The picture from the cave was made public and a prison officer recognized the women it in from a part-time job as a wedding photographer. Three Girl Scouts were murdered on June 13, 1977, at a camp located near Locust Grove. In 1973, Sonny was transferred to a county jail in Pryor, Oklahoma, and he escaped from there, remaining at large until after the Girl Scout murders. In 2016, Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed raised $30,000 in donations to carry out new DNA testing, reported People. Two of the families later sued the Magic Empire Council and its insurer for $5 million, alleging negligence. The trial from March 19 to May 30, 1979, saw the prosecution argue Harts eyeglasses were stolen from the camp and that hair found on the duct tape resembled his. Premiering tonight, ABC will cover the shocking mystery of the "Girl Scout Murders" on 20/20. Gene Leroy Hart (November 27, 1943 - June 4, 1979) had been at large since 1973 after escaping from the Mayes County Jail. No fingerprints were found inside the tent. Escaped Convict Gene Leroy Hart Was Arrested For The Murders After Farmer, Guse, and Milner were murdered, police suspected 33-year-old Gene Leroy Hart of committing the crimes. In May 2022, the Hayes authorities announced more DNA tests that took place in 2019 strongly pointed to Hart's involvement in the killings. He had been convicted of kidnapping and raping two pregnant women as well as four counts of first-degree burglary. A thunderstorm hit the area that night, and the girls spent time in their tents writing letters back home and chatting between themselves before they went to sleep. Gene Leroy Hart (center) is led into the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on April 6, 1978, after his capture. Tom Kennedy (deputy director of the OSBI at the time) said that two pairs of shoes were already in evidence lockers. This bag contained pink socks and a pair of tennis shoes with the name, Denise Milner, written inside. At around 3:00 am, another girl heard a scream come from the section of camp where Tent #8 was located. Speaking to Tulsa World, Reed shared Mayes County Police had questioned over 130 potential suspects since the case and other names have surfaced over the years and DNA collected. Hart himself is a member of the Cherokee Nation. Farmer reportedly wrote about Guse and Milner in her letter, saying that they were her new friends. We also note that during the trial the Judge did hear evidence outside the jury's hearing concerning defendant's arrest and the advising of his constitutional rights. As he retired, he placed his wallet with personal papers and cash on a night stand adjacent to his bed. By collecting seeds from your own garden or buying them in bulk, you can save money on future purchases. Michele Guse had previously attended Camp Scott and reportedly knew it well. He was tried in March 1979. He was tried in March 1979. Approximately 30 minutes later, a camper in Tent #7 was awoken when someone with a flashlight opened the flap to the tent. Chapter5:In the years following the murders, the survivors and others affected continue trying to make sense of it all, while maintaining hope that advancements in DNA testing may ultimately bring answers. The unusual date format is said to be used by both the military and the prison system. While it was close to tent 8, she didnt see anything out of the ordinary and went back to her tent. Lori Farmer as a baby with her parents The prime suspect in the triple slayings was 33-year-old Gene Leroy Hart, a convicted rapist who had escaped from jail four years earlier. The officers were further informed by the plaintiff that the keys to the vehicle were checked in with his property at the Tulsa Police Department. Hart had been sentenced to life in prison years earlier for the kidnapping and sexual assault of two pregnant women. Chapter4:Officials stop pursuing the case despite a not-guilty verdict, and Hart dies unexpectedly while in prison for unrelated crimes. One night in June 1977, what was supposed to be a fun camping trip for a Girl Scout group turned deadly when three young girls turned up dead. By 8 am on 13th June, Sherriff Glen Pete Weaver knew he would need the assistance of a larger force and requested help from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI). Gene Leroy Hart died at the age of 35 on June 4, 1979, from a heart attack in prison, just two months after the 1979 trial for the Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders. The fingerprint on the flashlight was not a match. In June 1977, three young girl scouts went off to summer camp for two weeks at Camp Scott, Mayes County, in the Ozark Hills of Oklahoma. The lab tried to obtain but could not come up with anything to test," said Jeffries, inspector of the OSBI's Northeast Regional Office. Hart was a convicted rapist and burglary who escaped from an Oklahoma prison four years before the Girl Scout murders. They also learned about strange noises that several other campers and counselors had heard throughout the night. Highway Patrol Officer Harold Berry was the first law enforcement officer at the scene and found one set of boot prints leading from Kiowa camp to the spot where the body was. Hart was sent back to prison to continue serving his previous sentence and died of a massive heart attack in June 1979. They were sharing tent #7 in the camp's "Kiowa" unit, which was located the farthest from the camp counselor's tent[6] and partially obscured by the camps showers. On June 11th, 1978, the State pathologist, Dr. Hoffman testified he did not find any sperm or any semen on the three victims. Parks, Public Defender, Tulsa County, for plaintiff in error. SCOUT MURDER SUSPECT In 1989, the state tested DNA from a semen stain found on a pillowcase in Michelle Guses sleeping bag, according to KOCO, but they were unable at that point to get more than a partial match. Bowles stated that, as he cuffed Hart, he asked: You killed those little girls, didnt you?. The hearing was had on July 18, 1969. But the fact that Hart had escaped Mayes Jail and evaded Sherriff Sherriff Glen Pete Weaver led many to believe there was a personal vendetta driving the manhunt. [17], Richard Guse, the father of one of the three victims, went on to help the state legislature pass the Oklahoma Victims' Bill of Rights. People were desperate to find the killer. They were brutally sexually assaulted and murdered in their tent number 8, in the Kiowa sub-camp, under the nose of camp counselors. A nearby landowner had heard quite a bit of traffic on a road near Camp Scott between 2 and 3 a.m. At around 1:30 am on June 13, Carla Sue Wilhite, a camp counselor, heard moaning sounds and checked it out. Around 3 am, there are two reports of girls in other camps being woken by noises. Hart was charged with the killings and stood trial after pleading his innocence. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. How to Distinguish Between Viable and Non-Viable Tomato Seeds for Successful Planting. Braving their first night and storm together, they were dead by dawn. See, Koonce v. State, Okl.Cr., 456 P.2d 549 (1969), and Penn v. State, Okl.Cr., 456 P.2d 606 (1969). Gene Leroy Hart was, and still remains, the main suspect in the Girl Scout murders Credit: ABC6 Who was Girl Scout Murder suspect, Gene Leroy Hart? He had been convicted of kidnapping and the rape of the two women as well as four counts of first-degree burglary. When he awoke the following morning at approximately 6:00. Lori Farmer, 8, Michelle Guse, 9, and Doris Milner, 10, were brutally raped and murdered while away at summer camp in Locust Grove, Oklahoma nearly 45 years ago. Get The Daily Update! Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Its going to be dark.. Among them: Larry Dry, a convict and former associate of Hart's, Carla Wilhite, Dee Elder, Susan Emery and Karen Mitchell, Camp Scott counselors, Neil Hoffman, Oklahoma state medical examiner, John MacLeod, Cornell University professor of anatomy and expert on human reproduction. Investigators eventually searched several caves surrounding the camp, finding one with grocery items, newspapers and duct tape that seemed to match the tape used to bind the three girls and newspaper found inside the flashlight. They showed that Sonny was the only suspect who could not be ruled out as the contributor to the semen stain found on a pillowcase inside Micheles sleeping bag. With the help of 40 FBI agents and $1,250,000 later, police tracked him down at a Cherokee cabin on April 6, 1978. When police arrived on the scene, they found Tent #8 covered in blood. Not all Cherokee felt the same. 77-6-17.. The attacks had definitely been planned in advance. Defendant testified that he did not confess or tell the officer where his car was located. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Two hours later, at around midnight, Carla Wilhite escorted some of the girls from the toilets to their tents. The Farmer and Milner families unsuccessfully sued the Magic Empire Girl Scout Council in 1985, while Farmer opened a Parents of Murdered Children chapter in Oklahoma. Joyce Paine, an Okmulgee woman who gave testimony implicating Kansas convict Bill Stevens in the murders. Although the local sheriff pronounced himself "one thousand percent" certain that Hart was guilty. In the 1980s, a DNA test carried out on case evidence showed three of the five probes matched Hart's DNA. At that time, the defendant stated that he wanted to talk to an attorney. With a population of 30,000 and vast forestland in all directions, Mayes County was a perfect place to run a camp. In an update reported in May 2022, the latest DNA testing in the case, although officially inconclusive, strongly suggested Harts involvement in the murders, while eliminating several other potential suspects. Gene Leroy Hart today was found innocent of three first-degree murder charges in the 1977 sex slayings of three Girl Scouts. She had head injuries and her hands were tied behind her back. One report is of a single scream (may have been earlier, around 1 am), and the other is of a girl crying out for her mother. Kiowa camp happened to be set furthest west and more isolated away from the trail than the others. Also cited in support of this theory is the fact that the hands of two of the slain girls were bound using different knots. The latest testing could not eliminate Hart, whose DNA matched the partial profiles and the latest DNA tests most likely are the last that will be done in the case, as testable evidence has been all but exhausted. There is no allegation defendant had new evidence to offer in support and it is apparent an additional hearing just before trial would necessitate examination of the same witnesses who testified before Judge Nelson. They had been left on a trail leading to the showers, about 150 yards from their tent. A prisoner told police about its existence, claiming he had met Hart there after the murders. A counselor had gone to investigate moaning sounds at around 1:30 a.m., but couldnt locate the source. Wading through parents and 130 children, she ensured the girls mother not to worry. At the time of the manhunt, Angie Jake (editor of the Tulsa Indian News) said, "Hart pulled the wool over their (the police's) eyes for so long and he frustrated them. The last story from a surviving witness is from the girls in tent 7, who said that their tent flap was pulled back and a man shone a light into the tent. A fourth girl was supposed to stay in the tent with them but wasn't scheduled to arrive until the following day. Hulus four-part docuseries Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders delves into the enduring tale of this challenging case and the person who remained the prime suspect despite an acquittal, Gene Leroy Sonny Hart.