Man questioned about woman's disappearance commits suicide

Thursday, March 15th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A man who had been questioned about the disappearance of a 92-year-old Tulsa woman apparently committed suicide, but left behind a hand-drawn map that led authorities to search a wooded area near Sapulpa on Wednesday, police said.

The map was found on the body of David Campbell, 36, but turned up no leads in the search for Anna Thelma Garrett, who remains missing, Tulsa Police Officer Lucky Lamons said.

Employees of a nearby business called police to report a man lying next to a tree, apparently unresponsive for several hours, police said.

Lamons said when officers arrived on the scene, they found Campbell's body. He apparently hung himself with a shoestring from the tree, police said.

Authorities had not named Campbell as a suspect in Garrett's disappearance, though they had questioned him. Acquaintances of Campbell speculated he may have committed suicide because he believed police would soon name him as a suspect.

When a friend reported Garrett missing Feb. 22, police found the locks on her gate and door unlocked, and her car missing from the garage, Lamons said.

The vehicle was later found several blocks from her house with what appeared to be blood in the trunk, he said. Officers don't know where the blood came from and no money or belongings were reported missing from Garrett's house.

But they haven't ruled out the possibility that she was violently abducted.

Homicide detectives submitted the apparent blood sample from her car trunk to the crime lab for analysis, but the results are not available yet, Lamons said.

Police also recovered additional evidence that led them to question Campbell, Lamons said.

Police had said previously that Garrett had no known relatives.

But Garrett's relatives, including second cousin Hope Magnus, came forward in an effort to aid the search for the elderly woman. Magnus said the family's hope that Garrett will be found alive is running out.

``I know she was afraid of that neighborhood,'' she said. ``We talked about trying to find her a place to live in Skiatook. She was afraid. She and her mother had been robbed before.''