PART 2 — THE GIRL SCOUT MURDERS OF 1977: PRETRIAL TESTIMONY FROM CHIEF COUNSELOR DEE ELDER

CAMP SCOTT — In the days, months, and years that followed the murders at Camp Scott, investigators worked tirelessly to determine exactly what happened. The case eventually resulted in an arrest, a widely followed trial, and an acquittal. Despite decades of investigation, the murders remain officially unsolved nearly 50 years later.

To better understand the timeline and what unfolded that night, we dug through the pretrial transcripts and put together a summary of the firsthand testimony from the counselors assigned to the Kiowa Unit. We'll begin with the unit's chief counselor, Dee Elder. The other two counselors assigned to the Kiowa Unit were Carla Wilhite and Susan Emery, and we'll break down their firsthand testimony in the next drop as we continue piecing together the timeline of that tragic night.

According to the pretrial testimony, Dee Elder said the Girl Scouts arrived at Camp Scott by Greyhound bus sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 that afternoon. After arriving at the Kiowa Unit between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m., everyone gathered in the unit kitchen, where the girls were given the opportunity to pick which tent they wanted to stay in and who they wanted to bunk with. Around 5:30 p.m., preparations for supper began at the Great Hall. Elder testified that six girls had been selected as "hoppers" and helped set the tables before the rest of the campers arrived around 6:00 p.m. She explained that being a hopper was simply one of the many camp chores assigned to the girls.

And just to give y'all a better sense of the camp's layout, the Scouts traveled along a path called Cookie Trail to get between the Kiowa Unit and the Great Hall. Elder described the first night's dinner as loud and full of excitement, saying that was pretty typical for the first day at camp. She also recalled the weather during that time and said that while dark clouds had already begun moving in, the rain hadn't started just yet. After supper, all of the Scouts and counselors gathered on the porch to sing songs. While they were there singing, a strong thunderstorm began to roll into the area, so everyone eventually split off into their individual units and headed back to their campsites. By the time the girls in the Kiowa Unit returned, Elder testified they were completely soaked from the rain.

According to Elder, she then instructed the girls to change into dry clothes before making her way through the Kiowa Unit, going from tent to tent to fasten the buttons and tighten the ropes to better secure each tent against the storm. She estimated this took place sometime between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. Once everyone had changed into dry clothes, Elder brought cookies back from the Great Hall, and the girls gathered again in the unit kitchen, where they went over camp rules, talked about camp activities, sang a few more songs, and enjoyed their cookies before eventually returning to their tents to settle in for the night.

According to Elder's testimony, she made one final round through the Kiowa Unit between approximately 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., stopping at each tent. She explained that it wasn't uncommon for some of the girls to become homesick on the first night of camp, so she wanted to make sure everyone was doing okay. She was also asked why Tent 7 housed only three girls instead of four. Elder explained that one Scout had accidentally ended up in the Cherokee Unit during the confusion caused by the storm and because of the heavy rain, the counselors decided to let her stay there, leaving only three girls, Michele, Denise, and Lori, assigned to Tent 7. Elder also testified that after completing her final rounds, many of the girls were still excited and talking, so she occasionally called out from the counselors' tent, asking them to settle down. She explained that this wasn't anything out of the ordinary and was fairly common on the first night of camp.

According to Elder's testimony, at approximately 1:30 a.m., she heard what sounded like a door slam. Carla Wilhite got up to see what had caused the noise and found several Scouts returning from the restroom. Wilhite walked them safely back to their tents before returning to the counselors' tent. Elder testified that she eventually fell back asleep and didn't wake again until around 6:00 a.m., when Carla Wilhite's alarm went off. She said she briefly considered going for her usual morning run, something she had done each morning during the counselors' training the week before, but decided she was too tired and stayed in bed trying to wake up.

Elder testified that Carla then left the counselors' tent and started walking toward the shower house. Just a minute or two later, Carla yelled for her to wake up and begin counting the girls. According to Elder, she didn't know why an immediate headcount was needed. After getting dressed, she asked Carla what was going on, and Carla simply replied that there was "something in the road." The two counselors then split up to conduct a headcount. Carla started at Tent 1 while Elder went directly to Tent 7, planning to meet in the middle and compare their numbers. When Elder reached Tent 7, she immediately realized something was wrong. She testified that the tent was empty. Michele, Denise, and Lori were gone, and so were their sleeping bags. Elder called for the other counselors to come over, and at first they tried to figure out where the girls might have gone. They wondered if the girls had simply taken their sleeping bags to another tent. But as they looked more closely, they began noticing other things that didn't seem right.

According to Elder's testimony, the mattress covers had been removed from the cots, and there appeared to be blood inside the tent. She explained that when she first opened the tent, all of the flaps were still closed, making it extremely dark. At first, all they could really see were the empty cots, and because of the poor lighting, they couldn't immediately tell how much blood was actually inside. Elder was asked what they initially believed had happened. She testified that their first thought was that one of the girls may have suffered a nosebleed. According to Elder, the counselors counted the Scouts three or four different times to make absolutely sure no one had simply wandered away. While they were completing those repeated headcounts, Elder testified that she suddenly heard counselor Susan Emery scream.

One part of Elder's testimony definitely caught us off guard. According to the pretrial transcript, after hearing Susan Emery scream, Elder testified that she ran over to her, hit her, and told her to be quiet. Reading that by itself is a little surprising, but at the same time, it's important to remember that the transcript only records the words that were spoken. It doesn't capture the emotions everyone was experiencing or just how chaotic that moment must have been. When we look at the circumstances as a whole, one possible explanation is that Elder was trying to keep Emery quiet so the other Scouts wouldn't wake up and witness the horrific scene. That's simply our interpretation based on the circumstances and not something Elder specifically stated during her testimony.

After that, Elder testified that she ran toward her car to get to the staff house, where the camp director and her husband lived. Once she got into her vehicle, she immediately started driving in that direction. About halfway there, she encountered camp nurse Mary Ann Alaback, who was already on her way to the Kiowa Unit. And just to give y'all an idea of the distance, the staff house was located down Kiowa Road, past the Quapaw Unit, roughly a quarter to half a mile from the Kiowa campsite.

During cross-examination, Elder was asked what Carla Wilhite had said to her that morning. She testified that Carla told her, "Dee, you've got to get up. We've got to count kids." She was also asked how long it took before she realized something was seriously wrong. Elder testified that after counting the Scouts several times, she knew something wasn't right and immediately felt she needed to get the camp director. When asked what she told camp nurse Mary Ann Alaback after meeting her on the road, Elder testified that she told the nurse something horrible had happened and that she believed the children were dead. She went on to explain that she didn't know why she said that or how she knew. According to her testimony, the words simply came out.

When Elder arrived at the staff house, she testified that the camp director, her husband, and Carla Wilhite were already getting into the camp's station wagon to head back to the Kiowa Unit. Elder then went to the nearby Quapaw Unit, where another headcount was conducted. According to her testimony, camp staff quickly decided they needed to get the Scouts away from the area before they realized something terrible had happened. The girls were quietly led out using a back road so they wouldn't see the crime scene and were taken to breakfast while law enforcement and emergency personnel continued responding to the camp. And during breakfast time, the counselors were interviewed by state police three at a time before being released.

According to Elder's testimony, the counselors did everything they could to keep the morning as normal as possible for the Scouts while investigators processed the scene. The girls continued participating in camp activities, including crafts, while law enforcement conducted their investigation. During craft time, the counselors asked whether any of the Scouts had heard or seen anything unusual during the night. According to Elder's testimony, none of the Scouts reported hearing anything unusual during the night, and to the best of her knowledge, none of them witnessed what had happened. Elder also testified that she was interviewed by the OSBI later that same day, June 13, and that investigators collected her fingerprints and DNA samples. She concluded her testimony for the prosecution by explaining that the Scouts ultimately left Camp Scott around 5:00 or 5:30 that afternoon, and the counselors departed as well.

During cross-examination, the defense attorney questioned Elder about the counselor training that took place before camp began. She testified that the counselors were trained on a variety of camp activities, including how to properly tie down the tents during severe weather. Elder also testified that the camp caretaker was responsible for setting up the tents. When the defense attorney asked whether anyone else, including boys, had helped put them up, she said she did not know. She went on to explain that during the counselor training week, she stayed in the Quapaw Unit while other staff members stayed in the Choctaw Unit. Elder also testified that although counselors were given tent assignments before camp began, they were not required to follow those sleeping arrangements, which is why she allowed the girls to choose their own tents and bunkmates when they arrived on June 12th.

The defense attorney also questioned Elder about supper that evening. She testified that every unit at Camp Scott was at the Great Hall during dinner. When asked whether anyone remained behind at the campsites while everyone was eating, Elder said she did not believe anyone stayed behind. She also testified that if someone had been at one of the campsites during daylight hours, they likely would have been noticed. However, she acknowledged that once it became dark, it would have been much more difficult to see if someone was there.

So, that's our best summary of Dee Elder's pretrial testimony. We know it may feel a little all over the place at times, but that's because we wanted to bring it to y'all the same way we worked through it ourselves while reading the transcripts. Rather than rearranging or leaving pieces out, we tried to follow the testimony as it unfolded and highlight what we felt were the most important details.

Before we move on, there's one important thing we want to point out because this testimony helps establish part of the timeline. According to Elder's testimony, all of the Scouts in the Kiowa Unit were accounted for during her final rounds between approximately 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. She also testified that Scouts were still walking between the restroom and their tents around 1:30 a.m., when Carla Wilhite escorted several girls safely back to their tents. The three girls were not discovered missing until shortly after 6:00 a.m. the following morning.

What this tells us is that there is a window of several hours during which the murders are believed to have occurred. While investigators have spent decades trying to narrow that timeframe, the exact time the murders took place has never been publicly established.

That's where we'll leave it for this drop. Next, we'll walk through the pretrial testimony of counselors Carla Wilhite and Susan Emery to see what they recalled from that night and how their accounts fit into the overall timeline.

Thank y'all for following along with us as we work through these transcripts. We know they're lengthy and sometimes difficult to follow, but we believe hearing these firsthand accounts helps paint a clearer picture of that tragic night.