Alabama Graduate Students Working to Solve Oklahoma Cold Case

An old cold case investigated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation will get a new look by a new set of eyes.

Wednesday, August 25th 2010, 7:43 pm

By: News 9


By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An old cold case investigated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation will get a new look by a new set of eyes.

Shawn Beaty died in a suspicious house fire five years ago in Bryan County. The state Fire Marshal said the fire was arson. Now the OSBI is turning the case over to a group of students at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama.

State agencies and a grand jury have taken a look at the case, but there have been no conclusive findings in the death of Beaty.

Beaty's family and friends, who believe she was murdered, hope a new state law will succeed where other efforts have not.

By the time the OSBI was called in to investigate Beaty's death, almost a year later, the trail was cold.

"The crime scene was completely demolished. There was no crime scene, so it makes it extremely difficult to be able to follow leads and to get leads," said Jessica Brown, OSBI spokesperson.

Agents with the Medical Examiner's office found Beaty died from smoke inhalation, but that was all.

"We prefer when we get a case like this to have the evidence where we can determine the manner of death, be it natural, suicide, homicide, whatever. In this case we weren't able to do that," said Cherokee Ballard, State Medical Examiner's Office spokesperson.

Now under a new law, criminal justice graduate students at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama will be allowed to examine OSBI files on the Beaty case. They will spend a year looking for answers that have eluded other investigators.

"They break down into certain groups within that class and look at specific parts of the case and then come together and make basically a final report, areas they think are important," Brown said.

Jerry Beaty, Shawn Beaty's husband, said he did everything in his power to get the new law passed. Now he has to wait for the results.

Representative Susan Tibbs of Tulsa is one of the co-authors of the bill. She said she thinks it will be a great way to help the OSBI solve old cases.

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