INVESTIGATIVE CASE DOSSIER: THE OKLAHOMA GIRL SCOUT MURDERS: THE 1977 CAMP SCOTT SLAYINGS & 2022 MODERN DNA FINDINGS
- Victims: Lori Lee Farmer (Age 9), Doris Denise Milner (Age 10), Michele Heather Guse (Age 8)
- Date of Crime: June 13, 1977 (First night of summer camp)
- Location: Tent 8, ‘Kiowa’ campsite, Camp Scott, Mayes County, Oklahoma
- Historic Suspect: Gene Leroy Hart (Cherokee local and escaped prison convict; Acquitted 1979; Died 1979)
- Breakthrough Method: Advanced Y-STR and mitochondrial DNA re-testing (Funded by Mayes County Sheriff)
- 2022 Forensic Announcement: Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed announced DNA matched only Gene Leroy Hart
On the stormy first night of summer camp on June 13, 1977, three young Girl Scouts—Lori Farmer (9), Denise Milner (10), and Michele Guse (8)—were brutally assaulted and murdered inside their tent at Camp Scott near Locust Grove, Oklahoma. The camp was immediately shuttered and never reopened. Local prison escapee Gene Leroy Hart was tried and acquitted by a local jury in 1979 before dying in prison. In May 2022, Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed released the results of comprehensive modern DNA testing, confirming that DNA from the crime scene definitively pointed to Gene Leroy Hart.
The Camp Scott Massacre: June 1977
On June 13, 1977, sixty-eight Girl Scouts arrived at Camp Scott for summer session. During a heavy thunderstorm, an intruder entered Tent 8 in the Kiowa unit, assaulting and murdering the three young girls. Their bodies were discovered the next morning along a trail leading to the shower house.
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