OK - Donald 'Joe' Neff, 61, Poteau, 14 May 2009 - #1

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Task force sought for Le Flore County's pending cases
Homicide: Police want new ideas for unsolved slayings
BY RON JACKSON
Published: December 2, 2009


POTEAU — Le Flore County Sheriff Bruce Curnutt put aside any territorial pride by creating a task force to explore the homicide of Poteau bar owner Joe Neff and the "suspicious death” of Jody Rilee Wilson. Both cases date to May and both remain unsolved.


"I’m not interested in any turf war,” said Curnutt, referring to police jurisdiction.

"No one gains anything then except the bad guys. I think we’re all just interested in justice for the families of those victims.

"We just got to the point where all the leads were drying up. We needed to get some new ideas flowing.”

Curnutt and the new task force will meet Friday for the first time since forming and exchanging notes last month. The task force involves representatives from five agencies: the FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Office, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Le Flore County district attorney’s office and the Le Flore County sheriff’s office.

"I cried when I first heard the news,” said Marie Pitchford, the older of Neff’s two daughters.

"My life has changed in ways I never imagined. I still haven’t returned to work, and I never go out after dark. I don’t go to the movie theater, the grocery store, nothing. I won’t even go to Walmart after dark.


Read more: http://www.newsok.com/article/3421922?searched=rilee#ixzz0YY7As9fx
 
missingmydad said:
don't worry. Yes it is very hard but i am determined to figure this out. Any questions, please ask. I know that it is graphic, but the reality is this monster shot and killed my dad and dumped him like trash. I know it, i would rather know the truth than wonder, even though the truth is terrible. The horrible things i imagine are worse
ok- the death certificate states that cause of death was gunshot wound to head. So water did not do it. I don't have me report but the dc indicates he was dead when he hit water, praise god. I worried about that day and night for weeks, scared they threw him in the water and drowned him, horrible. We had heard a few witnesses saw red truck, no word of bed cover etc, but no mention of car, i wonder if a car did come and he was put in trunk. I find it hard to see how they made it all that way with dad in bed of truck..?..! I thank you all for your efforts, keep them questions coming, i will do my best to answer. Thank you so much to all of you from the bottom of my heart.
Click to expand...

HI missingmydad, I was wondering, after your dad was discovered, and reports of a red truck circulated, do you know if they tried to see if any evidence (blood specifically) was washed out in a car wash? if any evidence may have been in the car wash? I'm just thinking...if someone transported and the vehicle that is a personal vehicle was messy, would they take the chances of washing it off at home and leaving evidence? even if they took it to the car wash, would it be possible to get evidence that way? anyone know?
 
I am trying to figure out why he was dumped in Pocola. Why 20 miles away? Wondering if the killer/s where on their way to Fort Smith and it just happened to be a spot they where familiar with. Why take him that far away? There is plenty of desolate places between Poteau and Pocola. I dont think they were trying very hard to conceal him. They were either really stupid or didnt care if he was found. It is like they were just buying a bit of time before he would be found.
 
Sheriff Bruce Curnutt put aside any territorial pride by creating a task force to explore the homicide of Poteau bar owner Joe Neff and the "suspicious death” of Jody Rilee Wilson. Both cases date to May and both remain unsolved.



I’m not interested in any turf war,” said Curnutt, referring to police jurisdiction. "No one gains anything then except the bad guys. I think we’re all just interested in justice for the families of those victims


​

​

​


Snipped
In the Neff case, Curnutt thinks the FBI can provide some technical "toys" that might help better explore an old mining pit where the 61-year-old’s body was found May 17 by fishermen.
snipped​

His home safe had been opened with thousands of dollars suspected missing, but thousands more still present. Later, when Neff’s body was pulled from the mining strip, Curnett watched as $740 was removed from his shirt pocket.

We’re starting to think now that the murder and robbery of the safe might be two seperate events,” Curnett said.


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​

​


Bolded by me
 
rccook555 said:
​
His home safe had been opened with thousands of dollars suspected missing, but thousands more still present. Later, when Neff’s body was pulled from the mining strip, Curnett watched as $740 was removed from his shirt pocket.​



We’re starting to think now that the murder and robbery of the safe might be two seperate events,” Curnett said.



​


​

Bolded by me
Click to expand...

The fact that thousands more were still present points toward Mr. Neff being in that safe before this incident happened and he just didn't close the door or someone close tried to make it look like robbery. I feel strongly about "it was Mr. Neff" just left the door open. Robbery was definately not the motive here. The person who did this horrific crime whether they pulled the trigger or not has gone out of their way to keep the attention (suspicion) off of themselves.

Missingmydad,

Is there a time of death on the death certificate?
 
Debbie Miller said:
The fact that thousands more were still present points toward Mr. Neff being in that safe before this incident happened and he just didn't close the door or someone close tried to make it look like robbery. I feel strongly about "it was Mr. Neff" just left the door open. Robbery was definately not the motive here. The person who did this horrific crime whether they pulled the trigger or not has gone out of their way to keep the attention (suspicion) off of themselves.

Missingmydad,

Is there a time of death on the death certificate?
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Good points. I agree the safe wasn't burgled. But if he had taken a significant amount of money out of the safe, could he have been carrying that money the morning he opened the bar, expecting to meet someone to purchase an item, and the seller decided to get the money without delivering the goods?
 
MMD, did you know about the thousands more in the safe? Sorry if you have already said and I missed it.
 
rccook555 said:
His home safe had been opened with thousands of dollars suspected missing, but thousands more still present. Later, when Neff’s body was pulled from the mining strip, Curnett watched as $740 was removed from his shirt pocket.

We’re starting to think now that the murder and robbery of the safe might be two seperate events,” Curnett said.
Click to expand...

Interesting that they are now giving the safe information out BUT Marie has not been told this; unless she does know but was asked not to say anything.

Horrible if they are giving newspapers the info before family.

As far as the safe & it not being related.. wonder if they are reading here.

.
 
Missingmydad,

The new task force referred to in the story on link below is a perfect opportunity for you and/or someone in the family to obtain basic case information. Stop in to see the Sherriff and let him know you would like to meet with the task force for 15 minutes or so every two weeks.

http://newsok.com/task-force-sought...article/3421922?custom_click=lead_story_title

Once and for all, find out as much as you can about how the alleged robbery of the safe was determined as well as how much the task force deems to have been stolen.

As discussed, clear up the tape rumor. And if tape was used, was the source a roll of tape from your Father's bar?

Plus, nail down exactly where your Father was shot.
 
Task force sought for Le Flore County's pending cases News OK.com


I want to point out that it looks like Jody's dad used his political pull to get the task force going


~Snip~

"People need to realize the killer is still out there. I just pray some day we’ll have answers, and maybe this task force is what it will take.”

Jim Rilee, who is Wilson’s father, said he lobbied long and hard for a multi-agency task force.

"I know this: It won’t hurt,” Rilee said from his New Jersey home.

"I worked very hard getting this together, and I think the resources available to the FBI will be helpful, as opposed to the limited resources available to the OSBI in that region. The bottom line is more people will be involved.

"I just hope now that the FBI is involved more people will look at this case.”

Donald Wilson, Jody Wilson’s husband, is among those who have been questioned by investigators. He said he was out of state at the time of his wife’s disappearance with the couple’s infant daughter, who is now 10 months old.

"He (Donald Wilson) has been interviewed twice,” Curnutt confirmed. "Since then, he has retained an attorney and is refusing to talk further.”
Click to expand...

Also -

"Some of the family members have even pointed fingers over the safe.”

Pitchford said "only a few people” had the combination to her father’s safe, but none would have hurt him.

"As for the safe, my sister (Shawna Martin) and I didn’t know the combination,” Pitchford said.

"But was the safe the motive behind the murder? Or was it opened to make it look like a robbery?”
Click to expand...
 
wfgodot said:
Good points. I agree the safe wasn't burgled. But if he had taken a significant amount of money out of the safe, could he have been carrying that money the morning he opened the bar, expecting to meet someone to purchase an item, and the seller decided to get the money without delivering the goods?
Click to expand...

It is really hard to say how much he originally had in the safe, it is kind of looking as if he is the only one to know. Meeting someone to buy something is a good possibility. The cell phone records need to be gone over again with a fine tooth comb, if this is the scenerio. The fact that Mr. Neff still had $750.00 in his shirt pocket is a red flag, meaning if someone is going to rob another and kill them or seriously injure them, wouldn't they search all pockets for all the money or goods they could get? I wonder what type of shirt Mr. Neff was wearing did the pocket have a button to secure what was in the pocket? If not, with moving the body to remove Mr. Neff from the crime scene would seem the money would have fell out of the pocket or at least shown at the edge.

Just my thoughts.
 
Debbie Miller said:
It is really hard to say how much he originally had in the safe, it is kind of looking as if he is the only one to know. Meeting someone to buy something is a good possibility. The cell phone records need to be gone over again with a fine tooth comb, if this is the scenerio. The fact that Mr. Neff still had $750.00 in his shirt pocket is a red flag, meaning if someone is going to rob another and kill them or seriously injure them, wouldn't they search all pockets for all the money or goods they could get? I wonder what type of shirt Mr. Neff was wearing did the pocket have a button to secure what was in the pocket? If not, with moving the body to remove Mr. Neff from the crime scene would seem the money would have fell out of the pocket or at least shown at the edge.

Just my thoughts.
Click to expand...

Excellent points. At first I thought that leaving the money in the pocket was a message that this was personal and Mr. Neff wasn't killed for his money. But the new stuff on the safe allows for a different reckoning. He may have opened the safe and gone to the bar that morning to meet someone, thinking he'd be back home shortly and then lock up the safe, after putting what he may have been purchasing back inside it. I wonder if they've checked old Craig's List postings from the area.
 
Why would anyone have a safe with thousands in it and not lock it, but take the time to lock the door. I would have locked the safe before the door.

Why would anyone rob a safe and only take some of the money.

None of this makes sense, unless something in the safe was more valuable to the thief than money.
 
missingmydad said:
his cell phone was never recovered.
Click to expand...

This could be a clue- the phone could be in the strip pit. Hopefully when they look with the tech toys they will find it.

The clue being, maybe the killer didn't want it found because the killer's # is on the phone.
 
dnrslucky1 said:
Why would anyone have a safe with thousands in it and not lock it, but take the time to lock the door. I would have locked the safe before the door.

Why would anyone rob a safe and only take some of the money.

None of this makes sense, unless something in the safe was more valuable to the thief than money.
Click to expand...

Your second question is exactly why it's likely that Mr. Neff removed the money himself. I would think that only he would take what he needed for that day and leave the rest. On not locking the safe---we all have our customs and habits, our ways of doing things, which might look odd to others but serve us well.
 
gliving said:
Neff was last seen at about 9 a.m. Thursday in a local store. Prior to that, a female friend of his reported seeing Neff at around 7 a.m., said LeFlore County Sheriff Bruce Curnutt.


Authorities said Neff went to his business around 10:30 a.m. and some type of altercation occurred between 11:20 and 11:40 a.m. that caused quite a bit of blood loss, Brown said.

A good friend of Neff’s arrived at the business just prior to the employee and found the same scene, Brown said.

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2009/05/16/news/news051609_04.txt
Click to expand...

Ok here is the time line. He was at the business approxiamately 50 minutes before the attack. Approxiamately 20 minutes to commit the crime and remove the body before the early customer arrives at the bar. Hmmm.
 
Debbie Miller said:
I wonder what type of shirt Mr. Neff was wearing did the pocket have a button to secure what was in the pocket? If not, with moving the body to remove Mr. Neff from the crime scene would seem the money would have fell out of the pocket or at least shown at the edge
Click to expand...

Look at the picture in the article linked; my guess is those are his shirts of choice. Most pics of him have that type of shirt with a snapped/button pocket.

wfgodot said:
Your second question is exactly why it's likely that Mr. Neff removed the money himself. I would think that only he would take what he needed for that day and leave the rest. On not locking the safe---we all have our customs and habits, our ways of doing things, which might look odd to others but serve us well.
Click to expand...

My dad did not lock his safe a lot because it was a pain to get into all the time. He used to leave it rigged so you only had to push the removable knob to pop it open. His was a floor safe though.
 
We’re starting to think now that the murder and robbery of the safe might be two seperate events,” Curnett said.

If this is true, then it means to me that at least three people were involved. MMD has said that Joe was strong, which means at least two at the bar, and at least one at his house. But, a stranger at his home in broad daylight? Doubtfull. But, a cable T.V. vehicle or something like that wouldn't cause too much of a stir. It's like all these guys are ghosts or something, unless they are getting in place early in the morning and lying in wait.
 
There were witnesses that saw Mr. Neff paying a bill and at the Napa auto parts store. He was seen at the store at 9am. How was it determined that he got to the bar at 10:30? Where could he have gone in that hour and a half?

Maybe he ran back home to grab some money out of the safe to purchase something and was in a rush so didn't bother to lock the safe and just locked the door instead.

MMD, it may seem trivial but you might want to find out what he bought at Napa. Could it be possible he was going to purchase that red truck and needed a part for it?

There are a lot of Craigslist robberies in CA. People pretend like they have something to sell then meet the potential buyer (who they know will be carrying cash)and rob them for the money that was going to be used to purchase the bogus item.
 
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