Four months after filling out a trust and her will, widow Gerthie Carolina was attacked in her home near the small town of Sasakwa, Oklahoma, early Aug. 11, 1997.
She would perish at age 81 on her kitchen floor. She had been hit in the abdomen and repeatedly stabbed and cut, an autopsy report shows.
Her violent death would become another cold case, one of hundreds at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Agents revisited the case in 2023, coming up with new evidence — a bloodstain on the side of a shoe, the OSBI said in court affidavits. That discovery led this month to two arrests and criminal charges.
The victim’s niece, Carolyn Foreman, 81, and her great-niece, Dakota Davis, 45, were charged Friday with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Seminole County District Attorney Erik Johnson said in a news release the motive was to obtain an inheritance.
“This case is a testament to the relentless dedication of these investigators and our unwavering pursuit of justice, even decades after a crime is committed,” the prosecutor said. “We hope this brings some measure of peace to Gerthie Carolina’s family after all these years.”
Neither defendant has an attorney listed for them yet in online court records. Both were arrested March 4 — Foreman in Midwest City and Davis in Sacramento, California, the OSBI said.
On April 9, 1997, the victim had completed a living trust and transferred a $40,000 certificate of deposit to it, court records show. She also signed her will, declaring she had no children.
“Carolina left her estate to Foreman, who would then be responsible for dividing the estate up amongst the family,” the OSBI reported in court affidavits.
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The two claimed to have found the victim dead when they arrived about 3:15 a.m. Aug. 11, 1997. Investigators were told Foreman had planned to take Carolina to a doctor in Ada because she wasn’t feeling well, according to the affidavits.
Foreman was then 53. Davis was only 17.
In the years after, according to the affidavits, OSBI agents were told Davis had admitted to the killing. In some accounts, she said she used a machete, the OSBI reported. In another, she said she used an axe.
Her father recalled she told him in 2001 that she “chopped up” the victim while Foreman was telling her to “hit her again, hit her again,” according to the affidavits.
The father also told agents that Davis said the victim had been upset because Foreman had been taking money from her bank account to pay bills.
The break in the case came last year when an OSBI criminalist found a bloodstain that is believed to be from the victim on a shoe of Davis. OSBI agents had taken the shoes on the day of the crime in 1997.
An OSBI lieutenant, David Gatlin, stressed in the affidavits that the bloodstain was found on the side of the shoe, not the bottom.
Foreman has been charged with first-degree murder before in a cold case. She and a son were blamed in 2005 for the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old in 1999.
The charge against her was dismissed later that year. Her son, Billy Earl Parker, now 60, was found guilty in 2007 of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 1997 Oklahoma cold case solved, and the motive was money, DA says
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