[Alicia] This story has been at the forefront of everyone's minds
for over 40 years.
Not only because it is one of the worst acts of evil
we've ever encountered at People Magazine,
but also because there's been an endless cycle of conspiracies
that have haunted the victims' families for decades.
In that moment, the carefree nature that we had before
was stripped away.
Residents believe it was an outsider, and that worries them.
I'm just hoping they'll find who did this.
[Mike] There's an animal living among us,
and that animal preyed on the innocent.
And left us with carnage.
I was fearful.
Scared it could happen to us.
It has been the lifelong journey for justice.
There have been conspiracy theories, rabbit holes to go down.
Did the sheriff plant the evidence?
[Sheri] What were her last moments like?
We needed the truth,
however horrific it was.
[theme music playing]
[crow caws]
Where we're standing, out in this...
wooded area.
I don't wanna be here.
But, on the other hand...
It's where we need to be.
-It's where we need to be. -Yeah.
Part of it is thinking about what happened that night,
and then, what might've been.
And all of that is...
a nightmare, and yet, the reality,
of our life now, after 45 years, it's...
our reality.
Every single day.
[Christine] In June of 1977,
school's out, it's the summertime,
and many young girls from all over the state of Oklahoma
are looking forward to going to Camp Scott,
Girl Scout camp,
located about and hour or so outside of Tulsa,
near the small town of Locust Grove,
a really tiny community right in the middle of God's country.
The camp was situated on the top of a, of a bluff,
which then spread out in a dense woodland
bounded by farms and a creek.
[Alicia] On the afternoon of June 12th, 1977,
hundreds of girls from all over Oklahoma arrive at Camp Scott
for what promises to be an exciting two weeks of sleep-away camp.
Among them is eight-year-old Lori Farmer.
I'm Sheri Farmer and I'm Lori's mother.
I'm Bo Farmer and I'm Lori's dad.
[Sheri] Through all of my life, I wanted to be a mom.
So, when we found out we were expecting,
we were excited
and happy.
Lori was a dream.
She was so pretty.
I just couldn't get over how beautiful she was.
From very early, Lori was well beyond her age.
- She read a lot. -[Sheri] Read a lot.
[Bo] Less than two-years-old,
Lori repeated the Pledge of Allegiance perfectly.
- We were astonished. -[Sheri] Yeah.
I would put something on and Lori would say,
"Oh, you wore that on Easter", or a specific time,
and I would look back at pictures, and she would be right.
So, she had an unbelievable memory.
I loved being her mom.
It was everything that I thought it would be.
And because of that, Lori wasn't by herself for very long.
[Bo] We had five children.
[chuckles]
We had five and seven years.
Lori, of course, was our first child.
And Misti, and Joli, and Chad and Kali.
All of the other children looked up to Lori as the leader,
and she did fulfill that role.
[Misti] I am Misti Shannon, and Lori Farmer is my older sister.
Lori and I were 18 months apart.
So we did everything together. [chuckles]
We shared a room together, friends.
I have wonderful memories of us playing tag,
running around.
She loved climbing trees in our backyard.
She was always adventurous. [chuckles]
[Kali] I'm Kali Cole, and I was Lori Farmer's youngest sister.
As parents, I can only imagine how busy life was, [chuckles]
with all those little kids.
And Lori became so involved
with helping take care of everybody.
[Joli] I'm Joli Beasley, and I'm Lori's younger sister.
Lori was very nurturing,
and she had a tender way.
She was the best big sis anybody could ever ask for.
[Sheri] That day when we took her to the bus,
she was real excited
about the prospect of taking pictures
because she had read in the girl scout handbook
that were would be a photo lab and could develop your own film.
[Bo] We got Lori on the bus,
and I was pressured because I was leaving there
to go to the hospital for a night shift.
She found a seat and we could see her in the window.
You know, and so we waved and said I love you.
When the girls arrive at Camp Scott,
they are assigned different units
which are named Native American tribes.
Camp Scott was divided into units
consisting of seven tents.
Lori Farmer was assigned to the Kiowa unit.
[Leigh] My name is Leigh Miller.
I was a camper at Girl Scout camp in 1977.
I met Lori Farmer on the bus.
We were both from the same area in Tulsa.
She was a little nervous and a little scared.
I was assigned to tent six.
Lori was in tent seven
with two girls named Denise and Michele.
They were both very sweet.
[thunder rumbling]
[Alicia] That night, the girls to to dinner int he great hall,
and while they're having dinner,
a huge thunderstorm strikes.
[Leigh] If it weren't raining, we could've gone out and had a camp fire,
and that would've been fun.
But, we played games and we just talked in the tents.
Some of the girls wrote letters.
You know, I mean, it was our first night and we were excited.
Around 10:00 p.m., the counselors end up doing a head count.
[Leigh] It was ten o'clock, lights out.
And, as we went to bed,
I thought it was gonna be a lot of fun
at Girl Scout camp.
[Alicia] There's no way anyone could've known
the horror that would be awaiting Camp Scott day daybreak.
At around six in the morning,
there's a frantic knock on the door of camp director, Barbara Day.
My husband Richard, who was staying with me that very first weekend,
went to the door.
[Alicia] It's one of the Kiowa camp counselors,
and she's absolutely terrified.
[Barbara] The counselor explained she was trying
the first one to the staff showers that morning,
and so, she'd gotten up early
and was walking out of the camp
when she saw a girl, partially clad,
lying upon a few sleeping bags on the side of the trail.
We had a camp nurse, and we got her and drove to the location.
When they arrive, the camp nurse rushes to the little girl's side
and checks her vitals,
but is shocked to discover that it's too late.
The little girl was dead.
I was pretty horrified.
You know, it was an extremely traumatic sight.
No one had any idea
who she was and what unit she belonged in.
Barbara Day's husband Richard then touches these two sleeping bags
beside this girl's body.
[Barbara] There was something in each sleeping bag
that felt to be human.
[Barbara] No one had any idea what had happened to them
or who these campers were.
People were beginning to cry,
and we had no explanation that we could offer,
but we needed to take a head count
in the Kiowa unit,
and try to determine if these girls were, in fact, from that unit.
[Alicia] Camp Scott counselors check inside each tent
and see if anyone is missing.
The staff realized at that point in time
that Lori Farmer,
Michele Guse,
and Denise Milner are missing.
At that point, I went immediately back to my office
to summon law enforcement.
[Marty] My name is Marty Wilson.
I am an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Once the sheriff and the medical examiner arrived,
the girl's body laying on the sleeping bags
was identified at ten-year-old Denise Milner.
[Mike] My name is Mike Reed.
I'm the current Mayes County sheriff.
Denise was found with her hands taped and bound behind her
and she has this gag in her mouth.
She's got a little bruising on her face,
and she's also choked down with this thin rope around her neck,
and it's dug in to her so much,
the M.E. talks about, he barely can get his finger
underneath it, it's so tight.
[Marty] There were two strips of two inch wide black tape
across her chest.
And given the fact that Denise was nude from the waist down,
it was thought that she had been sexually assaulted.
[Alicia] The medical examiner then unzips the sleeping bags.
He sadly reveals the bodies
of the other two tent seven campers,
nine-year-old Michele Guse,
and eight-year-old Lori Farmer.
Lori and Michele were in the bottom of their sleeping bags
with bedding soaked in blood.
Both had suffered blunt force trauma to the head
caused by some type of instrument.
But there was no indication of who might've done it
or why this was done.
[police radio chatter]
[Marty] And at that point, the Sheriff's office called in
the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
By 10:00 am, the OSBI as well as multiple law enforcement agencies
are on the grounds of Camp Scott.
[Barbara] Helicopters were beginning to circle over
and I did not want any camper to know what had just occurred,
and so, we needed to take these hundreds of girls home.
[Leigh] I remember the counselors told us that "You have to go home."
I mean, of course, as a 19-year-old, I thinking,
"Why?" You know?
"Why are we going home?"
[Christine] As the buses are going to the front gate,
they encounter swarms of reporters
that had gotten word that something terrible has happened at Camp Scott.
[Marty] When the OSBI crime scene technicians arrived
and began processing the entire scene,
other items were found, such as a pair of prescription glasses,
a roll of black duct tape,
that appeared to be the same tape that was on Denise Milner's body.
They also found a red plastic flashlight
near the sleeping bags.
[Andrea] My name is Andrea Fielding,
and I'm the Deputy Director for Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
So this is, um, a photograph of,
the flashlight that was found next to the bodies.
You can kinda see, there's a piece of a plastic trash bag
that had been torn, um placed over the front
and then it was secured on there with some masking tape.
And this absolutely would've limited the amount of light
that could be seen by another individual.
When the flashlight was taken apart,
it was discovered that someone had stuffed newspaper inside,
we assume, to keep the battery from rattling and making noise.
[Mike] At this point, investigators understand
that the person that committed these crimes
premeditated this plan.
[Alicia] Roughly a 150 yards away from the bodies,
law enforcement turns to look at tent number seven
where the girls were sleeping.
[Mike] Inside of the tent,
there's a front cot where Lori Farmer was at,
and then the next cot beside Lori would've been Michele Guse.
The other cot on the opposite of Michele was empty,
and then straight across from Lori was Denise Milner's cot.
All the sheets were taken off.
The bed covering, pillow cases,
all that stuff was crammed into the sleeping bags.
[Andrea] There was blood throughout.
Blood on the floor, blood on the mattresses.
There was some blood staining on the outside flap of the tent.
All three girls were very violently attacked in the tent.
[Marty] Although they couldn't determine sizes,
multiple different shoe prints
were found in blood on the tent floor.
And another shoe print that was found just outside the tent
appeared to be a wafflestomper type pattern on the sole.
The campers' personal items from inside the tent
were collected and taken to our laboratory for examination.
And the girls' bodies were taken
to the medical examiner's office in Tulsa.
Then, the Girl Scout Council
and law enforcement reach out to the three girls' families.
[Bettye] That morning, I was told that they found three girls dead.
And my daughter was one of 'em.
I couldn't understand.
I saw her alive, you know,
and then the next day, they were here, telling me she's dead.
I couldn't believe it.
Denise was very eager to learn
and she loved people.
She had taught herself to read and write and do math
when she was four years old.
She was exceptional.
She joined Girl Scouts and that was her first year at the camp.
[Alicia] As with Bettye Milner,
Michele Guse's family was notified
and they were completely blindsided.
[Christine] Michele Guse was nine-years-old.
She was really athletic.
She played on all her sports teams at school.
Michele had a lot of unique interests.
She was into horticulture.
And she had African violets that she tended to.
[Marty] When she left to go to the camp,
she hugged her father and asked him if,
he could take care of her plants while she was gone.
Her father said that she hugged him in such a manner
and said goodbye like she wasn't gonna see him again.
Across town, Bo Farmer is wrapping up
his overnight shift at the hospital
when he gets a phone call.
[Bo] I got a call from the Executive Director of the Girl Scout Council
and she just said,
"I hate to tell you this, but your daughter,
was found dead outside back behind her tent this morning."
That was it.
I was devastated,
and I was not very functional.
And I just laid down until my partner...
walked in the room and says, uh...
"I'm gonna take you home."
[Sheri] Bo usually comes home and pulls into the garage,
but he was not in his car and he came to the back door.
I thought something terrible has happened.
And Bo said that Lori had died in the night.
I can't even explain how horrific it was
to try to process that.
And we had no more information for many hours.
We cried, but having four other children,
we just tried to get through the day.
[Misti] I remember, my mum and dad told me
that Lori was not coming home.
I think I pretty much shut down after that. [chuckles tearfully]
I had lost my roommate.
My best friend.
My big sis.
I just remember, like,
the wind taken out of me.
In that moment,
the carefree nature that we had was stripped away.
There's a sorrow in our lives.
[Sheri] As it to got to be afternoon,
we still don't know what happened.
We tried to reach out to the Girl Scouts
to find out more things,
and we could not ever talk to anybody.
We couldn't get through.
Of course, we weren't watching TV.
But, people are hearing things on TV.
-[doorbell rings] -[knock on door]
[Sheri] And finally, actually, a neighbor came over...
[door opens]
[Sheri] ...and told us...
"I think there was some violence involved."
Well, we have no idea what he means by "violence".
Three girls, eight, nine and ten were beaten to death earlier today
while spending the first night at a week-long stay at a Girl Scout camp
in northeastern Oklahoma.
When we realized...
that someone had murdered Lori...
It was a feeling different from grief.
It was anger.
[Marty] There was no murder weapon or fingerprints
found at the immediate crime scene.
So, it became time to, uh, expand the search area.
Very shortly after that,
a call was received to the Mayes County Sheriff's Office
from a man named Jack Shroff, who'd reported that
his farmhouse had been broken into.
[Christine] The Shroff farmhouse is located less than three quarters a mile
from where the girls were killed.
[Marty] When officers arrived at Jack Shroff's house,
he reported he was missing, among other things,
a roll of black duct tape,
and a length of nylon sash rope.
During the processing of the scene,
a boot print was observed
on a piece of carpet in mud
and it appeared to be a waffle stomper type pattern on the sole.
[Christine] Because the footprint is very similar
to a footprint they found at the scene
and because the items that were stolen
were eerily similar
to items found near where the girls were killed.
Investigators suspect
that the killer burglarized Jack's home
and took the items to the crime scene.
[Alicia] The following morning
autopsies are performed
on the three girls.
[Marty] Once the girls were transported
to the medical examiner's office,
it was determined that the cause of death for Lori Farmer
was a single blow to the head with a blunt instrument.
The cause of death for Michele Guse
was also blunt force trauma
with six blows to the head.
Denise Milner's cause of death was asphyxiation plus strangulation.
But she also suffered three blows to the head.
Looking at the, uh, report
there appears a face value
to the all kinds of different patterns
of wounds on the children.
Looks like something that's curved,
there's something that's not.
There's something that's rectangular
which suggest multiple weapons
could have been used to kill these girls.
[Marty] During the examinations at the medical examiner's office,
there were hairs that were found
in each of the girls' sleeping bags
and attached to the tape
that Denise Milner's hands were bound with.
And the hair did not belong to these three girls.
During the autopsy,
it's revealed that not only had
these children been bound and beaten
but each one of them had been sexually assaulted.
I almost think that was worse
to hear than that she'd died.
You know, she was just a little girl.
I couldn't even imagine
that happening to her.
And I started to wonder
how frightened Lori might have been
with somebody entering the tent.
What were her last moments like?
Did she cry out for mommy and daddy?
And I wish that I...
have been there to protect her.
[Marty] During the autopsy sperm cells were found
in some of the swabs
from each of the girls.
[Andrea] Unfortunately, back in the '70s,
DNA was nowhere on the map for forensic testing.
But the sperm content was biologically analyzed.
[Marty] It was noted that all the sperm cells
were decomposed or deformed in some manner.
That appeared to be a unique characteristic.
[Alicia] Back at Camp Scott,
investigators take statements from each of the counselors
looking for some kind of lead.
[children giggling]
[Marty] A counselor in the Kiowa camp
reported that she was awoken by girls giggling in a tent
at about 1:30 that morning.
When she went out to check on that tent,
she heard...
-[voice growling] - [Marty] ...a sound.
-[voice growling] -She described like a growl.
Like a moaning.
She said she had shown her flashlight around
but didn't see anything...
and it scared her to death.
[Marty] By that time the girls in the tent number four
weren't making any noise so she just went back into her tent.
She remembers that as she was falling asleep
she could still hear that sound.
[voice growling]
[Marty] After interviewing, counselors were asked
to check their belongings to see if anything was missing.
One reported missing aviator style glasses.
Another counselor reported the purse that was missing
along with all of its contents.
A Kiowa camp counselor also reported
that she had a pair of prescription glasses that were missing.
[Christine] And it was later determined
that the glasses...
found close to the bodies
belong to the counselor from the Kiowa unit.
[Marty] In addition, many other counselors
reported that on several of the tents
the back tent flap was taken loose.
So it was determined
that whoever did this
was slipping in the tents from behind
and taking stuff.
You really have to think about that.
That night somebody was sneaking into...
tents all over the camp
getting one of the thing from...
like, glasses and purses
and not wake nobody up.
And then find a tent
where eight, nine, ten year old little girls are asleep...
and then they turn into some sort of an animal...
for lack of a better word.
But that animal was loose...
and that animal preyed on the innocent.
And left us with carnage.
[Sheri] The OSBI came with Lori's belongings.
Of course, I had looked at everything
and gone through it and they brought them to us.
[Bo] They had told us
that there was property stolen...
missing...
uh, throughout the camp.
And they've asked us
to see if there was anything
that we could recognize
as missing from Lori's personal belongings.
[Sheri] Nothing was missing
but in the hat
she had written us a letter
in her Father's Day card for Bo.
"Mommy, Daddy, Misti, Joli, Chad and Haley.
I'm getting ready to go to bed at 7:45.
We're at the beginning of a storm
and having lots of fun.
I've made two new friends,
Michele Guse, Denise Milner.
I just couldn't wait to write.
Love, Lori."
I just, you know, I just...
treasure this when they brought it to us.
And then finding...
her Father's Day card to Bo.
It says, "From your daughter." [clears throat]
"I looked at lots of card for dads.
But I got this one because it says...
"You're all that and more to me."
Happy Father's Day
to the best father in the world.
With love, Lori."
[Sheri] That was pretty special what she wrote on it.
And for a smudge she was there.
[Christine] On the morning of June 16th,
three days after the murder,
investigators get a potential lead in the case.
Approximately three miles south-west of the crime scene,
near a creek
two squirrel hunters found some items inside a cave.
[Marty] They saw a sack of flour
along with several other items
and they could tell
that somebody had been staying
out in this location.
So they've notified authorities about this.
[Mike] When law enforcement drove down there to it,
they could see the... this cave
and went back in there pretty good ways.
And there were some things
that immediately got their attention.
[Marty] The investigators found
a roll of masking tape,
a piece of dark, heavy trash bag...
a piece of newspaper
and a broken pair of aviator style sunglasses.
Investigators were bagging the items
believing they could possibly be connected to the murders.
[Mike] Through that process
investigators come across two pictures.
[Marty] One photograph had two women in it
and another one had one woman by herself.
[Christine] They are all wearing formal dresses
and the photos look like
they were all taken at the same event.
[Alicia] All of the potential evidence is collected
including the photos
and it's transported to the OSBI headquarters
in Oklahoma City for further evaluation.
[Mike] Experts in Oklahoma City
examined the roll of the masking tape and that newspaper
and both 'em fracture match perfectly
with evidence that's on the flashlight found at the crime scene.
So the masking tape
that's holding the black plastic on the flashlight
found at the same
fracture matches exactly
to the roll of the masking tape
as you can see... right here
and inside the flashlight,
holding the battery in place,
is newspaper which also
perfectly matches newspaper found at the cave.
So, basically, whoever was at the cave
was at the scene.
Whoever was at the scene was at the cave.
[Alicia] Establishing this connection
is a major break in the case
and investigators believe
that identifying the women in the photographs
may be the key to finding a suspect.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma today
a funeral service was held.
There will be three services this week,
one for each of the young Girl Scouts
murdered on Monday in a camping trip in Locust Grove.
[Sheri] Lori's birthday was the 18th.
It would have been the next Sunday...
and she was gonna be at Camp Scott for two weeks.
So our plans were,
we'd gather all the family up,
go up there, celebrate her birth...
-her birthday and Father's Day. -Uh, and Father's Day.
[Sheri] So instead of having Lori's birthday
and Father's Day,
we had her funeral.
Lori...
is in heaven with God.
[Misti] Even at seven,
I knew that Lori was gonna be...
gone forever.
I remember at such a young age
being fearful...
more scared, more aware of my surroundings.
Concerned that anything could happen to us.
[Joli] I did not go to the funeral.
Now, of course, I look back and I wish I had.
Um...
But I can understand my five year old self
not wanting to...
to do that at that time.
[Alicia] Due to the extent of the injuries
her daughter sustained,
Bettye Milner is advised to proceed
with a close casket service.
for ten year old Denise.
I could never accept that she was dead
if I didn't actually see her.
My family and I did go to see her
but we were the only one to...
saw the body.
Uh, her body was...
I mean, you could see the bruises, you know,
but other than that she looked perfect.
And she was asleep.
And...
[speaking indistinctly]
[Christine] Back in the Locust Grove area,
law enforcement wanted to get the monster
that killed those three girls
but it was this huge murder mystery.
And so, of course,
that scared the community.
Residents around Locust Grove
believe it was an outsider
and that worries them.
It also scares them the police aren't talking
about a motive or a suspect.
Oh, I'm horrified, naturally,
-like everyone else. -[woman] Uh-huh.
I'm just hoping they'll find who did it.
[Christine] Following their one good lead,
OSBI does everything in their power
to figure out where the photos
that they found in the cave came from...
and who these women are.
The investigation to identify those...
uh, pictures...
took incredible man hours and work.
And once we had exhausted
all of our avenues,
we decided to release 'em to the press
on the 10 o'clock news.
[Marty] Almost immediately, an individual came forward
and said that he knew...
who those women were
and where those pictures were taken.
It was determined that the photographer
who took those pictures was a part time photographer.
His full time job was working
at the prison in Grant, Oklahoma.
This individual said that those pictures
where taken at a wedding
and he didn't know how anybody
could have gotten those pictures
because he had the original pictures
and the proofs.
[Mike] Came to find out this photographer
had his stuff developed
at Grant prison.
[Marty] According to him, as a work program,
prisoners were assigned to work
in the records division
and sometimes process photographs for him
that he would take at events.
[Dick] This records officer said, for felony,
Gene Leroy Hart
was his dark room technician
at the time those pictures were taken
and was the guy who developed them.
[Christine] Gene Leroy Hart had been a prisoner in the '60s
and lo and behold,
Locust Grove was Hart's hometown.
[Dick] And in fact, Gene Hart's mother lived
about a quarter to half a mile away
from the crime scene.
[Christine] Investigators looked into Gene Leroy Hart
and they noticed that his previous crimes
were eerily similar
to the three Camp Scott murders.
[Marty] In 1966, Gene Leroy Hart
abducted two women coming out of a night club
at gunpoint.
Loaded them in his vehicle...
and took them to a secluded area.
He bound both of these women
in such a manner where
they each got a noose around their neck...
connected to their hands and their feet.
[Mike] Gene Hart ended up duct taping them
and binding them with cord
to... if they moved they would choke themselves out.
Duct taped their eyes, nose
and a pile brush upon top of 'em,
while he was taking turns raping 'em.
[voice growling]
[Marty] It was reported that during the rapes
he made a low guttural sound
that almost didn't sound human.
After Hart finished raping each of them,
he simply left them for dead.
By the grace of God, both of these women survived,
ultimately identifying Gene Leroy Hart,
leading to his conviction.
[Christine] On October 14th, 1966,
Gene Leroy Hart is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
But he doesn't stay long.
Hart was paroled after serving 28 months
for good behavior.
And very shortly after that
he committed several burglaries.
Hart would sneak into people houses while they was asleep
and walk up beside their bed
and take items from beside their head...
and leave.
[Marty] Hart was ultimately apprehended
for the burglaries
and convicted to serve
an excess of 300 years.
In 1973, he was transferred to Mayes County Jail
for a post-conviction relief hearing.
And he escaped by sawing through the bars
in one of the cells.
Eventually he was apprehended...
but several months later
he escaped again.
And this time,
much to the frustration
of the Mayes Country Sheriff Pete Weaver,
Gene Leroy Hard was never apprehended.
This man had been a fugitive for four years
at the time of the murders.
[Marty] Given his history,
his familiarity with the area,
his connection to the photographs
and the fact that
the masking tape,
the black plastic trash bag
and newspaper found in the cave,
it'll be linked to the flashlight
that was found at the crime scene.
Investigators believe Gene Leroy Hart
was a viable suspect
so the focus became on finding him.
[reporter] It was a passe.
More than 200 townspeople
at Locust Grove at sunrise today
to help find the man charged with the killings.
[Alicia] The level of evil of these heinous crimes
had never been seen before.
And Hart becomes the most wanted man in Oklahoma.
[dogs barking]
It was the largest man hunt in Oklahoma history.
Bo and I were very optimistic
that Gene Leroy Hart would be captured quickly.
[Marty] Multiple agencies got involved in the search
but I don't think there's any way
that they could have been prepared for what happened.
[reporter] This is Locust Grove,
where the killings took place
and where Gene Leroy Hart grew up.
Many people here don't believe Hart did it.
Know Gene like I know me.
And I'm not capable of that kind of crime
and Gene's not either.
-[reporter] Do you know the man they're looking for? -Yes.
[reporter] How well do you know him?
[man] He was our student at school.
Played football.
[Dick] Gene Hart was a football star.
His coach said he was the finest young man
he ever coached.
The people that knew him said
that he was a likeable guy.
He was a good looking guy.
He was an articulate guy.
[Christine] Despite his previous crimes
he was like a hometown hero.
But this case also came out at a time
when there was so much anger
and so much dissident going on.
There was Wounded Knee and Red Power,
and I think that Hart who was Cherokee
was sort of looked at
as part of this movement.
There was a lot of animosity going on
between, like, the local police department
as well as the community
which was heavily Cherokee.
I'm Gary Pitchlynn.
I'm a criminal defense lawyer.
Gene had escaped
from the Mayes County Jail twice in 1973
and had been evading County Sherriff Pete Weaver
for at least four years.
And Pete have been embarrassed
at not being able to find this fugitive.
So there was a general sense in the community
that sheriff's got it up for Gene Hart
and any chance he gets, yeah, he'll burn him.
My name is Kim Baker
and I am Gene Leroy Hart's niece.
My family spoke of the case
as being a railroaded situation.
They believed that there was
a decision made by the sheriff at the time
that Gene had been
the perpetrator based on the fact
that Gene had been on the run for so long.
That Gene had escaped.
[Gary] Once sheriff Weaver named Gene Hart a suspect,
a great deal of the community
did not think that he had committed these crimes
and a lot of people, particularly Cherokee people
were concerned for his welfare
and so there were people in the community
that refused to cooperate in his apprehension.
[Mike] The people in Locust Grove thought,
you know, he's just a good old boy
and there's no way that good old boy did it.
But what people don't understand,
let's just take away the Girl Scout stuff.
How can a man be such a good old boy
with everything he's done leading up to that?
They've seem to forget about that.
And that's sad because they're not
looking at the true problem.
The problem is you got potential suspect
who might have brutally murdered these little babies.
[Sheri] There reached a point
when we were getting frustrated
because the manhunt started to take a long time.
And when the leaves started changing
and another season was coming
and Lori was not here,
I did go through, uh...
a real depression
that made it hard to function.
[sniffles]
[Alicia] By December of 1977,
the manhunt for Gene Leroy Hart is called off,
and a new tactic is employed.
[Christine] Lot of law enforcement believed
that Hart was still in the community,
and his family and friends were harboring him.
[Marty] The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Harvey Pratt
is a Native American
and fit in with a lot of the people
in that community,
so he went undercover in... in the Locust Grove area.
[Harvey] My focus was apprehension,
you know, taking somebody into custody,
knowing that if he doesn't surrender, you know,
he's probably gonna get killed 'cause of the type of crime.
So as we got into the investigation,
we found out, supposedly, that Gene Leroy Hart
was living with, uh, this older gentleman,
but we didn't know where he lived.
[Marty] Eventually, he developed a confidential informant
who was able to identify a woman
who knew where Gene Leroy Hart was hiding out.
And Harvey Pratt approached this woman.
I said, "You need to let us take him into custody,
because we are not gonna hurt him."
I said, "There's a good chance that someone's probably gonna kill him."
You could see that she was nervous,
you know, maybe little frightened.
And that's when she told us where she thought he might be.
[Christine] Agent Pratt finally tracked down Hart
to a cabin in the Cookson Hills.
[Sheri] Ten months after Lori was murdered,
they found and captured Gene Leroy Hart.
It was certainly a very emotional time.
And after Hart was captured,
Bo and I were there that day when they arraigned him.
[Bo] It was just a very unsettling feeling
to know that we were in the same room
with the person that very possibly
could have killed our daughter.
[Sheri] I did want to make eye contact with him.
I felt like I would know
by looking at him if he did this.
But he did never look at us.
Gene Hart was charged with three counts of murder,
three counts of kidnapping, three counts of rape.
Gene Hart pled not guilty to all the charges,
and so we prepared ourselves to go to trial,
and he had a lot of supporters.
Within the context of the time,
Cherokee community members supported my uncle Gene
as someone who was representing
the struggle against injustice.
That was and is still...
a big issue for us.
[Bo] They were having community events,
chicken dinners,
and there would be a big jar there for donations
to raise money for Hart.
[reporter] Hart grew up near here.
Fourteen-hundred people in his hometown
helped raise money for his defense.
His attorneys don't feel they can find
a more sympathetic jury anywhere else.
[Sandi] My name is Sandi Garett.
I was a jurist on the Gene Hart trial.
I am a part Cherokee...
and it shocked me that I was still on there.
Being Cherokee, and having Cherokee friends,
I just thought I weren't a very good candidate,
that I had something I needed to be doing
and, uh, so I set my mind to it.
[Sheri] When we went over for the trial,
I just felt like I needed a personal journal
of our experience while we were there.
And, of course, the first one is March 19th, 1979.
"Today testimony is to begin finally,
21 months and six days after Lori was murdered.
Hart arrived and is dressed in a blue suit with a vest,
suddenly he's an ordinary-looking.
Of course, they have worked really hard to give him this new look."
[Alicia] As the trial starts, the prosecution lays out their hypothesis of events
for before, during, and after the murders took place.
[Mike] It was believed that Gene Hart created
this manipulated flashlight at the cave,
which is a premeditated tool
so he can sneak around better
not having very much light emitted out of it.
[Alicia] They said at some point Hart burglarized
Jack Shroff's farmhouse just a short distance away.
[Mike] Hart stole the black duct tape, a nylon rope.
While he was there, he left a boot mark on the floor.
[Alicia] After breaking into Shroff's farmhouse,
it's believed that Hart walks
the three-quarters of a mile to Camp Scott,
and that while the campers were eating dinner,
he burglarized the tents, stealing various items.
At that point, Gene Hart sat there just waiting for the girls to go to sleep,
just a short ways from Kiowa.
[Alicia] Once comfortable that the entire camp was asleep,
he made is way over to the Kiowa Unit tent number seven,
guided by the modified flashlight.
[Mike] Documentation stated, it appeared Gene Hart
entered the rear of the tent...
and then attacked these three children.
[thunderclap]
[Alicia] Although a murder weapon was never found,
it's believed that Hart
bludgeoned Michelle Guse and Lori Farmer to death.
[Mike] At that point, Gene Hart gets control of Denise Milner
by binding her with cord, and he put the gag on her,
but she was still alive.
[Alicia] Prosecutors are certain that Lori Farmer
and Michelle Guse are...
sexually assaulted postmortem.
[thunderclap]
Afterwards, Hart hastily gathered the little girls' bodies.
[Mike] Hart took the sleeping bag
and just crammed the child in there,
and then he just grabbed those sleeping bags
and took these three small children
roughly a 150 yards to this tree.
[Alicia] At this point, prosecutors say
Hart sexually assaults Denise
and strangles her to death.
[Mike] Hart up and leaves and went back to the cave
with all this stuff
that had been stolen from the camp.
[Sandi] Seeing and hearing what happened,
I couldn't imagine, it sounded like a... a monster.
It was such a horrific thing.
[Alicia] The prosecution presents what they believe to be
an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence,
including hair and semen samples
said to belong to Hart taken from the crime scene.
[Andrea] While Gene Leroy Hart was in jail,
law enforcement collected his underwear
and submitted those to the laboratory for forensic testing...
and there were sperm identified in his underwear.
[Christine] During the trial, an expert testified
that the semen that was found in Hart's underwear
was deformed.
The experts had said Hart's semen could have become deformed
due to a botched vasectomy
he had received, you know, in the mid-'60s.
[Alicia] The prosecution points out that this distinct trait
is also noted on the semen collected
by the Tulsa County medical examiner during the autopsies.
[Dick] This was a strong case.
Sure, it's all circumstantial evidence,
but my God, how many circumstances
can there be?
[Gary] In the eyes of the public,
obviously, it made him look bad initially.
And Garvin and I both just sort of took it as a challenge.
We didn't hesitate to push the limits.
And so, Garvin and I held a press conference for Gene.
[interviewer] Gene, how do you feel you may have been treated in the jail
you've been spending your time in?
My mama always told me
never to say anything ab your host.
[Gary] Overall, I think that he presented himself well.
He looked like a regular guy, um,
and not some kind of monster as he'd been portrayed.
[interviewer] Do you have, uh, a view of yourself,
and can you share that with us?
I am not a hero.
[Sheri] Whether you thought he did this or not,
he escaped from jail,
and he'd done time in prison for some horrible crimes.
To give him centerstage at a press conference seemed...
so unnecessary.
After the press conference, it's time for the defense to present their case.
The prosecution's whole case was built on circumstantial evidence,
and we felt that they were having to draw a lot of conclusions.
But the pieces don't all fit.
A good example is when they tried to link Gene
to the cave in which they found the pictures.
These pictures that Gene had developed during his time granted in prison
had been in his possession when he was incarcerated in Mayes County jail in 1973
and were left there when he escaped
four years before the Girl Scouts' murders ever happened.
So it calls into question how those pictures
then became present in that cave
since they were left behind in that jail cell.
Our take from that was that the evidence had been planted.
I felt like that that was suspicious...
and going forward, I was very skeptical.
You don't want anyone lying,
especially someone from the law enforcement.
[Gary] I think after we called into question the origin of the pictures,
we were able to call into question the legitimacy
of all of the other evidence presented by the state,
and we began to poke holes in their theory.
[Alicia] The defense dissects each piece of evidence,
starting with a hair found at the scene.
[Gary] They could say that it looks exactly alike,
but you couldn't say that that meant that was his hair.
Same thing with the broken, fractured semen.
It doesn't prove any more to you
than the hair proves to you.
It looks like,
but you can't identify where it came from.
And that's because there was no acceptable DNA science in 1979.
Of course, we had to take that into consideration.
[Bettye] The things that were coming up about hair and DNA
was presented in a way to confuse the jury.
[Bo] The defense team was putting up
every conceivable straw man theory
to try to plant down in the... in the jury's mind.
[Alicia] After 26 days of an intense trial,
the jury adjourns to deliberate.
[reporter] If the jury finds Hart guilty of first-degree murder,
then under Oklahoma law, he could be sentenced added to life in prison
or death by injection.
[Sheri] Pretty early in the morning we were notified
that jury had come back with a verdict.
So we rushed over to the courthouse.
"March 30th, 1979,
09:15, the verdict is in.
It's not guilty."
It's all over now.
[Gary] You know, it was exciting, it was emotional,
and at the same time, understanding the disappointment
of not having the final conclusion
of all this for the families of those little girls.
[Dick] It broke my heart.
Those little girls didn't receive a fair trial.
[Bettye] I think after the trial,
I came out with the feeling that
the law is a game, and who plays it the best
is the one who wins.
And it's not all about justice.
[Sheri] After the verdict was read,
we went to the judge's chambers
and he just said, "In our system of justice...
sometimes guilty go free."
[Sandi] I voted not guilty.
I was really waiting for that big bang from the attorneys.
You gotta have the evidence.
And I didn't feel like they had proof.
The jurists that are saying that there was no smoking gun,
well, the only thing I'm saying about that is... is that, um...
they may not have done their job.
[Alicia] Immediately after the trial,
Gene Leroy Hart is sent back to prison
to finish serving the remaining 305 years
of his 308-year sentence
for his burglary convictions and parole violations.
[Sheri] When we left the courthouse, I said to Bo,
"I would really like to have Lori's things back."
They'd been in their possession now for two years.
And so, we went over there and they gave us the box
of Lori's things, and we came home.
[Alicia] On June 4th, 1979,
more news about Hart makes headlines,
sending shock waves around the nation.
I remember being with my mom watching TV,
when the news bulletins came across the bottom.
And I remember my mom having this reaction
and starting to cry.
[Gary] Gene Hart was in the exercise yard.
He had lifted weights and he was now jogging.
And he had a heart attack, and he died there,
in the... in the exercise yard in McAlester.
[Sheri] Well, I just assumed that one day I would get to talk to him,
and he will tell us everything he knows.
I was so shocked when he had died in prison.
[Alicia] With Hart dead,
a confession is now impossible,
and rumors begin to swirl.
[Mike] Some people believed law enforcement framed Gene Hart
during the investigation in 1977.
You know, a good example of this was, um,
the law enforcement found two foot prints in the tent.
There was this big boot, and then there was some sort of a...
Another tennis shoe type track.
And so they started thinking, "Oh, my gosh,
maybe it was more than one person."
[Alicia] Then, in 1981, Mayes County residents elected a new sheriff,
and armed with some new information,
he takes the multiple killer theory very seriously.
[Marty] A woman from Locust Grove
relayed a story that her brother
had been out with two of his friends
the night before the homicides.
And she believed all three were responsible for the Girl Scout murders.
The Sheriff of Mayes County, Paul Smith,
said that a woman told him she was coming home the morning of the homicides,
and she'd seen her brother's two friends
walking down the road from the Girl Scout area,
no shirts and no shoes on.
[Marty] Later that morning, her brother had come home...
and he was covered in blood.
He appeared to be under the influence of drugs
and he was acting nervous.
He was mumbling some stuff about "the poor little girls."
[Alicia] She then tells Paul Smith that her brother
revealed how he and these two other men
disposed off the murder weapon and any evidence.
[Mike] According to her, these three suspects,
one of 'em being her brother,
was in a Super Bee car,
and they took the shirts and the shoes that was bloody,
and the murder weapon, put it in the car...
and took the car and pushed it off into the water
down by Spring Creek.
[Mike] In 1981, Paul Smith hires a private investigator
for the sole purpose of working on this Girl Scout case.
[Alicia] For years, the private investigator looks into this lead,
and in 1984, Sheriff Paul Smith goes public
and announces in The Oklahoman
that he's investigating this lead.
[Mike] He says he has three suspects,
and he blatantly says
he's going to make some arrests.
[Alicia] But the arrests never come,
and the community is left wondering why.
[Sheri] As the years passed by,
our belief in God lifted us and carried us
in our weakest grieving times.
Our family and friends loved us
when we weren't lovable,
and I'm thankful for all those people who helped.
But I know that I needed to help other people as well.
I wanted for Lori and for her honor
there should be something good that would come.
And so, Bo and I formed
the chapter of Parents of Murdered Children in 1984, in Oklahoma.
Immediately, it just got much bigger
than I would have ever, ever guessed,
and people drove from all over Oklahoma to come.
[Alicia] During the time while the conspiracy theories
continued to cast a shadow over the case,
the OSBI decides to try a brand-new
scientific advancement that's available to them,
DNA.
[Grace] My name is Grace Helms and I'm the primary DNA analyst
who's worked on the Girl Scout case.
In 1989, DNA testing had only been around
and used in criminal courts for a few years.
In 1989, we sent a semen stain from a pillow case
that was in Michelle Guse's sleeping bag for testing.
[Alicia] After the FBI receives the semen stain sample,
they compare it to semen stain samples taken from Hart's underwear.
[Bo] When we first found out that they were doing DNA testing,
we were very encouraged
that we were going to very quicky
come to a resolution of this.
[Andrea] With the particular testing technique that was used,
there are five locations on the DNA strand
that analysts look at in an evidence sample
and then they'll look at those same locations from a known sample.
Results at the three of those locations matched Mr. Hart.
[Andrea] Because only 60% actually matched,
the whole thing is considered partial.
And so, we were not able to say that Gene Leroy Hart was the murderer.
Basically, it points to him, but it's not conclusive.
[Alicia] After the DNA falls short,
the OSBI works quietly behind the scenes
for over two decades...
until 2012, when Agent Fielding decides
to make another big push to bring this case to a close.
And at the time, I was a forensic biologist
in the biology DNA unit.
So I pulled the case file and started looking at it.
I was very surprised to realize
that only two items of evidence had been tested
when there were hundreds of items of evidence
that could have been forensically analyzed.
And so, I wanted to make sure
that everything that could be tested, we were able to test.
[Alicia] Agent Fielding begins processing hundreds of items
for eventual DNA testing.
And as she's going through this process,
she contacts the girls' families
to let them know that OSBI
is looking to test new evidence in the case.
And Sheri Farmer reveals that she may be able to help.
[Andrea] Sheri Farmer told me that when the trial was over,
she insisted in getting
all of Lori's personal items back,
she had with her at the camp,
including her blood-stained sleeping bag,
and clothing items.
I was very surprised to learn Bo and Sheri
wanted everything that could be tested, tested.
So I went to their home
and retrieved the items of evidence.
[Sheri] When Andrea Fielding came to our house
to see if we had some things here
that she and Mike can do testing on with...
one of the things that she was interested in was Lori's sleeping bag.
My mother and dad had given each of the children a sleeping bag.
And so Lori took this.
As you can see,
there were parts of it cut for doing DNA testing,
and so there's holes in this
and holes in the sleeping bag that's inside here.
[Andrea] The family stood around while I went through
items from the crime scene that belonged to Lori.
And so it was definitely difficult for the family,
but they... they all supported each other and were there for each other,
and it was an incredible thing to experience.
[Alicia] Encouraged by the renewed efforts,
the Farmers approached the new Mayes County Sheriff
hoping he might be able to investigate a different angle,
which is, namely, the three alleged suspects
that were never arrested.
[Mike] Shortly after I became Sheriff in 2013,
Bo and Sheri Farmer came to my office.
[Sheri] We met with Mike Reed,
and I said, "I just want you to take a second look, fresh eyes."
I said, "I just want you to be open
for anything to help solve the murders."
[Mike] It was pretty emotional.
I gave 'em my word I would help any way I could.
I quickly found out that OSBI ran this investigation.
So they have the original files, they have original everything.
[Alicia] Sheriff Reed contacts OSBI
to gain access to the case files
and soon, he's shocked by what he finds.
[Mike] At the time, the Paul Smith theory was still alive.
But one of the first things that I noticed was his three suspects
actually had been brought in, they had been interviewed,
they had been polygraphed.
None of that information were out there.
So I was like, "Man, there's lot of stuff here that's... We don't know."
[Alicia] Sheriff Reed digs into the investigation
that was done on the three suspects.
[Mike] In '84, OSBI tracked down these three subjects.
One of 'em says he wasn't there,
and he actually alibied one of the other suspects,
saying, "Well, he was with me drinking at the dam."
He immediately agrees to take polygraph test.
And he passes his polygraph test.
So they go to the next suspect,
the brother of the informant, and he tells them,
"No, I wasn't there, had nothin' to do with it."
[Alicia] The suspect tells the OSBI agents
that he was at home with his father
and his two brothers the night of the murders,
and he was nowhere near the Girl Scout camp.
And he agrees to take a polygraph test and he passes it.
[Alicia] At this point, the OSBI returns to Paul Smith's informant
to question her again.
[Mike] OSBI interview her.
She immediately admits that she actually didn't know
nothing about who killed the Girl Scouts
and is remorseful for lying all these years
and making this story up.
[Marty] She reported that the reason she did this
was because she was upset with her brother,
claimed that he had sexually assaulted her in the past,
and she was trying to get even with him.
[Mike] At this point, she passes the polygraph,
admitting that she made all this up.
So that whole story...
had no merit whatsoever.
[Marty] Even after she reported
that she had made the story up,
Paul Smith still believed her initial story
and he did not let go of that.
[Alicia] For years, Paul Smith clings to this theory,
even after someone in his own camp denies its validity.
[Mike] In 1988, private investigator that was hired by Paul Smith
to solely investigate the Girl Scout murders
goes to the Governor, and the State's Attorney,
OSBI agents there, and they had a big meeting about this.
And the private investigator states that he no longer believes
that these three suspects had anything to do with it
and he believes Hart committed this crime solely
and he has no other suspects.
That is Paul Smith's own investigator.
[Marty] And to this day, there are people
who don't have all the information that we have,
who believe that this is a viable story.
People say, "Well, it wasn't looked into."
But it was.
In our eyes, as Lori's Mom and Dad,
Paul Smith's theory is not plausible.
[Christine] It must be so frustrating for family members
to hear all these conspiracy theories...
to constantly have to relive the death of their daughter...
must be incredibly hurtful and... and painful.
While Sheriff Reed has debunked the Paul Smith theory,
he still cannot prove that Hart was the sole killer.
-[telephone ringing] -[Alicia] But the next break in the case comes
when Sheri receives a call out of the blue.
[Sheri] I got a call from someone who said Lori's death
greatly affected her
and she wanted to help us solve her murder.
[Sheryl] My name is Sheryl Stokes,
and Lori Farmer was my childhood friend.
When Lori was killed,
I knew I wanted to be someone that is there supporting families
when the worst happens.
I am now a senior family advocacy specialist
at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In 2013, I told Sheri and Bo
my colleague could probably be a big help on this case.
[Sheri] She asked if we were interested,
and we both said, "Oh, of course."
[Richard] My name is Richard Leonard. I'm the program manager
at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
We decided that we would do a comprehensive case review
with folks from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit,
specific to child crimes, cold case investigators, analysts, lab experts,
to look at every facet of that investigation.
Looking at the facts about the case,
the behavioral analysts folks
gave a picture of who you would expect that offender to be.
And, obviously, Gene Hart had a criminal background
and part of that background was abduction and rape.
And in the Girl Scout case, he brought certain tools
very similar to the ones that were used in that assault at Tulsa.
Additionally, one of the things
that Gene Hart was known to do
when he went out and did burglaries was to take eye glasses,
which, to me, would be his signature.
The girls that he assaulted in Tulsa,
he took their eyeglasses as well.
And glasses were taken from Camp Scott
the night this happened.
[Alicia] During the meeting, investigators also discussed
the theory that perhaps multiple weapons
had been used in the murders.
Because the original autopsies had suggested
that each child's injuries varied.
Looking at all the autopsy photos,
it was decided that the weapon that was used was probably
a single small camp hatchet.
[Mike] When I looked at the image reports,
you can see 90-degree corners
of the bruising
that match the rectangular part of a small hatchet.
But something that you have to take into consideration
is at least one child's probably struggling,
so there is absolutely no way
you're gonna make a perfect hit.
So you're gonna have all kinds of different patterns of wounds.
[Alicia] The other piece of evidence
that skeptics have pointed to is
the presence of multiple footprints in tent seven,
which gave credence to the theory
that there was more than one person involved.
But the NCMEC experts see things differently.
[Mike] When you come to the photograph
of the footprints in the tent,
there was this big boot
and there was a small tennis shoe type track.
So let's say, you had grown guys who was out here doing this,
why has one of 'em got little small tennis shoes on?
Yeah, I don't see that.
Plus, the small tennis shoe type track
was on top of the blood and it was clean and crisp.
So that means it was that these tracks got in here after
the sleeping bags and the girls was taken out.
And when you go back and you read the interviews of the counselors,
the next move, the counselors said they actually physically
went into the tents touching each girl, counting them.
And so, it's believed that it's probably
one of the counselors that stepped in blood.
[Leonard] After three days, and at the end of looking
at the totality of the circumstances,
all of us in that case review,
um, came to a consensus of opinion...
that Gene Hart was, in fact, the person that was involved
and he acted alone.
There's nothing to suggest anyone else was involved.
We recommended the use of specific labs
outside the norm of a state lab
that could provide advanced technologies,
particularly in the area of DNA,
in order to help law enforcement
bring justice to those families.
[Alicia] Heeding the advice from the meeting's experts,
Sheriff Reed collects DNA samples
from known suspects in the case
in order to compare that to any new DNA that is discovered.
Most people that was brought up as a suspect,
like Paul Smith's suspects,
there was already blood, semen, hair
they had taken as evidence in the past.
Others was in prison or in jail,
and their DNA is in what's considered CODIS, it's a federal data base.
Once Sheriff Reed and Andrea Fielding collected enough evidence,
hundreds of samples are shipped off for DNA testing.
I think all of us felt that this is going to finally bring closure to those families.
[Sheri] I was hoping and praying
that the results would show
the person who killed Lori,
Michelle and Denise.
[Andrea] Hundreds of items of evidence have been forensically analyzed.
We found out from the testing
that pretty much everything was degraded
to a point that we didn't get anything usable.
Out of all of the evidence items,
the original semen's analysis back in 1989
and the hair, sweat from the tent
were the only profiles of someone
other than a victim or a family member
that had been obtained to-date in this case.
And both of those resulted in a partial profile consistent with Mr. Hart.
[Sheri] The results were devastating.
We all were disappointed that it was not a more conclusive answer.
[Andrea] We've tested all of the people of interest,
and all of those individuals have been excluded
from the DNA profiles that we have obtained.
But Gene Leroy Hart cannot be excluded
as being the possible perpetrator of this crime.
So it was a positive.
Absolutely, it was a positive.
And everything that I've looked at
still points to Gene Hart.
And I don't have a single other thing pointing to somebody else.
[Bo] Sheri and I definitely believe
that Gene Leroy Hart was the sole person
that committed this crime
and was the sole person
that was in that tent that night.
But Sheri and I are still open
to any information...
that might show
that he may have had an accessory
help him in some way after the fact.
If people know something and they come forward,
it will be looked into.
[Kim] You know, members of my family
supported my uncle Gene during that trial.
When I became interested in this case
as a young person and started asking questions,
I got the feeling that Gene's half-brother, my uncle Thurman,
believed that Gene was involved in some way.
But that this was not just Gene.
And I believe that he thought that for a reason,
and a valid reason.
He grew up in the area, you know,
he knew these people that lived around Camp Scott.
So, when he stated to me
that there were more people involved, I believed him.
This crime doesn't exemplify our culture or our traditions or our communities.
We don't want anyone
to have their children taken from them like that
in such a violent manner and then have it unsolved.
And we want justice for the victims.
[Bo] Over the years, Sheri developed a presence
about victims' rights.
By and large, a criminal had all the rights and victims had no rights.
[Alicia] Using all that she'd learned
as a victims' right advocate, Sheri successfully campaigns
in 2018 to have victims' rights
made part of Oklahoma State Constitution.
[Sheri] By passing Marsy's Law,
victims and victims' families
have a right to be in the courtroom.
They would have the right to have some input,
should there be a punishment phase.
And now these rights are in our state constitution.
[Alicia] In October of 2022,
Sheri and Bo are recognized
by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
[announcer] Please welcome to stage,
Lori Farmer's incredible parents,
Sheri and Bo Farmer.
Surrounded by their four surviving children
and three of their grandchildren,
the Farmers received the Hope Award
for their relentless work
advocating for victims' rights.
[Sheri] This is really for Lori and Denise and Michelle.
To our children, you have lived with imperfect parents,
who have grappled with the murder of their child,
but somehow, in the midst of all of that,
you have become amazing adults,
and we could not be more proud.
The Gala was, uh, a really special time for Bo and I.
It was far more emotional than I ever thought I was going to be.
Tonight is a testament to the... the impact that they've had
and the ripple effects that their work has had for
um, many, many people.
And, uh, it's a... a very special event tonight.
[Kali] I really enjoyed seeing my parents being honored
'cause I know all the hours they've spent
helping other victims.
There's not a day that goes by
that we don't see a picture of Lori or talk about her.
As I've gotten older, I think I have felt the void more now.
It's not just that my sister's not here,
but who she would've married
and their children and their children.
[Bo] Lori, Denise and Michelle
are still just largely recognized
as three Girl Scouts that were murdered.
Those three girls deserve...
much more.
[Bettye] Over 40 years is a long time to wait
for something to be resolved and...
at one time, I guess I thought
that I would live long enough to see that happen,
but now I don't know.
Even if it does,
it won't ever be over for us, the parents.
[Christine] Denise Milner's mother, Bettye,
and Bo and Sheri Farmer
are the only surviving parents,
and have stayed in contact over the years.
I hope that for the families there's more advances
in, uh, DNA technology that they could possibly find undisputed proof
they are so desperately seeking.
The summer of '77 was the last summer girls attended Camp Scott.
And eventually, the Girl Scout counsel sold the property in 1988,
and today, it's a hunting ground.
[Alicia] Although it's been almost five decades since the night of the murders,
the tree where the girls were found still remains.
And Lori's parents have come here
to mourn one last time.
Gonna put a rose for Michelle...
and a rose for Denise...
[sniffles]
...and a rose for Lori.
[sighs deeply]
These girls are not forgotten.
-[Bo] Never ever. -[Sheri sniffles]
Closure will not be a part of our lives.
Our pathway has always been justice for Lori
and to help other people,
and we've tried to do both of those.