The Vanishing on Pine Creek: The unsolved 1987 murder of EZ-Mart clerk Diannia Lemmons in McCurtain County

Diannia Sue Lemmons,

In the dense, whispering pine forests of southeastern Oklahoma's McCurtain County, where the air hangs heavy with the scent of damp earth and natural resin, a quiet country road holds a dark secret.

Old Highway 98, a winding ribbon of asphalt near the Pine Creek Bridge, is the kind of place where locals know every curve by heart until one fateful night in April 1987, when it became the last known waypoint for Diannia Sue Lemmons, a 23-year-old convenience store clerk whose life was snuffed out in a brutal act that still haunts her small community.

It was just after midnight on April 21, 1987, when Diannia clocked out from her shift at the EZ-Mart in the nearby town of Valliant. A young mother with a quick smile and dreams of a stable future, she was the backbone of her tight-knit family in Wright City, a rural speck on the map with fewer than 1,000 souls.

Born on November 27, 1963, Diannia, often called "Dee" by those who loved her. had brown hair that framed her blue eyes and a gentle demeanor that made her a fixture at the store, chatting with regulars about the weather or the latest high school football scores

The next morning, on April 22, a passerby spotted something amiss: Diannia's tan 1979 Ford Granada idling on the shoulder of Old Highway 98, headlights piercing the dawn fog like accusatory eyes. The driver's door hung open, keys dangling in the ignition, her purse and a few personal items untouched on the passenger seat.

It was as if she'd vanished mid-breath, pulled into the ether of the surrounding woods. A frantic search ensued, but hope curdled into dread a week later, on April 29, when hunters stumbled upon her decomposed, nude body hidden under logs and brush along a remote logging road just half a mile away

.The autopsy painted a grim picture: Diannia had been shot twice in the head at close range, her death a deliberate execution rather than a random act of violence. Signs of sexual assault compounded the horror, suggesting a predator (or predators) who knew her well enough to lure her from her car but callous enough to discard her like refuse in the Ouachita Mountains' underbelly.

What unfolded next was a tangled web of rural intrigue, linking Diannia's murder to a bloody double homicide across the Red River in Clarksville, Texas. Investigators from the McCurtain County Sheriff's Office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) quickly uncovered a motive as old as crime itself: silence.

Diannia, it seemed, knew too much.J

Just two months earlier, in February 1987, Johnny Victory, a 31-year-old Wright City resident, and Sarah Raulston, the ex-wife of local Kenneth Raulston, had been gunned down in a shotgun ambush in Clarksville, allegedly over a bitter divorce and a burglary gone wrong.

Kenneth Raulston, 54, was a prime suspect, alongside two associates: Jimmy Bryant, a Valliant water plant operator, and Danny Dickey, a drifter with a rap sheet.

Diannia, a familiar face at the EZ-Mart where locals gossiped freely, had overheard details of the slayings, perhaps from Raulston himself, a regular who knew her from around town.

Authorities theorized that her knowledge made her a liability, leading to her abduction and execution on that lonely stretch of highway.

By January 1989, the case cracked open (or so it seemed). Bryant and Dickey were arrested and charged with Diannia's first-degree murder. Dickey, already serving 40 years in Texas for burglarizing Sarah Raulston's home, faced additional counts in the double slaying.

But Raulston, the linchpin, evaded justice: He died in a car crash near Valliant on January 28, 1988, taking any confession to his grave. Bryant and Dickey's cases dragged through the courts, but evidentiary hurdles, including faded memories, contaminated scenes, and the lack of DNA technology at the time led to dropped charges or acquittals.

The trials fizzled, leaving Diannia's killers free, and the case was shelved as cold by the mid-1990s.

Nearly four decades later, Diannia's murder endures as one of McCurtain County's most vexing cold cases, archived in the OSBI's Cold Case Files under case #1987-0432.

The OSBI's Cold Case Unit, bolstered by modern forensics, has re-examined the evidence multiple time, ploading a DNA profile to national databases like CODIS in the 2000s and 2010s, and exploring genetic genealogy akin to the breakthroughs that solved nearby cases, like the 1993 murder of John Randall O'Steen in 2022.

Tire tracks near the body that didn't match her Granada, unidentified fingerprints from the car, and biological traces from the assault scene remain untouched by matches. Yet, no breakthroughs have come.

Diannia's family, scattered but unbroken, clings to the faint hope of resolution.

Buried at Joe Slater Memorial Cemetery in Wright City, her headstone bears silent witness to a life cut short...granddaughter of local patriarch Charles J. Lemmons, sister, daughter, and friend to many.

Public appeals from groups and Facebook pages keep her story alive, with family members occasionally sharing memories of her laughter and kindness through anonymous channels.

"She was the light in our home," one relative posted in a 2023 tribute, urging tips that could finally bring peace.Today, as the OSBI offers up to $10,000 through its Cold Case Reward Program, the plea echoes across the pines: Someone out there knows.

A whispered conversation from 1987, a long-buried secret from the Raulston circle, or a deathbed confession could crack this open.

Diannia's story isn't just a file in a drawer;; it's a call to conscience in a county where the past refuses to stay buried.

If you have information, no matter how small, contact the OSBI anonymously at 1-800-522-8017 or tips@osbi.ok.gov, or visit osbi.ok.gov/cold-cases.

Justice for Diannia may be one tip away.