Cold Case Files: For over fifty-years investigators have sought answers in the 1974 slaying of Tina Mae Duffell
- Dennis McCaslin
- 9 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Tina Mae Duffell, 37, was a clerk at the C&D Grocery on the edge of Quapaw, a small mining town in Ottawa County. On the evening of October 17, 1974, she worked the late shift alone.
Her sixteen-year-old daughter Debbie stopped by after school and everything seemed normal. Tina said she would pick up the family car later that night.
She never made it home.
.The next morning her green 1968 Ford LTD was found abandoned near the store, keys still in the ignition.
Searchers located her body shortly after noon in Prairie Dog Pond, half a mile away. She had been stripped from the waist down, her throat was slashed, and her neck bore multiple stab wounds. Timber and brush had been used to weigh the body down.
The state medical examiner ruled the cause of death as massive blood loss from the neck wounds.
Pressure from the family and community forced the Ottawa County district attorney to call a grand jury in early 1975. Witnesses described two men seen near the store after closing: one tall and slim, the other shorter and heavier, driving a silver-gray 1969 car with a dented left rear fender.
After several weeks of testimony, the grand jury disbanded without returning any indictments.
Tina’s husband circulated petitions demanding a second grand jury. More than 200 signatures were collected. The second panel convened that summer, but again no charges were filed
.That same year, a local man named Karl Lee Myers, age 28, was arrested in Ottawa County on an unrelated charge of assault with intent to rape a 12-year-old girl. Myers lived in the Quapaw area and roughly matched one of the descriptions given by witnesses.
Investigators questioned him about Tina Duffell’s murder while he was in custody, but family members provided an alibi and no physical evidence connected him to the crime. He was never charged in her death.
Myers was convicted of the 1976 assault and served prison time. He later committed two confirmed murders in the 1990s (Shawn Williams in 1993 and Cindy Marzano in 1996) and was sentenced to death.
He died of natural causes on death row in 2012.
TodayTina Mae Duffell’s murder remains unsolved. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation continues to list the case as active and offers a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Anyone with information is asked to call the OSBI tip line at 1-800-522-8017 or email tips@osbi.ok.gov.
