Spate of deaths reported at Lake Thunderbird

NORMAN — In her two and a half decades livingon Lake Thunderbird, Roxie Fields cannot recall a time with as many unpleasant incidents as the past month.

“It’s kind of feeling like every other day we’re hearing about something,” Fields said. “It’s not every other day, but there’s been a lot going on at this lake and none of it good.”

Fields has been an offand-on employee of Denver Pantry, a convenience store on the north side of the lake, for the past eight years, she said.

On Friday, the body of Kevin Lee Price Jr., 32, of Noble, was found at the edge of Clear Bay #2 on the south side of the lake. He had a gunshot wound to the head, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reported.

No arrests have been made in the case. “It certainly doesn’t make me feel good because I live right next to the lake. I’m not at the water’s edge, but I’m not far,” Fields said.

While investigating that killing Saturday afternoon, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers using sonar on the lake found a submerged pickup. Inside was a man’s body.

The pickup’s tag matched one borrowed by Charles French, 74, who went missing May 2. French had declined treatment for a head injury after a wreck and went missing two days later, OSBI reported.

French was reported missing May 18, and a Silver Alert was issued for him that day. And it’s been less than a month sincethe May 19 boating accident that claimed the lives of two men, one of whom was not recovered until five days after the crash.

The body of Brandon Michael Kelley, 33, of Moore, was recovered two days after the crash. Cody Foster, of Little Axe, was not found until May 24, when troopers located his body in 35 feet of water. Two people in a second boat were hurt in the collision.

Fields said the spate of deathshas her alarmed.

“I can’t honestly say I can remember anything like this,” she said. “I just really don’t know what to think about it.”