Human remains found, Oklahoma white supremacist leader might be connected
State and federal agents are investigating whether a white supremacist prison gang is behind nine or more disappearances, multiple sources have told The Oklahoman.
Human remains were recovered this month at two central Oklahoma sites as part of the investigation, the state's chief medical examiner, Dr. Eric Pfeifer, said Wednesday.
The first site is in a semi-rural area of Logan County, north of Edmond near Interstate 35. Dogs could be seen in wire cages at the property Thursday.
The second site is by an oil well near Luther, sources said.
Recovered during an excavation at the second site were the comingled remains of possibly three people, the medical examiner said.
"We haven't sifted all the material. We brought back over 500 pounds of dirt to the office. And they are going through all of it with a fine sieve. But the thinking is when they were out there in the field … is that they may have found bones of three individuals," Pfeifer said.
"They were associated with burned wood and other material. … We've got our work cut out for us."
He confirmed that at least nine disappearances are associated with the investigation. "I just talked to my anthropologist. He quipped, 'The list keeps growing,'" Pfeifer said.
Others have put the number of missing at 12.
More: Oklahoma police detective indicted over 99 missing fentanyl tablets
Universal Aryan Brotherhood suspected in disappearances
Suspected in the disappearances is the Universal Aryan Brotherhood. Investigators have focused on a gang leader, three-time convicted murderer Mikell Patrick "Bulldog" Smith, sources said.
Witnesses told investigators Smith, now 57, owns the Logan County land where remains were first found, the sources said.
Smith murdered a Moore schoolteacher in 1985 and is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. He originally was given a death sentence for the shotgun slaying.
While in prison, he murdered two cellmates and stabbed a guard in the heart, his criminal record shows. He at one time was described as "the most dangerous inmate in the penitentiary."
More: Oklahoma House to investigate Swadley's, tourism deal as failed fire inspection surfaces
Involved in the excavations have been agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The OSBI confirmed Friday it is assisting the sheriffs of Logan, Oklahoma and Pottawatomie counties in "a joint investigation involving several missing persons."
Among those missing are Smith's brother, Phillip Martin Smith. Also missing is David Anthony Orr, of Del City, who was charged last year with drug and weapon offenses.
Federal prosecutors describe the Universal Aryan Brotherhood "as a white supremacist prison-based gang with members operating inside and outside of state prisons throughout Oklahoma.
The Universal Aryan Brotherhood was established in 1993 within Oklahoma prisons and modeled itself after the principles and ideology of the Aryan Brotherhood, a California-based prison gang that formed in the 1960s, prosecutors said in a news release this month.
From inside prison, Universal Aryan Brotherhood leaders have directed the distribution of drugs throughout Oklahoma, prosecutors said.