OK OK - Peggy Sweeten, 52, Grove, 17 Jan 1998

[imstilla.grandma]

Wall believes Jim Sweeten’s story began to unravel and that threatened him.

“We were able to poke a hole in his alibi,” Wall said.

On Friday Debbie Sweeten, Jim’s second wife, met with Texas law enforcement officers.

“Debbie Sweeten is not a ‘person of interest’ or a suspect in the disappearance of Peggy Sweeten, but we do think she might provide answers,” Wall said.

Jim filed for divorce on Feb. 9, 1998, less than a month after Peggy’s disappearance and was granted an uncontested divorce on April 6, 1998.

Debbie Sweeten (previously Hammond) also divorced her husband in April 1998 and in June 1998 she and Jim moved in together at the Grove lake house. The couple got married on Dec. 27, 1998, in Las Vegas, according to the search warrant.

Suspect’s death doesn’t change investigators’ course to find Peggy Sweeten

WESLACO, Texas -The 25-year mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Grove, Oklahoma woman is not over even though her husband took his own life, said Delaware County Sheriff James Beck on Friday…

www.fourstateshomepage.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“We were reviewing the old police reports and investigative reports again and a statement by Patrick Sweeten, Peggy’s son, caught my eye,” said Mark Wall, Delaware and Ottawa County Cold Case detective.

Patrick Sweeten told investigators he learned his mother was missing in March 1998 and had to force his father to file a missing person’s report in June 1998.

James Sweeten told authorities in 1998 his wife left with a man she had met online, the warrant states. The problem was Peggy Sweeten did not use email and never had an email address.

Patrick Sweeten told investigators in 1998 he noticed a 55-gallon drum on his parent’s property was suddenly missing. When he questioned his father, James Sweeten, about the barrel, the elder Sweeten shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t know anything about it, Wall said.

On Wednesday members of the Tulsa Fire Department, Cherokee Nation investigators and Delaware County Sheriff’s deputies used an underwater drone and magnetic locating equipment to search the 15-foot waters that surround the boat dock area of Sweeten’s former residence.

On Friday, divers with the Grand River Dam Authority located a 55-gallon drum upright submerged in sludge. Divers used mesh buckets to extract some of the contents from the drum.

“At this point, we could go as far as we could,” Wall said.

https://kfor.com/news/local/divers-find-55-gallon-drum-in-grand-lake-authorities-believe-they-are-close-to-locating-missing-grove-woman/

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Delaware County Cold Case detectives released a second suicide note belonging to Jim Sweeten.

Sweeten, “a person of interest” in the disappearance and presumed death of his first wife – Peggy – killed himself on May 18.

Weslaco, Texas police said they received a telephone call at 8:05 a.m. saying Jim Sweeten was going to harm himself. Police arrived at the residence and when they could not find him, they searched an outbuilding and found his body.

The first note left to his second wife, Debbie, described what a good wife she was.

The second note stated “I can’t help you anymore. I’m sorry.”

“The note just leaves us with more unanswered questions,” Wall said. “We believe the note was directed to Debbie Sweeten, his second wife.”

When questioned in 2011 about Peggy’s disappearance, Jim refused to submit to a polygraph test and to allow a search of his Grove property.

“James appeared to be deceptive and evasive;” “appeared to be attempting to find out how far the investigation had progressed;” “what the investigators knew;“ and “what direction the investigation was headed,” the 2011 search warrant stated.

At the urging of her son Patrick, Sweeten finally contacted authorities months after Peggy disappeared. He told authorities he was working as a superintendent at a Kansas school when Peggy disappeared and when he returned from an educational conference he found a note, reportedly written by Peggy, saying she was leaving her marriage of 33 years to be with a man she met online.

Contents of suicide note released in the Peggy Sweeten case

JAY, Okla. – A suicide note reportedly written by Jim Sweeten offers no details about his first wife’s disappearance and presumed death, but does leave more questions about his second wife. D…

www.fourstateshomepage.com

 

[dotr]

by: Sheila Stogsdill Jan 4, 2024

Cold Case Closed – Oklahoma District Attorney’s office calls the Peggy Sweeten case – solved

JAY, Okla. — The Delaware County District Attorney’s office released a statement today (1/4) announcing the 25-year-old Peggy Sweeten case was solved. “James Sweeten is the only suspect in the disa…

www.fourstateshomepage.com

''JAY, Okla. — The Delaware County District Attorney’s office released a statement today (1/4) announcing the 25-year-old Peggy Sweeten case was solved.

“James Sweeten is the only suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of Peggy Sweeten,” said Delaware County Sheriff James Beck.

First Assistance District Attorney Clint Ward reviewed the case file submitted by Beck and released his findings today (Jan. 4).''