Cathy Ann Dalton

Date Found: April 15, 1984

Location: Muskogee, Oklahoma

Investigating Agency: Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation

(800)522-8017

Cathy Ann Dalton last spoke with her mother Geneva on February 28th, 1984 when she called from Okmulgee to say she was fine. On April 15th, forty years ago today, the body of a young woman was found in a shallow grave along the Muskogee Turnpike. The dentals matched Cathy. Her homicide remains open and unsolved.

Geneva last saw her daughter Cathy, 31, on February 26th when she dropped her off with a friend in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Cathy was supposed to be returning to Brook Park, Ohio, where she’d been singing and working as a waitress. On February 28th Cathy called her mother. Then she vanished.

On April 15th a passing motorist discovered a shallow grave at the rest stop located at mile marker 6 southbound on the Muskogee Turnpike, near Coweta. The woman was nude, wrapped in plastic and nylon rope and partially buried. The body was decomposed and it’s believed the body had been there since March. Dental records came back as a match for Cathy Ann Dalton. The autopsy shows that Cathy had been shot twice – once in the upper back and once in the right shoulder. There were abrasions found on Cathy’s head and scalp. The toxicology report came back negative.

Cathy Ann Dalton was born in Dallas, Texas on April 1st, 1955. She had previously lived in Tulsa and Okmulgee. Cathy leaves behind 2 daughters and 5 siblings. Okmulgee detective Perry Harkrider described her as a drifter who sang country western songs in bars.

Please call the OSBI at 800-522-8017 with any information in the senseless murder of Cathy Ann Dalton. You can remain anonymous.