Friends Honor Life Of Missing Tulsa Woman Found Dead After 5 Years

Friends of a woman whose remains were found this week, five years since she went missing, say she was a special person who touched many lives.

Samantha Puckett's friend Elizabeth Williams says the two knew each other since middle school. She said Samantha was the kind of person who could light up a room with her smile.

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"She had the most beautiful, brightest smile that you've ever seen," Williams said. "Nobody could've not liked her."

Tulsa Police Lieutenant Justin Ritter has been investigating Samantha's disappearance since November of 2016.

"When they discovered the remains, it always enters your mind, 'Could it be Samantha?'" Ritter said.

He said she was in an abusive relationship, and investigators suspected her boyfriend.

"We have evidence, strong evidence we believe, that he killed her. There's no other evidence whatsoever that anybody else was involved in her death," Ritter said.

Tthe investigation into her boyfriend ended just a month after Samantha went missing.

"He ends up committing suicide as we're trying to execute a search warrant so our only avenue of gaining that information literally died right in front of us," Ritter said.

The news that Samantha was finally found hit Elizabeth hard but she said it's important to focus on the bright light Samantha was.

"Samantha definitely didn't deserve this. She was a beautiful person and spirit," she said.