The Swediana Project - Welcome to Lawton

- 25 year old Annastasia Runningwolf was last heard from in October of 2005. Her body was found in Oklahoma City on November 8th, 2005. At the time of her death, Annastasia was struggling with addiction and working the streets. Her body was found nude, except for a blanket which had been knotted around her entire body, and a black sweater that was inside out and covering her entire head. She had been bound by wire to bend her into a fetal position and she had been killed by blunt force trauma. - In 1993, 19 year old Barbara Berry went missing from Lawton, Oklahoma. At the time, Barbara was sometimes working at a topless bar in Lawton, but also working the streets in order to support her drug habit. Over a year after she went missing, Barbara would be found, her remains were left in a box in a field in Comanche County.

In 2004, a criminal profiler named Dean Wideman produced a generalized profile of the possible killer. In this episode I talk to Jen Bucholtz and George Jared about this profile. Jen teaches Forensics and Criminal Justice at American Military University. She also hosts a podcast called 'Break the Case.' George is a a true crime author and investigative reporter. He also hosts a podcast called 'Diamond State Murder Board.' This is an informative conversation that provides alot of insight on who might be responsible for these murders.

In 2004, Seventeen different law enforcement agencies, from at least six different states, came together to compare similar cases. They shared crime scene photos and autopsy reports to determine if another five victims, along with the Lawton victims, could have been the work of the same person.

On June 5, 2003, Pamela Woodring was found by farm workers in a creek bed, close to a bridge in rural Kiowa County, Oklahoma. Woodring's body was nude and there were no personal belongings at the scene when she was found. Woodring, like the other victims, was a known sex worker from the Cache Road area of Lawton, Oklahoma.On June 30, 2003, Tanja Hook's mother reported her missing to the Lawton, Oklahoma P.D. On August 29, 2003, her remains were found in a bar ditch in McClain County, Oklahoma. At the time, Hook was living in the Cache Road district in Lawton where five sex workers disappeared between 1999 and 2003. Initially, the body was a Jane Doe until 2008, when Tanja was identified by DNA and dental records.

Janice Buono was reported missing on January 1, 2002. She was a known sex-worker from the Cache Road area of Lawton, Oklahoma. On February 23, 2002 her body was found in water, close to a bridge in rural Comanche County, Oklahoma. Buono's body was nude when she was found, with no signs of trauma or evidence as how she got there or what happened to her.

21-year-old Mandy Ann Raite's body was found in a rural creek bed east of Lawton on June 17th, 2000. Police estimate her body was there for about four days. Like the other women, she was nude and there was no evidence at the scene. Mandy died of an accidental overdose of cocaine, but that doesn't explain what happened before she died or how her body got there.

In this episode we interview a law enforcement officer from the general area who's been looking into these cases for about 20 years.

Cassandra Lee Ramsey, 25, disappeared from Lawton on Oct. 10, 1999. Her nude body turned up five months later beneath a bridge along a rural road in Jefferson County. Her cause of death was ruled undetermined.

On August 13th, 1999, a nude corpse was found in Sandy Bear Creek, rural Stephens County, Oklahoma. Forensics identified the body as that of Jane Marie Chafton, 28, from Lawton, Oklahoma. She was last seen on Aug. 9. Jane would be the first of five women from Lawton that had the same line of work, on the same road, the same habits, knew the same people, and whose bodies were all discarded the same way.

This is the introduction to Season 2 of The Swediana Project. From 1999 - 2003 there were five victims. Each victim was stripped nude and their bodies were dumped in or around bodies of water in rural areas. Investigators eventually drew a link between the victims and concluded that the same person or persons had killed them. Then they started looking into other cases, then cases in other areas. Now, we have a lot more potential victims that fit the same description and manners of death. Let's not forget to mention, the women that are still missing.

In this episode I interview a person from the Jefferson Davis Parish area. We talk about the cases and the long standing reputation of local law enforcement.

On August 19, 2009, less than two weeks before her 27th birthday, Necole Jean Guillory’s body was found along busy Interstate 10 in Acadia Parish. She had become the 8th victim in a series of unsolved murders that began in May, 2005. Newly released records show a half-dozen women told authorities they were raped and trafficked to male inmates inside a rural Louisiana jail. The last Jeff Davis 8 victim, Necole Jean Guillory, had been a witness in the 2002 jail case.

Brittney Ann Gary is the youngest woman in the Jeff Davis 8. She was last seen on a Family Dollar store's surveillance camera at 6:22 PM on November 2, 2008. Her mother reported her missing 24 hours later. On November 15th, searchers found Brittney's body. Her cause of death was asphyxiation.

On September 11, 2008, around 3 pm, hunters discovered her body on a levee in a wooded area just south of Jennings, LA. The area is located on LaCour Road just off LA 1126 a couple of miles southeast of Jennings. She had become the 6th of what would eventually be seven mysterious female deaths over a period of three and a half years in Jeff Davis Parish.

23 year old LaConia “Muggy” Brown was last seen on May 27, 2008. Around 2 am on the morning of May 29th, a Jennings police officer discovered her body lying on Racca Road which leads to the police firing range. Although in a rural area, Brown’s body was the first found within the city limits of Jennings. She would become the 5th victim in a series of unsolved female deaths in Jeff Davis Parish Louisiana.

On March 18, 2007, a third victim with a similar profile to the others, 21-year-old Kristen Gary Lopez, was found in yet another canal. Again, two suspects were arrested – Jennings pimp Frankie Richard and his niece Hannah Conner – but were released due to lack of conclusive evidence. Then, a connection pops up between law enforcement and possible crucial evidence.

Thirty year old Ernestine Patterson was last seen on June 16, 2005. On June 18th her body was discovered in a canal off LA Highway 102 just south of Jennings. She was partially clothed and her throat had been slit. The death was ruled a homicide and two people were arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder but were later released due to "lack of evidence."

Our guest speaker today is Mr. Christopher Lehman, originally from Jennings, Louisiana; from 2013-2015 he served as a Commissioned Reserve Law Enforcement Officer for the Jennings Police Department (JDP). •He was a Louisiana Army National Guardsman.•He served in the Navy as an engineer on several Nuclear Submarines, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer (E-7) and retired after 21 years of service.•He served as a Federal Government Civil Servant, Naval Sea Systems Command, Director of Logistics, retiring for a second time as a (GS-15), for combined public service of over 32 years. •He earned a Bachelor Science from Excelsior University, Albany New York.•He earned an Advanced Management Program Certification from, The Tench Francis School of Business, US Navy Supply Corps School, Athens Georgia. •He holds Professional Certifications in Program Management, Logistics and as an Acquisition Professional. •Currently he’s staffed as a Program Manager for a Defense Contractor located in Washington, DC. •He is happily married to Angela Lehman of Columbia Maryland.•He has six adult children residing in New York, Virginia, California and Alabama.•He’s already authored one book called Mother, “Watching Me Grow From Heaven” and been published in several national Newspapers to include The Washington Post, with a featured essay titled, A Submariner’s Tale, “Terror At Sea”. - He is currently authoring a book called "Neighborhood Watch in the Bayou."

May 20th, 2005 - Loretta Chaisson Lewis' body was pulled out of the Grand Marais Canal. She is victim number one in the case known as the Jennings 8.

There’s a theory that the 'Jennings 8' cases start back at Leonard Crochet, a drug dealer who was unarmed when he was shot and killed by an officer during a raid. Some of these women were at this raid. Was his death the reason some of these women ended up murdered?