OKEMAH, Okla. — A murder mystery has rocked small town Oklahoma.
Beth Magness, a merit scholar and young mother, was found dead in Okemah, about an hour-and-a-half east of Oklahoma City.
At first, police thought it might be suicide.
But now, investigators are confident she was the victim of a terrible crime.
Authorities don’t have much to go on in the murder of Beth Magness, so now they’re asking for your help.
They say her husband found her body inside her home, where she lived with him and their two young sons. She died from a gunshot wound.
Her murder leaves an eerie feeling with neighbors.
“I tell you what, the way people are now, you can’t ever tell what might happen in your town,” Clyde Lanier said.
Peope say the town is a typically quiet one where Beth and her husband Michael have lived for years.
Autopsy results show Beth was found wearing her pajamas and died from a “close, perforating gunshot wound to the left eye.”
“At the crime scene itself, we collected quite a bit of information, took pictures, took sketches, we have a lot of information to go through. We are progressing, but we are to the point where we need the public’s help,” OSBI spokesperson Jessica Brown said.
Beth was only 31.
She was a university scholar at Baylor, she scored perfectly on her SAT, and she earned a Masters in mathematics.
Her family says she and Michael were avid gamers, frequently meeting with their friends in the International Fantasy Gaming Society.
“Certain days of the week or nights, they seem to have quite a bit of company over there,” Lanier said.
OSBI won’t name a person of interest until they make an arrest.
NewsChannel 4 tried to talk to Michael at work and home Thursday, but he was nowhere to be found.
OSBI is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.