INSIDE BARBARA DAY'S PRETRIAL TESTIMONY — PART ONE

CAMP SCOTT – Ok, folks, we are officially now onto the next installment of the pretrial transcripts. We have reviewed the testimonies of Elder and Wilhite, and today we will be going over Barbara Day’s pretrial testimony, the camp director for the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts. And we have a lot more pretrial transcripts to sort through, so it’s safe to say this will probably span the course of several months.

So, let's get directly into Mrs. Day's pretrial testimony.

Barbara Day opened her pretrial testimony by touching on her duties as the camp director for the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts. She stated that the Camp Scott area was her direct responsibility and that she was present on June 12th, 1977, along with her husband, Richard Day. She went on to explain that she had a cabin where she and her husband lived during the summer months on the campgrounds. She said her cabin was approximately two to three football fields in length from the staff house and that the staff house was not visible from her cabin. She had a phone in her cabin and stated that the only other phone on the grounds was located in the ranger’s home. The ranger on that date was a man by the name of Ben Woodward, and his home was about 50 yards north of her cabin. She said she had access to vehicles while she stayed there during the summer. One was a van, and the other was a station wagon. She first arrived at Camp Scott that summer on June 5th, 1977, and stayed for a week while bringing supplies from outside the camp. She stated that her husband, Richard, arrived on June 12th.

She went on to state that June 12th was the opening day of camp, and her duty as camp director was to greet the Scouts as they arrived on buses and make sure they were assigned and placed in their correct units. She also had to make sure all the staff arrived and that all units were equipped with the proper equipment. She stated she greeted the buses herself as the children got off around 3:00 p.m. that day. Her husband was not with her at that time.

When asked how she knew Carla Wilhite, she stated that she had hired Wilhite as one of the camp counselors and had interviewed her on more than one occasion. She said she worked alongside her because Wilhite was supposed to teach a special art program, and she worked with her to make sure she had all the supplies she needed.

She was asked if she saw Wilhite on the morning of June 13th, and she stated yes. When asked when she saw her and what she was doing, she said Wilhite was “flying out of her bed.” That was at approximately 6:10 a.m. She said Wilhite was "banging and hollering." After she spoke with Wilhite, she stated she threw on some clothes, along with her husband Richard, and they ran out to the porch. On their way out, they grabbed their car keys, and all of them got into the station wagon to head over to the Kiowa unit. She said that happened within a span of about two or three minutes, from the time Wilhite began banging on the door to the time they arrived at the Kiowa unit.

She stated that when they arrived at the Kiowa Unit, they parked behind the camp nurse’s car, Mary Ann Alaback’s, and when they finally got to the scene, the only people they observed there were Alaback, Susan Emery, and Dee Elder. She said she first ran up to Mary’s car and noticed that Mary was really upset and getting excited. She began to babble. Barbara asked Mary where the girls were and was told that three girls were missing and one had been found lying in the road. She then approached the scene they pointed to, which was on the side of the road at a fork in the roadway. She said the most obvious observation at that point in time was the young Scout who was lying on the ground without anything on from the waist down, and her legs were spread very far apart. It also appeared that she had been hit on the head, and she had dried blood from a wound around her forehead. She said she was lying across "sleeping bag material." She then stated that next to her was another sleeping bag, and then a few feet from the second bag was a third.

She was asked if she touched the young Scout’s body at any point in time, and she said no. When asked if anyone else had touched her body, she stated her husband did, but she could not specifically recall exactly where he touched her body. When asked if she or any other person present moved or adjusted the position of her body at any point in time, she said they only did so after they had finally figured out what had happened and located the other two bodies. She said that someone present suggested they cover Denise Milner’s body. According to her exact words, she stated, "Yes, we won’t touch anything else. Cover her as best as you can." The reasoning behind that was so the other Scouts wouldn’t have to see. She then described how her husband covered Denise’s body by pulling the sleeping bag she was partially lying on over her. He could only cover so much without having to move her around too much, so he did what he could while Barbara and the camp nurse, Alaback, went to call for help.

She also went on to state that her husband, Richard, was the one who determined that Denise was deceased and then asked the counselors how many other girls were missing because they could not find Lori or Michele. They weren’t within sight, according to her account. She said after they looked around the area and still couldn’t see them, Emery picked up one or both of the other two bags and realized there was something inside. That’s when her husband, Richard, approached the other bags and touched only one to feel if there really was something in it. She stated she watched as he did this, and he confirmed, by feeling the bag, that there were bodies inside the sleeping bag.

She was then asked if she or any other persons present ever unzipped those sleeping bags, and she said they did not touch them, they did not look inside them at all, and she couldn’t recall if Emery picked up more than one bag. When asked if they put the sleeping bags back in the same position they were found before they touched them, she said Emery dropped them right where they were because Barbara and her husband told Emery not to touch anything.

Side note: this part is a little confusing to us because she stated that at least two people touched the bag, and then said they didn’t. We are assuming she meant they didn’t unzip the bags, but that’s just our guess.

She then stated that after they figured out what was going on, she and her husband got in the car and left. When asked where Wilhite was when she left, or if she stayed behind, Barbara stated that she assigned one or two people to stay back and keep the Scouts from passing by the scene and to make sure nobody else disturbed it. She couldn’t recall exactly who was assigned, but she knew she did do this. She asked the others present to go into the unit, wake up the rest of the Scouts, and take them down another path to get to the dining hall, but she couldn’t remember who. When asked again if she assigned someone to remain at the scene, she stated yes, but couldn’t recall exactly who she left in charge.

She said from there, she and her husband went to Ben’s home, the camp ranger. She couldn’t tell if he was home at first, so she started banging on the door. When there was no answer, she proceeded inside and found him asleep in his bed. She woke him up and told him everything that had happened. She said after she spoke with him, she instructed Woodward to take his truck and her husband so they could return to the scene and relieve the counselors assigned there so they could, in turn, go to the unit and help the others get the Scouts out. She then left in her car, went to her office, and called the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in Vinita.

She was then asked if she could estimate how much time had passed from when Wilhite first woke her up to the time she called OHP, and she said approximately 15 minutes, with 20 minutes being the most. After she placed the call to OHP, she stated that a trooper arrived within an hour, and the first trooper on scene was Harold Berry. She knew him previously, so she instantly recognized him when he arrived. When she was asked if she made any additional calls besides OHP, she stated that she did. She called her executive director, Bonnie Brewster, to let her know about the situation and advised Brewster to "take action" through the board of directors to handle everything that she (Barbara) couldn’t. She confirmed those were the only two calls she made, and then she left to ring the bell to get the Scouts up for breakfast. She stated that the bell rings for the entire camp, not just the Kiowa unit.

When asked how many camps there are on the grounds, she stated that there are five camper units, a staff unit, and a Counselor-in-Training (CIT) unit. When asked if the Kiowa unit was possibly visible from the area where she would ring the bell for breakfast, she stated no, explaining that the bell was next to her cabin.

She went on to state that the bell was rung early that day, about fifteen to twenty minutes earlier than she would normally ring it. She said they only used that bell to wake the Scouts up first thing in the morning or in case of an emergency, such as a fire. She knew that since she was ringing it earlier than normal, she would have to explain to the counselors what was going on. She then got into her car and went to each of the units' staff tents to explain that there was an emergency and that she wanted every single Scout in the great hall. She instructed them not to take any trails there and that they had to use the road instead. She said she also instructed the counselors not to let the Scouts brush their teeth or do their hair so they could get them over to the great hall as quickly as possible.

Once all the Scouts from each unit were at the great hall, she stated that she returned to the Kiowa unit and observed several law enforcement officers at the scene. When asked if she could identify who was there, she went on to name Harold Berry with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Sheriff Pete Weaver, a physician by the name of Dr. Collins, whom she also knew, and the camp ranger, Ben Woodward. When asked where her husband was at the time, she stated he was also there at the scene. She was also asked if Alaback’s car was still there, and she said she couldn’t remember if it was. The only other vehicles she observed were law enforcement vehicles.

Barbara also stated that she did not observe any difference in the conditions of the Kiowa Unit, and it appeared that the bags and the bodies were in the same position as they had been when they were first found. When asked how long she stayed at the Kiowa Unit that day, she said she was there for about 10 minutes the second time she arrived, and then she had to leave to escort the law enforcement officials to Tent 7, where the girls had been housed. She said they also looked around several other tents in that unit, and she then left after she "showed law enforcement people where those girls had lived."

Barbara was then asked if she had any knowledge of whether anyone other than those present and law enforcement had access to the scene during the time she left to wake the ranger, ring the bell, and return. She said the only thing she could say about that was that she felt confident the scene was more secure the moment law enforcement arrived because no one else could then try to enter. She also said she felt that since counselors were guarding the scene, she expected there to be no disturbances.

Now we are getting into the cross-examination portion of Barbara Day’s testimony. The defense attorney wanted to start by asking her some questions about things that may have happened before the camp officially opened to welcome the Scouts. She was asked if there was anything unusual or strange that had happened on the grounds that ever made her feel like the camp was unsafe, and she went on to state there was nothing unusual.

She was then asked if one of the Scouts or counselors had ever found a note stating that four little girls were going to be murdered, and she said, "Not at that time." She then went on to state that the note the defense attorney was referring to had been found several months before the Scouts arrived, around April, but she claimed she had no knowledge of that note until after the murders. When asked who found the note, she stated that a Scout by the name of Michelle Hoffman found it along with several other members of her troop. When asked who the other troop members were, she stated that Hoffman was in Troop 700 but that she was also there with Senior Scouts. The Senior Scouts were of high school age, and Hoffman was 15 years old (now 16 at the time of pretrial testimony) at the time.

She was then handed a piece of paper and asked to identify it. She stated it was a "rough rendering of Camp Scott central property." The defense then asked if she could show them the area where the note was found, and she stated she had only heard about it because she was not present. She went on to say that the Senior Scouts were helping with a Cadet Camporee program, which is a program for junior high schoolers. The seniors assisting with this was common and normal practice. She then went on to say she was present at the site and that there were about 200 people there at the time. She stated she was not with the Magic Empire Council yet, but she was attending as an observer because she had never set foot on the grounds with that many people there, and she wanted to see how everything worked. So she and her husband, Richard, decided to stay the weekend to observe how the programs and everything else operated.

When asked if she knew what was done with the note, she stated she had never heard of it at all. It wasn't until the summer of 1977 that it was first brought to her attention, sometime well after June 13th. She stated that she first learned of the note when she received a phone call from Hoffman’s mother.

She was then asked if anything odd happened during orientation week prior to the Scouts arriving. In previous testimony, it has also been called the precamp campout. She said no, nothing odd happened. She was then asked if they found an effigy hanging on the campgrounds, and she said not at that point in time. When asked when it was found, she went on to say that there was never an effigy found. She said that during the Cadet Camporee, a child claimed to have found a limb hanging strangely across another limb and thought it was a dummy. She went on to state that they determined it was simply a figment of the child's imagination and a misunderstanding caused by the way the limbs and trees had fallen in the aftermath of a storm. She also confirmed that she personally investigated it, along with her husband, the staff of the Cadet Camporee, and some parents.

She was also asked about the tent flap that was slashed, and she said that occurred after the precamp campout, after everyone had left. When asked if she was there the whole time during the precamp campout, she said yes, with the exception of attending a funeral in the middle of the week and taking care of some other business at the courthouse. She was asked if she noticed any intruders at camp during that week, and she said none that she was aware of...

And this one is a lot longer than we expected, so we are going to stop there and continue Barbara’s pretrial testimony in part two, which will be available very soon. We promise.

Source: Official Pretrial Transcripts

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