The Case of the Missing Cases
While there are many strange happenings in Delaware County, Oklahoma, few if any are more strange that what we here at Bubbaworld refer to as “The Case of the Missing Cases”.
While that might sound like a title from an old “Perry Mason” show from a by-gone era of television, reality in Delaware County is much stranger than any fictional Perry Mason case.
“The Case of the Missing Cases” involves the disappearance of Barbara Johnson-Willard, who “went missing” on June 21, 1996 and Joann Ellis who “went missing” on July 10, 1998.
While missing persons cases are common and handled in a professional manner by law enforcement agencies everywhere, the “Delaware County twist” to these missing persons is the fact that not only did the women “go missing”, so did the investigation of their disappearances along with any records or evidence in the possession of the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, then under the control of Sheriff Jim Earp.
Missing Case #1 – Barbara Johnson-Willard
Barbara Johnson-Willard, “went missing” from her home in Delaware County, Oklahoma on June 21, 1996.
At the time of her disappearance she was 29 years old and had two young daughters.
Willard’s car was found in a pond near Colcord, Oklahoma within days of her disappearance.
The car was found by the property owner who indicated it took four days for then Delaware County Sheriff Jim Earp’s staff to respond to her calls regarding the car in her pond.
That was only the beginning of the waiting…
After waiting four years for the Delaware County Sheriff’s investigation to determine what had happened to their loved one, the Willard family contacted an attorney in hopes of obtaining information on the investigation supposedly being conducted into the disappearance of Barbara Johnson-Williard.
When the Willard family attorney, Wesley Johnson, requested a copy of the case file under the provisions of the Open Records Act, on October 27, 2000, then Delaware County Sheriff Jim Earp reportedly refused to speak with Johnson and there after basically “stonewalled” attempts by the Willard family to see the investigation file.
At that point the Tulsa World in a report dated 2/07/01 and titled, “Family Seeks Jury Probe” revealed that Willard’s family was seeking court approval to circulate a petition for a grand jury to investigate not only Willard’s disappearance but the Sheriff’s Office handling of the missing case file.
This Tulsa World report revealed:
Willard’s car was found in a pond outside Colcord just days after she was reported missing, officials said. Property owner Sandy Lowe said she repeatedly reported the abandoned car to the Sheriff’s Office and couldn’t get a deputy out to her house for four days.
The investigative report by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, released in 1998, indicated that body fluids found in the trunk of Willard’s car were hers, and that the fluids found were consistent with those of a dead person, but Earp didn’t rule the investigation a homicide.
Johnson said what Willard’s family has gone through for four years is unfair. “We just want to look at the file. We just want to know what happened to Barbara.”
This same Tulsa World report indicated:
Sheriff Lenden Woodruff, who took control of the Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 2, said Willard’s file, which is the property of Delaware County, wasn’t in the office when he took over from former Sheriff Jim Earp.
Apparently the only record from the investigation which existed at the time was the 1998 OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) report from the lab test on fluids found in Willard’s abandoned car. Evidently that record was in the custody of the OSBI and not entrusted to the Delaware County Sheriff for “safe keeping”. The remainder of the Willard case file along with any evidence, witness statements and investigative reports has been missing for who knows how long and under what circumstances.
In a subsequent report dated 3/1/01, and titled “Sister granted access to file” the Tulsa World reported:
JAY — District Judge Robert Haney on Wednesday granted the sister of Barbara Johnson-Willard — who disappeared in Delaware County in 1996 — the right to certain county records under the Open Records Act. Johnson-Willard’s sister, Rena Derryberry, petitioned the court on Feb. 6, asking it to open the investigative file into her sister’s disappearance — a file that, according to state statues, is supposed to be kept in the Sheriff’s Office.
Derryberry, through her Tulsa attorney Wes Johnson, petitioned to amend the request Wednesday, asking the judge to make former Sheriff Jim Earp answer for the investigative file, since Sheriff Lenden Woodruff, who took office on Jan. 2, says the file wasn’t in the office when he took over.
Haney denied the request, saying Earp, a private citizen, doesn’t fall under the rules governing the Open Records Act because the act pertains to public officials, not private citizens.
Johnson argued that because Earp did not respond to numerous requests for the file before leaving office that Earp was still responsible for the records.
Johnson told the judge that he believes someone other than the county has control of the records, noting the file is “possibly being kept in someone’s garage.”
“If they can’t provide the file, then you can come back on contempt,” Haney said. ” But that’s as far as I can go on this petition.”
The judge also denied Johnson’s motion to strike Wednesday’s hearing, but granted his motion asking to review certain records. Haney said Derryberry is entitled to crime scene photos, crime scene diagrams and offense reports, but not specific work product, “if they, indeed, exist.”
To which we at Bubbworld will add “if any investigation or records ever existed!”
Like all case files if it was commented by the law it happened to just disappear. Works like that in a lot of these redneck counties.
Rena if you read this I am sorry for your lose. You know the truth and so do we. Theres nothing we can do we have tried. If you can succeed I wish the best. The feds need to handle this problem. Hope you went to them instead.
I’m Ca**ie, Joann Ellis is my grandma. It’s been several years since the her disappearance, but it still troubles me sometimes the way things turned out.
It appears that justice will never be served in this case. We know the truth, and that’s all that matters. I appreciate this article. It’s very nice, and the line “May you now rest in peace, Joann Ellis, for at long last you have been found” was very touching. It brings back the memories of all the time we spent looking for her, and we never gave up hope. I still hope to see her someday, just not in this life.
Thank you for your concern with our family and your kind words.