An Oklahoma sex offender who was released early from prison shot his wife, his three children and two of their friends in the head and then killed himself, officials confirmed Wednesday, raising concerns that Why was he free in the first place.
Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said the victims had one to three stab wounds to the head when they were found Monday in a rural area of Oklahoma. Jesse McFadden, a 39-year-old convicted sex offender, then shot himself, Prentice said in the first major update on the case.
The bodies of the victims were found near a drain and in a heavily forested area.
“There is evidence that Jesse McFadden killed six people and then killed himself. Beyond that, I don’t know what his thought process was,” Prentice said. “I’m not going to express a theory because I follow the evidence, and I have no evidence as to what the motive was.”
Family members have questioned how a rapist accused of demanding nude images from another teen behind bars was allowed to go free.
The shooting occurred as a series of ominous text messages—sent by McFadden to his young accuser just hours before he was due to go on trial on felony charges of soliciting and possessing child sexual abuse images—suggested that he had made the woman his ” Blamed for ending “Great Life”. And he was determined not to return to prison.
According to screen grabs of the messages, forwarded to KOKI in Tulsa by McFadden, a now 23-year-old woman who was reportedly drafted from prison, she said she was having success with a marketing job and was “making great money.” Were.”
“It’s all gone now,” he texted. “I told you I wouldn’t go back.”
“It’s all on you to keep it going,” he finished.
A conviction for solicitation could mean a sentence of 10 years; A pornography charge could mean 20 years behind bars.
Prentice, however, declined to speculate on whether that was the reason the shooting occurred.
“Everyone wants to understand why,” he said. “Why can’t ordinary people understand. People who commit such crimes are evil and ordinary people like us can’t understand why they do it.”
Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Edwards said the girl also shared text messages with him. “They hurt. Let’s just say it.” Edwards told Tulsa-based KOTV that he more or less blames her for what she did and I really have a problem, because she didn’t do anything wrong.
Authorities launched the search after McFadden failed to appear for a long-pending jury trial on Monday in Muskogee County. His body was later discovered along with that of his wife, his son and daughters, and two other teenage girls who were visiting family over the weekend.
Now family members of the victims are asking that McFadden, sentenced to 20 years in 2003 for first-degree rape in the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl, be paroled three years earlier for good behavior despite facing new charges. Why was freed was that he used a contraband cell phone in 2016 to trade nude photos with the woman, then 16.
“And they brought him out of prison. How?” asked Janet Mayo. She said she was told that her daughter, Holly Guess, 35, and her granddaughter, Reilly Elizabeth Allen, 17; Michael James Mayo, 15; and Tiffany Dorr Guess, 13, were all shot.
“Oklahoma failed to protect families. And because of that my children — my daughter and my grandchildren — are all gone,” Mayo said. “I lost my daughter and my grandchildren and I’m never going to see them, never going to hold them I am, and it’s killing me.”
Justin Webster, who said he allowed his 14-year-old Ivy Webster to attend a sleepover at McFadden’s home, knowing nothing about the man’s past, raised similar concerns about McFadden’s release.
“To save some other kids, to make a difference is what I want to do,” Webster told the AP during a tearful interview Tuesday in Henrietta, “to tell Ivy’s story and our story and get our government officials expressed a determination to do so.” Everyone start speaking up and put those child sex abusers in jail.”
“There should be consequences and someone should be held accountable. He let out a demon. He did it,” Webster said.
A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about why McFadden was released despite facing new felony charges.
Prosecutors objected to any premature release from prison, noting that he tied a 17-year-old girl hand and foot to a bedpost, cut her shirt and raped her at knife point. Records show that at one point, he threatened to use a knife on her if she didn’t “shut up”.
The circumstances have alarmed Republican state Representative Justin Humphrey, who chairs his chamber’s Criminal Judiciary Committee. He told the AP in a text that he is working with another legislator on legislation that would “prevent these types of tragedies from happening again.”
He said the effort will also include trying to determine how someone can commit a sex offense in prison and be released on good behavior, and how McFadden was able to remain in contact with minors while on sex offender supervision. Was.
Court records show McFadden was charged with new crimes in 2017 after a relative of the young woman alerted authorities. Released in October 2020, he was arrested the following month and then released on $25,000 bond pending trial, which has been repeatedly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
McFadden married Holly Guess in May 2022; What she knew about his record is unclear. Mayo said the family didn’t learn about her son-in-law’s criminal history until a few months ago.
Mayo of Westville said, “He lied to my daughter, and he made her believe it was all a big mistake.” “He was very sedentary, usually very quiet, but he basically kept my daughter and the kids under lock and key. He had to know where they were at all times, which sent up red flags.
According to Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice, seven bodies were found on property where McFadden lived near Henrietta, a town of about 6,000 about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City. The bodies included two teenagers who were reported missing and in danger – Webster, 14, and Brittany Brewer, 16.
Brittany Brewer’s father confirmed that his daughter was among the dead. At a vigil Monday night, Nathan Brewer said, “It’s just a parent’s worst nightmare, and I’m living it.”
The grim discovery could push the number of people killed in mass killings to as many as 100 for the year, according to a database created by The AP and USA TODAY in partnership with Northeastern University.
read all Breaking News Here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)