' Person of interest' cleared

A case of mistaken identity. <br/><br/>Tulsa Police say the woman shown in a casino videotape, is no longer a person of interest in a recent double homicide. She did not have a piece of property belonging

Wednesday, April 5th 2006, 1:57 pm

By: News On 6

A case of mistaken identity.

Tulsa Police say the woman shown in a casino videotape, is no longer a person of interest in a recent double homicide. She did not have a piece of property belonging to the victim and had nothing to do with the case at all. She talked with Tulsa Police Wednesday and received an apology. She also talked with the News on 6.

News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright explains how this happened.

"This is the T-shirt I had on. This is the sweat suit I had on." Doris Harris is a homemaker who can't believe her face ended up on the news, as a person of interest in a police investigation. Detectives released a surveillance video Tuesday afternoon, hoping someone could identify the woman.

At the time, they believed she may have used Grace Brown's casino card. Grace and her husband, Walter Brown were found brutally murdered inside their home on Monday. As soon as the video hit the airwaves, Doris Harris' phone rang off the hook. "From Texas, I'm on the Internet, people from Tulsa, cause I was in Kansas, are calling me and telling me they saw me on the news and I was, no, I don't know how I could be on the news."

Harris returned to Tulsa Monday, went to the casino, then returned to Kansas on Tuesday. When she heard she was on TV, she contacted a lawyer, who called police. "I want them to apologize and I want to know how did I get acquainted with this double homicide? They've got the family thinking they're on top of it, they know what's going on, when I just went to gamble."

Detectives say the casino identified the time the victim's card was used at a certain bank of machines and correlated that time with surveillance video, which showed someone walking away from those machines. Video picked up a lady in a more clear shot, at the counter, which is the shot that was released.

Tulsa Police looked at the tapes again and can see Harris used her own card within seconds of someone else using the victim's card and from another angle, can better see who that might be. Tulsa Police Sgt. Mike Huff: "We certainly apologize to the woman for any inconvenience, but, this is how we solve crimes and her coming forward today sends us a step further down the road in solving this crime."

Tulsa Police may release another picture from the surveillance tape soon.

They really want people to know the term; person of interest is not disrespectful and does not mean suspect. They say less than half the time, a person of interest develops into a suspect, often the person turns out to be a witness.

Tulsa Police say the most important thing is they're a step to catching some cold-blooded killers.

Of course, Harris is mortified that she has to explain to everyone that she had nothing to do with it. She says she took her kids out of school Wednesday because of all the questions.