Published: June 12, 2008 01:39 pm            

Officials: Separate guns used in double homicide

WELEETKA—Jessica Brown, public information officer with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Thursday two different guns were used in the murders of two girls near Weleetka.

Taylor Dawn Paschal, 13, Weleetka, and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker of Henryetta were found shot to death beside a county road near Paschal’s home Sunday. Results from forensics tests have shown that two different caliber bullets were used in the slayings, Brown said.

The findings are leading investigators to believe there was more than one shooter. The reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons is up to $25,000. The US Marshal’s Service contributed $10,000 to the reward Wednesday, Brown said.

Authorities have been flooded with calls since the deaths. Some are credible and many are people calling with theories as to what happened.

“We’re getting calls from all over the United States, they’re hypothesizing,” Brown said. “They all want to be armchair detectives, but it’s nice that they want to help.”

Whitaker was spending the night at Paschal’s home.

The two girls left the house to walk to a bridge just down the road. When they didn’t return, Paschal’s grandfather and legal guardian, Peter Placker, went to search for them.

He found them in a roadside ditch a quarter of a mile from the home. They were shot multiple times in the head and chest, authorities said.

It is unknown whether or not the girls were on their way to the bridge, or their way back home when they were shot.

The time they left the house and when they were found was only 30 minutes, leading authorities to believe the girls were shot where they were found, Brown said.

Investigators are following leads, but there are currently no solid suspects in the case.

“Who did it is beyond imagination because we have no motive,” Brown said. “If we had a motive then we could work from that motive, but we don’t even have that.”

Brown said anyone with information on the murders is asked to phone either the OSBI hotline at 800-522-8017 or the Okfuskee County sheriff’s office.

        

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