Cold Case Finally Closed After 2-Year Delay

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- A cold case involving a McClain County man is now a closed case, but a mother's sorrow is mixed with anger over what she claims was some official bungling.

Two state agencies, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the State Medical Examiner's Office, have now admitted they made mistakes.

Jimmy Frank McCullough vanished in June 2005, shortly after leaving a casino in Ardmore.

More on News9.com: McClain County Works to Solve Cold Cases

Last week a DNA lab at North Texas State University released its findings on some skeletal remains found in Ardmore 10 months later.

"They ran the analysis and the results did come back as Mr. McCullough," said McCalin County Investigator Dana Guthrie.

It was news that McCullough's mother had dreaded hearing.

"I thought it wouldn't bother me so much, but it just literally knocked me out," said Violet McCullough, Jimmy McCullough's mother. "I just broke down, that was it."

Violet McCullough is also angry that the Medical Examiner's Office waited almost two years before sending the remains to the Texas laboratory.

A spokesman for the Medical Examiner said the person who was responsible for the McCullough case no longer works there.

"During about a 14 month time period, no documents were put in this case files, so I don't know what was being done," said Cherokee Ballard of the Medical Examiner's Office.

The Medical Examiner's office regrets what happened and so does the OSBI.

When the OSBI first got the case in 2007, the Bureau thought it could start DNA testing procedures only in criminal cases. McCullough's death is not considered a criminal matter.

Four months later, the OSBI realized it didn't need to have a criminal case to start the testing and sent bone fragments to Texas early last year.

"That four months lag time is absolutely an honest mistake by OSBI and I can guarantee you, it will not happen again," said Jessica Broke of the OSBI.

The apologies come too late to help Violet McCullough.

"It may just be bones to them, but to us this is a person," Violet McCullough said.

The Jimmy McCullough case is closed.

Jimmy Frank McCullough's funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Byars.