OKMULGEE COUNTY, Okla. — It was one week ago today that authorities say, Jesse McFadden killed his wife, Holly Guess, three stepchildren (Michael Mayo, Rylee Allen and Tiffany Guess) and two teenage neighbors (Brittany Brewer and Ivy Webster) before killing himself.
After public outrage over the lack of investigation from local authorities, the OSBI announced it has taken over the case, and have been on the scene all weekend.
According to Ivy Webster’s attorney, the OSBI had dive teams on the property and boats using sonar devices at at least one of the ponds. Crews left and took down crime scene tape at about 1pm Monday afternoon.
A nearby resident told 2News someone had been unusually digging and expanding this pond about six months ago and worked on it for a month.
The OSBI also brought in an excavator to the scene and the Medical Examiner was on the property as well. This after the OSBI has taken the lead of the case. There has been public confusion over who has been in charge from the initial investigation.
2News was told it was the District 25 Task Force, made up of multiple agencies and the District Attorney's Office.
The Okmulgee County Sheriff held the first press conference last Monday. By Wednesday, all questions were passed to Okmulgee Police Chief.
By Friday, calls were handled by the District Attorney, and by Saturday the OSBI.
Who was leading the case? We went in search for answers.
Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice told 2News Anchor Erin Christy she was part of causing the confusion, but didn’t elaborate and still only referred her to the OSBI. Police Chief Joe Prentice referred us to the District Attorney's Office, where we left a second message. The first message was left on Friday. As of this writing, we have not received a return call.
The OSBI would only say they are investigating.
"There’s absolutely no information the public can receive about this case?" Erin asked and received the same answer.
We talked with Dave Walker, former lead homicide detective for the Tulsa Police Department. Although not involved in the case, he calls the whole case "a headscratcher," and from his perspective, it seems lack of clear leadership is a major problem.
"Ultimately, someone needs to say we’ll go through this or that. What did you miss? And if you have people outside your jurisdiction, it doesn’t work well," he said. "You gotta be in charge of everything or you're not in charge of anything."
Walker says he’s used task forces but was surprised one was used in this case.
"Confuses me... just because it was so rapidly evolving," he said.
Walker says there’s no excuse for not investigating even with a suspect dead. He chalks it up to lack of experience. Walker says it’s not uncommon for investigators to release and crime scene and tape it off again but it’s potentially damaging.
Last week, victims' family members went inside the home and uncovered multiple cell phones, computers and other crucial evidence left behind by investigators.
The victims family told me inside the house they discovered a ledger with a list of names and ages. The last names on the list were the family and girls killed last week.
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