Part II

Murder In McClain County

In 1978 Melvin Lorenz, his wife Linda, and their son Richard lived in San Antonio, Texas. Melvin was 38-years-old and Linda was 30-years-old, both worked for the United States Air Force at Kelly Air Force Base. Richard was a 12-year-old boy with sandy blonde hair and a bright smile. A Boy Scout, Richard was also little league baseball player. Melvin owned several guns, enjoying the security the weapons provided for him and his family in a world that seemed to be spiraling out of control. They had a house and two dogs and they were happy with their lives in Texas. The Lorenz family was not a rich family, they were modest people whose primary motivation for going to work was the service to their country. News arrived mid-June from North Dakota, a family member had passed away and the family was meeting to hold a funeral. Melvin and Linda knew that a trip from San Antonio to North Dakota could take over a week and that it would be a long trip taking them across the country. Nevertheless, they needed to go in order to properly remember their loved one.

Melvin Lorenz stands next to his Ford Ranger.

Picture of Richard Lorenz for his baseball team.

Richard Lorenz and another boy sit with the dogs owned by the Lorenz family.

Melvin, Linda, and Richard loaded up in the family vehicle early one morning to began the long trip north to the Dakotas. The drive on Interstate 35 would take them north through most of Texas, across Oklahoma, Kansas, at which point state highways would take them through Nebraska and South Dakota into the family gathering place in North Dakota. In 1978, the national maximum speed limit was 55 miles per hour, so such a drive would consume more of time than it would today in 2017. But that didn’t matter to Melvin and Linda, they needed to get to their family in North Dakota to attend the funeral. The trip was a good opportunity to show young Richard parts of the country he may not have seen before, and could also serve as the family’s summer vacation. The family vehicle was a blue Ford Ranger. It had a white camper shell over the bed, Linda put flowery curtains over the windows of the camper shell. This gave Richard a place to be during the drive, avoided a crowded cab, and provided comfortable shade in the back so that he could take a nap if he felt like it.

Front view of the Ford Ranger in the motel parking lot in Oklahoma City.

Rear view of the Ford Ranger in the motel parking lot in Oklahoma City.

Coffee was brewed and put into a thermos, sandwiches prepared packed for the trip. A sleepy Richard crawled into the bed of the truck and slumped on a pad among the cargo and the dogs. Melvin, who was still drowsy, sat in front of the wheel while Linda got in on the passenger side. With the key turned in the ignition, the engine roared. Melvin reversed the pick up out of the drive and proceeded towards the Interstate. In the streaks of early morning sunlight, through heavy eyelids, Richard looked through the rear windshield at his home going behind them. He then closed his eyes and fell back to sleep. It would be the last time he would see the home ever again.

A thermos found on the floor board of the Ford Ranger

* * *

The following is based on the information contained in an interview of Verna Rae Stafford with Agent Shields from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Detective Harrison of the Oklahoma City Police Department on March 8, 1979, at 10:00 am.

An aerial photograph of the general area of the I-35 corridor in McClain County where the crime was committed.

June 22, 1978, was a hot day in Oklahoma along the side of Interstate 35. Many of the travelers who did not have the luxury of air conditioning drove with their windows down. Everybody was feeling the heat, and nobody wanted it to last any longer than it needed to be. The days are long this time of year, but around 8:30 p.m. the sun began to take its evening dive towards the western horizon and the light it casted on the earth was that dark yellow to orange color that makes everything seem even warmer that it actually is. Changes started happening more quickly, in the east the sky grew darker as the sun settled behind the hills to the west. The long dull whine of the cicada was joined by the screeches of the crickets. Several miles north of Purcell, a white Ford station wagon was parked on the side of the Interstate. It was a 1963 model, with the hood propped open as if it had been worked on by unlucky motorists.

Picture of the station wagon used by the Staffords in 1978.

Two men were standing outside by the front of the car, while a female sat in the car. One of the men, a man with dark hair that went past his ears, and a dark mustache was standing on the shoulder attempting to signal down cars. They appeared to be in need of assistance, and out where they were, that assistance was a long way away. It was up to other travelers on the highway to lend a helping hand, otherwise, one would have had to walk to the nearest telephone to call for help. Such a helping hand was lent in the form of a dark-colored pickup truck with a white camper shell over the bed. The other man, he had curly hair and a clean shaven face, was standing off to the side, with the first man between him and the Interstate.

Sketch of Roger Dale Stafford.

Sketch of Harold Stafford.

Sketch of Verna Rae Stafford.

“Stay in the car, Verna,” the mustached man told the woman who was sitting in the station wagon. He was her husband and the father of their three children. The man and the curly haired fellow walked up to the pickup.”Good evening,” the mustached one said to the man, woman, and child sitting in the pickup.

“Good evening,” the man in the pickup said back to them, “saw y’all stranded on the side of the highway, is there something we could do to help you out?”

“Yeah,” the mustached man said, “I think there is something you could help us out with.” the mustached man pulled a revolver out of his pants and pointed it at the man and wife. “We need money, and you’re going to give it to us, ya hear? Now get out of the truck!” He angled the muzzle of his pistol towards the man’s face and then pointed it at the woman. Behind the man and the woman, a boy stared over the seat from the bed of the truck, with him were two dogs. The curly haired man walked over to the passenger’s side and stood looking into the car. The windows had been rolled down and the doors were unlocked, the men could have thrown the doors open and grabbed the travelers out of their seats. However, they kept their hands out of the truck. The man got out of the truck. “This way,” the mustached man said, directing the driver tow the front of the pickup.

“Money?” the man said, “you lowlifes are just out here trying to shake people down, huh?" The man, woman, and child stood in front of the pick up as the two men stood before them. “You are a son of a bitch for this, you know that?” The man scolded, “taking money from hard working people who keep you safe. You make me sick.”

“Everybody stand still,” the curly haired man told the three people.

“Shut up!” The mustached man screamed in rage before squeezing the trigger. The bullet went through the man's throat, he fell to the ground. The boy and the woman panicked. The mustached man trained his pistol on the boy and fired on him as the boy raised his hands to protect his face. The boy collapsed next to his father. The woman began to scream as the horror finally broke through the initial shock. The mustached man turned to her and fired. The woman fell to the ground.

“Jesus Roger!” the curly haired man said to the man with the mustache. Roger started going through their pockets. “Why did you shoot those people?” Roger pocketed the cash he took from the man’s wallet and stood up.

“Help me with these bodies, Harry,” Roger screamed at the curly haired man, “I don’t want a car to pass by and catch us like this.”

The man, the woman, and the child were Melvin, Linda, and Richard Lorenz. They died shortly after being shot. The two men dragged the dead bodies of the man and woman off the shoulder and into the grass on the side of the interstate. The child was loaded into the back of the pickup.

This is aerial photograph has been marked to indicate the locations of the bodies.

This crime scene diagram was drawn by investigators to show the location of the bodies of Melvin and Linda Lorenz, to depict the way the bodies were found, and to show the locations of evidence collected around the bodies.

This is the crime scene diagram depicting the location of Richard Lorenz and the evidence around his body.

“Let’s get something to eat,” Roger got into the pickup as Harry went back to the station wagon, collapsed the hood and got in. Roger drove the pickup north for a bit before pulling over and dumping Richard’s body on the side of the interstate. It was dark out by now. He got back in the pickup, and with the station driving behind them they drove to Oklahoma City to get something to eat for dinner.

* * *

The bodies of Melvin and Linda were found before Richard. The Daily Oklahoman ran a front page story June 23 about the discovery of two bodies in McClain county in the grass on the side of Interstate 35. The blue pickup was abandoned and discovered by investigators in the parking lot of a hotel near the airport in Oklahoma City. Registration for a pistol was found in the cab, along with ammunition for that pistol. However, the pistol wasn’t with the truck, neither were the dogs.

Roger, Harry, and Verna Stafford had traveled to McClain County from Tulsa, OK. They needed money, so they decided that robbing people on the side of the road was an easy way of doing that. Later, when Verna spoke with investigators, she indicated that killing people was never part of the plan. But a man who is as impulsive and violent as Roger Dale Stafford, all options in regards to violence and coercion are on the table. This was the beginning of Stafford’s reign of horror over Oklahoma, a despotic reign that would end with far more blood shed.