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A Maysville, Okla., lady discovered useless inside a burned-out dwelling practically 19 years in the past. Investigators say her dying was no accident; Sheila Deviney was murdered.
Information 9’s licensed investigator Lisa Monahan is trying into who her killer may be, and why? Sheila’s case is the following investigation in our chilly case collection known as DEADline.
The day was Jan. 6, 2004, and Deviney’s neighbor Lisa Coslett had simply known as 911.
“They knew Sheila was in there someplace,” Coslett stated.
The hearth at Deviney’s dwelling despatched a chill down her mom’s backbone to rival that morning’s report chilly.
“It was 8 levels out. I did not even comprehend it. I could not really feel something,” stated Susan Deviney.
Susan Deviney could not see something both. Her daughter’s trailer dwelling was full of smoke. First responders and police have been already there, the place the police chief met Susan and her husband out entrance.
“I stated, ‘Have they discovered Sheila?’ and he checked out me with tears in his eyes, and he stated, ‘I haven’t got that data,'” Susan stated.
Nevertheless it did not look good. Sheila’s automobile was within the driveway, and he or she wasn’t answering her telephone.
“It was identical to I knew she was gone. All I might do was stand there,” Susan stated.
David Deviney, nevertheless, rushed previous firefighters hoping for a miracle.
“I managed to get in. The ashes have been deep. I by no means discovered her,” he stated.
No one discovered her till the smoke lastly cleared. Firefighters found Sheila on the kitchen flooring, burned past recognition. At first, it appeared to have been a horrible accident. The hearth marshal initially decided a melted pan on an electrical range began the inferno. The truth that her physique had been discovered within the kitchen, simply toes from the range, appeared to suit.
The Oklahoma health worker wasn’t satisfied.
“He was asking questions, you recognize, about her having enemies and issues of that nature,” David Deviney stated.
It isn’t clear simply what piqued the coroner’s suspicions, however an post-mortem was ordered to assist higher perceive what had occurred to Sheila. Whereas awaiting the outcomes, the Devineys questioned every part and everybody.
Was their daughter’s dying an accident or one thing extra sinister?
And if it was, was a killer amongst them?
“I feel folks have theories, and we’ll take any concept,” David Gatlin stated.
Sheila had two ex-husbands together with one from whom she had just lately break up. The opposite had a historical past of violence.
Sheila Deviney had as soon as been the toast of the city, the cheerleader who married the native soccer star, Tyson Hendrix. The highschool sweethearts wed in 1993 and had two youngsters collectively. Nonetheless, 5 years in, the wedding led to a bitter divorce and contentious baby custody battle.
“She wouldn’t even alternate the kids with him right here,” David Deviney stated. “They needed to meet in a public place. She was that terrified of him.”
A choose accredited a restraining order towards Hendrix after Sheila complained that he had bodily abused her and her youngsters.
Sheila was nonetheless scared.
“We have been having our heart-to-heart discuss, and he or she stated, ‘Mother, he’ll kill me,’ and I stated, ‘Tyson is just not going to kill you. He cannot,'” Susan Deviney stated.
The lethal hearth occurred a couple of days later.
Digging deeper into courtroom information, we found Hendrix owed Sheila $20,000 in baby assist, and the courtroom had given him an ultimatum: pay up or go to jail. The cash was due Jan. 5, 2004.
“Then the following day she was burned, killed and we consider nonetheless alive through the hearth,” David Deviney stated.
Coincidence or connection? It is a robust concept, nevertheless it’s not the one concept.
Sheila’s second ex-husband, Wayne Braxton, was additionally within the image. He had really been staying at her place a couple of nights every week. Nonetheless, he maintains they argued the evening earlier than the fireplace, and he left city.
Extra mysterious than that, there’s been discuss of a 3rd companion — somebody who might need been jealous or offended over husband No. 2 being again in Sheila’s life. In Sheila’s final telephone name, shortly earlier than the fireplace began, she spoke of a “particular buddy” who had simply arrived at her home.
That buddy was by no means recognized.
Actually, nobody was questioned for a number of months. We constructed a timeline to higher perceive the case’s development (January to April). The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation instantly started testing a shred of blouse and a chunk of carpet from beneath the physique. A number of months later, the Devineys met with hearth investigators to debate their rising suspicion of foul play.
Lisa Monahan: “When did you begin considering it isn’t a accident?”
David Deviney: “Tyson had made the menace to burn her out, and no one would ever know the distinction.”
Then the invention that confirmed their suspicions — checks confirmed the presence of a extremely flammable liquid within the clothes and carpet samples. Sheila’s post-mortem revealed the presence of accelerants in her blood and lungs, indicating that she had been burned alive.
The hearth marshal’s workplace reversed its opinion that September from accident to arson. However by then, the burned-out trailer and any proof it contained, was lengthy gone.
“It was demolished the very subsequent day,” stated David Ballard.
The day after the fireplace, in response to the Devineys, Tyson Hendrix insisted on bulldozing what was left of the house. One neighbor stated he appeared nervous.
“He was operating the backhoe simply extraordinarily erratically. And he regarded straight at me and stated, ‘Do you suppose I did this?’ And on the time, it did not daybreak on me that anybody had achieved it,” stated Daniel Beck.
The Devineys employed a personal investigator to search out some solutions, beginning with why their daughter’s ex-husband would volunteer so rapidly to obliterate the crime scene.
“That might be a great way to ensure nobody ever finds it,” David Ballard stated.
Thankfully, the Devineys had the forethought to protect what little proof they did have from the scene, together with images that they consider present there have been three ignition factors within the trailer.
“One was simply above a propane heater in the lounge. One was within the kitchen on the ground, and one was within the toilet,” Ballard stated.
An unintentional hearth actually would not ignite in three locations.
Fireplace investigators say Hendrix denied any involvement within the hearth or in Sheila’s dying, claiming he was at work.
We discovered a number of witness statements, nevertheless, that contradict his alibi. Hendrix’s foreman stated he left work abruptly with an unidentified man round 8 a.m.
“I assumed he would need to know,” stated Betty Deviney, Sheila’s sister-in-law. She known as his place of employment proper after they discovered Sheila had died within the hearth.
The receptionist advised Betty, “Nicely, he isn’t right here.”
Tyson known as again.
“He stubborn at me for calling him and advised me he already knew that,” Betty stated. “There isn’t any means he might have recognized this was occurring.”
One other witness, Daniel Beck, adopted the fireplace truck to Sheila’s home round 10 a.m.
“Tyson, I consider, was there each time I obtained there, each time I really pulled in,” Beck stated.
Was Tyson Hendrix there earlier than the fireplace was reported? There was just one method to discover out.
Lisa Monahan: “I need to communicate with you about your ex-wife’s homicide.”
Tyson Hendrix: “Okay?! As to what? I’ve by no means been advised something apart from she died in a home hearth. It’s essential look into your supply a bit of higher.”
Lisa known as Tyson’s second spouse, Amy: “I spoke together with your husband concerning the homicide of Sheila Deviney, and it occurred to me that nobody has requested the place you have been the morning of the fireplace.”
Tyson’s spouse, Amy: “The home.”
Lisa Monahan: “Have you learnt who killed Sheila Deviney?”
Amy: “No, I used to be advised it was an accident.”
A multicounty grand jury reportedly did not get a lot out of Hendrix, his second spouse, or his brother when it took up the case in 2006. The grand jury did not return any indictments and was essential of the preliminary investigation, asking for extra data on potential suspects.
Since that point, the OSBI has been working to do extra forensic checks on proof that’s nonetheless accessible.
Particular Agent David Gatlin is dealing with the chilly case.
“I will go together with an open thoughts and see the place the proof leads us,” Gatlin stated.
With a concentrate on developments in expertise, particularly with cell telephones, Gatlin stated he is working to get telephone information that have been sealed by the grand jury.
“Particularly, you say you have been right here. Let’s examine if we will put you there at that date and time and form of rule you out as being a suspect,” Gatlin stated.
The OSBI will not say who they’re focusing on, however investigators hope to make an arrest quickly.
The Devineys in the meantime stay decided and undaunted nearly 19 years after dropping their daughter.
“You at all times really feel whenever you lose a member of the family,” stated David Deviney.
Mom Susan Deviney stated, “There may be harm, simply as a lot there immediately because it was then — however in some way, between the 2 of us, our struggle goes.”
If in case you have any data, contact OSBI at suggestions@osbi.okay.gov
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