911 call released in killings of 2 Okla. girls
OKEMAH, Okla. (AP) - July 21, 2008 "Yes, somebody's killed two girls ... my grandbaby, and ... her
friend! I'm on County Line Road!" the woman said in the June 8
call after 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor
Paschal-Placker were found shot to death on a road near Weleetka,
about 70 miles south of Tulsa.
"What happened down there?" the dispatcher asked.
"I don't know. They went for a walk and they're both ... now
they're dead!"
The grandmother's voice became increasingly frantic as she tried
to tell the dispatcher where she was.
"Please, please, please! Lord help me please! Oh God, oh God,
oh God! My babies, babies, babies!" she said.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown
appealed for the public's help after playing the recording at a
news conference.
"It breaks your heart hearing that, doesn't it?" she said.
"Someone knows something. Listen to that, understand what it's
done to these people, what it's done to the community and just come
forward," Brown said. "Give us the idea, the places to look
because these people need to be caught."
Authorities initially declined to make the 911 call public at
the request of family members, but Brown said investigators
persuaded them to change their minds. Eighty-two seconds of the
6-minute, 22-second recording were released.
Investigators did not release the name of the 911 caller, or
specify which of the girls was her grandaughter.
Each girl was shot several times. Their bodies were found less
than a half-mile from the house where one of the girls lived.
Investigators have released a sketch of a tall, American Indian
man whom witnesses described seeing near the murder scene around
the time of the killings, but that man hasn't come forward for
questioning.
Investigators have determined two different guns were used in
the killings, which suggests there might have been two people
involved.
Authorities have said the motive for the killings could have
been anything from an attempted abduction to the girls happening
upon a drug deal to a random thrill killing.
The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are helping with the
investigation, Brown said. A pool of 14 to 15 investigators from
the OSBI, FBI, Marshals Service and the Okfuskee County sheriff's
and district attorney office continue to work on the case, she
said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provided
a specially trained dog to comb the crime scene and the Marshals
Service has contributed to a reward of more than $30,000 for anyone
with information that could lead to an arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, interviews and polygraph tests have eliminated 100
people as suspects, Brown said.
"We want to see the right people come forward and not those
wanting to get back at a former boyfriend," she said. "That's
what we're dealing with now."