Lt. Col. USA, Ret., Author and Publisher.
The Request to Re-open the Terry Yeakey Case

Letter written to Chief William Citty of the Oklahoma City Police Department regarding the "strange" death of Sergeant Terry Yeakey. This is a request to reopen the case and answer the questions regarding why the evidence points to a homicide and subsequent coverup instead of the "suicide" that was determined by the PD and Medical Examiner's office. See "Who Killed Terry Yeakey"

 

Chief William Citty
Oklahoma City Police Department
701 Colcord St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73102                                                                               May 1, 2006

  

Subject: Death of OKC PD Sergeant Terrance Yeakey

Dear Chief Citty,

I am a retired Tulsa police officer who was assigned by our department to assist the FBI in working on the OKC bombing case. I retired in March, 1996, after 27 years service.

One of the reasons the Tulsa office of the FBI requested me to assist on the case was that I had contacts and sources that they did not have access to, and they felt I might be able to develop leads and contacts that would assist with the investigation. My "extra job" was working as an investigative journalist, and I had several books to my credit.  The request came from the FBI to our chief’s office (Chief Ron Palmer) on April 21st, 1995, two days after the bombing.

I spent several months working on this case and found many discrepancies in the investigation that made me determine that the whole story would never be told, and that things were being ignored or covered up that let "others unknown" escape the investigation.

One instance that I found extremely disturbing, and very suspect, was the death of one of your officers: Sgt. Terrance Yeakey.  There are too many discrepancies surrounding this death, which I will outline below, to let the case simply gather dust in the archives.

I am writing you at this late date since we have just passed the 10th anniversary of the bombing, and it is an issue that in my mind has been unresolved all these years. Though it was originally written up as a suicide, I feel the evidence and facts point to a torture/homicide. I will explain why I feel this way, and why I would like you to reopen the case and examine it further. I am also enclosing copies of some of the documents from my case file for your examination.

I originally made this request to Chief M.T. Berry on June 12, 1998, but received a terse "go away and mind your own business" letter in return. It was very unprofessional of him, and I found his attitude very disturbing.  Since he is no longer chief, I am trying one last time to bring the OKC PD to focus attention to this matter.

Now, here are just a few of the items that do not figure in a "suicide":

  1. Yeakey's gunshot wound:  Gunshot was from the upper right side of his skull downward to an exit wound below his left cheek bone. Hardly an angle of a self-inflicted wound. (See diagrams). This wound would be consistent to one fired "execution style" into the skull of a kneeling victim from an angle above and to one side of the victim.
  2. Wound was small caliber and left a small entrance and exit hole, with only "soot" at the entrance wound. It was a contact wound showing a barrel imprint, but there were now blasting (staration) effects of muzzle gases on the wound margins. This would be more indicative of a silencer that would absorb the gasses.
  3. There were multiple cuts on his wrists, inner elbows, and jugular veins. If he was going to shoot himself, why would he cut himself so many times.
  4. His estranged wife, Tonia, told me that she talked to the funeral home that received Yeakey's body, and that they told her there were rope marks around his neck, and handcuff marks on his wrists—none of which are indicated in the official medical examiner's report. 
  5. He was found in a field 1/2 mile from where his car was discovered by a Canadian County SO deputy. He had, in the middle of the night, crossed a barbed wire fence, a ditch/creek, and then "killed himself" in the middle of a pasture. Why go to that trouble? Why not just kill himself in his car, or his apartment?
  6. He told a friend the afternoon he disappeared that he was being followed, and as soon as he shook his followers, he'd be back and meet him for dinner. He also removed boxes of files from his apartment and had them in his car when he left to stash them in his mini-storage in Yukon (or El Reno--not sure which ). The files were not in his car when it was found.
  7. Did anyone ever attempt to find the bullet that allegedly was used at the scene? If so, were ballistics tests done to link it with a particular gun?  Was a gun found at the scene, and was it his gun? I ask this because it was relayed to me that no gun was found until after an hour after his body was located.

There are many more unanswered questions, but this will suffice for now. I am enclosing copies of the medical examiner's diagrams showing the bullet's entrance and exit wounds, full body diagram with 14 laceration wounds (and added handcuff and neck ligature marks according to witness descriptions), the Certificate of Death, Medical Examiner's report showing "hard contact entry (barrel imprint and soot). Multiple superficial incised wounds to wrists and neck…)," a letter dated January 6, 1997 from Tonia Yeakey telling of the extra wounds on the body not described in the ME report, and three pages of a letter Terry Yeakey wrote before his death to Ramona McDonald, a bombing survivor which details very vivid concerns about some of the members of your department and their conduct during the aftermath of the bombing.

It would appear that this tragic event centers on what Terry Yeakey had in his files, and who wanted to make sure those files never were discovered. One question that needs to be answered is "what happened to those files that Yeakey took with him that day to place in storage?"

I know that your homicide investigators have many current cases to work. But this victim is one of your officers, and I know that in the Tulsa Police Department, we would not rest until we got to the bottom of an officer's death and put all questions to rest.

This is my last request to the OKC PD to look into this case, and I am doing so to ease my conscience of what I believe to be an unsolved homicide of a police officer and a subsequent cover-up. There are just too many discrepancies and unanswered questions in this case that need to be addressed honestly. Perhaps you might take more interest in this matter than your predecessor.

Thank you for taking time to read this letter, and I wish you the best as Chief of a very fine police department.

Sincerely,

Craig Roberts
Tulsa PD, Ret.

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