Tulsa Police Want to Exhume Body in Newspaper Carrier Murder Case

By: Joe Strupp Police investigating a newspaper carrier's confession that he murdered two women along his paper route want to exhume the body of one of the alleged victims, the Tulsa (Okla.) World reported Wednesday.

The request is the latest development in the case of Paul Williford, a 64-year-old Tulsa World carrier who confessed last week to killing two elderly women along his route within the last four weeks.

The state medical examiner's office told the World that it had sent a letter to the Craig County District Attorney's Office saying Geraldine Lawhorn, 75, was buried without a proper death certification. Police have revealed that Williford confessed to killing Lawhorn and 73-year-old Donna Stauffer after being arrested for sexually assaulting and trying to kill another woman on Oct. 21. All three women lived on Williford's newspaper route.

Lawhorn died on Sept. 28, the World reported, and was buried in the Fairview Cemetery in nearby Vinita. The paper reported that she "had been under the care of the doctor who signed her death certificate" but her body never underwent an autopsy. The paper reported that police responded to her home when she died, but did not classify it as a homicide because "her body showed no signs of trauma or foul play."

No decision had been made as of Wednesday afternoon on whether to exhume Lawhorn's body, but the World reported that a district judge would likely have to determine if it is needed. If it is deemed necessary, family members could petition against it, the paper reported, and any subsequent autopsy could take weeks.

Stauffer, the other victim Williford confessed to killing, was cremated after her death, the paper reported. She was found unconscious on the floor of her living room Oct. 8, according to the World, which added that she was hospitalized on life support for three days before it was removed. Her cause of death was ruled to have been acute coronary syndrome due to arrhythmia.

Charges have not been filed against Williford for either woman's death, the World reported. He remains in jail on $1.2 million bail stemming from the assault case.

World editors had revealed that Williford delivered to 220 homes on two separate routes, and had been a carrier for about two years. The paper confirmed Wednesday that Williford also briefly delivered the Sunday edition of The New York Times to about 100 additional homes for a local distribution service in early October, but lost that job after refusing to place some papers on front porches. Police have said they planned to review the deaths of all residents along his routes.

Neither the World nor the Times distribution company, Good News Distributing, regularly conduct background checks on carriers, they said. World editors have said they plan to change that practice after learning that Williford had previous convictions for attacks on other women in the late 1980s.