“MURDER OR SUICIDE?” the back and forth battle two years later

PRAGUE, Okla. (KFOR) – December 8, 2020, marked the starting of a nightmare for one Oklahoma household after they discovered their 14-year-old daughter’s lifeless physique of their storage with a gunshot wound to the head.

Since then, KFOR has spoken extensively with this household.

For them, it has been an advanced journey crammed with doubt and a back-and-forth battle over the ruling of their daughter’s demise and who’s accountable.p

“I used to come in here every day. I still come in here a lot. I’ll just sit on her bed. Sit in her chair. Just so I can feel close to her. Sometimes I talk to her in here,” Heather Williams stated. “It still smells like her.”

Alaunna Raffield has not been in her bed room in two years. She was Heather’s solely little one and simply 14 years previous.

“Her cheer uniform is still on the floor. I can’t even bring myself to pick it up,” Heather stated. “Probably forever. I can’t.”

December 8, 2020.

“About 6:15 that morning, Heather got up to let the dogs out, and I was in there getting ready for work,” Kevin Williams stated.

Kevin heard Heather crying in the storage.

“Heather was kneeling down next to Alaunna. She was lying down on the ground flat out on her back,” he stated. “So we called 911.”

Police arrived at their dwelling.

“They kept asking us questions if she’s left-handed. Was she in a physical altercation the night before? She had bruises on her abdomen, and there was a gunshot on her left side,” Kevin stated.

Alaunna is right-handed, however a gunshot went via the left facet of her head and exited the proper. No bullets have ever been discovered. There was no notice.

Kevin and Heather say they by no means heard the sound of a gunshot of their small dwelling. It was commonplace for Alaunna to rise up in the center of the evening to let loose her pet, however what was uncommon is the method she was discovered.

“To be standing like this facing out that way, there is a big, blank wall there that there would be a bullet hole,” Kevin stated. “There was nothing.”

What little proof Alaunna’s mother and father consider may exist they are saying both was by no means given a re-evaluation or destroyed. Within weeks, her demise was dominated a suicide.

“We’re the only ones fighting for her,” Heather stated.

Two years later, Heather and Kevin have filed a wrongful demise civil go well with.

“It’s a small town with limited resources,” legal professional Lloyd Palmer stated.

Palmer heads up a staff of attorneys working the case. They, together with Alaunna’s mother and father, consider the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation ought to have dealt with the case from the starting.

“On the most basic level, these things are bizarre,” Palmer stated.

A gun powder residue take a look at was by no means carried out on Alaunna’s head or palms however was on her clothes after a funeral dwelling worker washed the sweater she was sporting thrice. The gun that was discovered a number of ft from her physique belonged to the household however has by no means been positively recognized as the gun utilized in her demise.

Also of curiosity is Alaunna’s relationship with an 18-year-old boy, who admitted to police that he logged into Alaunna’s social media account after her demise to get photos. He additionally admitted to investigators that he’s the one answerable for a number of cryptic messages despatched from Alaunna’s account after her demise.

“These are very strange messages,” legal professional William Blocker stated.  “It could shed some light even if we have a bad relationship with a young man that was young but definitely too old. You combine that with all the facts of the case, it just doesn’t add up.”

News 4 obtained the boy’s telephone information, subpoenaed by attorneys, from his cellphone supplier.

“We want to know if he had any influence good or bad,” Palmer stated.

Police did search his telephone for a disturbing video the boy advised police he had that detailed easy methods to make a homicide appear like a suicide. However, his cellphone location would reveal maybe the most telling proof of all – the place he was at the time of Alaunna’s demise. While the teen has been served with the civil go well with, News 4 shouldn’t be naming him. Because he has by no means been arrested on any felony complaints regarding Alaunna’s demise.

“If he’s in the same town where he said he was not, then I don’t think this is going to be our job anymore.,” Palmer stated. “This should not be in the civil court at that matter. It should be prosecuted.”

The Prague Police Department says they closed the case. The OSBI says they by no means opened one. The District Attorneys Office tells News 4 Alaunna’s case is an open investigation. The unanswered questions on this case are simply as conflicting as the case’s standing. Open or closed? Murder or suicide?

“That’s probably the hardest thing as parents not knowing,” Kevin stated.

“I would love to have justice for her,” Heather stated. “How many cases are there like this in the world?”

On December 8, 2022, Heather and her husband obtained a telephone name from State Representative Kevin Wallace’s workplace informing them that language for a invoice is being drafted that can require the OSBI to analyze crimes scenes or instances like Alaunna’s as a substitute of police departments that won’t have the correct assets.