Reward increased in Weleetka double-homicide

State investigators have announced an increase in the reward offered for information in the shooting deaths of two girls near the town of Weleetka last summer.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown says a donation from a private citizen will allow for a "sizable increase" to the current $40,000 reward.

Several donors have come forward to add to the reward. An anonymous donor is offering a $70,000 reward and two Tulsa-area independent oil companies are putting up a combined $50,000 reward. That puts the total reward amount for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders at $160,000.

Authorities also said they are looking into similar cases in other states.

Right now they are waiting on DNA results.

Thirteen-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker were gunned down June 8, 2008, along a dirt road in rural Okfuskee County, about 70 miles south of Tulsa.

No arrests have been made in the case and authorities still are searching for a motive.

Brown says leads in the case continue to come in and that the investigation is moving forward.

A week after the shootings, investigators released a sketch of a "person of interest" in the case. The OSBI says the man is about 35 years old, about 6 feet tall and American Indian with black hair. He was driving a white Ford or Chevrolet pickup truck with Oklahoma plates.

The man was seen by witnesses in the road about the time 13-year old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker were killed.