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The Killer in the 1977 Girl Scout Murders Has Been Identified
It took 45 years for DNA testing to provide definitive answers
45 years since the brutal murder of three girl scouts ripped apart Mayes County, OK, it has been announced that the murderer has been identified through DNA evidence.
That person is Gene Leroy Hart, who in 1978 was arrested, tried, and then acquitted of the crime. DNA evidence was not available to prosecutors in 1978, so the jury simply did not have enough evidence to convict him.
Mike Reed, the Mayes County Sheriff, was asked nine years ago to look into the murders by victim Lori Farmer’s parents. Throughout those nine years, Reed has had a lot of the evidence retested, which finally paid off.
The 1977 Girl Scout Murders
Operated by the Girl Scouts since 1928, Mayes County was the perfect place to run a camp as it was heavily forested. Camp Scott was located 50 miles from the Girl Scout headquarters in Tulsa, OK.
On June 12, 1977, after arriving at Camp Scott, Doris Denise Milner (10-years-old), Michele Guse (9-years-old), and Lori Lee Farmer (8-years-old) were assigned to Tent #8. This tent was the closest to the kitchen and bathrooms, but the furthest from the counselor’s tents and blocked…
