Husband Accused In Wife’s Grisly Murder In MWC

The Midwest City Police Department has issued an arrest for warrant for a man accused in his wife’s murder.

MWC Police said 58-year-old Gary Don Griffin is accused in the first degree murder of 53-year-old Cynthia Griffin, who was found bludgeoned to death in her home Sunday, September 9.

According to the report, the Midwest City Police Department was contacted by the Kansas Highway Patrol after a trooper stopped to check on a vehicle driven by Gary Griffin on Interstate 35. He said his vehicle ran out of gas.

The trooper said Gary was acting “strangely” and he claimed the vehicle belonged to his wife. The trooper noticed Cynthia Griffin’s airport identification hanging from the rear mirror and that’s when the trooper called in a welfare check.

A MWC police officer responded to the Griffin’s home in the 5700 block of SE 5th Street. The officer left after no one answered the door. But hours later, a family member called to request another welfare check after stating Cynthia had missed work for several days.

The officer went back and entered the home where he reportedly found a female lying face down in a bedroom covered in “copious” amounts of blood. The officer said he found an aluminum baseball bat in a utility room “covered in blood and hair.”

The medical examiner determined Cynthia died from blunt force trauma.

While in custody in Kansas, Gary told a MWC police detective that he got into an argument with Cynthia about money. He said after the fight, he found the baseball bat and struck Cynthia multiple times in the back of the head as she was laying on their bed.

Gary then told the detective that he changed his shirt, washed his hands and used her credit card to check into a hotel room in OKC.

During the course of the investigation, officers learned that Cynthia’s phone was being used by an unknown male in Oklahoma City. The man in possession of the phone identified Gary Griffin as the person who sold it to him in early hours of Sunday, September 9.

The man said Gary approached him at a convenience store and offered to sell him the cellphone for $25, and he also set Gary up with a prostitute, according to the report.

When he arrived with the prostitute at Gary’s hotel room, he noticed a bloody face towel in the room. Gary claimed he got into a bar fight.

Afterward, the man said Gary tried to delete information from the cellphone.

"We appreciate the Kansas Highway Patrol trooper that began this investigation, and really followed up on some thing with a sixth sense that really didn't seem right," said Assistant Midwest City Police Chief Sid Porter. 

Gary told the MWC detective that when the Kansas trooper saw him on I-35, he was en route to Denver, Colorado to “start over and look for a new job”.

At this time, Gary is still in custody at the Butler County Jail in Eldorado, Kansas.