OAKHURST, Okla. — It was a cold and snowy night in January and Jose Gonzales lived in the Oakhurst area across the river from Tulsa.
At the time, he was rebuilding a mobile home he was renting.
"The owner was a fellow named Tobias, and he lived just a few blocks away and the unique thing about this case was that there were 2 crimes in 2 jurisdictions. Mr. Tobias lived in Creek County just 3 or 4 blocks away, and Gonzales was in Tulsa County," said Ed Jackson, Tulsa County Cold Case investigator.
The night of Gonzales' death, two people drove up to Mr. Tobias' house and stormed inside.
"They began immediately beating on Mr. Tobias, demanding money from him," said Jackson.
When they couldn't get what they wanted, Jackson says things turned more violent.
"He turned around and cut Tobias' throat, and fortunately, he didn't take care of his knife any better than he took care of his pistol. The two robbers left the house and stole Mr. Tobias's pickup, and drove over to Mr. Gonzales," said Jackson.
Gonzales and his son stayed in a camper on the property while they fixed up the mobile home. Investigators believe two men broke into the camper and killed Gonzales in front of his 16-year-old son.
After they killed Gonzales, investigators said the suspects left in a stolen pickup truck.
Howard Cloud lives nearby and vividly remembers that night.
"We had just gotten home from the Chili Bowl races, and it was roughly 12 or 1:00 in the morning, and there were a lot of flashing lights at the opposite end of my property," said Cloud.
Curious to see the commotion, he ventured out to see what was going on.
"I walked down there, and they said that a gentleman had his throat cut and another gentleman had been murdered in the front yard," said Cloud.
Jackson said this case is unique because they do have DNA evidence from the scene.
"There is some evidence in this case that has not been processed. For example, keep in mind this was 1997. When the stolen pickup was recovered, there were some fingerprints that didn't match anyone that was in our records at the time. There were also blood smears, and they collected those, but at the time, the sheriff's office couldn't really afford DNA testing," said Jackson.
Jackson hopes they can get some forensic testing done on this case soon.
"I hope that we can see this go to prosecution, but only time will tell," said Jackson.
If you have any information on the Jose Gonzales case or any other cold case with Tulsa County, you can call the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit at 918-596-8661.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
