Teens' Suspicious Deaths Still Have Police Baffled

Police investigating the deaths of two Oklahoma teens have run into dead ends.

Friday, February 3rd 2012, 12:27 am

By: News 9

Teens' Suspicious Deaths Still Have Police Baffled

Police investigating the deaths of two Oklahoma teens have run into dead ends.

Kelsey Bransby and Alina Fitzpatrick were found dead within two weeks of each other last Fall. Both of their deaths remain unsolved.

Police say Bransby and Fitzpatrick may have died within weeks of each other but the circumstances surrounding their deaths and the subsequent investigations are different.

Criminologist Howard Kurtz believes the girls may have shared more than meets the eye.

"Oklahoma as far as teen homicides in the country, we are kind of in the top ten for that," Kurtz said.

Neither Fitzpatrick's nor Bransby's families were willing to talk on camera, but Kurtz believes the common link was a troubled life.

"When they examine teenage homicides, what they discover is a lot of them are gang related and we are seeing a growth of gangs in Oklahoma. A lot of them are alcohol and drug related," he said.

Fitzpatrick was found nude, bruised and gagged in a northeast Oklahoma City field last November.

"The Fitzpatrick death is being investigated as a suspicious death," said Captain Dexter Nelson of the Oklahoma City Police Department. "The Medical Examiner found meth-alcohol toxicity, but they can't rule on a cause of death. Because of that, we probably will never come up with an answer."

Police found Bransby shot in the face in her southwest Oklahoma City apartment in October. Investigators are still interviewing those that knew her and offered a cash reward for information that may lead to an arrest.