This Unsolved Oklahoma Mystery From 1977 Will Leave You Baffled

On June 12, 1977, the gates opened for the first group of 140 summer campers at Camp Scott in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. It was a favorite spot for Girl Scouts to gather and make new friends and create childhood memories. That evening a thunderstorm hit the area, so many campers huddled in their tents to stay dry. Among them were Lori Lee Farmer, 8, Doris Denise Milner, 10, and Michele Guse, 9. The girls were all staying in tent #8 in the camp's "Kiowa" unit - the most remote tent at the summer camp (a fourth girl was set to join the three campers in tent #8 the next day). There was no camp counselor in the tent with the girls.

The following morning on June 13th, a camp counselor  was walking to the showers along a trail and made a gruesome discovery of the three girls from tent #8. The girls were found bludgeoned, strangled, sexually assaulted and murdered. Two of the girls had been killed inside the tent, while the other one was killed outside on the trail.

Camp Scott closed its doors on that day, never to reopen, after hosting nearly 50 years of Girl Scout camps. Many questions remain unanswered about the events that unfolded prior to, and at the time of the murders. Less than 2 months before the murders, during a training session at the camp, a camp counselor discovered that her belongings had been ransacked and her doughnuts had been stolen. A note was left inside the doughnut box that someone vowed to murder three campers. The director of the camp considered the note a prank, and it was thrown away.

Twenty-seven girls were assigned to Kiowa, which was at the western end of the campgrounds, and the last tent in the unit was Number 8, a 12x14 foot canvas tent that sat on a wooden platform 100 yards away from the nearest counselor’s tent and 75 feet away from the closest neighboring tent.

Investigators also discovered the assailant had burglarized some tents the night of the murders and taken, among other items, a pair of sunglasses belonging to the camp counselor.

The girls, 10-year-old Doris Denise Milner, 8-year-old Lori Lee Farmer and 9-year-old Michelle Guse.

The Girl Scout Council owned the 410-acre tract of land known as Camp Scott. Since 1928, Camp Scott had provided adventures for young girls in a variety of recreational and educational activities.

Several campers and counselors reported hearing noises and sounds throughout the night of the murders.

The timeline and map layout of the events that unfolded on June 12th-13th. (Note: The tent was #8, not #7)

Gene Leroy Hart, a Cherokee, was arrested 10 months later at the home of a Cherokee medicine man and later tried in early 1979, but was acquitted. Hart was raised 2 miles from Camp Scott. He was an escaped convict that had been on the run for 4 years, before being captured. He died shortly after his acquittal of an apparent heart attack. He wrote a note shortly before his death, professing his innocence.

2-Part Recap of Girl Scout Murders of 1977:

The case still remains unsolved. It is considered open but cold.