In the heart of the Comanche Nation in Oklahoma, a young woman's life was tragically cut short, leaving a void in the lives of her loved ones that remains to this day. CiLina Teira Bell-Deloney, a 21-year-old female of Comanche, Pawnee, Kiowa, and African American descent, was a devoted mother to her three-year-old daughter. Her journey ended abruptly on the morning of January 16, 2017, a day that began with a routine trip to a Walmart on Sheridan Road in Lawton, where she was last seen alive
at 5:45 AM in the company of people she knew.
Later that morning, a passerby made a grim discovery on Paint Road in Comanche County. The body of CiLina Bell-Deloney was found lying in the road, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators believe her body was left at the location between 9:30 and 11:00 AM. Adding to the mystery, her car was later found abandoned in the parking lot of the Walmart where she was last seen. The months leading up to her death had been fraught with difficulty for CiLina and her family, who had been the victims of a home invasion in October of the previous year, though it remains uncertain if this event was connected to her murder.
The investigation into her death has been a long and arduous one, leaving her family with more questions than answers. Although authorities have conducted numerous interviews and polygraph tests, no arrests have been made in connection with her murder. At one point in July 2017, a person of interest was named, but he was later cleared. The Comanche County Sheriff's Office initially headed the investigation, and in 2020, the sheriff stated they believed they knew who was responsible but lacked the evidence to proceed with an arrest. In December 2021, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation took over the cold case and has offered a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. CiLina's case is a painful reminder of the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, as her family continues their desperate search for justice.
