OK OK - (GUILTY) - Kirsten Hatfield, 8, Midwest City, 14 May 1997 *Killer murdered in prison

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SeriouslySearching, since you're in OK, do you have any recollections of any child abductors that roamed through the state in the late 90's? (Or ever?) I've looked at most of the missing lists for OK, in the area where Kirsten disappeared from and the state, I'm just not finding a lot of cases where the MO is similar. I've searched in general over the US and it seems like children being abducted from their bedroom is not as common as I would have thought since the Jessica L. case and the case of Coral Rose (also in Florida). Baby Sabrina was taken from her crib (Florida IIRC) and Jacquelynne Dewalaby (sp?) and Elizabeth Smart (good ending to her story). It takes a very brazen person to steal a child from their bed.
 
Sorry I haven't been on here much guys, school is starting this week here, so it's been hectic! lol. I will try the library and LE once my oldest is in school. She is 11, and knows about Kirsten, but doesn't know I am persuing this. My poor kids, I have this place wired and locked down like Fort Knox, which is frightening enough,lol. Thanks for the ideas,they help me tremendously! Oh, and BOOMER SOONER, SeriouslySearching,lol. We are die hard OU fans too.
 
I am seriously going with the thought that Kirsten knew the person that took her, just a gut feeling. I wish I would have babysat her after they moved into that house. I guess the world is full of "what ifs" and regrets. All I can do now is pray for closure as I do my research.
 
Hi, akimmel, glad to see you came back here.

Here is the Oklahoma Open Records Act:
http://www.foioklahoma.org/OpenRecords.pdf

You will be requesting the public records of your nieces disappearance under this act. If I were you, I would get the records, the newspaper articles, and then sit down and read everything, make notes about any questions you have, then make an appointment to talk to the detective in charge of the case. Ask him/her lots of questions.

This is a link to the Oklahoma Sex and Violent crime registry
http://docapp8.doc.state.ok.us/servlet/page?_pageid=426&_dad=portal30&_schema=PORTAL30&id=regid
You can look up offenders by zipcode. I would want to find out who is living in the area around the house your niece was taken from. Keep in mind, people may or may not be living in the same location as back when your niece was taken.

It would be interesting to know who was living in that rental house BEFORE your sister moved there. There have been crimes committed against innocent victims which were intended to be against the previous resident of the house. I would try to find out who that was and try to determine if the person had been in trouble with the law. I'm suggesting this because your sister had lived at that house such a short amount of time. It may be possible to find this information by contacting the owner of the property or looking at property records. Here's where you can lookup that information.

http://www.publicrecordcenter.com/oklahomapublicrecord.htm

Hope these resources help a bit.
 
I'm very curious about the neighborhood. If family and any boyfriends or ex-boyfriends of the mom has been ruled out, my next thought would be someone who lives in the neighborhood. Perhaps they saw Kirsten riding her bike, etc. It would not be hard to figure out where she lived and become familiar with the family's routines. It could also fit with Kirsten knowing her abductor.

I bring this up mostly because of several other cases where young girls went missing and it was later found to be someone in the neighborhood. One case, from Washington state, turned out to be a teenage boy who lived down the street. So any teen boys up to men I would be curious about.

One thought on the unlocked window: I know when I have moved into rental houses, I always check for broken window locks. I have yet to NOT find one. If they had not been there long, that is a possibility. Many people don't even think about it.

Another thought is someone who might have seen Kirsten at school, church or some place she may have gone regularly. I noticed Kirsten had a stutter? If she was frightened, she may not have been able to call out. I wonder if the underpants were discarded by the abductor if she wet them from fear? Just a thought. That is very odd, to find them in the yard like that.
 
SeriouslySearching, since you're in OK, do you have any recollections of any child abductors that roamed through the state in the late 90's? (Or ever?) I've looked at most of the missing lists for OK, in the area where Kirsten disappeared from and the state, I'm just not finding a lot of cases where the MO is similar. I've searched in general over the US and it seems like children being abducted from their bedroom is not as common as I would have thought since the Jessica L. case and the case of Coral Rose (also in Florida). Baby Sabrina was taken from her crib (Florida IIRC) and Jacquelynne Dewalaby (sp?) and Elizabeth Smart (good ending to her story). It takes a very brazen person to steal a child from their bed.
In 2006, Gary Graham and was sentenced to life for doing exactly that very thing. His MO was scattered across ages and the way he carried out his crimes, but he went inside the girl's homes while people were asleep either in the same room or house. He took some outside to rape them and he even returned some to their beds afterwards. His victims ranged in ages from 2 yo to 18 yo, IIRC. They believe his crime spree spread over 4 years here, but I don't know his background or if he lived outside of Tulsa before then. His official count of victims was 14, but there were 4 more which they did not find enough evidence to charge him, IIRC. He also was a peeping tom according to another eyewitness. He is 39 yo or 40 now. He was 36 when caught.

Maybe AKimmel should try a phone call to the DA's office here and inquire about his past history as to location and have them evaluate any similarities in the cases. However, I must point out that he didn't keep or kill his known victims so I don't know if this fits with her still missing.

Interesting note: Records say in one case, he took the victim's underwear with him, she was 4 years old.

http://kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=128133

http://kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=99434 < describes more of his crimes.

Again, there was a man during the time span of 1979 to 1981 in and around OKC that took at least one girl from her bed, but I am think there were more victims. I have a vivid memory about this because I was petrified about my own child sleeping in her room alone during that time period.
 
Happy back to school time, AKimmel! I remember those days. :) It was usually a blessing by the end of summer vacation altho I missed having them at home with me and had to adjust as much as they did going back. LOL

Hard core OU fans are always a welcome sight here. Woohoo!
 
SS, thanks so much for the information on Graham. When I was searching for info his name didn't turn up in the searches.
 
happy back to school time, akimmel! I remember those days. :) it was usually a blessing by the end of summer vacation altho i missed having them at home with me and had to adjust as much as they did going back. Lol

hard core ou fans are always a welcome sight here. Woohoo!

o/t: Ditto the hard core ou fans welcome--ou alumni boomer sooner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
i'm sorry if this has already been answered and i missed it, but what was the situation with the blood found in the child's room?
 
WOW! Look at all the sooner fans! lol. Reportertype, you gave me a new idea about why the underpants were left, never thought of them being soiled. Thanks for the info on Graham too Seriouslysearching! My fear is that there are alot more Graham's out there, ones that have either died, or went to prison on other charges and never gave up the victims' location. This is why we should lock up all these predators and offenders for good! I say re-open Alcatrez, and lock up there butts out there for good, no 2nd chances! OK, off my soapbox people,lol......
 
Another thought about the underpants is that the intruder may have pulled your nieces underpants down in the bedroom and then carried her with them down on her ankles and they came off that way. I even wondered if he took her to the bathroom or found her in the bathroom before he took her out of the house - which would explain the door being shut.
 
On this wiki page for David Westerfield, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Westerfield, there is mention of a man named James Selby. It says that in 1999 Selby was wanted for kidnapping a 9 year old girl, from her bedroom, in OK. (He is believed to have crimes in other states as well, he confessed to the Danielle Van Dam murder.)

Going to keep looking, not finding a ton of info about him.

ETA: From what I've read, Selby spent time in Norman, OK. I haven't found much more information about the exact year/years that he may have been there. It appears to be only about 29 minutes from Midwest City. Selby committed suicide in jail. (He also confessed to the murder of JBR.) While he had a couple of confessions that were decided as false, his crimes against girls and women did land him in jail.
 
akimmel, I'm wondering if you followed up on any of the suggestions or if you can give us an update?
 
I've gone back over some stuff about Tommy Sells that's available online, and I'm now thinking Kirstin is too young for Sells tastes. I think he went for pubescent girls and women

I have to respectfully disagree with justthinkin' here. Tommy Sells is a psychopath. he really had no MO as far as who or why he killed. He killed men, women, little girls, little boys, teenagers, young women. He killed a whole family in Illinois, and when he murdered the pregnant mother of the family, the baby delivered, and he beat the newborn to death.

There is info saying he was released from prison after 4 years in May 1997.
Does anyone know the exact date he was released? He married while he was in prison, and he did go to tenn. to be with his new wife when released, but did he go there immediately?

JOSeph Duncan also seems to be a prime suspect in my opinion, particularly since he was in the area.

Also, I Always had a feeling that whoever abducted Morgan NIck in 1995 was from OKlahoma as where she was abducted from is basically right on the line of Oklahoma and Arkansas and there have been NO stranger abductions in Arkansas of children before or after Morgans disappearance.
 
I have a question about the blood found in the bedroom and on the fence. Was this blood LE could see with their naked eyes, or was it "invisible" blood that only showed up with Luminol testing? I know the mother's friend to whom the blood belonged was cleared, but I'm left wondering what he was doing bleeding in the little girls' bedroom.

Hoping for a resolution to this one day. Kristen was an adorable little girl, it hurts to think of something like this happening to her.
 
Just saw this on the local news broadcast and they did say the search is believed to be related to Kirsten's disappearance. The video at this link is from the broadcast earlier this evening and doesn't mention her by name:

http://www.koco.com/crime/midwest-city-police-investigating-cold-case-in-jones/30576652

Authorities are investigating a cold case in Jones Wednesday...

There is a large police presence in the area and authorities are excavating an area behind a home...

The medical examiner is also on scene.
 

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