Do you know who murdered Lactricia? In the winter of 2002, the life of 31-year-old Latricia Diane Fipps, a Caucasian mother from Tulsa, Oklahoma, came to a tragic and violent end, though the full story would remain a dark secret for over a decade. On November 20th, Latricia was last seen leaving her job with her ex-boyfriend, Joseph Gilbert Calvert. She had told people he was picking her up so she could get their child from daycare. An eyewitness saw her get into his Isuzu Rodeo.
Calvert later claimed he dropped her off safely at her home, but her mother, who was waiting for her, never saw her arrive. Latricia, a dedicated mother who had recently adopted a one-year-old boy and was in the process of adopting her three-year-old foster daughter, never picked up her children and was never heard from again.
For years, Latricia's disappearance was a painful mystery for her family, with authorities suspecting foul play but having little to go on. The break in the case came from an unexpected source nearly ten years later. In August 2012, police in New Mexico encountered a woman named Shanna Rene Ramsey who was in a state of hysterical intoxication. Ramsey, who had been living with Calvert at the time of Latricia’s disappearance, told the officers that her husband had killed someone in Tulsa and forced her to watch. Although she misstated the victim's name, this information eventually made its way to Tulsa investigators. In January 2013, now living in Owasso, Oklahoma, Ramsey provided a chilling and detailed confession to the Tulsa police.
Ramsey recounted how after Calvert picked Latricia up, an altercation began at the home she shared with Calvert. The three of them then drove to a motel near Amarillo, Texas, before continuing to a property near Tucumcari, New Mexico. There, in a desolate field, Calvert began to choke Latricia. He ordered Ramsey to hold Latricia’s legs as he ended her life. Her last words were a message for her young daughter: 'mommy loves you.' After the murder, Calvert placed Latricia's body in his vehicle, drove for about half an hour along New Mexico Highway 104, and buried her in an arroyo. Despite this confession, her remains have never been recovered.
In early 2018, the long arm of the law finally caught up with the perpetrators in New Mexico. Joseph Gilbert Calvert was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. Shanna Rene Ramsey was also arrested and faced charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, methamphetamine possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of false identification. Court proceedings eventually led to Calvert's conviction for the first-degree felony murder of Latricia Fipps, bringing a measure of justice to a case that had remained cold for so long.
