Kenneth Roy Owens

Date Found: September 1, 1974

Location: Bethany, Oklahoma

Investigating Agency: Bethany Police Department

(405) 789-2323

Kenneth Roy Owens was found murdered on September 1, 1974 in Bethany. He was seventeen years old.

Kenneth, Kenny to friends, was a senior in highschool at the time of his murder. He was an active member of his school’s football team, and that evening his mother and sister had been making cookies for his team. When they needed additional ingredients, Kenny went out to the Humpty Dumpty grocery store located at NW 23 and North Rockwell in the Western Oaks Shopping Center.

While in the parking lot of the store, Kenny was shot to death. According to a witness, Kenny had walked over to the driver’s side of another vehicle parked in the parking lot. Kenny was then shot in the chest with a medium caliber weapon, though police are unsure whether the driver of the vehicle fired the shot or whether a passenger did. The vehicle in question was described as being a 1972 white and bronze Oldsmobile Cutlass. The witness in the shooting also gave police a description of the driver of the vehicle, which the police developed a composite sketch from. I have included a photo of this sketch below; articles describe the driver as being a male in his early twenties with brown eyes and hair. He had pock marks on his face and was about five feet four inches tall.

Kenny’s murder has never been solved, and a motive for his slaying has never been found.

If you have any information regarding the murder of Kenneth “Kenny” Roy Owens, please contact the Bethany Police Department at 405-789-2323.