In the early morning hours of June 17, 2000, a Comanche County sheriff's deputy on a routine check of a rural area off Bethel Road, known as a dumping ground for remnants of meth labs, discovered the body of a young woman in a small creek. The woman was identified as 21-year-old Mandy Ann Raite, a female from Lawton, Oklahoma. Her body was found nude, and while the initial cause of death was listed as an accidental cocaine overdose due to the presence of the drug in her system, the case is
considered a homicide. There were no immediate outward signs of trauma on her body, and no other evidence was recovered at the scene.
Mandy had been missing for approximately three days before her body was found. She was last seen by a friend leaving the Sheridan Inn on June 14th, where she had been living with her boyfriend. Despite the sheriff's department reportedly monitoring the area where she was found, it is believed her body may have been there for at least four days. Mandy, a mother to a small child, had been grappling with drug addiction and was known to be a prostitute in the Cache Road area. However, by all accounts, she was making efforts to turn her life around and had been in daily contact with her mother until just before her disappearance. She had dreams of being an artist and a mother, free from the grips of addiction.
The investigation into Mandy Ann Raite's death remains a cold case, with no arrests having been made and no specific suspects publicly identified. Her death is believed to be part of a string of unsolved murders of women in the Lawton area between 1999 and 2003, often referred to as the 'Lawton Serial Killer' cases. Several of these women were also found nude in or near water. At the time of her death, Mandy and her boyfriend had been planning a move to Texas. Some of her personal belongings, including a gold chain with two baby rings that she always wore, an address book, and some clothing, were never found. Her boyfriend's car was discovered with its windows down in a Lawton apartment complex parking lot about two days after her body was located. He had been in jail at the time of her disappearance, having been arrested on June 11th on an absent without leave charge from the military, reportedly after an argument with Mandy. He contacted her mother on June 21st after his release, stating he couldn't find her and that she had his car. The case continues to be investigated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
