OK OK - Brittany Phillips, 19, Tulsa, 27 Sept 2004

[UnderWhelmed405]

^^^this

I agree with with you and for sure needs a bump. My only re: would be that this "new environment(s)" could have very well brought on a "random" killer(s) which might explain the leads or lack thereof. The "Day 1's" in Tulsa have presumably been interrogated like a *advertiser censored* and been cleared.

 

[Scholes18]

^^^this

I agree with with you and for sure needs a bump. My only re: would be that this "new environment(s)" could have very well brought on a "random" killer(s) which might explain the leads or lack thereof. The "Day 1's" in Tulsa have presumably been interrogated like a *advertiser censored* and been cleared.

Could be, and I don't disagree. I just think that statistically, it's more likely that the killer knew her. I also think that a lot of people who were cleared early were done so because of the DNA profile they relied on. That profile is useless now and can't be used to dismiss anyone. All of those friends and acquaintances need to be reexamined.

 

[Scholes18]

I was listening to Murder Squad, and this weeks episode (Season 3, episode 2) was about the Kansas College Rapist, who assaulted 13 college aged women in Lawrence and Manhattan, KS from 2000-2008, and one more in 2015. I suppose it's possible that the same guy was around Tulsa in 2004.

But it also got me thinking about whether there were other active serial rapists in Tulsa at the time. After some googling I found this guy:
Admitted rapist is sentenced to life in prison

From the article:
Graham attacked victims over a wide swath of south Tulsa and Jenks between Aug. 7, 2001, and his arrest. The attacks against sleeping victims generally were made during the predawn hours, entering homes though open windows. Eight victims were under the age of 16, and most of the others were in their mid-20s.

It would be really interesting to know more about this guy's crimes. What areas of "South Tulsa" was he primarily targeting? What was his MO when he attacked older victims? He's never been charged with murder, but sometimes rapists escalate to murder.

 

[Scholes18]

Based on court information from OSCN - Oklahoma State Courts Network , I can see that Gary Lee Graham was convicted of offenses that occurred on the dates below. I found a couple of news articles that mentioned the ages and addresses of some of the victims. You can see that he was very active in Tulsa right when Brittany was killed (9/27/2004).

I requested a list of dates & locations of all reported rapes and lewd molestations that occurred during 2004/2005 from the TPD's open records, and I'm hoping I can use that to fill in the gaps about these other attacks. I'm also curious about whether there are any attacks that occurred near Brittany's apartment during that same period. Maybe there attacks that Graham committed that he was never linked to. There are a couple of gaps in the dates, so maybe there were other victims in that time period?

I can't really find much about his MO except for the attacks on 7/25/2004 & 8/4/2004: "The man entered through an unlocked door or window about 6:30 a.m. wearing a mask or pantyhose over his face. He held a knife to the girl's throat, threatened her and sexually assaulted her before fleeing through the front door..." The 8/4/2004 attack sounds very similar, except the victim screamed and the attacker fled.
On the trail of a serial rapist

Of course, the biggest difference between these attack's and Brittany's is that these victims are all alive. Could Graham have escalated to murder? Maybe he lost control w/ Brittany? Maybe she saw something that could be used to identify him, and he decided he had to kill her? There doesn't seem to be any hard evidence linking him to Brittany's murder, but it might be a possibility.

Date of Offense, Victim Age, Location
8/7/2001
9/16/2002
9/3/2003
2/12/2004, 18, 6700 S. Lewis Ave.
5/21/2004, 4, 12000 East 40th St.
7/25/2004, 15, 2700 East 88th St.
8/4/2004, 20, 7100 S. Erie Ave.
10/21/2004, 11, 4800 S. Madison Ave.
4/14/2005
5/8/2005
7/12/2005
10/1/2005
2/1/2006

 

[UnderWhelmed405]

His 8/4/2004 offense was right down the street

Google Maps

 

[Scholes18]

Serial Rapist: Clues include panties, clothes
"Police say they found an "Encyclopedia of Serial Killers," several University of Oklahoma baseball caps and 38 pairs of young girls' underwear at the apartment of the man who is suspected of being Tulsa's serial rapist."

I mean, 38 pairs of underwear?? I think there's a good chance that this guy had other victims... Not to mention the "Encyclopedia of Serial Killers." Possibly a sign that he was capable of escalating to murder? This guy has to be worth TPD's attention.

 

[kitten1282]

I agree with you on all of this about the blood evidence. The other thing that seems weird is that it took so long to identify the friend's boyfriend... surely the police spoke to Brittany's friends (especially one close enough that she actually stayed over at Brittany's apartment). Did the friend not tell investigators that she stayed over before? And the phenotype sketch has been out since 1/2018... wouldn't the friend say something to the effect of "hey, that looks like the guy I was dating at the time that stayed over at Brittany's apartment..." Plus, I think that investigators had swabbed several thousand people to run against the DNA they had, and I'm a little surprised the friend's boyfriend wouldn't have come up... especially since he matched the phenotype sketch?

I don't mean to sound critical. I really don't. It just seems like things could have unfolded differently, or more quickly.

Another thing that I've been thinking about is how the profile of the killer is totally different now... I mean, there are the obvious things beyond race, and even gender. But without the blood & semen evidence, it makes me wonder what other evidence there is that a sexual assault took place? Are investigators considering other motives now?

I can give some insight into this. I went to high school with Brittany and I was a year older than her. I didn't know her very well, but, she was a wonderful person and I've never forgotten about her. I posted a thread on Reddit and included the article about the phenotype sketch. From there, someone else who attended high school with us who was the same age as her and part of her friend group, saw the article and knew who the person was. They reported their suspicions to the police and DNA was retrieved and was a match. Neither the boyfriend nor the BFF came forward themselves. I do not personally know who the person was, I do know that the friend described them as troubled at the time and that they would not have been THAT surprised if they had done something terrible. They were relieved that the DNA didn't match.

I do not know for sure but I've heard rumors that the phenotype subject's father was/is a county sheriff and that the father contributed to the "rock solid" alibi.

 

[Scholes18]

I can give some insight into this. I went to high school with Brittany and I was a year older than her. I didn't know her very well, but, she was a wonderful person and I've never forgotten about her. I posted a thread on Reddit and included the article about the phenotype sketch. From there, someone else who attended high school with us who was the same age as her and part of her friend group, saw the article and knew who the person was. They reported their suspicions to the police and DNA was retrieved and was a match. Neither the boyfriend nor the BFF came forward themselves. I do not personally know who the person was, I do know that the friend described them as troubled at the time and that they would not have been THAT surprised if they had done something terrible. They were relieved that the DNA didn't match.

I do not know for sure but I've heard rumors that the phenotype subject's father was/is a county sheriff and that the father contributed to the "rock solid" alibi.

Welcome to the forum! I think we've messaged a bit on Reddit, and I'm glad you made it over. I think your post is really interesting, especially the piece about how the friend described the BFF's boyfriend as troubled. I'm sure investigators have covered their bases, but I'm still suspicious of him (I might feel different if I knew more about his alibi). It's just so weird that his blood and semen were in Brittany's apartment, even if there is a good explanation... it's hard to let that go without knowing more about why police don't consider him a suspect.

For a while I didn't think he was involved because the DNA profile was a direct match to one of the ancestry sites, and I thought, "what killer would be stupid enough to load their DNA profile into an ancestry site?"... but the reality is, he might have done it way before police started using familial DNA to find perpetrators. AND, most criminals aren't masterminds! A lot of them do stupid stuff, and that's how they get caught.

Anyway, I'd be really interested in how his life has gone, what he's up to now, if he's been in any criminal trouble, etc. But, to be honest, I'd be interested in knowing that about any of the people that were around Brittany back then... is there anyone that she knew that ended up in jail for rape or sexually motivated crimes? Friends, family, people from work or from school? Hopefully the police are looking into all of this stuff.

Do you know any of her friends that would be interested in joining websleuths? Maybe there's information that they could offer about her that could be helpful?

 

[Scholes18]

I got some data from TPD on rape reports between 1/1/2004 - 12/31/2005. Based on the dates, I'm able to fill in a few gaps in terms of where Graham's offenses occurred:

Date of Offense, Location, home type
8/7/2001
9/16/2002
9/3/2003
2/12/2004, 6700 S. Lewis Ave., Apartment
5/21/2004, (an article said this attack occurred at 12000 East 40th St., but I don't see any reports for this address on this date.)
7/25/2004, 2700 East 88th St., Apartment
8/4/2004, 7100 S. Erie Ave., Apartment
10/21/2004, 4800 S. Madison Ave., house?
4/14/2005,
5/8/2005, 4800 S. Braden Ave., Apartment
7/12/2005,
10/1/2005, 400 S. Mingo Rd., house
2/1/2006, 3900 E 15th St., house?

There are multiple reports on both 4/14/2005 & 7/12/2005, and I can't definitively say which attack was committed by Graham. It's also possible that these attacks didn't occur in Tulsa, so maybe they weren't in TPD jurisdiction?

A few takeaways:

1. Based on the addresses above, Graham was active throughout the Tulsa area, not just a single neighborhood.
2. The data I have indicates that the attacks were all committed between 1:00 am - 6:30 am.
3. TPD will not grant my request for more information on these cases.
4. Also, I believe that Graham was only convicted of crimes where he was linked via DNA evidence ( Tulsan linked to serial sex attacks ). To me, he almost certainly committed other attacks. He should be a person of interest in any unsolved rape that occurred between 2001 - 2006 in the Tulsa area. Especially attacks where the victim is a young girl or woman living in an apartment.

On kind of a different note, the data that TPD provided shows that there are a string of unsolved rape cases along I44 between Riverside & where it intersects with Highway 64. The yellow markers are unsolved rapes at apartment complexes. The Red markers are 2 rapes that Graham was convicted of. Purple appear to be rapes at houses (TPD doesn't provide a specific address for the incident, so it's kind of hard to tell). But you can see that there's a string of unsolved rape cases between 2004 - 2005 that are literally a block or two off of I44. I asked for more information on these, but the TPD won't provide any additional info.

 

[kitten1282]

Welcome to the forum! I think we've messaged a bit on Reddit, and I'm glad you made it over. I think your post is really interesting, especially the piece about how the friend described the BFF's boyfriend as troubled. I'm sure investigators have covered their bases, but I'm still suspicious of him (I might feel different if I knew more about his alibi). It's just so weird that his blood and semen were in Brittany's apartment, even if there is a good explanation... it's hard to let that go without knowing more about why police don't consider him a suspect.

For a while I didn't think he was involved because the DNA profile was a direct match to one of the ancestry sites, and I thought, "what killer would be stupid enough to load their DNA profile into an ancestry site?"... but the reality is, he might have done it way before police started using familial DNA to find perpetrators. AND, most criminals aren't masterminds! A lot of them do stupid stuff, and that's how they get caught.

Anyway, I'd be really interested in how his life has gone, what he's up to now, if he's been in any criminal trouble, etc. But, to be honest, I'd be interested in knowing that about any of the people that were around Brittany back then... is there anyone that she knew that ended up in jail for rape or sexually motivated crimes? Friends, family, people from work or from school? Hopefully the police are looking into all of this stuff.

Do you know any of her friends that would be interested in joining websleuths? Maybe there's information that they could offer about her that could be helpful?

Hi again! I'm sorry for taking so
long to reply. I don't log on very often (obviously). I'm really not friends with any of her friends anymore- I've moved frequently over the years and have lost touch with almost everyone in Tulsa at this point. I also was never really close to her or her friend group- they were all younger than me.

Brittany's case is always in the back of my head and at odd times thoughts about it resurface and I begin looking at forums and news articles. Most of the time, I think about it when I see that a new serial rape case has been solved and I begin comparing the crimes to see if it's possible that they were related.

As far as my knowledge about the BFF's boyfriend, I don't have much beyond grapevine info passed to me from people that I do still talk to.

I can't believe that so many years have passed since Brittany's murder. I always feel like her case's resolution is just around the corner.

 

[CastlesBurning]

https://www.kjrh.com/news/oklahomas...-cold-case-files-who-killed-brittany-phillips

 

[Scholes18]

https://www.kjrh.com/news/oklahomas...-cold-case-files-who-killed-brittany-phillips

Thanks for posting this. It's not a lot of new info, but I think it's the first time I've heard of Sheriff Regalado. Here's a snip from the article:

Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado was a homicide detective with Tulsa police at the time.
Regalado said Phillips' likely stalked her before.
“Whoever murdered her that night, more than likely had seen her before and knew that she lived in that apartment,” Regalado said.
Regalado came up with 276 suspects who either lived in or near the apartment complex.
“I’m talking thefts of women’s underwear. I’m talking of peeping toms, I’m talking of rapes,” Regalado said.
​

It's nice to hear a comment on the record that they had so many suspects. Now if we could just get the cold case detective to say that he's actually reviewing all of these suspects AGAIN... that would be very reassuring.

Also, I'm still curious about whether they've been able to retrieve and/or test any other DNA samples from the crime scene. There has to be something there.

 

[Scholes18]

I heard that Detective Majors, who was handling this case, has retired. Uncertain what this means, but I'm crossing my fingers that the police decide to release more information about the investigation. Also, more DNA testing would be a good place to start.

 

[TexasT]

It will be reassigned to another detective .
SAKI INITIATIVE -- $2 million federal grant awarded to Tulsa Police for additional testing and support for sexual assault victims.
Move funds coming in for testing .

 

[faithx]

Murdered Eckerd College student's mom on mission to catch the killer

A mother in search of answers is hitting the road to find her daughter's killer. Brittany Phillips – a student at Eckerd College – was murdered in 2004 and 18 years later her case remains unsolved.

www.fox13news.com

"Early this year, Zingman says she learned investigators are analyzing a new set of DNA found under Brittany's fingernails after she says she learned the DNA they had been testing all these years---which was found on Brittany sheets--wasn't actually the killer's but a friend of Brittany's who's since been ruled out as a suspect. Zingman says without the missteps in beginning there may have been a different outcome, but says she's determined not to give up."

 

[Tricia]

Brittanyy's mom, Dr. Maggie, will be on our livestream tonight at 10 PM Eastern

 

[Wilma_W]

Brittanyy's mom, Dr. Maggie, will be on our livestream tonight at 10 PM Eastern

That was a wonderful show! And knowing that Othram has the DNA (the fingernail and/or rape kit DNA) makes me a lot more optimistic that they will finally find Brittany's killer.

 

[Scholes18]

New Podcast on Brittany's Murder:

A Life Cut Short

When police discover 18-year-old Brittany Phillips brutally murdered in her apartment on September 30, 2004, they hope DNA samples collected from the scene will lead them to the man who sexually assaulted and strangled the Tulsa Community College student. Nearly 18 years and hundreds of suspects...

unsolved.com

 

[Caring4Many]

New podcast with Sheryl McCollum

‎Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum: Caravan to Catch the Killer: Dr. Maggie Zingman’s Devotion to her Daughter on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum, Ep Caravan to Catch the Killer: Dr. Maggie Zingman’s Devotion to her Daughter - Jan 25, 2023

podcasts.apple.com

Before this podcast I hadn’t heard of this case. Now I’m trying to take in any information I can. I have so many questions.
In this podcast there’s talk of how the PD believes Brittany may have been redressed-if that’s the case-did they keep her clothes? Can they go back and look at these items with new technology?
I get that the bffs bf may have had an alibi-but what did the gf/bff say about their “tryst” at Brittany’s house? Did it match his? Maybe it’s just me, it’s one thing to let a friend stay-but to let someone else have sex in your bed - or as a friend to do that in a friends bed and not clean up after yourself? Maybe it’s me.
Another thought, Mom says that police looked for evidence in the “attic” space. I wonder if they thought about dna around the area that one would pull themselves up into it or get down into from? I’m thinking no since technology is different.
I can’t seem to get myself to think one way or the other-she knew this person and let them in-why it didn’t appear as if there was a break in or they came in through the attic.
Sorry, I can’t stop thinking about this. All thoughts are my own. MOO only.
Edit-fixed link

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The new evidence, which was discovered by Brittany’s father last month, showed that a birthday card Brittany mailed to him in 2004 was postmarked on September 29, 2004, two days after Brittany was said to have died.

The key piece of information could possibly change the timeline in connection with Brittany’s murder.

“It could be that Brittany sent it, meaning that her timeline is wrong on her death because the police have said consistently for 18 years that she died sometime between September 27th that Monday night, and I had talked to her around 9 p.m. so they assume it’s after 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. the next morning on the 28th,” Zingman told 2 News.

Dr. Zingman is urging anyone who could have mailed the card on her daughter’s behalf to speak up, as the potential timeline change could lead to more answers in the case.

Brittany Phillips: New Evidence Could Change Timeline in College Student’s Cold Case Murder, Experts Say

New evidence in an Oklahoma cold case could potentially change the timeline of the death of 18-year-old Brittany Phillips, a college freshman found dead in her Tulsa apartment in 2004. As CrimeOnline previously reported, Phillips returned home to Oklahoma in 2004 to attend Tulsa Community...

www.crimeonline.com