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For 100 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma Cover graphic for The Daily’s podcast Uncovered: The Lovers’ Lane Murders. All five episodes of the podcast can be found at projects.oudaily.com/loverslane.
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MYSTERY UNMASKED Uncovered: The Lovers’ Lane Murders podcast investigates 1970 murders of two teenagers in Norman K AYLA BRANCH • @K AYLA _BRANCH Uncovered: The Lovers’ Lane Murders is a five-part investigative podcast into the murders of two teenagers in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1970. The case is almost 50 years old and remains unsolved. The OU Daily podcast delving into this saga is now out on SoundCloud. Read an excerpt from the first episode below:
1970
I t w a s the summer after Wo o d s t o c k , a n d A m e r i c a’s counterculture was thriving. The hippie era was still blazing, but now, the kids coming of age had become increasingly politically active. Hundreds of thousands of college students were protesting the Vietnam War. The murders are intrinsically tied to the decade they occurred — the type of technology available for investigations, the loss of trust in police and the beginnings of harsh public scrutiny into government bodies. Most of the case takes place in central Oklahoma and northern Texas, but our story begins five days earlier in Kent, Ohio, on Monday, May 4, 1970. After President Richard Nixon announced plans to invade Cambodia, riots, protests and demonstrations broke out all over the country. Thousands gathered for a demonstration on the Kent State University campus in Ohio. The National
Guard was called in to contain the crowd, and shots were fired when students wouldn’t disperse. Four students were killed, and nine others were wounded. O n Tu e s d a y , M a y 5 , t h e University of Oklahoma Student Association gathered hundreds of students to protest not only the war, but the actions of law enforcement in Ohio. Five days later, a few miles west of OU’s campus, shots were fired again, ending the lives of two college students. Decades of investigations followed, creating ripples in the Norman community still felt today. That Tuesday in 1970, the OU protest ended peacefully, but police and residents were on edge for the rest of the week. There was a carnival coming to town and classes were ending soon, so students were hosting parties. Police were spread thin. But amid the chaos, David Sloan and Sheryl Benham were preparing for a date. “Well, she loved her job … I love — there’s this one picture of Sherri, she looked so cute, she had the little red skirt and the white top, you know, and she was just so cute in it.” That’s Linda Adams, the older sister of Sheryl Benham. She talked about Sheryl like this every time we had a phone call. “She also loved her first nephew, my son that was living there with us … She was just crazy about him … She had, believe it
or not, she had a blue Mustang, a baby blue Mustang. She would drive it to work, drive it to go see her friends … She loved life, she loved everything that everybody did, and she looked for that in people.” For Linda, talking openly about her sister is something that’s relatively new. It may have been almost 50 years since the murders, but Linda said it rarely feels that long. Sher yl met David Sloan at Steak and Ale, a restaurant in Oklahoma City where they both worked.
“She loved life, she loved everything that everybody did, and she looked for that in people.” LINDA ADAMS, SISTER OF SHERYL BENHAM
David came to OU as a student from Amarillo, Texas, in 1966. Described as ornery but wellliked and friendly, he was on a tennis scholarship for his first two years. There is a picture of him in a 1969 OU yearbook with his racket. He was tall with thick, brown hair and a lean build. He’s got a big smile, seems confident. He was part of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. According to newspaper articles in the
Norman Transcript from that first week, David was set to graduate the upcoming December with a business administration degree and then be commissioned through the Naval ROTC. On Saturday, May 9, 1970, Dave was 21. Sheryl graduated from Putnam City High School in 1969 and was living in Oklahoma City with her parents, her older sister Linda and Linda’s oldest son. She was outgoing and fun, and their family was close. She was 19. “Our family was very close, very close,” Linda said. “And we were brought up, we went to church, my dad was a Mason. It is like a fairy tale now. There aren’t families like that now, I don’t think. Sherri and I, yes. Well, we shared the same bedroom. We were very close. She was just, oh, well-respected, very intelligent, just, you know … My dad was a very strict father, but he ... you just knew what to do and what not to do.” They lived in a house off of Northwest 46th Street, a main road in Oklahoma City. Today, that hous e is tall and long, bricked at the bottom. It sits in a quiet neighborhood. There’s a large backyard shaded by multiple trees. The driveway is to the left, the sidewalk running along the length of the house for a few yards before the steps to the front door. That’s where Dave would have walked when he came to pick Sheryl up for their
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date Saturday night. From interviews, news articles and court documents, The Daily was able to piece together an outline of that night. After picking Sheryl up at her Oklahoma City home, the pair drove down to Norman to attend a party at Dave’s fraternity. They stayed at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house for a few hours, hanging out with friends. They left the fraternity house around 11:30 p.m. and went to a place in western Norman known a s “ L ov e r s’ L a n e.” In 1 9 7 0 , Norman was going through a period of growth, but this part of town, out past the main highway and now home to a large residential area with houses and schools, was still just farmland and brush. It was private enough for young couples to park their cars and be intimate. The place Dave and Sheryl went was popular, though they probably weren’t expecting to find any company. The two stayed there for an unknown amount of time. What is known is they were disrupted. We hop e y ou’ll join us f or the rest of the story. Listen on SoundCloud or visit projects.oudaily.com/loverslane. Kayla Branch
kaylabranch@ou.edu
ENTRY FORM NAME: PHONE NUMBER: OU EMAIL: LOCATION: Entry form must be original newspaper form. No photocopies or reproductions will be accepted. Each day, entry forms will be collected at 4:30 p.m. and winners will be drawn at 5:30 p.m. Grand prize drawings will be Friday, Oct. 6th at 5:30 p.m. Contestants can only win one daily prize per the entire event, not including grand prize. Entry forms may be submitted at the following locations:
The Sooner Card Office (Oklahoma Memorial Union), Couch Restaurants, Copeland, Cate, The Bookmark Cafe, We Love Our Readers Table (South Oval, 11am - 2pm), Gaylord, and Price.