Part Three:

“Somebody has to stand when other people are sitting. Somebody has to speak when everyone else is quiet” ~ Bryan Stevenson

On August 13, 1999, the body of twenty-eight year old Jane Chafton was found in Sandy Bear Creek in Stephens County. She was naked, only identifiable via fingerprints and what was left of the tattoos she had on her skin.

Jane and her sister, Candice, had a rough upbringing. However, their upbringing had forced them together in a bond that was unbreakable- even by the drug habit that Jane had devastatingly developed. She had worked as an accountant before a friend had talked her into making fast cash and when she went missing, Jane had been working at Suzy’s massage parlor and barber shop. A place notorious among the service members stationed at nearby Fort Sill. The last time her sister spoke with Jane was August 1st. After not being able to get in touch with her, Candice launched her own investigation.

The last time anyone is believed to have seen Jane was August 10th. She had apparently called a taxi company to come pick her up at the Motel 6 where she had been staying. Jane had stated she needed a ride to Duncan. But, she later called the company back and cancelled her pickup, saying she had a different ride. Once she was found, the medical examiner could determine no signs of trauma that led to her death. Due to the medical examiner’s determination, the police were unwilling to investigate further…at first.

However, no one strips themselves nude and walks out to a creek to lie down and die.

While Jane is different in that she didn’t work the streets or work at any of the multitude of topless bars, her case is the same because she had a drug habit, she was found naked in water, and there were no personal belongings found near her body. Not even her clothing. The media had little to say about Jane’s death, and honestly, if the other girls hadn’t been found after her the public would mostly likely still largely be unaware of her murder.

Jane was a mother, she was a sister, and she was dearly loved. She loved Kenny Rogers and she deserves to be remembered for more than how she died.

Shortly after Jane was found, another girl by the name of Cassandra Ramsey went missing. Cassandra largely went by the name Sandy, and she was last seen in early November. She was twenty-five years old when she went missing. Sandy was the same as the others I’ve written about: she had fallen into a difficult life, working the streets to pay for a drug habit. At the time she went missing she had been living with different people, two of whom would later tell police that she had last been seen with an unidentified white male. Sandy had apparently left with this man in his full-sized van, telling the person she had been staying with that she was going to Texarkana.

Before she went missing and after Jane’s body had been found, Sandy had made several statements that she believed she would be the next one to be killed. Why she believed that isn’t known.

On March 22, 2000, Sandy’s body would be found by a farmer. She was half buried in mud in a ditch a mile over the Jefferson-Cotton county line. While initial reports have stated that there was some trauma, a cause of death was unable to be determined. Once again, Sandy was found naked, however she was found with an odd item. A stone that matched another in a pair of earrings she wore regularly. She had apparently been searching for almost forever for one of the stones, as she had lost one out of one earring. Other than the stone, and the other earring still containing its stone, she was found with nothing else.

Sandy was described as always fun to be around, she loved dancing and she loved kids. It’s very sad how she loved them so much, but wouldn’t live long enough to become a mother. When she was killed, she had been trying to clean up her life, reportedly terrified after what had happened with Jane Chafton.

Like Jane, the media paid little attention when Sandy was killed. The police weren’t paying much attention either, as far as they knew both women had walked themselves out to where they were found and just up and died. They had no evidence to prove otherwise at the time. If letters to the editor of the Lawton Constitution are anything to go by, the public wasn’t all that concerned about these women going missing and subsequently being found dead…one less street worker and drug addict to contend with in their eyes.

By June 2000, though, everyone would start paying attention.