GUILTY OK - Sara Smart, 19, found slain in barrel, Muskogee, 30 Jan 2006

SeriouslySearching

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How many bodies do you suppose they FIND in barrels anyway? This girl was also found in a 55-gal. drum. Very strange.

Family And Friends Remember Murdered Muskogee Teen

KOTV - 1/30/2007 9:37 PM - Updated 1/30/2007 9:39 PM
One year ago Tuesday, 19-year-old Sara Smart of Muskogee disappeared. Her body was discovered last August; it had been stuffed into a barrel and thrown into a pond. News on 6 reporter Chris Wright says Smart’s family and friends gathered near the Muskogee County courthouse Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil, to both celebrate Sara's memory and ask for justice.

With candles and signs in hand, those who knew Sara Smart marked a painful anniversary. It was exactly one year ago that she vanished. Any hope Sara would return disappeared when her body was found in this Haskell pond last August.

"There's what's left of my daughter, our daughter, and we would like to see justice for her murder,” said Sara’s father Brian Smart. “She was beaten, strangled and stuffed in a five gallon drum and thrown in a pond."

Sara was last seen with her stepfather Jerry Raney. Family members are awaiting the results of DNA testing they say could lead to a big break in the case. But until that break comes, they say closure will elude them.

During a candlelight vigil Tuesday night family and friends said things haven’t gotten any easier.

"It's hard to lose anybody, but a child is indescribable,” Christine Smart, Sara’s stepmother said. “Today brings back a lot of feelings I felt a year ago today."

Sara also left behind her own child, Julian, who is now two years old. Her family says Julian was the love of Sara's life, and for his sake, as well as their own, they hope her killer is caught.

"I want justice for my grandson. He's only two, he doesn't talk very much, but I know that he will in years to come,” said Sara’s mother Susan Hensley. “He'll want to know what happened, why, and have some answers. I want some answers for him.”

The Muskogee County Sheriff's Department is conducting the investigation into Sara's murder. Family members say while they are frustrated that no arrests have been made, they believe the department is doing everything in its power to solve the case.

If you have any information in Sara’s death call the Muskogee County Sheriff’s office at 918-687-1275.
www.kotv.com
 
http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/1107/475727.html

Murder charges in the brutal death of a 19-year-old Muskogee County woman may finally be on the horizon.

It has been more than two years since Sara Smart disappeared from a McDonald's in Muskogee. Now, her stepfather, Jerry Raney, is the focus of the investigation. He was the last one to see her alive.

Raney is currently being held on charges of domestic violence against his current wife, along with a charge of planning to perform acts of violence. Sources say Raney was so fed up with being pursued for the murder of Sara that he wanted to kill the lead investigator, the sheriff and the district attorney, all in an effort to make the Sara Smart case go away.
 
From May 2011:

http://www.newson6.com/story/14663746/muskogee-man-charged-in-2006-death-of-stepdaughter-pleads

Jerry Raney was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his stepdaughter, 19-year-old Sara Smart, in 2006. Raney was accused of strangling Smart and stuffing her body in a 55-gallon barrel. Her body was found in a pond near Haskell.

On Tuesday, as part of a plea deal, Raney pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. He will be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
 

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