Body Found In Wooded Area Outside Nowata

Nowata County Sheriff's Office has called in the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation after a homicide. Sheriff Sandy Hadley said it is the first homicide the county has had since 2005.

Hadley said she got the call about a body being found in a wooded area of Nowata County on Monday, August 28, 2017. The sheriff could not identify the person who was found, but we talked to several people who gave us the same name. 

They said he'd been missing for a couple of weeks.

Sheriff Hadley said people in town are on guard after the body was found outside town.

"It's really shaken up the community quite a bit, because everybody knows everybody, grew up with everyone," she said. "So they're really nervous.

"This is a very suspicious incident. It doesn't happen in Nowata County very often."

Sheriff Hadley couldn't tell us exactly where the body was found.

"Location is really a key. So at this time, I can't disclose where the location is."

Or exactly who was found.

"We had some missing persons in town," said Nowata County Sheriff Sandy Hadley. "Whether it's related or not, we can't say."

While authorities won't confirm the victim's identity, a relative told us she learned Tuesday it was her brother who had been killed. She identified him as Jerry "Bear" Gering. He's been missing since August 3.

The body is at the medical examiner's office where a cause of death will be determined.

The OSBI is handling the investigation moving forward. If you have any information, you're asked to call the Nowata County Sheriff's Office.