Individual Details

Death

It has been eleven years since a Pontotoc County woman buried her teenage son in a grave...or did she? Fifteen-year-old Daniel Furr was reported missing in 1995. Now, his mother says she has doubts about whether or not a body authorities identified as her son is really Daniel. KTEN's Andrea Kurys reports. Gail Furr Whitson has a lot of questions about her son's alleged death that have yet to be answered. She says Daniel disappeared from home in July of 1995. Four days passed, then Pontotoc County officials found a badly decomposed body below a thirty foot cliff in Southeast Ada. Examiners matched dental records to the boy, but his mom says there was a lot of doubt. Whitson says the dental records they used were five years old. She also says examiners said the victim was 5 foot 4 with long hair, but her son was 5 foot 10 with short hair. Since the burial, visits to his grave have left the family unsettled. Whitson said. "Every day he's in the minds of all of us and it's hard not knowing where to go with it." Daniel's sister, Chelsea Furr said, "You know, you get all these questions going through your mind. You know, if he's alive and if he is, well you know, is he out there, what kind of life is he living? I don't know, it brings up a lot of questions." Recently, Whitson approached Pontotoc County officials to see if something could be done to settle the issue. She says she was told tissue samples from the boy's autopsy have been recovered from storage. Now all they can do is wait to see if DNA testing can solve this mystery...and bring some closure.

Mother wants proof buried body is her son
By Liz Brewer
ADA — Seeking help from every source available, Gail Furr Whitson has reason to want a definitive answer to an 11-year-old mystery surrounding a body authorities believed to be her missing son, Daniel Furr. After all these years, Whitson is hoping Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Agent Gary Perkinson will be able to order DNA testing on stored samples to determine whether the body buried 11 years ago is that of her son. “If there are no stored samples, I want the body exhumed,” Whitson said. “I’m ready to go all the way with this. I want to know if that’s my boy or not,” she said. “It’s hard to go to the cemetary, when you don’t believe your child is in that grave.” According to his mother, Furr had been involved with a rough gang for several months in 1995. He frequently stayed away from home in their company, and that July wasn’t the first time he had run away. Whitson said she received a phone call from a school official who wanted Furr to report to summer school, so she began an intense search for him. She left messages with anyone who might have seen him, trying to track him down, but found no leads to his whereabouts. Whitson said she reported to authorities her 15-year-old son had been missing since July 7, but none of the officers she spoke with took any notes or seemed to take her seriously. That is, until Jeff Glase, then Pontotoc County Sheriff, phoned to tell her a body had been found, but they could not tell if it was male or female, or the age at that point. A group of Boy Scouts, who had been exploring the area near the First Presbyterian Church, reported discovering the badly decomposed body on July 11, 1995. It was found below a 30-foot embankment in an abandoned quarry pit on the property of the old Ada Brick Plant on the southeast side of Ada. Clothed in shorts, a tank top and tennis shoes, the remains were sent to the state medical examiner’s office. Investigators transporting the body didn’t even check the pockets of the shorts for fear of destroying evidence. It took two days before officials released the identity through matching Daniel Furr’s dental records, but there was a lot of doubt. Examiners insisted the victim was 5 feet, 4 inches tall, but Furr was 5 feet 10 inches. Furr was 15 years old and the ME’s office listed the victim as someone in his or her mid-20’s. Investigators also said there were indications the death may have been the result of foul play. Whitson said she saw the body before it was moved. She said there were cut marks down the chest, and blood on the shirt, but authorities allegedly told her they could have been caused by an animal after death, or it could have been from the process of decomposing. Whitson said she tried to enlist the help of Unsolved Mysteries, and Cold Case Files, both television series productions, to investigate the case, but was informed that the case was never closed. Since it was still open, they could not gain access to the evidence collected.nShe approached Undersheriff Joe Glover to see what if anything could be done to settle the issue. Whitson said she was never convinced the body found 11 years ago was her son. Glover discussed the case with Perkinson. “If the samples from the autopsy are in storage at our McAlester facility, we’ll do the Mitochondrial DNA testing to compare against Gail’s profile,” Perkinson said. While DNA testing won’t tell her how he died, hopefully there is enough material to reach a conclusion that it is him or not after all these years. According to experts, there are three possible outcomes from a forensic DNA test, exclusion, inclusion or inconclusive. An exclusion is when the sample does not match the matrilineal profile with 100 percent certainty. An inclusion means the profile is consistent between the two samples. An inconclusive means that no meaningful results could be garnered, usually because the DNA was too degraded or in too small quantity.