OK - Totinika Elix, 24, & Emily Morgan, 23, fatally shot, Bache, 26 Aug 2016

[JerseyGirl]

United Voice: Murdered And Missing Indigenous Women Cases Remain Unsolved

 

[doublestop]

A new article about this unsolved murder.
Forgotten Faces: Totinika Elix And Emily Morgan

 

[modesty blaise]

So the girls met 5 months prior.
Where did they meet? Were they involved in a secret life perhaps? Drugs?? Escorting??

 

[dotr]

Snippets from lengthy article.


Emily Morgan.
August 21 2022

Mothers seeking justice in 2016 murders of Oklahoma women, Totinika Elix and Emily Morgan

On August 26, 2016, 24-year-old Totinika Elix and 23-year-old Emily Morgan were found dead in Bache, Oklahoma

www.nbcnews.com

By Kyani Reid
''On August 26, 2016, 24-year-old Totinika Elix and 23-year-old Emily Morgan were found murdered just outside of McAlester, Oklahoma.
Both mothers and Oklahoma natives, the women had met each other a few months earlier.

Twanna Brown told Dateline that her daughter Totinika was “a happy person, a real sweet person.”


''In early 2016, Totinika met Emily Morgan. “She was a mother and a sister and a daughter,” Kim Merryman said of her daughter, Emily. “She was a princess.”

Emily was born and raised in Callahan, Oklahoma. “She lived there most of her life,” Kim told Dateline.

Growing up in Callahan, Emily discovered an array of interests. “She loved softball. She did cheerleading,” Kim told Dateline. “She did fashion and modeling.”


''Emily Morgan and Totinika Elix were shot and killed that night in Bache, Oklahoma, about 10 minutes from McAlester. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is investigating their murders. Public Information Officer Brook Arbeitman told Dateline in an email that “Morgan and Elix were both last seen in McAlester, Oklahoma on August 26, 2016, at 11:15 p.m.” He said their bodies were found on “East Highway 271 in Bache, Oklahoma.” Arbeitman told Dateline Emily’s 2012 Ford Fusion was found in “front of a vacant home and the homeowner checking on the property saw the car and called the Sheriff’s Office.”

''Anyone with information about the murders of Totinika Elix and Emily Morgan is asked to contact the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation at 800-522-8017.''

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The day after the bodies were found, a tow truck driver who arrived at the unoccupied home to remove the vehicle found the car keys in the yard.

"If the tow truck driver just walks around and finds the keys—law enforcement has access to metal detectors and all kinds of things," said Olivia Gray, president of NOISE's board. "So, why didn't they find the keys?"

She said that it was not clear whether police had looked for evidence in a nearby pond and added that neighbors across the street from where the killings had happened had not been questioned—even when they called police to say they had heard something that night.

"I mean, how good of a job could they have done at that point?" Gray said.

Without presenting evidence, NOISE said it believed the case had been deprioritized because the victims were indigenous, Black, poor and less educated.

"We know that Emily was a teen parent. We know that she had addiction issues," Gray said. "When law enforcement views you as a criminal, they're not going to prioritize your case."

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in McGirt v. Oklahoma that a large portion of eastern Oklahoma is an American Indian reservation.

The ruling means that state and local governments cannot prosecute Native Americans who commit crimes on the reservation—responsibility for major crimes such as murder is therefore with federal agencies.

But although the state agency communicated with the federal authorities, it remains in charge of the case, to the disappointment of NOISE and the victims' families and other advocates.

"This case should be reviewed and have FBI agents assigned to it actively right now," Newkirk said. "The county owes a public apology to the family for not collecting evidence properly, because when these FBI agents come in, as they should, because of McGirt, they're not going to have very much evidence to process."

Oklahoma double murder: new questions raised over women's killing

Emily Morgan and Totinika Elix were found dead on tribal land in 2016. A new report accuses law enforcement of failing to give it high prioirty.

www.newsweek.com