Full Notification

Forty years ago today, three young girl scouts were found sexually abused and murdered at Camp Scott near Locust Grove -- Lori Lee Farmer, 8; Michelle Guse, 9; and Denise Milner, 10. The Mayes County sheriff immediately called OSBI special agents to help work the case. Eventually, agents arrested Gene Leroy Hart. Hart had escaped from the Mayes County jail a few years earlier. He had been convicted of kidnapping and raping two pregnant women. He kidnapped them from Tulsa and took them to Mayes County where he grew up. In 1979, a Mayes County jury acquitted Hart of the three murders. However, he went back to prison to serve the remainder of the time on the kidnapping and sexual assault convictions. He died of a heart attack a few months later.
Since the acquittal, the girl scouts murder case has remained open. In 40 years of forensic testing and running leads, no evidence has surfaced pointing to any other suspect.
Elected in 2013, Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed made it his mission to help resolve this case. In the past few years, he has raised private donations to pay for expensive DNA testing that is so sensitive it cannot be performed at the OSBI Forensic Laboratory. Results are not yet available.
On this day, significant to so many Oklahomans, please think of the girls’ families. They mourn the anniversary every day.