Global Courant 2023-05-04 03:59:03
A convicted rapist on trial on child pornography charges allegedly shot and killed six people, five of them teenagers, before committing suicide at the rural Oklahoma estate where the children were staying over the weekend, authorities said Wednesday.
All of the victims were shot in the head, said Joe Prentice, chief of the Okmulgee Police Department and spokesman for a violent crime task force that oversees the investigation into the murders outside the town of Henryetta.
The suspected shooter, Jesse McFadden, 39, also died of a gunshot wound to the head, Prentice said.
Prentice identified the victims as Ivy Webster, 14; Brittany Brewer, 15; Michael Mayo, 15; Tiffany Guess, 13; Rylee Allen, 17; and Holly McFadden, 35.
Holly McFadden’s mother, Janette Mayo, identified her daughter as Holly Guess on Tuesday. She married Jesse McFadden last year, Okmulgee County records show.
Their bodies were found in two groups on the large lot where the McFaddens rented a house, Prentice said.
From top left Michael James Mayo, Holly Guess, Tiffany Dore Guess; Below, from left, Ivy Webster and Brittany Brewer.Courtesy of Justin Webster, Nathan Brewer; via Facebook
A group containing Ivy, Brittany and Riley was found about a quarter of a mile from the house, he said. The bodies lay about 100 to 150 yards apart in a scene Prentice described as “staged.” He refused to elaborate.
The other four were found in a heavily forested part of the country, Prentice said.
A possible motive remained unclear, he said.
“Part of the problem when the community suffers with something like this is that everyone wants to understand why,” Prentice said. “Normal people can’t understand why. People who commit crimes like this are evil.”
Jesse McFadden served nearly 17 years in prison for first-degree rape. In 2017, while behind bars, he was accused of sending sexually explicit photos to a 16-year-old girl and acting in a manner that prosecutors described in court documents as “manipulation and control of the victim.”
Jesse McFadden was charged with child pornography and inciting sexual conduct/communication with a minor. A jury trial in the case was scheduled for Monday, the same day the bodies were found after Ivy and Brittany’s parents reported them missing.
The bodies of seven people were found in a home in Henryetta, Oklahoma, authorities said.KJRH
McFadden’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment. Court documents show McFadden intended to claim he had no contact with the 16-year-old, but with her boyfriend, who was 21.
The teens’ parents have said they knew nothing of McFadden’s criminal past or that he was a registered sex offender. In interviews, they described the sleepover last weekend as routine and said nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
One parent, Nathan Brewer, said Jesse McFadden seemed like a “nice, normal person.”
Holly McFadden’s mother has also said that her daughter didn’t know “the truth about Jesse McFadden” and that he “fooled her with his charm”.
“Now she and my grandchildren are dead,” Janette Mayo wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “Stop bashing her.”
