In the quiet town of Seminole, Oklahoma, the life of 30-year-old Summer Dey Gokey, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, was tragically cut short on Friday, March 20, 2015. A housekeeper at the local Best Western and a member of the Spring Baptist Church in Sasakwa, she was a mother to a young daughter.
On that March morning, the community was shaken by a grim discovery behind the local Walmart.
Summer and a companion, 26-year-old Joseph Daniel Bounds, a member of the Seminole Nation, were found deceased inside a vehicle. Both had sustained fatal gunshot wounds to the head, and authorities swiftly ruled their deaths a double homicide. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation joined the Seminole Police in a thorough investigation into the brutal slayings that had unsettled the small town.
The investigation led authorities to a suspect who was already in custody on an unrelated charge. Kadetrix D. Grayson, who was 22 years old at the time, was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Summer Gokey and Joseph Bounds. He was also charged with possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction. In 2018, Grayson was convicted for the murders, bringing a measure of judicial closure to the families and the community that had been so deeply affected by the violent loss of two of its own. Summer Gokey was laid to rest in the Sac & Fox Nation Cemetery in Stroud, Oklahoma.
