On Halloween night in 1972, the life of 4-year-old Dana Dyane Dean, a little girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was stolen in an act of shocking violence. The person responsible was not a stranger but her own teenage cousin, setting in motion a lifetime of tragedy that would affect multiple families. The senseless murder of a child, especially by a family member, left a permanent scar on the community and was the first chilling act of a future serial killer.
That evening, Dana was at her uncle's
house with family. Her 13-year-old cousin, Wayne Henry Garrison, lured her into a crawlspace beneath the house. There, in the dark, he wrapped a felt headband around her neck and asphyxiated her. The following morning, on November 1, Dana’s father, James, realized she was missing. He reported her disappearance to the police around 7 a.m. A search of the home quickly led to the grim discovery of Dana's body in the crawlspace.
The investigation moved swiftly due to the circumstances. Suspicion fell upon Wayne Garrison, who was present at the family gathering. He was arrested shortly after Dana was found and quickly confessed to the killing. Years later, it was reported that Garrison told a detective he killed his young cousin simply because she was annoying him. The crime was brutal, sudden, and devoid of any understandable motive, a terrifying window into the mind of the young killer.
Because of his age, Garrison was not tried for murder in an adult court. Instead, his case was handled by the juvenile justice system. A juvenile court petition for murder was amended, and he was ultimately adjudicated a "child in need of supervision." In December 1972, a judge ordered him committed to the Central State Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Norman, Oklahoma, for treatment. This decision meant that for the murder of his young cousin, Garrison would not face a criminal conviction or a prison sentence.
The leniency of the juvenile system would have devastating consequences. In 1974, while on a 10-day leave from the hospital, Garrison abducted and murdered 3-year-old Craig Neal. For this crime, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter and received a mere four-year prison sentence, being released when he turned 17. His pattern of violence continued, culminating in the 1989 abduction and murder of 13-year-old Justin Wiles.
It was the investigation into Justin Wiles's murder that finally brought an end to Garrison's freedom. Though he evaded charges for years, investigators were persistent. In 1999, as he was nearing release from prison on an unrelated conviction, new evidence, including a bite mark, definitively linked him to the Wiles case. He was arrested just minutes after his release and finally stood trial for first-degree murder.
Wayne Henry Garrison was found guilty and initially sentenced to death, but this was later overturned. In 2007, he accepted a plea deal that resulted in a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. His other convictions included second-degree manslaughter, insurance fraud, abduction of a minor, and giving prescription painkillers to a minor. While justice for his later victims eventually kept him from harming anyone else, it all began with the tragic, violent death of his 4-year-old cousin, Dana Dyane Dean, on a dark Halloween night.
