Part Two: Three years since the murders of Kay and Ronnie Wilkson of Luther, their daughter, Evelyn Prince, is continuing her quest to find answers about their deaths and the crimes associated with it. We shared part of her story, in her own words, on the third anniversary of their deaths in October.
She is on a mission to honor her parents’ lives and legacy. Evelyn shares a heartbreaking look into the aftermath of the unimaginably horrific experience – the grief, the loss, the fractured relationships, the questions, and the frustration. As a result of Evelyn’s quest, Oklahoma City television station KWTV is picking up the story and it is expected to air December 12 at 10 pm.
Click here to read the first of Evelyn’s story.
Answers for My Parents, A Daughter’s Quest
Part Two: No Faith In The Justice System
By Evelyn Prince
Getting Answers
For the last three years, we have asked Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater for the evidence in my parents’ case, and had a meeting to discuss what happened with other law enforcement. I left the meeting with more questions and had the same result after talking to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Wellston Police Department, Lincoln County District Attorney, OSBI and FBI. It has been a vicious circle with no help.
Three years later we are running into everyone saying “statute of limitations;” the morbid details of our parents’ murder leaked out before our family was even told what happened. Oklahoma County leaked to the media and the rumors started about my parent’s testifying against Michael Vance in Lincoln County. All of this, I feel, was to cover the negligence of the law enforcement agencies due to what I believe is and was lack of training and following protocol at the initial shooting in Wellston/Lincoln County. Law enforcement could have prevented or caught him long before he was gunned down by a REAL HERO Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officers Costanza and Officers Clay Sanders. The full amount of justice for my parents will not be served until a full thorough investigation of all agencies involved has been done. I have been told by all of these agencies that we need to accept that the man that killed our parents is dead … and move on.
photo provided.
My parents gave me life and thirty-two years of theirs. If I have to fight the rest of my life for their justice, I will. I will take this cover up all the way to the President of the United States if that is what it takes. My parents did not deserve what happened to them and we did not deserve being treated the way we were during the worst time of our lives.
My youngest son spent his thirteenth birthday saying goodbye to both of his grandparents. At a time we rely on our law enforcement, they failed us. When calling 911 dispatch for records, I was told to get a subpoena but they said, “just to let you know, we only keep those records for two years” when I asked her for the numerous 911 calls from that night. I then spoke to someone who hung up on me. No surprise. Most of my calls end in a hang up. When I asked about Vance making a Facebook Live video thanking his sister and niece for their help, no answers. When I told them his sister told my sister she told Vance to go to my parent’s house but don’t hurt them, I was told, “well that’s all speculation now, since there was no investigation.” When Wellston and Lincoln County were contacted about the investigation, I was told there was no investigation because Michael Vance was killed.
Was the motive money?
In June 2016, we lost my oldest brother’s daughter to a drowning. My mom had gone to take out a loan for my brother to get an attorney to fight for custody of his other daughter so she would be safe. Vance’s sister worked there and I believe that was the money she told Vance to go get and said “but don’t hurt the people.” I have had three years of therapy to deal with the PTSD, Anxiety, Panic attacks, and depression from all of this.
I spoke with the Lincoln County DA with this information and was told to speak to the sheriff’s office; they didn’t investigate it. When I told him I had already spoken to them and was getting nowhere, he said, “well, it is three years later and I do not have any formal complaints.” When I call private attorneys, we are told unless we could prove negligence, they would not take the case and with multiple agencies involved. Every day I dedicate myself to bringing justice for my parents and for my family that law enforcement drug through the mud after the worst nightmare we had ever experienced and the emotional damage they caused with all of the rumors they started.
After we decided to leave the night of the murders in 2016, I walked to my family standing at the power plant parking lot near my parents’ home. I told my sister Cassie, brother Donald and Aunt Janet that I had to get out of there. We passed Triple X and Covell as I looked at the medical examiner’s vehicle backing into my parent’s driveway. I was in shock, crying, confused and had so many emotions. I came home; my boys had stayed with their other grandparents that night until we could figure out how to tell them their adored Grandma and Papa were gone. I cried all night, sick to my stomach, on the phone with my siblings, trying to make sense of what was happening. The next morning, my sister called and said the news was saying horrible things. I told my sister to turn off the TV and unless you hear from law enforcement, believe nothing. So that day, my sister got an investigator’s number and called him. He confirmed that it appeared Vance tried to dismember our mom and decapitate my dad.
The funeral
We started the process of planning our parent’s funeral. We were off and on the phone talking to others in the government to figure out what was going on since we were watching rumors online and on the news. People called saying he had a “hit list” and my two brothers were on it, and that my parents got killed because they were set to testify in Vance’s molestation rape case. Furious that we knew this was crap, we set out to find out who was starting the bogus rumors and leaking them to the media. At a vulnerable spot, we depended on our government agencies but they only caused more emotional damage to our torn up lives.
What do I want?
Here’s what I want. Help me figure out why all of this negligence took place. Can we have the evidence because we were told about a shot being fired through my parent’s screen door that hit my dad? We are not sure if he was outside and ran to help my mom or if he was running out. Going into my parent’s house that was always clean, the couches were pulled out to the middle of the floor, the house was ram-shackled and I didn’t know if this was from Vance or law enforcement investigating.
The detective said, “it was both.” That day we went back over to my parents with my siblings, standing next to the front door, I noticed a hole in my parents’ built-in entertainment center, so we looked on the other side of the wall, in the bathroom. We looked at the shower, three layers of shower curtain and in and out the other side of the shower through the other wall at an upward angel was a smaller hole than the one in the door going through the roof. I asked if they checked for fingerprints to see if anyone else was there.
He said they believed he acted alone.
I can’t go to Walmart without fear of what if it isn’t over? After the last year of therapy, I am slowly starting to gain back my life. When I asked authorities how many other family members do we have to worry about, the answer was, “hopefully none.”
How does that give anybody faith in our justice system?
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