Jeremy Scott Reagan

Victim: Jeremy Scott Reagan

Date & Time of Incident: August 27, 2022

Location: Forest Park, Oklahoma

Clothes: Yellow t-shirt, brown shorts

Distinguishing Features: Glasses, hearing aides, ear gauges, tattoos.

Narrative:

Jeremy left home on a hot August day. After a family argument, he had to cool down and gather his thoughts. He was headed to the Lexington Wildlife Management Area, a place he knew well. Jeremy took some supplies with him, enough for a few days.

Jeremy was last seen at the On Cue at 23rd and Douglas in Midwest City, Oklahoma. His phone and truck were found on August 29th at the Lexington Wildlife Management Area. Law enforcement and canines have searched part of the Lexington WMA. Family continue their search.

Jeremy is loved by his family who desperately want to find him. If you have any information that might help, contact OSBI 1-800-522-8017.

Jeremy’s NamUs page, including details of his tattoos.

Jeremy’s Facebook page

Lexington Wildlife Management Area

What is an Alford Plea?

In the world of True Crime docu-series and podcasts, there’s tons of legal speak that flies over us normies’ heads. One such term speaks, sometimes screams, louder than others: the Alford Plea. Probably made “famous” from such cases as the West Memphis Three or the Staircase Murder, the Alford Plea is saved for those special situations where the evidence is stacked against someone but they maintain their innocence.

But what exactly is the Alford Plea, what case did it result from, and how is it used in the twenty-first century?

A very brief history

In 1963, Henry Alford was tried for the first-degree murder of Nathaniel Young in a North Carolina court. Alford’s lawyer recommended that his client take the lesser charge of second-degree murder as it came with the lighter sentence of life in prison vs. the death sentence that the South vigorously employed at the time. Alford and his lawyer argued that a guilty plea violated his constitutional rights motivated by fear of losing his life through a death sentence.

What is an Alford Plea exactly?

As I understand it, an accused person may make a voluntary decision to plead guilty to a crime in which they claim innocence. Why would an innocent person do this? The law answers for us, “he intelligently concludes that his interests require a guilty plea and the record strongly evidences guilt.” Library of Congress, North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970). Please understand, I am not a lawyer or attorney. Let’s unpack this.

A closer look.

There are three main sections concerning the Alford Plea. (Use the LoC link above to read the law in its entirety.)

An Alford Plea, though a guilty plea, will not be used as evidence against the defendant citing the Fifth Amendment. (An individual cannot be compelled by the government to provide incriminating information about oneself. Library of Congress, Fifth Amendment.)

A person who uses an Alford Plea will have to accept the penalty that the court implements. They are at the court’s mercy.

The third point of the law is the most important, it states: someone who has been accused of a crime where there may be mountains of evidence against him, making it seemingly impossible to convince a judge or jury of his innocence, may decide to plead guilty because he has no hope left (and probably no money) to fight for his innocence. If you know the story about the West Memphis Three, then you may understand how someone can reach this level of hopelessness.

As you have guessed, this legal sidestep has caused many debates between right and left sides, victims and defendants, between Supreme Court Justices and Appellate courts, and at many family dinner tables.

What do you think? Is this a step in the right direction to fixing a very broken justice system or is it merely political pandering?

More reading:

North Carolina v. Henry C. Ford

West Memphis Three

Ed Foreman

Victim: Edward Lee Foreman

Date & Time of Incident: March 6, 2015

Location: Geary, Oklahoma

Clothes: Unknown

Car: Hummer Truck 2

Narrative:

On March 6, 2015, Sherriff deputies received a phone call to perform a wellness check on the 54 year old Ed Foreman. Neither Ed’s daughter nor girlfriend had been able to get in touch with Ed, which had never been a problem before.

In Ed’s Geary home, the deputies found evidence of a brutal crime. Ed and his Hummer Truck were gone. His cell phone was also missing. The truck was later found by a hunter not far from Ed’s home. Ed’s remains have not yet been found.

A man seen driving Ed’s truck on March 6th is still a person of interest. The man was described as being in his 30’s, may be white or bi-racial with dark eyes or hair.

If you have any information concerning Ed, please contact OSBI: (800) 522-8017.

Thank you to

Alice at Defrosting Cold Cases

NamUs

Francine Frost

Date & Time of Incident:  February 16, 1981

Location:  Tulsa, Oklahoma

Victim:  Francine Frost, aged 44 years

Clothes: Denim skirt, white girdle, plaid top

Car: 1980 Skylark

Narrative: On a cold winter evening, Francine headed to her local Skaggs Alpha Beta, a chain grocery store found all over the Midwest. She did not return home.

The next morning, Malcolm, her husband, went looking for her. He found her car in the store parking lot, keys dangling from the door lock. He then filed a missing persons report with the Tulsa PD.

Unknown to the Frost family, an anonymous call on January 1, 1983, directed the police to a burial sight near Martin, Oklahoma. Remains of a white female were found buried outside Martin city limits. Being more than an hour from Tulsa, a connection to Francine was not made and the remains were laid to rest in a cemetery under Jane Doe.

Many years later, Francine’s grandson, Cory, began scouring the internet, looking for any similarities between his beloved missing grandmother and unidentified women. A description of the woman’s clothes that accompanied one Jane Doe stood out to Cory. His mother, Vicki, later confirmed that the clothes found with the Jane Doe’s remains matched what her mother was wearing the night she disappeared.

The remains of Jane Doe were exhumed in 2015. Her DNA was sent to the University of North Texas for analysis. By August 2016, Francine Frost was no longer missing. The Frost family could say goodbye to their beloved family member.

Francine’s killer is still at large. if you have any information concerning her abduction and murder, contact Tulsa PD or Muskogee Sheriff Department.

After Francine was found, her family set about to change how Law Enforcement reported missing people. In 2019, after it passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, Governor Stitt of Oklahoma signed Francine’s Law.

“The legislation would require the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to enter all missing persons and unidentified bodies into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) within 30 days. The measure allows for the process to be rushed for those under the age of 18 or those who have gone missing under suspicious circumstances. Those cases must be entered into the system immediately.” Oklahoma Senate

Tulsa PD: (918) 586-1357

Muskogee Sheriff: (918) 687-0202

National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Just keep waiting.

So much has happened this week. I’ve created this site, with the help of my husband, got my license from CLEET, and ordered my badge. (Yes, I get a badge. So cool!)

First of all, let me talk about this site. I do not like writing, more than that I don’t like writing about myself. Combine those two and it is nothing short of torture. However, I want to grow; I can and will overcome.

Getting a license from the government is excruciating; there’s classes, exams, tons of forms, offices to visit, and time. So much time. If you are impatient, this is not a process that you will enjoy. I am a lot more laid back than I use to be.

Getting my badge is certainly the fun part of this week. The storefront that provides badges is still closed (thank you, Covid). After exchanging emails and phone calls, I have a design that I like. But don’t get too excited, it will take 6 weeks to get!

What have I learned this week? Give yourself a little patience, slow down. Just keep waiting, it will happen.

You’re doing what, now?

A year ago, 2020, my friend lost her job. This was during the Covid pandemic and we were all kinds of floundering. I sent her a text and we decided to meet at Panera.

Months before this we had talked about our love of true crime and how we always secretly wanted to be detectives. Could this be our opportunity? Where do we start? I’m too old (41) to start as a newb as a police officer; it could take 10 years of hard work to get to detective. I don’t have time for that.

My friend found an amazing school, SOR Training School, that teaches private investigation as well as private security, bail bondsman (you may know this as bounty hunter), and more. We signed up and our first class started in October.

When I told my parents, brothers and friends about my new adventure, most of them responded with “You’re doing what, now?”. I’ve had this secret obsession for too long it was time to do something about. As my children get older, I have more time on my hands, and I needed something to do to distract me from all the crazy in the world (you remember 2020, right?).