OSBI Investigating Chickasha Man's Murder

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has been called in after the murder of a Chickasha man.

Police say the victim had been shot several times in his home, and the killer is still at large. 

James Doren has lived in a quiet Chickasha neighborhood for 78-years. 

"It's a very nice neighborhood. I've lived here all my life,” Doren said. “Had very good neighbors. Not very many break-ins that I know of. I never had any."

Doren said the last murder in the neighborhood happened when he was about 14-years old. That changed Thursday when police said the body of 45-year old Dan Beal III was found in his home on East Ada Sipuel Ave. He had been shot several times. 

Neighbors say Beal mostly kept to himself, working on his SUV in the driveway or hidden behind blacked out windows in his home.

"He'll wave sometimes when I pass by,” Doren recalled. “I usually turn there and go the other way when I'm going downtown or somewhere, church, somewhere. And he seems like he's always nice. Real quiet."

Dolores Bowens lives right next door to the house-turned-crime scene.  She said there was never anything strange going on over there.

"Nope. Nothing that I can say as totally out of character, whatever. You know?"

With a killer still on the loose, neighbors are doing something many have never done before. 

“Just making sure the doors are locked when we leave the house and something like that,” Bowens said. “Just leave the house checking our surroundings.”