True Crime Chronicles: A cold-blooded killer in Cherokee County is serving three life sentences without parole eligibility

 Robert Edwin Lewis

the rural, wooded hills of the Eldon area in Cherokee County, Robert Edwin Lewis carried out a brutal triple homicide in January 2022. The crimes, committed on and around his 61st birthday, claimed the lives of three people whose bodies were later concealed in shallow graves on a property featuring wooded land and a travel trailer.

The victims were Quinley Lamb, 43, of Ash Flat in Sharp County, Arkansas; Brian Shackelford, reported variously as 51 or 42 years old and also from the Sharp County/Highland-Ash Flat area of Arkansas, who was traveling with Lamb as a friend or associate; and Deanna Tippey, 36, a Cherokee County resident who was Lewis’s live-in girlfriend at the time.

On January 16, 2022 -- Lewis’s 61st birthday -- he killed Quinley Lamb and Brian Shackelford. Lamb was beaten to death, dying from blunt force trauma that fractured her skull. Shackelford was killed by sharp force trauma, including multiple stab wounds and reports that his throat had been slit. Their bodies were placed together in one shallow grave and covered with leaves and debris in the woods.

Sometime between January 16 and January 28, 2022, Lewis strangled Deanna Tippey to death and buried her separately in another shallow grave on the same property. Authorities later described the violence as horrific.

The case came to light when Quinley Lamb’s brother, Jimmy Lamb, traveled from Arkansas to search for his missing sister. Accompanied by Christina Orosz, Lewis’s ex-wife, they searched the rural property. They discovered identification cards belonging to Quinley Lamb and another individual, William Ring (who was not a victim and had no involvement in the homicides).

Orosz contacted Lewis by phone; he told her the individuals had been there but were “gone and won’t be seen again.” The searchers located a large hole covered in leaves that contained human remains. Cherokee County deputies responded, secured the scene, and obtained a search warrant.

On January 28–29, 2022, authorities recovered the three sets of remains. The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the identities. While the search was underway, Lewis called Eldon Graves, a Tahlequah Police Department detective and a family relative, and confessed to killing two people.

Deputies arrested him without incident at the Cherokee Casino in Tahlequah, where he was playing a slot machine. During initial questioning, Lewis admitted to the third murde-- that of Deanna Tippey -- before requesting an attorney.

.He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder on January 31, 2022. The investigation involved the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Tahlequah Police, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), Cherokee Nation Marshals, and the District 27 Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force.

No clear public motive was established in court, though early speculation (unconfirmed) mentioned a possible drug-related dispute.

Lewis initially pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors filed a bill of particulars seeking the death penalty. After delays and a determination that he was competent to stand trial, the case resolved on June 24, 2025, in Cherokee County District Court before Judge Douglas Kirkley.

The then-64-year-old Lewis pleaded guilty to all three counts of first-degree murder.

District Attorney Jack Thorp noted that while the state had wanted to pursue the death penalty before a jury, Lewis’s deteriorating mental and physical health made a capital trial impractical. Lewis received three life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Thorp emphasized that the resolution provided closure for the victims’ families.The shallow graves on Eldon Hill have long since been emptied, but the case remains a stark example of sudden violence in an isolated rural setting, ultimately exposed by determined family members, a casino confession, and coordinated law enforcement work.