Tina Duffell

Date Found: Abducted October 17th, 1974, found October 18, 1974.

Location: Quapaw, Oklahoma

Investigating Agency: OSBI (580) 216-3523 or 800-522-8017

Thirty-seven year old Tina Duffell was working at a convenience store in Quapaw when she was abducted on October 17th, 1974. She was taken sometime between 11:45am and noon. Her purse, keys, and an open soft drink were found on the counter. About $250 and several cans of beer were found to be missing.

Tina’s body would be found the next day, submerged in a mining pond northwest of Quapaw. She had been weighted down with timber, her throat cut. She had also been stabbed in the back.

In 2003 at the request of the family, the Ottawa County Sheriff reopened the case, and enlisted the Vidocq society to aid in the investigation. During the reinvestigation of the case, the autopsy was re-examined and the original witnesses were re-interviewed. If anything came from the relook of the case, it hasn’t been stated publicly.

Tina’s husband, Richard, said that he believed Tina might have learned something about local drug dealing. Shortly before her death, she had apparently written a letter and sealed it, taking it to the Quapaw postmaster asking if he would put it in the post office safe and not open it unless something happened to her. However, she went and got the letter before her death and it has never been found, though she had been seen showing the letter to another woman at a local football game the night before she went missing.

The woman, came to the Duffell house after the murder, according to Richard and told him about the letter, telling him that if anyone else had seen the women reading that letter, that she would be the next one to be killed. The woman now denies any knowledge of a letter, saying the only letter Tina had shown her was one Tina had written to the school board.

Karl Lee Myers, who killed two women in Rogers County, has been suspected in Tina’s murder, but has never been charged in the murder. At the time Tina was killed, Myers lived in the same area, and grew up nearby.

At the time of her murder, Tina was married and a mother of two teenaged children. They have had to live for almost fifty years without justice for their wife and mother. Her husband passed away without knowing what happened to his wife. Her family still grieves. They all deserve justice

If you have any information about the murder of Tina Duffell, please contact the OSBI agent in charge of her case at (580) 216-3523