On a summer day in June of 1978, twelve-year-old Richard Jay Lorenz was traveling with his parents, Melvin and Linda Lorenz, on Interstate 35 near Purcell, Oklahoma. The family was on their way to North Dakota for a funeral, a somber journey that would tragically be cut short. Along the highway, they noticed a woman who appeared to be having car trouble and, in an act of kindness, they pulled over to offer assistance.
This fateful decision brought them face to face with Roger Dale Stafford and his wife, Verna.
What began as an offer of help quickly devolved into a horrifying ordeal. The Staffords' intention was not to receive aid, but to rob the unsuspecting family. The encounter escalated with shocking brutality, and all three members of the Lorenz family were shot and killed. Their bodies were later discovered discarded in a field by the roadside, a grim testament to the senseless violence that had unfolded. The family's pickup truck was stolen by the perpetrators.
The investigation into the Lorenz family murders initially left law enforcement with few leads. However, the case gained momentum following another horrific crime committed by the Staffords. Three weeks after the Lorenz murders, Roger Dale Stafford, along with his wife Verna and his brother Harold, murdered six employees during a robbery of a Sirloin Stockade restaurant in Oklahoma City. The connection between the two crimes was eventually made, leading to a breakthrough in the case.
Verna Stafford's testimony proved to be crucial in securing a conviction against her husband. She implicated Roger Dale Stafford in the Lorenz family murders, as well as numerous other crimes. Her account of the events on that tragic day on I-35 painted a chilling picture of the Lorenz family's final moments. Roger Dale Stafford was subsequently convicted of the murders of Richard, Melvin, and Linda Lorenz, in addition to the Sirloin Stockade killings. He was sentenced to death and was executed for his crimes, bringing a close to a chapter of terror that had claimed the lives of an innocent family on a lonely stretch of Oklahoma highway.
