Kristin Chenoweth's Connection to Oklahoma Cold Case
Joy Saha, an editorial fellow at Salon, writes that Kristin Chenoweth has revealed a surprising connection to the murders of three Girl Scouts from 1977. In an upcoming Hulu series, Chenoweth is returning to her hometown in an attempt to find answers about this cold case. She has revealed that she was supposed to go on the fatal camping trip, but was forced to stay home because she had fallen ill. She claims that the story haunts her everyday, as she could have easily been one of the victims.
On June 13, 1977, 3 young girls were found murdered in their sleeping bags while at Camp Scott in Oklahoma. All three girls were Girl Scouts and from the Tulsa/Broken Arrow area of Oklahoma. Their names were Lori Lee Farmer, 8, Michelle Heather Guse, 9, and Doris Denise Milner, 10.
2 months before the incident, according to the Oklahoma Cold Cases, a handwritten note had been left in a counselor’s cabin. Contained in the note was a reference to martians, and the words, “we are on a mission to kill 3 girls in one tent”. The letter was turned over to the authorities, but many believed it to simply be a harmless prank.
The three girls shared tent #8 in the Kiowa Unit, which was the unit farthest away from their counselor’s tent and partially obscured by the showers. A storm was coming in the day before the incident, so the counselor’s had all the girls turn in early. Lori, Michelle, and Doris all started to work on letters to their respective families.
At 6am the next morning, the three girls were found on a trail, in their sleeping bags. They had all been restrained in some way and raped. Two had been bludgeoned to death, and one had been strangled. Strangely, a large red flashlight was left on their bodies, with an unidentifiable fingerprint on the lense.
In the blood in the girls tent, there was a 9.5 size shoe print. According to the DailyMail, the camp has never reopened.
Investigators identified Gene Leroy Hart as a possible suspect. According to St. Petersburg Times, he had been serving time for sentences totaling 305 years for kidnapping and killing two pregnant women, but had escaped prison. He was known to frequent the area around the camp and had knowledge of the land. After a manhunt that lasted for months, he was finally captured and taken to the trial. The jury found him innocent on all three counts of first-degree murder, but he was still forced to return to prison to serve the time for previous charges.
Picture from Oklahoma Cold Cases
