Hoping to prick someone's conscience in the unsolved murders of two young girls, authorities on Monday released a 911 recording in which the grandmother of one victim screams in agony, "My babies, babies, babies!"
"Yes, somebody's killed two girls ... my grandbaby, and ... her friend! I'm on County Line Road!" the woman said in the June 8 call after 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker were found shot to death on a road near Weleetka, about 70 miles south of Tulsa.
"What happened down there?" the dispatcher asked.
"I don't know. They went for a walk and they're both ... now they're dead!"
Emotional cry for help
The grandmother's voice became increasingly frantic as she tried to tell the dispatcher where she was.
"Please, please, please! Lord help me please! Oh God, oh God, oh God! My babies, babies, babies!" she said.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown appealed for the public's help after playing the recording at a news conference.
"It breaks your heart hearing that, doesn't it?" she said. "Someone knows something. Listen to that, understand what it's done to these people, what it's done to the community and just come forward," Brown said. "Give us the idea, the places to look because these people need to be caught."
Authorities initially declined to make the 911 call public at the request of family members, but Brown said investigators persuaded them to change their minds. Eighty-two seconds of the 6-minute, 22-second recording were released.
Investigators did not release the name of the 911 caller, or specify which of the girls was her granddaughter.
Each girl was shot several times. Their bodies were found less than a half-mile from the house where one of the girls lived.
Investigators have released a sketch of a tall, American Indian man whom witnesses described seeing near the murder scene around the time of the killings, but that man hasn't come forward for questioning.
Two people may have been involved
Investigators have determined two different guns were used in the killings, which suggests there might have been two people involved.
Authorities have said the motive for the killings could have been anything from an attempted abduction to the girls happening upon a drug deal to a random thrill killing.
The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are helping with the investigation, Brown said. A pool of 14 to 15 investigators from the OSBI, FBI, Marshals Service and the Okfuskee County sheriff's and district attorney office continue to work on the case, she said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provided a specially trained dog to comb the crime scene and the Marshals Service has contributed to a reward of more than $30,000 for anyone with information that could lead to an arrest and conviction.
Meanwhile, interviews and polygraph tests have eliminated 100 people as suspects, Brown said.
"We want to see the right people come forward and not those wanting to get back at a former boyfriend," she said. "That's what we're dealing with now."