TULSA, Okla. — The old saying is that time heals all wounds, but that’s not the case for the family of Dena Dean.
Dena was 16 years old, and a student at Webster High School.
She loved performing in the band and attending the races with her family, and like most teenagers, she had a curfew.
Her mom, Diana, says the family was at the races one night, and Dena was filling in for a friend at work.
“She said Mom, I don’t want to drive out there by myself tonight. I’m going to go meet somebody. He wants to meet me. She gave me his name and said, I’ll be home after a while,” said Diana.
“I told her ok. I love you and be careful and be home by 10:30 and when we got home, she was not home,” she said.
Around midnight, Diana says she received a phone call saying that her car was at the Town West Shopping Center, but that Dena was nowhere to be found.
“It wasn’t until 6 days later that her decomposing body was found near a pond less than a couple of miles from Town West. Because of the state of her body, the medical examiner couldn’t determine the exact cause of her death, but we do know that it was a homicide, said Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, Casey Roebuck.
Dena’s body was found near a pond in west Tulsa, and the sheriff’s office says there were some obvious signs of trauma to her body.
“I know that she had a fracture to her face, and so clearly there was some amount of force used and that’s how we know this was a homicide,” said Roebuck.
Currently, the sheriff’s office says it does not have enough physical evidence in this case, just circumstantial evidence.
“I have 3 other children that I ignored basically for the last 24 years. Last year, I made an adjustment in myself. Larry and I are no longer together. We are divorced and with that divorce, comes the realization that I was just living for Dena,” said Diana.
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She says her eyes were opened by her other children and has since made a pledge to start living again.
“I do feel that someday it’s going to break, and I have come to the conclusion that if God wants me to know what happened to Dena, then He’s going to help me find that justice,” she said.
In the meantime, Diana has a request for the community.
In 2016, the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office established the Cold Case Task Force which is made up of retired members of law enforcement.
“I would like for people to donate money to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office to the task force to help them with the things they are trying to do. They do a lot of things out of pocket of their own, and I know that they could use some donations to do DNA,” said Diana.
Advanced DNA has been done in Dena’s case, but there is still more that needs to be done, and that costs money.
If you would like to donate to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Task Force to help solve Dena’s case and countless others, you can contact the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
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