Anadarko slaying victim’s family say officials kept them in dark

ANADARKO — Three days after his mother was found dead inside her church, Alvin Daniels III told a national current affairs show host his family learned about the horrors his mother endured as information leaked out and details unfolded in the news.

Investigators were not sharing information with the family.

Alvin Daniels said the only details he had on his mother’s death came from The Oklahoman: The Rev. Carol Daniels had suffered what the state medical examiner’s office described as "multiple sharp force injuries.” The Oklahoman had to file an open records request to obtain the information.

Meanwhile, relatives of the 61-year-old pastor waited for answers and people in Anadarko wondered whether their families were in danger.

Local and state agencies told The Oklahoman that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation had asked them to withhold documents that fall under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.

"Our main goal is to solve this case promptly,” OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown said. "And if we have to hold back information to do that, then so be it.”

On the medical report

On Aug. 25, two days after Anadarko police found Daniels’ body, the medical examiner’s office told The Oklahoman that the OSBI had asked that the cause and manner of the pastor’s death, which fell under the state’s open records laws, not be released because of the investigation.

"We are concerned that the investigative agency says this will jeopardize the case,” medical examiner spokeswoman Cherokee Ballard said after an initial request was made Aug.

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