Janette Mayo was the first to say publicly that her daughter and three teenage grandchildren were among the dead. Her daughter was married to Jesse McFadden, a sex offender who Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said Monday had also been killed and linked to two other teenagers reported missing this week.
McFadden had been controlling, Mayo said, which had concerned her. But she said the family didn’t learn about her son-in-law’s criminal history until a few months ago.
“He lied to my daughter, and he convinced her it was all just a huge mistake,” Mayo, of Westville, told The Associated Press. “He was very standoffish, generally very quiet, but he kept my daughter and the kids basically under lock and key. He had to know where they were at all times, which sent red flags up.”
Ivy’s father, Justin Webster, said he filed a missing person report with the local sheriff’s office when she didn’t return home Sunday night after spending the weekend with McFadden, Guess and her children. Justin Webster said he thought the children went with McFadden to spend some time on a ranch where he was working near McAlester.
He said law enforcement officials also told him that all of the victims suffered gunshot wounds, that some had been lined up and were located across the property.
Webster echoed descriptions of McFadden as controlling and unusual, but said he had no idea about McFadden’s criminal background.
“I would say he was weird,” Webster said. “He was always getting into his kids’ phones and reading all their snap messages and all that. It wasn’t in a way of a concerned parent. It was more of keeping tabs on the kids.”