Bartlesville Police: 'Voice Of The Martyrs' Leader Target Of Investigation Before Death

Friday, April 20th 2012, 3:43 pm

By: News On 6

Bartlesville Police were beginning a molestation investigation involving the executive director of Bartlesville-based group "Voice Of The Martyrs" when his body was found.

Police Captain Jay Hastings said Tom White was reported missing Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, officers found his body in a warehouse at the ministry's headquarters.

4/19/2012 Related Story: Bartlesville's Voice Of The Martyrs Executive Director Dies

Hastings says they are awaiting on an autopsy and toxicology report from the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office.

Court records show Bartlesville Police filed a request for an order so White's cell phone provider could ping his phone as they searched for him.

In that request, police said White had been accused of molesting a juvenile female. Police said they were beginning an investigation when White disappeared.

Read Voice Of The Martyrs Statement Concerning The Death Of Tom White

Bartlesville Police found a note in his vehicle "that he was suicidal or possibly fleeing to avoid investigation."

In May 1979, White was captured by Cuban troops after the plane from which he was dropping Christian leaflets crash-landed on a Cuban highway. He was tortured and spent months in solitary confinement at Cuba's Combindado del Este Prison. He wrote a book about his experience, which was published in 1982.