S2 E1 - Jane Marie Chafton

On August 13th, 1999, a nude corpse was found in Sandy Bear Creek, rural Stephens County, Oklahoma. Forensics identified the body as that of Jane Marie Chafton, 28, from Lawton, Oklahoma. She was last seen on Aug. 9. Jane would be the first of five women from Lawton that had the same line of work, on the same road, the same habits, knew the same people, and whose bodies were all discarded the same way.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is a true story, butthe opinions of people interviewed or talk to
you are just that opinions, notfacts unless stated otherwise. Opinions stated by
witnesses are not to be seen asthe opinions of the Swedienna Project or anyone
working for the podcast, and thecredibility of those opinions is to be determined
by the listener. Everyone has presumedinnocent until proven otherwise in a court of

(00:23):
law. Welcome to Season two ofthe Swedienna Project, where we are going
to be diving into some unsolved casesfrom Lawton, Oklahoma and the surrounding areas.

(00:47):
The first five cases we are goingto cover are the five closest connected
cases, the ones that authorities believewere committed by the same person or persons.
After that, we are going todive into cases before nineteen ninety nine

(01:07):
and way after nineteen ninety nine,because there are a lot of cases and
there are still a lot of missingwomen out there as well. So to
start off, we're going to betalking about Jane Marie Chafton. She was
twenty eight at the time of herdeath. She was born December twentieth,
nineteen seventy one, in Glendale,Arizona. She came from a very big

(01:33):
family. She had five brothers,four sisters, and she spent her childhood
between Texas and Mississippi. Her fatherwas a tech contractor and according to one
of her sisters, her parents werealcoholics. So it made life a little
bit rough at times. Now Janewanted a stable life. She ended up

(01:55):
getting an accounting degree from Job Corpsin Marcus, tex and she worked as
an accountant and she started her ownfamily. She had a son, and
eventually she got tempted into drugs bya friend and spent about two years on
cocaine, and this is possibly whenshe might have started sex work. She

(02:22):
hit rock bottom, she really did, but after which she got treatment and
she was trying to get her lifeback together. So from where she started
to where she's at now, everybodyhits rough patches. We've covered this kind
of stuff in season one, sonobody here is new to this. We

(02:43):
don't judge people here by their lifestyle. Everybody is human and deserves the same
amount of attention on their cases.So she ended up moving to Lawton,
Oklahoma, in August of nineteen ninetyfive. She held a job at Susie's
Salon for about three years, andshe was taking care of her son and

(03:04):
she actually got engaged as well.Now I've heard two different reports. One
says she worked at susie Salon,which was like a barbershop beauty parlor.
The other account says that she workedat Susie's Massage, which was like an
oriental bathhouse type parlor, kind ofa you know, shady massage parlor type

(03:25):
deal. I've seen Susie's Salon moretimes than I did the massage parlor,
but I still have to give youboth sides of that information. Now,
it's probably around this time where shegot back into her drug habits. We're
not exactly sure when that started backup again. Now. She was last

(03:49):
seen on August ninth, nineteen ninetynine, in Lawton, and at the
time she was staying at a Motelsix in Lawton and told a friend that
she needed a ride to Duncan,Oklahoma. Jane then called an unknown cab
company, but canceled them, sayingshe already had another ride. Four days

(04:13):
later. On August thirteenth, nineteenninety nine, that's when her body was
found. A passer by sees herbody partly submerged in Sandy Bear Creek in
some shallow water. Now, SandyBear Creek is about six miles northeast of
Velma, Oklahoma, and it's inStevens County, right across the county line.

(04:36):
Now, this is a rural arealike super Country, and it's about
an hour east of Lawton. Now, when her body was found, she
was nude. She was so badlydecomposed by the heat, humidity, and
the elements, there was not muchevidence to gather from the body, so

(04:57):
they could not determine a cause ofdeath. There were no signs of trauma,
but they did find traces of cocainein her body, and Jane had
a known drug habit, so thatwould naturally make sense. Now, I
did also read that authorities said shedid not die of natural causes. Now,

(05:17):
if there was no signs of traumafound on the body, I'm kind
of curious as to why they wouldsay that. But there was also no
clothing found at the scene, andshe ended up being identified by fingerprints and
tattoos. Now, the big connectionthat we have in these first probably eight

(05:40):
cases is that these women all workedthe same road. They worked Cash Road.
Cash Road is not a great place. There's lots of sex work,
lots of drugs, lots of shady, low remp motels. This is where
a lot of these women go missingfrom or they're either found there or that's
where they're last seen. So that'sone of the huge connections that we're going

(06:04):
to have. In all of thesecases. Authorities did not have much to
go on for obvious reasons. Youhad bad decomposition, you didn't have any
witnesses. One of the things thatlaw enforcement had problems with is some of
the witnesses that they were trying tointerview, who might have seen a vehicle

(06:26):
that she got into or something ofthat nature, they were on drugs at
the time of questioning, or theywere on drugs at the time of her
disappearance. So a lot of theinformation that they were getting was not very
concrete. You know, they couldn'treally go on much if they don't have
much. There's a big lack ofevidence with the decomposition, and to be

(06:48):
honest, depending on the heat,depending on humidity, elements, insects,
bodies of water, a body candecompose in like thirty days to pretty much
skeletal remains. So I think withinthat four day range. They did get
lucky in the fact that they wereable to identify her by tattoos and fingerprints,

(07:14):
So the case pretty much went cold. Authorities were looking into it along
with the other four tightly connected casesthat ran through until two thousand and three,
and some of these cases have moreinformation than others, and some of
these cases also have some of thesame suspects. So in two thousand and

(07:41):
four, after the fifth girl wasfound, the fifth woman with a tight
connection to the first four, ananalyst from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation
finds out that these deaths are possiblyconnected to other murders of sex workers who'se
by. These were dumped along theI forty I thirty five, running through

(08:05):
about three other different states. Andthis is where John Robert Williams and Rachel
Cumberland come into play. Now heis one of the huge suspects in this
case, along with a lot ofthe other law and disappearances and murders.
Now, at the end, I'mgoing to express some of my concerns with
this and try to toss around someideas. But John Robert Williams was a

(08:31):
long haul trucker. He was arrestedin two thousand and four for the murder
of Nicky Hill. She was asex worker as well. Rachel, his
girlfriend, was charged as an accomplice. Now He ended up being convicted of
the murder of her in Mississippi,but he later went on to claim that
he had killed upwards of thirty sexworkers over the course of twenty years in

(08:58):
at least three different states. Oneof these suspected victims was a sex worker
from Oklahoma City by the name ofJennifer Hyman. Her body was found in
two thousand and three, and itwas found a few days after she disappeared.
Kind of fits that same three fourday window. Now, the victim

(09:20):
had been picked up at an OklahomaCity truck stop. She was later strangled
to death and dropped naked under abridge in the Tallahatchee River in Mississippi.
Williams in Cumberland were charged in thiscase, but those charges were later dismissed
due to lack of evidence. SoJohn Robert Williams was also implicated in at

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least nine other murders, including somefrom Oklahoma. Of the ones from Oklahoma,
most of them were sex workers whosebodies were discovered in almost the same
state as those bodies in Lawton.One is Samantha Renee Patrick, twenty years
old from Yukon. She was foundpartially clothed strangled behind a grocery store in

(10:09):
two thousand three. Another one wasCasey Joe Pipestem, nineteen years old from
Oklahoma City. She was found nakedin a creek near Grapevine, Texas,
in two thousand four. Another oneVicky Helen Anderson, forty four from Sire.
She was found naked off Interstate fortyin Gray, Texas in two thousand

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three. Sandra Richardson thirty nine fromOklahoma City. She was found in Akfuskie
County, which is north of Interstateforty in two thousand three. We have
another one, Sandra Beard, whowere going to talk about. She was
aged forty three from Oklahoma City.She was found naked in a ditch near

(10:54):
Interstate forty in two thousand three.As well. Because of the proximity of
victims to the highways in the Interstates, genre Robert Williams ended up becoming known
as the I forty Killer. Andthere's a lot of people that think he
started his spree in Lawton, andthat's because these victims share a lot of

(11:16):
similarities. Now looking at his timeline, it would kind of match up with
this theory. Okay, the killingsand Lawton stopped in two thousand and three,
supposedly. I don't believe they did. They're still going on, but
this is around the same time theypopped up in Oklahoma City and elsewhere.
Now, him being a long haultrucker and praying on sex workers, this

(11:43):
is easy for him if it ishim. Now, Williams was only charged
in a handful of these killings,and of those charges, he only was
convicted of the one only, theNicky Hill murder in Mississippi. Now,
him and his girlfriend probably killed more. You don't just do this one time

(12:05):
and quit. And then the factthat he bragged about it just brings to
light more possibilities and so many morevictims that could be attributed to him.
But evidence is a huge thing,and there was just not enough evidence to
justify any more charges. So himand his girlfriend are just sitting in prison

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and until he possibly decides to,you know, admit to more murders or
she does, then that's where we'releft. So one of the other major
suspects is a dude named Corey Morris, and this guy has messed up.
In April two thousand and three,he was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona,

(12:52):
in connection with the deaths of sixsex workers. Corey Morris's arrest happened because
his uncle discovered a decomposing body inhis camper. The victim was lying face
down on the bed under some blanketsand a sleeping bag. Corey Morris is

(13:15):
believed to have slept in the samebed with this corpse, which had been
decomposing for at least three days beforeit was found. And this is a
camper that he had sometimes lived in. Now, when he was arrested,
he admitted to police that he luredwomen with drugs and then strangled five of

(13:35):
them during sex. The thing wehave to know about Corey Morris that makes
him probable and Lawton is that hegrew up in Oklahoma City. His mother
lived there. Now. The OklahomaState Bureau of Investigation sent an agent to
interview him in connection with the Lawtonmurders, but he was never officially a

(13:56):
suspect, just a person of interest. We also need to know that the
other women that he killed were alsonude and found in rural areas of the
country in creeks or ponds, andthis started in nineteen ninety nine. They
had similar physical appearances and they eitherknew each other or had the same mutual

(14:22):
acquaintances and had lifestyles that included drugsand sex work. And this is what
the investigators said. And Morris wasactually living in Oklahoma during that time,
but it's not exactly known where.One of the things that bothers me about

(14:43):
John Robert Williams and Rachel Cumberland beingresponsible for the law and murders, and
it's a minute detail might not meanmuch to some of you, but the
fact that he's a long haul truckernow unless he has a secondary hicle or
she did where they knew somebody whodid. Because I don't necessarily believe that

(15:05):
one person is involved in all ofthis, or even two people for that
matter. We have two very goodsuspects theory wise, but I think there's
more two it than that they seema little convenient. So the thing that
bothers me about the truck or thingis if they didn't have some kind of
other vehicle where the bodies in Lawtonwere dumped, like the first initial five,

(15:30):
or not even the first five,but the five that are so closely
connected they drew attention. Is thattheir bodies are dumped in rural areas,
and in these areas, from mysource, in that general location, you
can't get a truck down a lotof those roads, not a semi,
not a big rig, anything likethat. And the one thing my source

(15:52):
also told me is that if thereis a semi going down one of those
small back roads, it's so rulethat any kind of neighbor anywhere around is
going to notice that, and they'regoing to think something is weird with that,
because it's a rare occasion for thoseof you who are not from the

(16:12):
country or anything like that, whichI am. If I'm going down a
country road, there's maybe five orsix times out of the year, and
I travel country roads every single dayto working back, there's maybe five or
six times a year that I'll seea semi coming down those roads. And
that's because it's usually a local personand they are either going home, or

(16:34):
they're leaving home to go on theroad, or they know that it's a
short cut through that area, anda lot of times they don't take those
roads anyway, even if they're local, because there's not that much room for
two vehicles on country roads. Imean, there is room, but there's
not a lot of room. Soif they're in a semi or a rig

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or whatever the case might be,they're going to be noticed. They're going
to stand out, somebody's going tosee something, somebody might say something.
Unless they're local, unless they livethere, they're from there, they're seen
there all the time. But likeI said, they could have some kind
of other vehicle four wheel drive,truck, anything, four wheel drive nearby.

(17:22):
They know a friend, they havea friend, they have a partner
in crime, or they have agirlfriend like Rachel, you know what I
mean. So that's one of thosesmall minute details that bothers me about this.
The Corey Morris theory is pretty legit. But here's a deal he's You
would think he would admit to these, you know what I mean. And

(17:44):
the same thing with the same thingwith John Robert Williams. The dude was
bragging about killing thirty sex workers inthree different states over the course of like
twenty years, you know what Imean. You would think that something like
the Lawton murders, he would definitelyadmit to those now whether he did or

(18:07):
not, and he just didn't havethe specific information to where investigators took him
seriously, I don't know. Butthese murders range from nineteen eighty seven to
the present day. We're concentrating onthese first five or seven murders through nineteen
ninety nine to two thousand and fourand five because they are the most closely

(18:30):
connected and similar. And then we'regoing to kind of backtrack and we're gonna
go over Jane Doe cases. Andthere are still a lot of missing women
from that area as well. Mostof them had worked cash road as sex
workers in law. And so Ihope you stayed with me through this first

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episode. Next episode will be outnext Friday. Ten. AM going to
keep a regular schedule here, andyou know there's going to be some cases
that don't have as much information asothers. If it's that kind of case,
I might put two cases in one. I really don't like to do
that. I think every victim deservestheir own episode, So I don't know,

(19:12):
we'll see how that all works out. I also do have some interviews
coming up as well, So,like I said, I've been working on
this for a few months now.So ways you can get a hold of
me. You can always contact meanonymously. I will not violate that trust.
If you have information, if youhave a tip, if you know
rumors, if you've heard something Idon't care. You can email me at

(19:36):
Sweetie Anna Project at gmail dot com, get a hold of me on Instagram
Sweetie Anna Project. Whatever you do, don't hit up my Twitter. That
is a debt account. I blockedout of it. I can't even get
back into it, so just don'teven bother there. You can also visit
the Facebook page The Sweetie Anna Project'sreally easy to find. I've been posting

(19:57):
about these cases the last couple ofweeks now, trying to get everything going
and get some attention going and stufflike that, so I'm not really hard
to find. Before I let yougo, I do have to state some
sources for information. Here. Wehave the Oklahoma A newspaper article from April
two thousand and two. We haveBizarre Unsolved dot com May twenty twenty article

(20:21):
written by Tiffany interview with Jane's youngersister that was published in the Lawton Constitution.
We have okaymag dot com Charles SasserSeptember twenty eleven. Good blog there.
We have the Oklahoma Coldcases dot org. They did a seven part series
on this which is absolutely amazing.Is from twenty twenty. We also have

(20:45):
Okaymisteries dot WordPress dot com, andwe have news on six dot com.
A great article from April two thousandand three, and if you want any
further information, those are some greatsource is. Obviously, I try to
find sources from anywhere and everywhere,as long as they're credible stating factual information,

(21:07):
not speculation and rumor. So untilnext time, stay safe out there. M