In the late summer of 1977, the small mining community of Picher, Oklahoma, was gripped by a growing sense of fear. The disappearance of twenty-three-year-old Ellen Deann Rowden in August marked the third case of a missing female from the area in a short period, leaving residents on edge. Rowden was last seen in a local bar in Picher, in the company of three other individuals, before she vanished.
The unsettling mystery of her whereabouts lingered over the community for months.
The grim answer to what happened to Ellen Rowden came in April of the following year. Her remains were discovered just across the state line in Treece, Kansas. In a chilling discovery, her body, along with that of another missing girl, thirteen-year-old Julia Miller, who had vanished in June 1977, were found in close proximity to one another. Both victims had been bound to trees, a detail that painted a horrific picture of their final moments and signaled a predator in their midst.
The investigation into the disturbing murders eventually focused on a primary suspect: Karl Lee Myers. Myers was brought to trial for the murder of Ellen Rowden, but in a turn of events that offered no solace to the grieving families, he was acquitted of the crime. Despite his acquittal in Rowden's case, Myers' name remained tied to the shadow of suspicion. He had a prior connection to the mother of the other victim, Julia Miller, having lived with her before the young girl's disappearance and murder, though he was never charged in that case. Myers would go on to be convicted of sexual assault in Ottawa County in 1979, serving six years in prison. His violent criminal history culminated in a 1998 conviction for the murders of two women in the Tulsa area. Myers ultimately died in prison in 2012, taking any secrets he held about the deaths of Ellen Rowden and Julia Miller to his grave. No one else was ever charged in connection with Ellen's murder.
