbery accounted for 31.6 percent and forcible rape accounted for 6.5 percent. Murder, the least committed violent offense, made up 1.2 percent of violent crimes in 2006.
it''s not that there are more murders it''s just that you have more forms of media to report it these days.
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 10:59 AM : Jun 10, 2008
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Very sad. But another victim of a lack of gun control.
Posted by zoe2006 at 10:49 AM : Jun 10, 2008
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What does it take to educate people to realize that "gun control" will do "NOTHING" to keep any type weapon out of the hands of vicious people who will kill regardless of any law or control?
My sincere condolences to the families of these "children" and I pray the offender is caught quickly and has to pay with their own life!
Posted by phydeux1
You all keep on saying this, but it''s only partially true. In 2006 the UK had 48 gun deaths, in 2007 the number was 56. An increase for sure, but still less than 1 in a million population. The US''s average
on the other hand is ~ 20000 gun deaths or around 1 in 15000 population, close to 100 times the rate in the UK.
Posted by bdrlnt4rl
why then does the US have a far higher percentage of idiots than the rest of the world?
Posted by USBrit
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because we are not a police state like Britain.
Posted by Willyhenail at 11:48 AM
I do. I blame it on every person that ever voted to make guns as commonplace and as easily available as beer.
Posted by USBrit
because of hollywood. they are the examples and the teachers of people who do not have the good example of parents doing their jobs as parents.
think about it, think about the tv shows, the movies, the large propoganda that hollywood tells the world on how americans are, and in reality we really are not, but there are the idiots who try to live the hollywood fantasy. hollywood is the terrorist of the world and of america.
Put the blame on those who did the killing, not the means of the killing. Do you think knives should be illegal too? Or how about rat poison and lighters?
Posted by USBrit
I often wonder that myself. I don''t believe guns make people violent. Perhaps it economic situations feeding desperation, lack of morals from bad parenting, prescription drugs, social anxieties. Does Britain experience these same stresses to the capacity of the US?
"Just how did you arrive at you brilliant conclusion?"
When you people put farmin'' and fishin'' before education you get stupid people.
I do. I blame it on every person that ever voted to make guns as commonplace and as easily available as beer.
Posted by IRLiberal
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Well then keep voting for your police state, maybe you''ll get it!!
Posted by Nancy_Naive
They would simply buy them off the black market. About as easily as they can buy drugs.
Posted by jboxton
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What a bigot
Posted by USBrit
because of hollywood. they are the examples and the teachers of people who do not have the good example of parents doing their jobs as parents.
think about it, think about the tv shows, the movies, the large propoganda that hollywood tells the world on how americans are, and in reality we really are not, but there are the idiots who try to live the hollywood fantasy. hollywood is the terrorist of the world and of america.
"This is absolutley rediculous. This world is getting to the point that children cant even enjoy a normal child hood of playing outside and enjoying nature even far out in the country." Posted by renae2626 at 11:01 AM: Jun 10,2008
What is ridiculous is the fact that people haven''t clued in yet that children CAN''T play outside alone ANYWHERE. Not if you want them to be safe. People need to get this figured out. This is the way it is today.
"Put the blame where it deserves to be. on the person."
Posted by Willyhenail at 11:48 AM
"I do. I blame it on every person that ever voted to make guns as commonplace and as easily available as beer." Posted by IRLiberal at 11:50 AM : Jun 10, 2008
Exactly right. I realize that you can''t take all the guns back, but this shouldn''t have been allowed in the first place.
Posted by erasmus81
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That''s right. Every person should have a police officer assigned to them to make sure we have a perfect world.
What incredible negligence we don''t have that!
there is only one religion i can think of that teaches the kids the way you have done. and yes i strongly believe hollywood has given america a very bad rep to the rest of the world.
your point is wonderfully put. very tactful. parents need to teach not only by example but by words of kindness and family values.
Regards,
Posted by Nancy_Naive
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What a moron LOL!! You should go buy a brain instead of a defective assumption machine.
I voted for Kerry you fool.
Regards,
Posted by Nancy_Naive
G.ay Marriage and Activist judges running roughshod over our Constitution which they continually do to pander their opinions to a select group of people who need special rights.
i know, you idiots, lets bring saddam back to life and let him come run our government. he will whip, beat, cut our tongues out, burn us with tired around us, pull our fingernails off until we conform to be good little girls and boys and bow down to him. how about lets try bringing hitler back to life and he can be the vice pres!
think about it people
"Girl''s" is incorrect as well.....
Posted by phydeux1
You all keep on saying this, but it''''s only partially true. In 2006 the UK had 48 gun deaths, in 2007 the number was 56. An increase for sure, but still less than 1 in a million population. The US''''s average
on the other hand is ~ 20000 gun deaths or around 1 in 15000 population, close to 100 times the rate in the UK.===============
USBrit, they''ll try to make it a race issue soon or say the Constitution guarantees it and that your country is a police state and the US is the only truly "free" country. We all know (or should know)there are many different ethnic and racial groups in the UK but there''s nowhere near the amount of gun violence. It''s not a racial thing. Americans think it''s macho to live and die by the gun and Hollywood feeds that perception. The self-serving NRA-pandering cowards already in office or running for office won''t go against the majority for fear of looking soft and losing the election. They all claim to be Christians but have no problems sleeping at night while people blow each other away with handguns over trivial matters. It''s pathetic and it won''t change within our lifetimes, if ever. Then they try to bust China over human rights.
Posted by Nancy_Naive
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What a moron LOL!! You should go buy a brain instead of a defective assumption machine.
I voted for Kerry you fool.
Goodbye all....I don''t think I can waste away in sorrow anymore. Gives me a good reason to volunteer doing something for the good of society.
RIP little angels. Friends together forever, now in peace.
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