Her loving grandparents Larry and Deborah took her in and raised her, but 17-year-old Heidi Dutton and her boyfriend murdered them in their bedroom and then “played house” while their bodies lay in the garden.
Loving grandparents-turned-adoptive parents, Larry and Deborah Dutton, had created a safe haven for their teenage granddaughter, Heidi. The couple, who lived in Dewey, Oklahoma, adopted Heidi when she was a baby and raised her as their own. They lived in a small community and it was an idyllic place in the countryside to grow up.
Larry, 72, was a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant and former airport manager. Deborah, 67, was also retired from the Air Force and had worked as a chef. She attended local fundraisers and church events. The couple, who had been married for 40 years and were active members of the church, were known for their generosity and kindness.
Heidi Dutton, then 17, had been in a relationship with Lucas Walker, then 20, for a few months and frequently visited the rural farm. Dutton had been a typical teenager before meeting Walker online, but had become more isolated and increasingly influenced by her older boyfriend.
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In January 2023, family and neighbors were concerned that they had not seen Deborah or Larry since before Christmas. Several requests were made to the police to carry out a welfare check in case something was wrong.
Search warrant
On January 19, police responded to the property and noticed a rancid odor of decomposing flesh and an unbearable odor of bleach and cleaning products. It was clear that something was very wrong and they needed to get inside. They returned the next day with a search warrant. Dutton and Walker were there when officers entered the property and began their search. It was obviously a crime scene.
The officers looked around the house and it was immediately obvious that someone had attempted to clean up but had not done a very good job. Upstairs in Deborah and Larry’s bedroom, there was blood that had seeped under the floorboards.
As the search continued, police found hidden jewelry and clothing stained with blood, as well as blood on walls that had been cleaned but left traces. An expert was brought to the scene and recommended that a “disturbed” patch of dirt in the backyard be dug up and further examined. Deborah and Larry’s bodies were discovered in a shallow grave.
The police were convinced they had been killed in the house. Dutton and Walker were arrested and left the house in handcuffs. When they were detained and interrogated, both confessed to killing Deborah and Larry on December 19.
It was a shocking revelation. The couple had not even fled. They had done a poor job cleaning up the blood of their victims and had continued to live in the house, living day to day with the stench of death.
Changing your story
At first, Dutton said she had committed the murders and that Walker had only participated in cleaning up the scene. But then she changed her story and insisted that Walker had done it and that she had lied to protect him.
Both admitted that the murders had been planned. “We killed them,” Dutton had told Walker. When asked about the motive, Walker told officers: “Because I wanted them dead.”
The confessions revealed a calculated and violent attack on the older couple. Dutton had let Walker in through the back door. Walker had hidden in Dutton’s bedroom that night. He had a .22 caliber pistol that he had taken from a safe in the garage and a knife. Walker had waited while the grandparents were getting ready for bed and were in their bedroom.
When Walker heard movement, he headed to his bedroom door. Deborah opened the door and walked out, but Walker raised the gun and shot her in the face. When Deborah fell to the ground, he crouched down and slit her throat with the knife. She didn’t stand a chance.
Horrified, Larry got out of bed and ran to his bloodied wife. Walker described how he had tried to quickly shoot him too, but the gun suddenly jammed, so he stabbed Larry in the face with a knife several times, as well as in the abdomen. Both grandparents were on the ground in a pool of blood.
Dutton and Walker began cleaning up the scene together. In a heartbreaking detail, Dutton revealed to police that his adoptive father, Larry, was still alive after the stabbing and had desperately tried to crawl to his wife before succumbing to his injuries.
Walker and Dutton then dragged the couple outside on blankets and buried them in the backyard in a shallow grave near the pool.
Larry’s phone was recovered at the scene and had doorbell camera footage from Dec. 22 that showed Walker and Dutton carrying a body out of the back of the house covered in a sheet.
Police carefully exhumed Deborah and Larry’s bodies from the backyard of their home, and the small community was shocked. It was difficult to comprehend the horror that the two teenagers had continued living in the house for a month as if nothing had happened.
Authorities determined that the couple may have initially wanted to run away together but had stayed and “played house,” even spending Larry and Deborah’s money.
The motive for the crime was not established. Had protective Larry and Deborah expressed concern about the influence Walker was having on Dutton and did the young couple see them as an obstacle to being together? Without a full trial, the couple was never required to provide an explanation.
Guilty of murder
In January of this year, Walker, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. In May, Dutton, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy and two counts of desecration of a human corpse. She was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after serving 85% of a 45-year sentence, approximately 38 years.
“This was a calculated and brutal crime, but the law requires us to weigh youth and guilt,” the district attorney said. “This sentence holds Heidi Dutton accountable, reflects the sentence imposed on her co-defendant, and spares the victims’ family the trauma of the trial and years of appeals.”
Larry and Deborah opened their home to their granddaughter and gave her the loving family they believed she deserved. She repaid them by having them both killed in cold blood.
