Town tries to find normalcy
Weleetka tries to find normalcy

By Johnny Johnson

Published: June 17, 2008

WELEETKA — Residents of this rural town tried to move on Monday morning from fears that the person or people who shot and killed two girls — ages 11 and 13 — may still be in their midst.

But pictures of a man wanted in connection with the killings — possibly just as a witness — kept bringing them back to the brutal events of June 8, when Taylor Dawn Paschal-Placker, 13, and Skyla Jade Whitaker, 11, were shot and killed on a backwoods road.

Last week, parents in this rural town in east-central Oklahoma huddled their kids inside. Some locked their doors for the first time. Most streets were empty.

But Monday, workers returned to jobs they had neglected. Residents tended to yard work left undone. Church camps and Bible schools were back in action.

Morning rainfall made for convenient conversation during the lunch rush at The Roundup, which is known for its inexpensive, oversized portions of deep fried fare.

Still, through all the pleasantries, an undercurrent of fear remained. And it was one man's face — posted on the wall of the restaurant, and all around town — that could rekindle the fright in a second.

He's the only man authorities have pegged with any connection to the murders. They released a sketch of his face on Friday. Despite the fact that he's not wanted as a suspect, the unknown man has become a ubiquitous and feared figure.

And authorities have yet to talk with him in connection with the deaths of the girls.

His unblinking cold stare just wouldn't let things get back to normal.

"We're trying,” said Nelson Harjo, who brought his family to a makeshift shrine for the victims that has grown at the spot where they died. But it's gonna take a while to heal from this. Whenever I travel this road now, I get an eerie feeling. It's cold ... like death.”

Harjo, who works at nearby Sand Creek Church, said he was planning on taking a group of boys to church camp this week, but after Taylor and Skyla were gunned down last Sunday, he said he wasn't sure how many boys would actually show up for camp.

"It's really kind of iffy if we'll get any,” he said. "And, as for me, personally? I don't know that I'd let my kids go if they were old enough.”

Jaki Martin, with First Baptist Church in Dustin, a few miles south of the Graham school that Skyla and Taylor attended, said she was having a similar reaction with vacation Bible school this week. She said she was hoping for a good turnout nevertheless."It starts this evening,” Martin said Monday afternoon. "So we're really not sure what's going to happen, but we talked to some parents who had some concerns last week.”

Martin said she knew that the girls' deaths would affect life around the area for a long time, and that this week people are living in a world that's suddenly much different.

But, she said, people in the area will move forward.

"People here know each other and they know us,” she said. "They know we are going to watch their kids, and if they want to show up and sit through it and help us watch them, then that's fine too.”

Armed with some new information but "nothing solid” from weekend roadblocks, investigators spent much of Monday re-interviewing friends and family members, said Jessica Brown, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman.

"Everybody surrounding the two children are part of the questioning,” she said.

Brown said while her agency has received many phone calls about the "mystery man” with the long ponytail who may have seen the girls before they were shot, he has not been found.

The man is described as an American Indian, about 6 feet tall, with black hair and a pony tail. He is about 35 years old, and was driving a white Ford or Chevrolet single-cab pickup with chrome stripping and an Oklahoma license tag.

"I don't know if he's afraid to come forward,” Brown said. "But he doesn't need to be.”

Investigators say the man was seen standing near his pickup around the time and place the girls were shot.

Eight days after the shootings, police still did not have a suspect or a motive. Some victims' family members were beginning to lose hope that a killer would be caught.

"I hope they're not at a dead end,” said Joe Mosher, Taylor's uncle. "It's been a week, and they have nothing. We're starting to worry.”

Contributing: Staff Writer John David Sutter and The Associated Press