Willie Lois Depew went missing on October 7, 1951. She was thirty-three years old. She was last seen leaving a drive-in theater in Oklahoma City where she worked, that night she had left on foot to presumably return home. Her husband stated that he drove to the drive-in at 8pm to pick her up, but she had already left. When she hadn’t returned the next day, he reported her missing.

Shortly after her disappearance, her husband William filed for divorce. Alleging that she had run off with male companions, because life as a housewife had become too dull for her. To be fair, apparently her neighbors had assumed the same. Apparently, Willie led a bit of a scandalous life, considering the times. She was described as being brunette, attractive, and lying about her age to make her four years younger. And also of having many male friends. Oklahoma City Police also seemed to accept this logic as reasonable, closing out her missing persons case without having found her, and putting a note on the report that she had likely run off with any one of seven different male counterparts.

Then, in March 1952, a farmer outside of Tuttle would discover human remains buried in his field. A search of the area would find even more bones, as well as a paper copy of the Daily Oklahoman dated June 1951. The paper was stained with human blood, although given it was found in 1952- I honestly don’t know how they would have known it was human. The date on the paper triggered a memory for law enforcement of a woman who reported seeing scraps of clothing burning alongside the road near Tulsa around October 1951.The clothing had been brought to the sheriff’s office, and they had blood stains on them, but weren’t connected to any crime.

Eventually it was determined that bones had been in the field for about six months, leading law enforcement to remember that Willie had gone missing around the time of the date on the paper. This brought them back to the clothing scraps, which interestingly matched the description of the clothing Willie had last been seen in. The remains, through dental records, were identified as belonging to Willie. She had been dismembered, her head had been cut off and her hands removed. Her murder remains unsolved.

It is interesting to note that about six months after Willie’s body was found, the remains of Betty Jack Stevens were also found nearby. Betty had also been dismembered, leading police to believe that the women had been killed by the same person. Betty’s murder has also remained unsolved.