Police search near river for missing teen
Police fear missing 13-year-old is dead

By Johnny Johnson

Published: November 13, 2007

TULSA — Police, detectives, divers and a helicopter are being used to search along the Arkansas River between 31st Street and 27th Street for a missing 13-year-old girl, who police believe may have been slain by her older sister's boyfriend.

Officer Leland Ashley said police have "good reason” to believe they will find Cori Jessie Baker, 13, at the river.

Marquis Milton Bullock, 18, the boyfriend of the girl's sister, was arrested Monday night. Officers have been searching for Cori since Friday when she was seen leaving Union Alternative School with Bullock.

According to Bullock's arrest affidavit, police found a stain that tested positive as blood on the driver's floor carpet of Bullock's car. A similar process found blood on Bullock's shoes, the document says.

Witnesses told police that Cori said Bullock was picking her up after school on Friday to shop for a gift for her sister.

But when Cori never came home, her parents filed a missing person's report.

When police asked Cori's sister about the incident, she said initially that Bullock had been in bed with her at that time, the document says. But then she "started crying and admitted that Bullock and Bullock's mother, whose name was not released, told her to tell the police that Bullock was with her Friday afternoon.”

Upon further questioning, she said Bullock came home about 3:30 p.m. — about 90 minutes after witnesses said he picked up Cori from school — and told the sister to go into their child's bedroom because he had a gift for her.

The sister told police that when she came out of the bedroom, she saw Bullock cleaning his shoes in the bathroom sink, and then took a black backpack to his car, the affidavit stated.

Police said they have a videotape that shows a Pontiac Firebird, matching the description of Bullock's car, leaving the school at 2 p.m.

When questioned about his whereabouts during the time of the girl's disappearance, Bullock first told police he was at a casino, and then changed his story to say he was at a nude-dancing establishment, the affidavit says.

In their request for an arrest warrant, police stated they believe Cori went with Bullock willingly at first.

Bullock is being held without bail in the Tulsa County jail.