The Swediana Project - Welcome to Lawton

- 25 year old Annastasia Runningwolf was last heard from in October of 2005. Her body was found in Oklahoma City on November 8th, 2005. At the time of her death, Annastasia was struggling with addiction and working the streets. Her body was found nude, except for a blanket which had been knotted around her entire body, and a black sweater that was inside out and covering her entire head. She had been bound by wire to bend her into a fetal position and she had been killed by blunt force trauma.

- In 1993, 19 year old Barbara Berry went missing from Lawton, Oklahoma. At the time, Barbara was sometimes working at a topless bar in Lawton, but also working the streets in order to support her drug habit. Over a year after she went missing, Barbara would be found, her remains were left in a box in a field in Comanche County.

In 2004, a criminal profiler named Dean Wideman produced a generalized profile of the possible killer. In this episode I talk to Jen Bucholtz and George Jared about this profile. Jen teaches Forensics and Criminal Justice at American Military University. She also hosts a podcast called 'Break the Case.' George is a a true crime author and investigative reporter. He also hosts a podcast called 'Diamond State Murder Board.' This is an informative conversation that provides alot of insight on who might be responsible for these murders.

In 2004, Seventeen different law enforcement agencies, from at least six different states, came together to compare similar cases. They shared crime scene photos and autopsy reports to determine if another five victims, along with the Lawton victims, could have been the work of the same person.

On June 5, 2003, Pamela Woodring was found by farm workers in a creek bed, close to a bridge in rural Kiowa County, Oklahoma. Woodring's body was nude and there were no personal belongings at the scene when she was found. Woodring, like the other victims, was a known sex worker from the Cache Road area of Lawton, Oklahoma.

On June 30, 2003, Tanja Hook's mother reported her missing to the Lawton, Oklahoma P.D. On August 29, 2003, her remains were found in a bar ditch in McClain County, Oklahoma. At the time, Hook was living in the Cache Road district in Lawton where five sex workers disappeared between 1999 and 2003. Initially, the body was a Jane Doe until 2008, when Tanja was identified by DNA and dental records.

Janice Buono was reported missing on January 1, 2002. She was a known sex-worker from the Cache Road area of Lawton, Oklahoma. On February 23, 2002 her body was found in water, close to a bridge in rural Comanche County, Oklahoma. Buono's body was nude when she was found, with no signs of trauma or evidence as how she got there or what happened to her.

21-year-old Mandy Ann Raite's body was found in a rural creek bed east of Lawton on June 17th, 2000. Police estimate her body was there for about four days. Like the other women, she was nude and there was no evidence at the scene. Mandy died of an accidental overdose of cocaine, but that doesn't explain what happened before she died or how her body got there.

In this episode we interview a law enforcement officer from the general area who's been looking into these cases for about 20 years.

Cassandra Lee Ramsey, 25, disappeared from Lawton on Oct. 10, 1999. Her nude body turned up five months later beneath a bridge along a rural road in Jefferson County. Her cause of death was ruled undetermined.

On August 13th, 1999, a nude corpse was found in Sandy Bear Creek, rural Stephens County, Oklahoma. Forensics identified the body as that of Jane Marie Chafton, 28, from Lawton, Oklahoma. She was last seen on Aug. 9. Jane would be the first of five women from Lawton that had the same line of work, on the same road, the same habits, knew the same people, and whose bodies were all discarded the same way.

This is the introduction to Season 2 of The Swediana Project.
From 1999 - 2003 there were five victims. Each victim was stripped nude and their bodies were dumped in or around bodies of water in rural areas. Investigators eventually drew a link between the victims and concluded that the same person or persons had killed them. Then they started looking into other cases, then cases in other areas. Now, we have a lot more potential victims that fit the same description and manners of death. Let's not forget to mention, the women that are still missing.