Published: August 20, 2008 10:27 am      

Agents checked gun dealers, pawn shops to create list

WELEETKA, Okla. — Authorities working to narrow leads in the June shooting deaths of two girls checked area gun dealers and pawn shops to determine who had bought or recently pawned .40-caliber pistols, one of two weapons used in the slayings.

The time-consuming procedure yielded the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation the names of more than 60 owners of .40-caliber guns in the Weleetka area.

The OSBI then sent letters to all those gun owners, asking them to voluntarily submit their weapons for test firings over the weekend at the Okfuskee County Courthouse at Okemah.

About 40 of those gun owners showed up Saturday and Sunday, and their weapons were fired once or twice and then returned to them.

The fired bullets and shell casings, meanwhile, were sent to a crime lab for analysis to determine if any of them match those used in the slayings of Skyla Jade Whitaker, 11, and Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13.

Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the OSBI, said about five of the gun owners no longer owned the weapons, but provided the names of the new owners.

The other 15 or so gun owners who did not show up will be checked by the OSBI to see why they didn't volunteer for the test firings.

"They can have any number of reasons" for not volunteering, Brown said. "They could be against it, they could be anti-government, or they eventually may want to help."

The girls were shot on June 8 a half-mile north of Taylor's home in the small town of Weleetka, 70 miles south of Tulsa. No arrests have been made.

The state Medical Examiner's office said the younger girl had eight wounds to the arms, chest, abdomen and neck, and the older girl had five gunshot wounds to the head, groin and hand.