James Riley Woolum

Date Found: March 21, 1974

Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Investigating Agency: Tulsa Police Department Cold Case Unit

(918)596-9222

On March 21, 1974 James Riley Woolum was kidnapped from his Tulsa area home. He was ten years old.

The day that James disappeared, his father had given him permission to go down the block to the nearby dump to look for empty pop bottles. After he failed to return home, his parents notified authorities. Within three days even the FBI would become involved in searching for young James. They had 100 search volunteers and had two airplanes up looking for him, but found nothing.

However, on March 29th, a boy out walking his dog in a wooded area would find James’ naked body about twelve miles from his home. He was partially decomposed, and it was never stated publicly whether James had been sexually assaulted, but his cause of death was manual strangulation. At the time that James’ cause of death was released in the newspapers, the sheriff had stated they had some leads, but didn’t wish to publicly divulge them. Then in October 1975, it was reported that a 30-year-old Tulsan was due to be extradited from Washington state back to Oklahoma where he was the prime suspect in James’ murder. Whether he was ever cleared in James’ murder is unknown, however he certainly wasn’t ever charged with the crime.

To date, no one has been charged with the murder of James Riley Woolum.

If you have any information at all regarding the homicide of James Woolum, please contact the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office at (918) 586-1357, or you may submit tips anonymously via the box pinned to the top of our page.