A shocking family tragedy came to a grim close last week as an Oklahoma teenager was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders of her grandparents — who also happened to be her adoptive parents.
Heidi Dutton, now 19, pleaded guilty in May to two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and desecration of human remains in the deaths of Deborah and Larry Dutton. On June 6, a Washington County judge handed down the sentence recommended by the jury: life behind bars.
The disturbing case also involved Dutton’s boyfriend, Lucas Walker, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison in a separate federal trial. His case was tried at the federal level due to his Cherokee Nation membership.
Authorities didn’t begin investigating the double homicide until nearly a month after the couple was killed. On January 20, 2023, Washington County deputies responded to a welfare check at the couple’s home in Dewey, Oklahoma — about 130 miles southeast of Wichita — where they encountered Dutton and Walker. That visit ended with the two teens in handcuffs after deputies discovered blood under the bedroom baseboards.
According to a criminal complaint, both suspects quickly confessed.
Walker told police that he had hidden in Dutton’s room on December 19, 2022, armed with a .22 caliber pistol taken from the garage. Once the Duttons were asleep, he waited outside their bedroom door.
When Deborah opened the door, Walker shot her in the face and slit her throat. As Larry rushed to help her, the gun jammed — so Walker stabbed him repeatedly in the face with a knife.
The teens then wrapped the bodies in bedsheets and buried them in the backyard. Their grim task was reportedly caught on the home’s Ring camera system. Two days after the welfare check, the bodies were recovered by investigators.
Deborah and Larry Dutton, both U.S. Air Force veterans, had adopted Heidi when she was a child. Larry, 73, had served as a Master Staff Sergeant and managed an airport in Kansas after retiring. Deborah was a retired Staff Sergeant and a chef.
“They were the kind of people who’d give you the shirt off their backs,” wrote one family friend in an online tribute.
No comment has been released from Dutton’s attorney.
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Author: thedailycrime1
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