Reward In Weeletka Killings Raised to $160,000

Staff and Wire Reports

OKEMAH, Oklahoma -- State investigators announced that an increase in the reward offered for information in the shooting deaths of two girls near the town of Weleetka last summer has been raised to $160,000.

The money was donated from an anonymous donor and two Tulsa area independent oil companies, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The additional $120,000 is a time-limited reward offered for the next 90 days.

OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown says the donations allowed for the "sizable increase" to the current $30,000 reward. The increase was announced in a news conference Thursday.

Thirteen-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker were gunned down June 8, 2008, along a dirt road in rural Okfuskee County, about 70 miles south of Tulsa.

No arrests have been made in the case and authorities still are searching for a motive. Brown says leads in the case continue to come in and that the investigation is moving forward.

The original $30,000 reward included $20,000 from the community, $10,000 from the U.S. Marshal's Service, and $10,000 from the OSBI. That rewarded is ongoing, not time limited.

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