In the spring of 1978, the life of Shirley Phyllis Ahhaitty Gokey, a 43-year-old female of the Kiowa Tribe, came to a tragic and mysterious end. On May 20th, she was last seen in Shawnee, Oklahoma. A week later, on the evening of May 27th, her body was discovered by two boys in a wooded area northeast of the city, just off Moccasin Trail Road. The initial discovery was unsettling, with what at first appeared to be gunshot wounds to her forehead and chest.
However, investigators later determined these marks were the result of decomposition.
Despite the initial suspicious signs, and the fact that her body was found nude, the official ruling on her cause of death was natural causes. This conclusion was heavily disputed by her family, who have always maintained that she met with foul play. Their belief was bolstered by the circumstances leading up to her death. She had recently been released from jail in Chandler for public drunkenness and had traveled to Shawnee in search of her husband. Witnesses reported that she was last seen leaving a bar with a man.
This individual was questioned by authorities and admitted to being with her on the night she disappeared. According to some accounts, this man had a reputation for violent behavior, especially when intoxicated. Despite this, he was released, and no arrests have ever been made in connection with her death. Investigators were unable to determine if she had been sexually assaulted. Tests indicated that she likely died between May 21st and May 22nd, just a day or two after she was last seen alive.
Born on September 5, 1934, in Lawton, Oklahoma, to Walter Ahhaitty and Irene Yellowfish, Shirley attended Lawton High School. She married Leon Elmer Gokey in 1960 and was a mother to eight children. For decades, her case has remained cold, a lingering question for a family still searching for answers and a community left to wonder what truly happened in those final days of May 1978. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation have been the primary agencies involved in the case, which remains one of Pottawatomie County's unresolved deaths.
