On November 30, 1989 Raymond Laverne Frazier was murdered on his trout farm just off County Road 202 near Wyandotte. Frazier, then 44, was shot in the back and his killer has never been found.

WYANDOTTE – Sometimes justice is swift, but sometimes justice is slow to come. Deep in the woods of the southern end of Ottawa County, the search for answers, truth and justice is underway to solve a 28-year-old murder case.

On November 30, 1989 Raymond Laverne Frazier was murdered on his trout farm just off County Road 202 near Wyandotte. Frazier, then 44, was shot in the back and his killer has never been found.

This week the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office were all working together as an investigative team searching for clues and sifting through sludgy water and debris looking for two bodies possibly buried on the huge, remote and heavily wooded acreage.

“It’s hard to talk about. He still hasn’t got justice,” Arno Graves, the friend who discovered Frazier’s lifeless body said, as he watched the team search. “I’ve waited 28 years for this.”

Graves said what made the grizzly discovery even harder was one of Frazier’s daughter was with him at the time.

Tuesday through Thursday of this week, the investigative search team set up operations to dig, sift and examine two sites on the property that three cadaver dogs hit on.

“We found some old bone fragments and some teeth. We think they are probably animal remains, but we are running an analysis to verify this,” Ottawa County Sheriff Jeremy Floyd said. “We’re hoping to find clues or new information or someone will come forward. I know the family has been looking for closure since 1989. We’re just trying our best to see what we can come up with. To this day it’s unsolved we don’t know who, and there’s really no suspect. There was a lot of hearsay.”

The search operation ceased Thursday evening after an exhaustive exploration and quest for clues or remains on the property.

The cold case of Frazier’s murder was brought to life again by Private Investigator Brittany White, a distant cousin of Frazier’s.

“She brought some information forward and my Chief Investigative Detective is looking into things as well,” Floyd said.

White has spent the past two and a half years researching. On one search of the area, she brought a friend with a cadaver dog to the property. The dog hit on two areas, a small rock walled spring pond and a large burn pile mound. White then took her findings to Sheriff Floyd.

“I surprised myself on the outcome of what’s going on with the investigation and how far I’ve went,” White said. “I Googled a little bit and just went from there, and I’ve talked to a lot of different people.”

White said her family was fearful for her safety in stirring up interest in the old unsolved murder.

“I love the challenge of the investigation. I’m just glad we have people that support this. I’d like to get some answers and find out who shot Raymond,” she said.

Frazier was born in Wyandotte, moved to Hood River Oregon and returned to the Wyandotte area in 1984. He attended the First Assembly of God Church Wyandotte and served in the Army National Guard. His wife Jacqueline died in 1986. A son and two daughters survived Frazier.

Speculation and rumors on the motive for the killing stem from Frazier's co-ownership with a former Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Cunningham of a Tulsa strip club Lady Godiva and the trout farm property. Some say Frazier was murdered because he possibly stumbled upon the burial or disposal of two women connected to the nightclub, but there is no evidence so far supporting this theory.

An Ottawa County Jail inmate Frank Crownover, who later died in 2006 while incarcerated after a fight, said he had worked as Cunningham’s bodyguard and bouncer. In 1995 a search was conducted based on Crownover’s account to then Ottawa County Sheriff Ed Walker that Frazier had shown him where he thought two bodies had been buried.

“I believe he (Crownover) was interviewed by Dennis King the investigator then, and we are still trying to find those case files,” Floyd said. “This has been an ongoing deal for many years. Of course when I came into office, it was important to me. With the concerns bought to me, which we confirmed by bringing in the cadaver dogs and ME’s office, indicated we need to look further.”

Floyd said there is no specific identification of who might be buried on Frazier’s property.

“There was a lot of rumors for years,” said Floyd “ At this point, there’s no telling.”

The Miami News-Record reported in 1989 that Frazier had been shot to death sometime before 4 p.m. on a Thursday, Nov. 30 near one of his ponds. It was first thought he had suffered a heart attack until the Medical Examiner discovered a single bullet wound in his lower-back. Frazier’s home was found to have been burglarized the next day, and several receipts relating to his trout farm were missing, according to the MNR’s account.

On Dec. 11 the MNR reported then Sheriff Therl Whittle said the murder investigation was held up because he and his deputies were testifying in another murder trial and by bad weather with snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures.

Graves said he had heard many theories on what lead to his friend’s murder, but never knew what story to put stock in. Graves says at the time he and his wife feared for their own safety.

“Yeah, I was scared. We were afraid to walk out the front door for a while because we didn’t know what other people thought we knew, “he said. “There was a lot of strange people come to our house asking questions, some from Tulsa. Raymond told us one time he had to tell Cunningham to keep his Tulsa business in Tulsa and not be bringing it here, and a lot of strange things went on after that.”

White, Graves, Floyd and the investigative team are all hoping after so many years have passed that those who might have information will come forward.

“Don’t be afraid and tell the authorities,” Graves said. “I tried to get Raymond to tell the sheriff at that time when he was telling us that they were going to kill him and he said, ‘It won’t do a bit of good,’ and I didn’t understand at that time.”

Then Ottawa County Sheriff Therl Whittle died in 2013 at the age of 81.

“I thank God for the new law enforcement we’ve got today. They took a real interest in it,” Graves said.

“Any time on a cold case you start from the beginning. We wanted to start with the connections out here and work backwards and review old case files. It’s always important we look into things regardless of how old it is,” Floyd said. “I think it’s important we revisit these things especially if it’s a homicide. We will be looking at some of the unsolved old cold cases, it’s important that we give closure to the family. So, any information we can obtain or get from the community that hasn’t came forward yet, please do so and we will definitely look into it.”

Undersheriff Dan Cook said along with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, the Quapaw Tribal Marshals, Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Wyandotte Nation also played a huge role in the search by providing equipment, supplies and manpower to help with the search in the rural and very remote location.

“They’ve all been a tremendous help,” Cook said. “It wouldn’t be possible without them.”

An old road that can no longer be driven through on, 652 Road once ran past the now abandoned trout farm. Cook said in 1989 a bridge was washed out on 652 Road off of Highway 10 and Cayuga Road, making the property accessible only by off-road vehicles.

Frazier’s trout farm was a beautiful place at one time, according to Graves.

“He helped me get my fish farm started. He was a character,” Graves said. “He loved life and he loved to help people."

Melinda Stotts is the associate editor of the Miami News-Record. She can be emailed at mstotts@miaminewsrecord.com or followed on Twitter @MelindaStotts1.