Twenty-five year old Fern Romero was found murdered in her Lawton area home on November 11th, 1959.
At the time of her murder, Fern was a married young mother of two boys. Her husband, Louis, was an Army Captain and was stationed at Fort Sill; however, when Fern was murdered he had been out of state in Texas for field training.
In the early morning hours of November 11th, one of the Romero’s across the street neighbors reported hearing an argument at the Romero house, stating that the argument happened on the front porch and that two people apparently went into the residence after the argument, the lights in the living room were turned off and she heard someone say “Oh, no! Oh, no!” followed by someone else saying “Shut up.” During the kerfuffle on the front porch, the neighbor had seen two people fall off the porch before going inside the residence, and simply wrote it off as people having too much to drink.
Fern would be found by yet another neighbor who went in to check on Fern after his wife tried to visit her, but the doorbell went continuously unanswered and the children could be heard crying inside. She was found completely nude laying on her bedroom floor with one of her children crying on her bed. Her throat had been slashed and an autopsy concluded that she had also been sexually assaulted, it appears that she tried to fight back as she was found to have a broken nose. While a knife was found by investigators on the kitchen table, there was no blood on it, and they remained uncertain whether it was the murder weapon or not. Authorities believe that robbery was the likely motive as Fern’s purse was found to be missing.
Two days after she was found, a black man was arrested in suspicion of the homicide, though he was later released. Authorities also considered whether Fern’s murder was related to two similiar murders in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, near Fort Campbell. At one point authorities recieved a hand written letter which was unsigned that insinuated the author had information about the murder; the contents of the letter have not been publicly revealed. A near by lake was also drained to search for the murder weapon and Fern’s purse. Neither were found.
Though Fern’s murder would continue to go unsolved, authorities have now narrowed down on what likely happened that night. It is believed that her killer came to her door sometime around midnight, when Fern refused to unlatch the chain lock and answer the door, her killer then kicked the door in. She managed to run past her assailant outside to the porch, where he then caught her and they fell off the porch onto the ground which had been muddy. After getting her back inside the residence, its believed she was sexually assaulted in her living room which is where her muddy robe was found. Authorities believe that Fern likely at least knew her killer, though not well enough to let them in while she was alone in the middle of the night, this theory would also make sense as to how the killer knew her husband was gone.
Fern’s killer has never been brought to justice; this November will be sixty-one years since she was murdered.
If you have any information regarding the murder of Fern Romero, please contact the Lawton Police Department at (580) 581-3270.