People Magazine Investigates Recap for Girl Scout Murders
-The season premiere of People Magazine Investigates is titled Girl Scout Murders and focuses on the murders Lori Farmer, Michele Guse and Denise Milner, three young girls who were murdered during an overnight Girl Scouts camping trip.
-Lori’s parents go to where their daughter was murdered, while several other people reflect on that terrible time in June 1977. Girls from all over the state would get together and go to Camp Scott for a summer of fun and adventure.
-The Farmers Bo and Sheri remember their daughter being beautiful and smart beyond her years. She was a good big sister to her younger siblings.
-Lori’s sister Misti remembers the two of them being inseparable throughout their childhood. The two of them would dress alike, play together and just have fun. Younger sisters Kali and Joli also remember having a wonderful bond with their big sister.
-Bo and Sheri remember dropping Lori off at the bus and how excited she was to develop her own film at camp.
-Fellow camper Leigh Miller remembers meeting Lori, Denise and Michele at camp. Even though they were in different tents, she recalls them being very sweet.
-On that fateful night, there was a thunderstorm, so the girls spent time playing games and bonding. At 10pm, they’d all gone to bed, not knowing the horror they would face the next morning.
-The next morning, Barbara Day remembers a counselor coming to her door, frantic. She found the body of a young camper, who had been murdered. There were two sleeping bags next to the body, which contained the bodies of two other girls. They were later identified as Lori, Michele and Denise.
-Law enforcement is contacted immediately. Agent Marty Wilson and Sheriff Mike Reed discuss the scene, which is nothing short of disturbing.
-The girls were all sent home as reporters enter the scene.
-An investigation begins and even more disturbing details are found. Deputy Director Andrea Fielding shows pictures of what were found and explains that based on what was found, this was premeditated.
-The families are then notified……leaving them devastated. Bo recalls breaking down and his partner taking him home. Shari remembers them telling their other kids about Lori and how the family was changed forever.
-Further investigation shows that the girls were sexually assaulted, beaten and bound before they died.
-A counselor remembers going to check on some of the girls who were giggling, as well as a growl. She couldn’t find anything, so she had gone back to bed.
-Several counselors reported things missing and loosened tents, making them wonder if there was a search for girls who were awake.
-As the investigation continued, a cave was found with items such as sunglasses and pictures of women from an event. It is soon discovered that they are connected to what was found at the scene of the crime.
-Denise’s mother Bettye recalls the horrific moment she saw her daughter’s dead body.
-The town is determined to find out who the monster who killed the girls was…and the photo was a huge clue. It turned out the photograph was from a wedding and developed by Gene Leroy Hart….in a prison. He was in jail for abducting women at gunpoint and raping them. They both survived and he was sent to prison. He also made the same growling sound heard the night the girls were murdered.
-Gene was released from prison after 28 months but was in and out of jail for burglary. He had escaped at the time of the murders and becomes the main suspect. A massive manhunt begins.
-Gene’s niece and criminal defense attorney claim that there is a possibility that he was not involved.
-By December 1977, the manhunt is called off. It was believed he was being harbored by his family, so Agent Harvey Pratt worked on a new tactic to capture him. Before long, an informant was able to figure out where he was staying. This led to him finally being arrested ten months after the murders.
-Gene denied killing the girls, but a trial was still to take place. His family was supporting him, even going as far as to hold benefits to raise money for his defense.
-Sandi Garett was on the jury for the trial. She is part Cherokee like Gene, so she felt that she needed to put her mind to being a good juror.
-Sheri kept diaries of the time during the trial.
-Evidence was shown throughout the trial, including how he burglarized Jack Schroff’s farmhouse prior to the murders. It is inferred that he took some of the weapons used to kill the girsl….except for the one used to bludgeon the girls to death.
-Every disgusting, disturbing detail is shared and evidence was tested to connect him to the crime. The semen found was disformed due to a botched vasectomy. Everything was working in the favor of the families, until the defense presented their case. They had claimed that everything presented was circumstantial.
-A deeper dive showed that the pictures were from 1973, years before the killings took place and that it could have been planted.
-The defense pokes holes into the evidence presented, sending the investigation into a whole new direction. Since it as 1979, DNA science was much different back then, making things much more difficult to prove.
-The jury came to a verdict, which stated that Gene was not guilty. The families of the girls are left devastated…..even though Gene was sent back to prison for unrelated crimes.
-On June 4th, 1979, Gene died of a heart attack in prison. There was now no hope of getting a confession from him.
-By now rumors are spreading that more than one person could have been involved. This leads to the case to once again take a whole new direction in 1981, when a new sheriff takes over.
-Around this time, a woman revealed that her brother and his friends were in the area around the same time as the murders….and she believed that they could have been involved. He had come home covered in blood, acting nervous and talking about the poor little girls. She had claimed that they hid everything in a Super Bee car and pushed it into the water.
-Sheriff Paul Smith hired a PI to look into this, determined to make an arrest. However, the arrests never come.
-The Farmers began a Parents of Murdered Children chapter in Oklahoma to help other families.
-Grace Helms, who worked on the case as a DNA analyst, compared DNA found at the scene to what they had from Gene. There were five places to match, but only three of them matched, making it a partial match. The evidence pointed to him, but did not completely connect him.
-Hundreds of pieces of evidence are tested, with the help of Andrea and Sheri. The former kept the tests going and the latter submitted Lori’s belongings from the trip to be tested.
-The Farmers kept pushing for answers, especially when it came to the three alleged murderers. They were finally questioned and claimed that they were not there at the time of the murders. They all passed the polygraph tests. It later came out that the sister had lied because she wanted revenge on her brother.
-Despite this, Sheriff Paul Smith thinks there could have been some merit in the case, despite evidence saying otherwise.
-Sheri gets a phone call from someone who wants to help solve the murder because the case has impacted her own life.
-Sheryl Stokes, who was a friend of Lori’s, went into family advocacy when she got older in honor of Lori. She told the Farmers that she would help in any way she could. Richard Leonard from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children also got involved.
-Richard found a lot of similarities to this case and others Gene was involved in, including the eyeglasses that were left behind.
-The theory of multiple weapons was also theorized, since the injuries on the girls varied. This led to a deeper dive into the evidence, which also led to the multiple killer theory coming back into play. However, the footprints could have also come from one of the counselors who stepped in the blood.
-After another deep dive, it is inferred that Gene was involved and acted alone. However, all the suspects have their DNA tested and compared to the ones found at the scene of the crime.
-The DNA showed that everything was too degraded to be useful. The only thing useful was the prior DNA that partially connected Gene to the case. Everyone is devastated by this turn of events.
-There is also the possibility that Gene did not act alone.
-Sheri is an advocate for victims’ rights in Oklahoma. She and Bo were recognized by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2022.
-The Farmers continue to honor Lori’s memory, as does Bettye for Denise. Michele’s parents have since passed away.
-Camp Scott is no longer in existence but instead a hunting ground. The Farmers put roses out there for the girls one last time to honor them.
