'They were just such innocent kids.' Who were the teens killed in Oklahoma massacre?
HENRYETTA, Oklahoma — Three white banners display the names of five teenagers whose lives were cut short in this small town.
One adorns the fence a daughter helped her father build. Another is suspended between two poles, drawing drivers' attention from the road. The last is secured to the rusted fence, shiny red balloons swaying above it and overlooking the property just outside of Henryetta, Oklahoma, city limits where they each spent their last hours.
Brittany Brewer, 15, and Ivy Webster, 14, thought they were just having another sleepover at the home of their friend, Tiffany Guess, 13.
Tiffany's siblings, Michael Mayo, 15, and Rylee Allen, 17, were also there that weekend, along with their mother, Holly Guess, 35.
And one other person was there, Holly's husband, a 39-year-old convicted rapist named Jesse McFadden.
To those who knew them, the five teenagers were just normal kids. They played sports, went to church and loved the outdoors, video games, art, shopping at the mall and spending time with their friends. Now, their names and what befell them have been shared across the world.
"These were just beautiful, young lives with bright futures," said a local deacon, Marcus Whitworth Sr., who attended the same church as Brittany. "And tragedy comes, and maims."
This Henryetta friendship was like that of most teen girls
Brittany, Ivy and Tiffany weren't the same age, but they were "like best friends," said Brittany's dad, Nathan Brewer. They talked "daily," including riding the same bus to and from school.
For fun, Brewer said they loved to go to the mall, go swimming, and they especially loved sleeping over at one another's houses.
"The kids were all really into their friends," said Janette Mayo, grandmother to siblings Rylee, Michael and Tiffany. "They all hung out, they'd come over to Holly's house to spend the night, they did camping trips, they did kayaking, they did going to the river, going swimming. They would take their friends with them everywhere."
Brittany and Ivy each had April birthdays, Brittany turning 15 on April 22 and Ivy turning 14 on April 23. Justin and Ashleigh Webster, Ivy's parents, said they had celebrated their daughter's birthday with a Hawaiian-themed sleepover. Ivy and her friends watched her favorite movie, "It."
"She had a good last few weeks, that's for sure," Justin Webster said. Tiffany and Ivy were "inseparable," he said, living less than a mile apart on Holly Road.
Ivy, along with Holly and her three children, had only lived in the town for about two years. They weren't as well known in the community, though Tiffany and her brother, Michael, ran track and cross country.
That's where Annika Kramer, 13, met Tiffany, whom she considered her best friend. Annika said the two of them loved running together, and that Tiffany taught her how to roller skate. The girls were supposed to try out for the cheer squad together that Friday night, but Annika said Tiffany never showed, blaming the absence on a family emergency.
Annika was even invited to the sleepover that same weekend, but her mom, Valerie Mosco, didn't allow her to go.
Annika's older sister, Addison Kramer, 14, was in several classes with Ivy. Addison said Ivy knew how to cheer people up when they were feeling down.
Ashleigh Webster agreed, saying Ivy would "go out of her way to make people feel happy."
All-around 'wonderful children'
Before Holly Guess and her children moved to Henryetta, they were living in Westville, Oklahoma, just minutes from the Oklahoma/Arkansas border.
Mayo said she used to see her grandchildren every day, but when they moved, she was only allowed to see them on holidays and special occasions. Her Facebook says her eight grandchildren are her "world," and includes many public photos of Holly Guess' three kids from when they were very young up until a few years ago.
They sported Halloween costumes like a dairy cow, Disney's Princess Belle and a race car driver. They opened Christmas presents in their pajamas. They held puppies, played in the fall leaves, ate ice pops and birthday cake.
"They were just all-around wonderful, wonderful children," Mayo said of her three grandchildren.
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The three were roughly two years apart each, with Michael being in the middle. He was also part of the track and cross-country team, and loved to play video games when he wasn't running. Mayo also told The Oklahoman he was interested in playing football.
The door to his room at the Holly Road home has a sign that says "Warning, may yell at video games," according to footage obtained by The Oklahoman. Inside, his room depicts the life of a normal teenage boy: PlayStation controllers, a Batman costume mask, a compound bow and a San Antonio Spurs flag decorating his closet.
Mayo said Rylee, the oldest of the three at 17, wasn't into sports like her siblings. She loved to draw and paint her favorite anime shows, was an avid reader and wanted to be a doctor one day.
Inside the room shared by Rylee and Tiffany were posters of the Japanese superhero manga series "My Hero Academia" hanging above one bed, with cow spot decals on the wall above the other. The girls' ceiling had been transformed with fluffy batting to look like clouds. School supplies and clothing were scattered about.
"They were just such innocent kids," said Lynn Wyatt, Mayo's sister-in-law. "All of them just had birthdays in the past three months."
The last weekend
The last weekend of April started like any other for the group. Ivy and Brittany, along with at least two other girls who declined, both received invites to come over to Tiffany's, go to the mall and spend the night.
Jesse McFadden picked Brittany up about noon on Saturday, and the plan was to take the girls shopping at the mall and to Main Event — a family entertainment center — in Tulsa. Ivy Snapchatted her mother throughout the night, Ashleigh Webster said. She told NewsNation she and her daughter were exchanging photos up until close to midnight.
The next morning, both sets of parents received messages from their daughters that they were heading to McFadden's family property in McAlester. The kids liked to go swimming in the pond there, Brewer said, and he didn't think anything was amiss.
"We knew Jesse and the family for almost two years, and nothing (was) alarming at all, nothing," Brewer said. "And my daughter Brittany had done these sleepovers before. And Tiffany and Ivy had come over here for sleepovers."
But that message Sunday morning was the last he heard from Brittany. The moment he knew something was really wrong was when he went outside Monday morning to watch the school bus pass by, and saw that neither Brittany, Ivy, Tiffany, Michael or Rylee were on it.
Sometime between Saturday night and Monday, authorities say McFadden shot his wife, her three children and their two teenage friends in the head before killing himself.
Their bodies were found spread out around on the property, each with gunshot wounds in their heads, some near a creek and some in a wooded area. Investigators said the victims were shot between one and three times in the head.
Brittany's and Ivy's parents now wonder if the messages they received on Sunday really came from their daughters.
"They won't be able to tell me exactly when she died, but I think she died not too long after that (message)," Brewer said. "I think while I was at church is when my daughter was murdered. Honestly, that's what I believe."
How the Henryetta teen victims will be remembered by the community
In the first week after the deaths were announced, the community gathered twice to pray. The first, a vigil held at the Henryetta High School gym a few hours after the bodies were found. The second, held a few days later in a community center and hosted by a group of local ministers to honor the National Day of Prayer.
Though the day set aside by President Harry S. Truman in 1952 highlights various topics to pray over, those leading the event made it a point to also pray for the families of the victims and for the Henryetta community as they deal with the tragedy.
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"God orchestrated that we would be able to pray for a broken and hurting community," said Suzie Stephens, who helped direct the event.
David Cooper, part of the Henryetta Ministerial Alliance, said the only victim he really knew was Brittany, through marching in the Christmas parade with her and her participation in the recently started "Teen Talk 2.0" ministry for teens that meets on Sundays.
"Brittany helped us, she walked the whole complete thing, throwing candy to the kids and all that with us," Cooper said. "She was just real good."
Cooper said he and others noticed Brittany's absence at Teen Talk Sunday, the day before she was declared missing. He said what happened on Holly Road is going to deeply affect the children of Henryetta.
"These teenagers, it's going to impact them for the rest of their life," Cooper said. "It's gonna trigger something in them that they won't have any trust with anybody. ... That's good, but it's bad. It throws fear into the mix. And I can go through the word, there's 365 times in the Bible it says 'Do not fear.'"
Brewer said his daughter was a church nursery volunteer and enjoyed working with children.
Hayley Brewer, Brittany's 4-year-old sister, keeps repeating "Brittany's lost, Brittany's lost," Brewer said.
One of the hardest things for him will be explaining to her that Brittany isn't coming back.