The murders of Jack and Elaine Denney
Locust Grove, Cherokee County, Oklahoma · 2007
Overview
Jack Denney, 65, and Elaine Denney, 66, were shot to death in their home near Locust Grove, Oklahoma, in December 2007. Prosecutors put the date at December 23. Their daughter and her family found them on Christmas morning. Neighbors knew the couple as the grandparents of the neighborhood, and it was hard for investigators to imagine anyone with a grudge against them. Jack's wallet was empty, but the scene did not look like a typical robbery, and the case reached a dead end. About a year later an inmate in Cherokee County, Justin Walker, wrote a letter claiming responsibility. Investigators treated him as a good suspect, but a palm print from the house did not match his, and prosecutors declined to charge him. After his release in 2012 he recanted. Roughly ten years after the killings, a former mental health professional who had treated Walker told authorities about a conversation she had had with him. A multi-county grand jury indicted him on two counts of first-degree murder in March 2018. In March 2019 he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years, separate from a 10-year sentence in an unrelated case. His motive was never firmly established.
How it was solved
The Denney case was solved by a witness, not by a laboratory result. For about a decade it had no forensic answer. Investigators had an unidentified print on the couple's dryer and a wallet that had been emptied, and they spent months fingerprinting unfamiliar people in the neighborhood without a match, according to an account on Oxygen. The first break looked like a gift. About a year after the killings, Justin Walker, then an inmate in Cherokee County on an assault and battery charge, sent authorities a letter claiming responsibility. Undersheriff Jason Chennault said Walker had "nothing to gain" from confessing, so investigators interviewed him, and he drew a sketch of the house. Chennault called the drawing "not perfect" but enough to make Walker a good suspect. Then the palm print from the dryer was compared with Walker's, and it did not match. Prosecutors declined to charge him. The Tahlequah Daily Press and Oxygen describe the letter differently: one says he claimed to have been promised drugs and cash, the other quotes him as saying he robbed the couple of a wallet. Walker was released in June 2012. When the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation asked him in for a follow-up interview, he recanted and said he did not remember writing the letter. Chennault called that "a real kick in the gut." The case moved again because District Attorney Jack Thorp kept it open. He brought a retired OSBI agent back to review cold cases and asked television stations to run anniversary segments, Oxygen reported. About ten years after the killings, a former mental health professional who had treated Walker contacted authorities about a conversation she remembered having with him. Thorp said that one phone call led to the indictment. In March 2018 a multi-county grand jury indicted Walker on two counts of first-degree murder. A special judge found probable cause that October. Walker pleaded not guilty at first, then agreed to a plea in March 2019: two counts of second-degree murder and 40 years in prison, separate from a 10-year sentence he was already serving.
Sources
- Cold Case Of Neighborhood Grandparents' Christmas Slaying Solved After A Decade (December 21, 2019)
“Ten years after the murders, acting on a tip from a former mental health professional who had treated Walker, authorities finally had enough to issue an indictment.”
- Sources: Multi-County Grand Jury Indicts Man For 2007 Denney Murders
“Sources tell News On 6 a multi-county grand jury has indicted a man in connection with the murders of Jack and Elaine Denney.”
- Tahlequah Man Pleads Guilty To 2007 Denney Christmas Murders
“Thorp said the tip came from a mental health professional who remembered a conversation she had with Walker.”
- Suspect indicted in Denney homicides
“Murder indictments against Justin James Walker, 32, were announced by District Attorney Jack Thorp during a press conference at the Cherokee County Courthouse.”
- Indictment announced in Denney homicides
“Walker is accused of killing Jack Denney, 65, and Elaine Denney, 66, on Dec. 23, 2007. He is already in prison on unrelated charges.”
- Special judge green-lights trial in Denney murder case
“A judge found probable cause during an Oct. 11 preliminary hearing in Cherokee County District Court to move forward with a trial for a man accused of murdering a couple almost 11 years ago.”
- Man receives 40 years for Denney murders
“A Tahlequah man was sentenced to 40 years in Cherokee County District Court on March 28, after pleading guilty to murdering a couple more than 11 years ago.”
- CRIME REWIND: Denney case called one of county's biggest mysteries
“The case went unsolved for a number of years until authorities received a letter from a man who claimed to have killed the couple because he was promised drugs and cash to do so.”
- Reward increased for info on couple's death in Locust Grove
“A reward has increased for information in the slayings of a Locust Grove couple last December, officials said.”
- Suspect indicted in Locust Grove couple's 2007 fatal shootings
“State grand jurors have come up with a possible answer to a decade-old murder mystery.”
- Murder charges filed in 2007 Locust Grove cold case; suspect already in prison
“More than 10 years after the fatal shootings of a couple in their rural Locust Grove home, the Cherokee County District Attorney announced first-degree murder charges against one of the men authorities believe is responsible.”
- Man charged in Locust Grove couple's killings pleads guilty, will serve an additional 40 years in prison
“A man charged in the killings of a Locust Grove couple in 2007 pleaded guilty Thursday and will serve an additional 40 years in prison, the district attorney said.”