Do you know who murdered Gertrude? In the autumn of 1981, a quiet, wealthy neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, became the scene of a brutal crime that would remain a mystery for decades. Gertrude Caroline Blakey, a 73-year-old woman, was found viciously beaten in the doorway of her home on October 13th. There were no signs that someone had forced their way into her residence, and nothing of value appeared to have been taken, which suggested to investigators that this was not a random act of violence.
Gertrude was rushed to the hospital, but tragically succumbed to her injuries eight days later, on October 21, 1981, from what the medical examiner determined to be blunt force trauma. For a long time, her case grew cold, leaving a family fractured and searching for answers.
The initial investigation by the Tulsa Police Department yielded few leads. In the years that followed, Gertrude's grandson, Marshall Johnson, took it upon himself to uncover the truth behind his grandmother's murder. His relentless pursuit for justice has brought to light a complex family history fraught with conflict. Suspicion has been cast upon Gertrude's own daughter, Ann Elder, and her husband, Richard, as potential individuals of interest. Johnson's investigation has suggested that a bitter dispute over Gertrude's considerable estate may have been a motivating factor in her death. This theory is bolstered by the fact that Gertrude was scheduled to testify in court against her daughter and son-in-law regarding the welfare of their children just a day after she was attacked.
Despite the passage of time, no arrests have ever been made in connection with Gertrude Blakey's murder, and the case officially remains an unsolved homicide. The investigation has seen moments of potential breakthroughs, including the discovery of a lead pipe near the crime scene by a neighbor a couple of months after the attack. However, even with this piece of evidence, authorities have been unable to definitively link anyone to the crime. An early report mentioned a neighbor seeing a man running from the area around the time of the assault, but this lead never materialized into a concrete identification. The case is now in the hands of the Tulsa Police Department's Cold Case Unit, where it waits for the one piece of information that might finally bring closure to a family that has waited over four decades for justice.
