This past weekend, News 9 from Oklahoma City aired a special about the unsolved murder of Carina Saunders.
To summarize, 19-year-old Carina was murdered and dismembered in 2011 with her body being disposed of in two separate bags behind a store in Bethany, Oklahoma.
Two men were initially charged with her murder but those charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence. A third man has been named as a person of interest but has not been arrested for Carina’s murder although he’s currently in jail on unrelated charges.
Now before you go ahead with reading this post, I implore you to watch News 9’s special on the murder called Oklahoma’s Own Originals: My Daughter’s Murder – Confronting the Accused. Please click that link and watch the whole special. It’s broken up into 7 short parts so you don’t have to watch the whole thing at once but I urge that you do. Once you’re done watching it, I’ll give you my thoughts.
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Surprisingly, I believe Jimmy Massey. Not because 0f the polygraph test since they can be unreliable, however, he gave clear and concise answers without hesitation. From what we can see in the videos, there was no hemming and hawing from Massey. Many guilty people when asked similar questions will hesitate or repeat the question while trying to come up with an answer that will get them in the least amount of trouble. Granted, these were mostly yes and no questions but even his responses to Carina’s parents seemed earnest to me. But also keep in mind that I’m just some guy with a website with no formal law enforcement training so what I say really has no bearing on the matter.
If you’ve been following this story for a while you may remember that there was talk of a cell phone video of Carina’s murder being somewhere out in the wild. Not too long ago, someone who claimed they had inside knowledge of the investigation told me that no such video exists. This was contrary to what had previously been reported in the news and even on the OSBI’s own website. However, the current OSBI agent in charge of the investigation Special Agent Meghan Bowman stated that she believes there is no video. She says that the legend of the video has been used as a form of intimidation by those in the drug trafficking and human trafficking trades in Oklahoma. I guess I now believe that there is no video of Carina’s murder. Even in 2011, videos were shared from cell phone to cell phone. I should have realized earlier that there would be no way that someone wouldn’t have shared this video with someone who would have reported it to the authorities by now.
I’d be remiss if I also didn’t share the police sketch that was recently released by the OSBI of a person of interest.
In October 2020, the OSBI released this composite sketch of a man who was seen in the area of Northwest 23rd Street and Rockwell Avenue around the time Carina Saunders’ body was found. Investigators would like to speak with him for more information.
If you – or anyone you know – has information on this case, please contact the OSBI. Tips can be called into 1-800-522-8017 or emailed to tips@osbi.ok.gov
If you want to take an even deeper dive into the Carina Saunders story you can do so at News 9’s Carina Saunders section.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 