Police continue murder investigation

By Tim Farley

Eight Midwest City homicide detectives continue to investigate the “unique and unusual” killing of an Oklahoma National Guard soldier whose body was discovered Jan. 10 inside her home.

Police Chief Brandon Clabes declined to elaborate on the reasons why the murder has been labeled unusual. At this point, police have not released information on a motive or how Jessica Lynn Brown, 23, was killed.

“There are several people we are interviewing since the victim came into contact with a lot of people,” the chief said. “Right now, this is a priority case because of the circumstances surrounding it.”

Still, Clabes declined to talk further about the details of the case.

“Some of these details are facts only the killer will know,” he said.

Police discovered Brown’s body after a 911 caller reported two small children playing in the street about 10:30 a.m. When officers arrived at 933 Locust Lane, they saw a 2-year-old girl and her 4-yearold brother outside in the front yard wearing pajamas. Police said the children were unsupervised.

After officers asked where their mother was, one of the children replied “mommy is asleep” in the house. Once inside the home, officers saw Brown’s body with obvious signs of trauma. Police have not released the details of the trauma.

The children, who remain in protective custody, reportedly were in the house when the killing occurred and may have witnessed the homicide.

“We have a special forensics interviewer handling the children,” Clabes said.

Brown and her husband, Fabion Brown, were embroiled in a divorce when the killing occurred. However, he has been cooperating with investigators, Clabes said. Another person of interest police have interviewed is Brown’s brother-in-law.

“Apparently, she had some kind of conflict with him,” Clabes said. “We’re talking to people in her life who she had close contact with. We’re not considering anyone as a suspect right now.”

Police officials have refused to classify Brown’s death as a case of domestic violence.

“All options are open at this moment,” Clabes said.

In 2011, Midwest City police investigated seven murders, and five of them involved domestic-related situations.

“We don’t know if that’s the case here or not,” the chief said.

However, police reports show that officers responded to Brown’s address several times during the past 10 months. The incidents involved trespassing, mental health intervention, arson and an alleged violation of a protective order.

“Facts developed from the VPO case initially indicated Ms. Brown’s ex-husband had violated a court order. The information was forwarded to the district attorney’s office for review and rightfully declined because a victim protection order had not been issued or legally served to her ex-husband at the time of the alleged incident,” Clabes said.

On April 22, 2011, Brown told officers her husband drove by the house after being served a VPO the day before and honked his horn. She also told police he took their 1-year-old daughter on April 20, and said he was going to “stash the kids somewhere” and she would never see them again, a police report shows.

Jessica Brown filed for divorce on April 21, 2011.

Another police report shows that on May 7, 2011, two of the windows at Brown’s home were broken and her vehicle was set on fire. According to the report, Brown told police her brother-in-law called her and admitted to the van fire.

tfarley@eastwordnews.com