Tulsa Homicide Detectives Identify Remains Of Man Found In Burned Garage

Homicide detectives identified the remains of a man discovered by a neighbor last week in what's left of a garage that burned down months ago.

Police said the body of Steve Wilkins was recovered Thursday near South 49th West Avenue and Charles Page Blvd in Tulsa.

A teen said her family woke up to the sound of crackling and saw flames filling the sky.

"It was a very scary experience knowing that it could possibly be spread and the whole neighborhood could be on fire and that means a lot of lives are at risk," said the 16-year-old neighbor.

She said they went around warning neighbors and even told firefighters someone lived in that garage.

"We jumped in the truck, went around and woke the people up to tell them the fire was right behind their house and could possibly spread into their yard," said the 16-year-old. "My aunt hopped the fence and went to try and bang on the door [of the house in front of the detached garage] and he did not come out, so she did enter the home forcibly to get him out of the house and wake him up out of bed because he was asleep."

The 16-year-old neighbor said her family tried to warn firefighters that Steve Wilkins might be inside the garage during the September fire.

"The only thing I can figure is they did not do a full investigation after to look for any signs of anybody or anything and now that it's been 5 months after this and they're finally finding a body in there, I think that it's really messed up," said the 16-year-old. "They were friends. They talked. Steve would go in the house sometimes and sometimes not. He was mainly always out in the garage."

The Tulsa Fire Department sent us the following statement: "On September 14, 2022, at 5:38 am, fire crews responded to a shed fire at 430 S. 54th W. Avenue. Neighbors told crews that the occupant of the shed was seen leaving on a bike earlier and if the bike wasn’t there he wasn’t there. The shed had two rooms and was fifty percent involved in fire. Despite extensive search efforts crews did not find the occupant. On February 9, 2023, a neighbor had come to the residence of 430 S. 54 W. Avenue and asked the homeowner if she could go in his backyard to look for her cat. While at the shed, the woman discovered human remains amongst the debris and contacted the police department. TPD confirms that the remains had blunt force trauma to the back of the skull and is investigating this as a homicide. The cause of the fire is still undetermined pending further investigation."

"Steve was always around. The last that we had heard or seen him he had went in back through there. We didn't know if he stayed there or not through that timing and if he was in there or not, but after the fire had happened, no one had heard from Steve or seen Steve or anything else like that, so we were kind of worried about that. But no one had said that they found anything, so we just left that as Steve took off and didn't come back," said the 16-year-old. "We would ride our bikes past there. Try to look back there to see if we could see anything but everything was so burnt, couldn't really see anything that was in there."

Officers said last Thursday a neighbor who was looking for her cat, found Wilkins' remains in the garage.

Tulsa Police arrested Devin Scrivner Monday morning and said he confessed to taking part in the murder with two more people in the fall.

"Giving the guy what they call, 'a beat down.' They were beating him up for some other reason in the neighborhood bothering women or something they just were going to, 'try and do their street justice,' is what they call it. They found that they beat him pretty bad and might as well you know kill him at that point," Officer said Danny Bean, TPD.

Police said Scrivner admitted to knowing the garage was set on fire to cover the crime.

"There's a lot of moving parts to this one with multiple people being involved and then multiple stories are going to have to be cut through as well, not to mention our time lapse of how far back we have to start and where suspects could end up being and where they go and tracking them down," said Bean.

Detectives said they anticipate more arrests in this case.

"One little piece of that could lead to, from, we're at a dead end to solving a case and it happens all the time," said Bean.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS. You can remain anonymous.