S2 E5 - Janice Marie Buono

Janice Buono was reported missing on January 1, 2002. She was a known sex-worker from the Cache Road area of Lawton, Oklahoma. On February 23, 2002 her body was found in water, close to a bridge in rural Comanche County, Oklahoma. Buono's body was nude when she was found, with no signs of trauma or evidence as how she got there or what happened to her.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
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 Swede Anna Project or
anyone working for the podcast, andthe credibility of those opinions is to be
determined by the listener. Everyone haspresumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court

(00:24):
of law. All right, welcomeback to the Sweedy an A Project.
Today, we're going to be talkingabout the fourth victim of the main six,

(00:45):
and that's going to be about JaniceMarie Buono, And like I had
says, she's the fourth victim ofthe main six. And after we cover
those main six, we're going togo before nineteen ninety nine and after two
thousand and two and two thousand andthree. The reason we're concentrating on these
first six is because these are theones that authorities z rode in on because

(01:10):
of the striking similarities. We're alsogoing to be dipping into Oklahoma City as
well and other surrounding states of girlsfrom Lawton who were found in other states
that kind of match the same moof how the bodies were found and where
they were found. So. JaniceBuono was born on December twenty first,

(01:34):
nineteen seventy two. She was twentynine years old at the time, and
it's often said and she is describedas a white female, which is incorrect.
She's actually Native American and a memberof the Comanche tribe. From what
I understand, she loved to playbingo and she loved to cook as well.

(01:55):
She was originally from Anta Darko,Oklahoma. She had been married to
a man there and they had twochildren together. Both children passed away as
infants. After the deaths of herchildren, Janice moved to Lawton, where
she allegedly began working as a sexworker and using drugs. While there,

(02:19):
she gave birth to two more children, both of whom lived into adulthood.
She was the only girl of fivechildren, making her her mother's only daughter,
and her mother, up until shepassed away, was always very vocal
about getting answers. She did notbelieve that Janice's case, along with the

(02:40):
other first three girls, was beinginvestigated properly into the fullest extent. At
the time of her death, shewas living at a local Lawton motel with
another woman, both of which hada drug habit, and both of them
were working the streets of Lawton,specifically cash Row, which is our main

(03:00):
road where all these girls were working. Now. Shortly before her disappearance,
Janice had called home and she hadasked to come home so that she could
get her life back together because sheknew that she had a problem. She
never made it back home, thoughshe was reported missing on January first,

(03:23):
two thousand and two. She waslast seen by a woman named Lisa,
who, from what I understand,was her roommate. Almost two months later,
on February twenty third, two thousandand two, her body was found
about three miles north of where MandyRate's body was found in June of two

(03:45):
thousand and These are about a yearand a half apart. Found within three
miles. She was found by afarmer who was repairing a fence, and
this was one mile east of StateHighway sixty five on Town Lee in East
Comanche County, and this is justoff of a county road. She was
found floating in a rural pond outletunder an old county bridge between two residences,

(04:12):
one belonging to Inspector Richard Goss,who was an agent with the Oklahoma
State Bureau of Investigation and he waslooking into these cases at the time.
She was found nude with no signsof trauma. It was later determined that
her cause of death was ruled anoverdose because she had high levels of methamphetamine

(04:36):
and cocaine in her system. Now, the OSBI spokeswoman at the time,
in an interview with the Oklahoma saidboth are white females, both were found
in the same area, and bothdied of an apparent drug overdose. Neither
appeared to suffer any sort of trauma. Investigators also at this time uncovered other

(05:00):
similar traits in the desks that theycan't reveal or they couldn't reveal at that
time. I tried looking for anynew info on that from after those original
publications and I could not find any. So whatever information that is, it's
still not public information now. WhenRichard Goss was asked about what was going

(05:25):
on, he was talking about thepossible connection between the two deaths because their
bodies were found so close to eachother, and he said that they would
leave no stone unturned to determine whetherthey are dealing with a serial killer or
not. Now, the thing aboutJanie Wono, her death was actually the
one that brought the attention to allof the first four victims. She was

(05:49):
the one that made them realize,hey, we might have a problem here,
we might have a serial killer onour hands. Now, Like I
had mentioned, Janis his mother wasvery vocal in wanting her daughter's murder to
be properly investigated because she did notbelieve that it was, and she tried

(06:10):
until the day she died to makesure no one forgot about her daughter's murder.
Unfortunately, she passed away without knowingwhat happened to Janice. Now,
I did talk to my source downin Lawton, and one of my big
questions for that person was do youthink the body was intentionally put on the

(06:35):
agent's property right by his house ordo you think it was just an accident.
This person relayed to me that theybelieved it was put there on purpose,
close to the other woman's body,but on Goss's property, basically as
a big f you, like abig screw you. Because I was originally

(06:58):
thinking that, hey, this wasprobably an accident, but there are a
lot of people that do not believethat is the case. They think it
was intentionally done, because what arethe chances year and a half apart.
Bodies placed the same way, bothnude, both same cause of death,
and apparently there are similarities that theauthorities have not released to the public to

(07:23):
where this is a murder investigation.It's not just an accidental overdose. And
like I said, it was onthe agent's property within three miles of each
other. That's not random. Somethingis going on here. I know this
was a little bit shorter episode,but as you guys know, we're trying

(07:43):
to do due diligence with each victimindividually. Obviously, when we start getting
into two thousand and three and twothousand and four, this is when several
agencies from four states start getting togetherand they actually pieced together that twelve victims
more than likely we're killed by thesame person or people, whatever the case

(08:05):
was. And then that's when theyget the FBI profiler in to come and
profile a suspected serial killer if thatwas the case, and we will be
doing that after we cover the sixthvictim of the original six. So I
know it's a little shorter episode,but this is how we got to do

(08:26):
it. We got to respect eachvictim individually. Before I do go,
I am going to state some sources. We got the websites Okay mag Bizarre,
Unsolved, LA Times, Sex IndustryKills, and then on Facebook we
have Oklahoma cold Cases. If youwant to reach out to the Facebook page,

(08:50):
you can. The messages are openif you have a tip, if
you want to talk, if you'refamiliar with any of the victims, a
friend, a family member, whatever. You can contact us anonymously either through
Facebook go to sweete Anna Projects nothard to find. You can find us
on Instagram as well under the samename. You can also email us if

(09:13):
you would like Sweetie Anna Project atgmail dot com. So until next week,
stay safe out there.