Lawman with a haunted past joins the search for Logan Tucker
Editor's note: This is Part Two of a six-part series.
The lawman didn’t take kindly to stories of little boys gone missing. He was once a little boy. And he had gone missing, too.
So when Monty Clem started hearing stories about what happened June 23, 2002, when 6-year-old Logan Tucker was last seen at his Woodward home, the lawman looked back on one long day in his own childhood.
Monty was born Sept. 12, 1953. A browneyed northwest Oklahoma boy to the bone, he grew up milking dairy cows on the family farm near Sharon, just south of Woodward.
One day, when he was about 12 years old, Monty toted his BB gun into the cedars and brush, kicking up dust along the rugged, red dirt trails and hunting for birds. Night fell and the boy didn’t come home.
His family searched the rural landscape. They found Monty’s clothes. They found Monty's BB gun. They didn’t find Monty.
Near midnight, he appeared at his aunt and uncle’s house, about three miles from where his clothes were found.
Some unspeakable evil happened that day. In the testament of his life, only those closest to Monty could recite the few details he shared. He rarely talked about it. But a long fire had ignited within him.
Monty wanted to be a cop. Thirty years after that long day in Sharon, Monty was a force for justice, a veteran lawman who became undersheriff in Woodward County.
And if you committed a crime in northwest Oklahoma, Monty was the last man you wanted on your case.
Where is Logan?
The radio chirped about 3:30 p.m. July 7, 2002, two weeks after Logan was last seen at his Woodward home. The dispatcher directed Sheriff’s Sgt. Shaun Barnett and Deputy Chad Standerfer to 510 Texas Avenue.
The small white house just off Main Street was home to an unfolding drama that would shake northwest Oklahoma for years.
Barnett and Standerfer arrived to check the welfare of Logan. Relatives from out of state hadn’t heard from him. They were growing concerned.
Inside the home, in two living room chairs, sat Katherine Rutan and Melody Lennington. Katherine looked out the window. She told Melody to tell the investigators she wasn’t home, and hid in her bedroom.
Barnett and Standerfer encountered a little boy outside the house. They asked, what’s your name? Justin, the boy said.
A woman came outside. Are you Katherine? No, said Melody. She’s inside. I’ll get her. Katherine walked out, trembling.
Where is Logan? The authorities demanded answers. Melody listened in.
He’s camping back east with Brian, my brother, Katherine said. Logan’s been giving me a hard time. Maybe Brian can straighten him out.
Got a phone number for Brian?
No. I don’t have any way of contacting him, Katherine said. And I haven’t spoken to Logan since they left. Brian sells cleaning products all over. They’re probably staying in motels. When he gets back, I’m going to have him interviewed by the Department of Human Services.
Katherine’s story had changed quickly, from Logan camping with her brother Brian, to Logan tagging along on a sales trip.
The conflicting explanations opened a window into Katherine’s life, where Barnett and Standerfer could see some of the people affected by years of chaos. Logan and Justin. Melody. Katherine’s brother, Brian.
And the man who requested that someone check on Logan’s welfare — Katherine’s other brother, Mickey Cathcart.
Mickey had phoned authorities at the urging of their adoptive parents, who hadn’t heard from Logan. Katherine had been telling them he was hard to deal with. Please take him, she asked. The same couple adopted Mickey and Katherine when the two were young children. Another family adopted Brian, their brother. He took the last name of Marquardt.
Barnett and Standerfer noted Katherine’s odd and contradictory story. They drove away, toward the sheriff’s office.
Katherine and Melody walked back inside the house. Melody was stunned. For two weeks she’d heard that DHS took Logan. Now, a camping trip with an uncle?
You need to get your stories straight, she told Katherine. Call the sheriff’s office and tell them the truth.
On their way back to the office, Barnett and Standerfer received another phone call from Mickey. While Katherine claimed she had no way of contacting Brian, even though he would be on a trip out of state with her young son for two weeks, Mickey readily supplied a phone number for their brother.
Standerfer left a voicemail with Brian. Brian returned the voicemail the next day.
On July 8, 2002, a day after their first visit, Barnett and Standerfer returned to the house on Texas Avenue. This time, Monty joined them. It was about 7 p.m.
Katherine’s story took a bizarre turn. She played them a message on her answering machine. A man spoke. He seemed confused, as if he didn’t know what to say. He called at 5:46 p.m. that day, more than two weeks after Logan went missing. And, coincidentally, one day after the sheriff’s office conducted a welfare check on the boy.
“This is for Katie,” the man said. “And this is for her brother. She has Logan. He’s all right, and they’ll be back in a couple of weeks.”
Monty was suspicious. Was this supposed to be an alibi? Who was this man? And why did he call Katherine and say the message was for her brother? Which brother? Who was the “she” who had Logan? Did not Katherine say Logan was with her brother Brian?
Her explanation grew stranger. Katherine said Brian left the message, but she still did not have his phone number.
I do, Monty said. Having obtained the number from Mickey, Monty picked up the house phone and called Brian, who emphatically denied having Logan. Brian screamed at Katherine, angry that she told people Logan was with him.
Monty read Katherine her rights, but told her she was not under arrest. He asked Katherine to return with him to the sheriff’s office. She agreed.
At the sheriff’s office, Monty started taking down background information on Katherine. But then he received a call from investigators back at the house on Texas Avenue in Woodward.
Barnett walked into the basement. He saw the old bed with a pillow on it and no covering. Stuck to the pillow and on the floor was orange wax from a candle. Barnett saw a rack of shelves, and a white, fivegallon bucket on the floor.
In the bucket, Barnett found a wad of masking tape. On the tape, he discovered more orange candle wax, and blond tiny hairs. Up on the shelves, Barnett noticed more masking tape.
Back at the sheriff’s office, Monty asked Katherine about the tape. She said Logan and his brother Justin and some neighborhood boys took shelter in the basement during a tornado warning. They played with the tape and got it stuck all over themselves, she said.
As their interview wrapped up, Monty told Katherine that authorities took Justin into protective custody. Blankfaced, Katherine showed no emotion over one son missing, and the other now with authorities.
Monty obtained Katherine’s consent to search her vehicle. And, he told her, if you don’t return to the sheriff’s office tomorrow, to file a kidnapping report or a missing child report, I’m going to treat this case as a homicide.
When Monty searched Katherine’s car, he found in the trunk some quarter-inch nylon rope, drain cleaner and a large amount of plastic.
Katherine did not return to the sheriff’s office the next day. She did not file a kidnapping report. She did not file a missing child report.
‘I want Logan back’
Within days, Monty met with Katherine again. Logan deserves better than this, he told her.
Monty registered Logan with the Vanished Children Alliance, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI.
He also registered Logan with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A photo of Logan was posted on the center’s website. The boy wore a navy and gray shirt with USA on the front in white letters and a red collar.
And, he wore a mischievous grin.
On July 10, 2002, more than two weeks after Katherine said she last saw Logan, the Woodward News ran a front-page story with a two word headline: “Boy Missing.”
When word of Logan’s disappearance spread across Oklahoma, reporters descended on Woodward. On July 11, 2002, Oklahoma City-based KOCO-TV News interviewed Katherine.
She sat on a couch, wearing a leopard print shirt and a necklace. Her big blue eyes rested above dark blue bags. Katherine tuned her voice to a quiver. She contorted her face. Her eyes darted up, and to the left, but no tears fell.
And of the firstborn son she once wanted to hit as hard as she could, the firstborn son she once turned over to police, the firstborn son she begged her parents to take from her, Katherine said:
“I miss my son. I want him back. And if anybody knows anything, let us know. I want my son. I want Logan back.”
When news of Logan’s disappearance hit the homes, coffee shops and bars of Woodward, residents went into a frenzy. Hundreds of volunteers searched Woodward County on foot, horseback and ATVs.
Katherine never joined them.
As the search for Logan intensified, so did Monty’s investigation. In the hunt for Logan, he coordinated with local, state and federal authorities. He also learned more about Katherine.
She was born Feb. 9, 1975, in Columbus, Indiana. In 1980, Ron and Carolyn Cathcart adopted her and Mickey. She was legally married to a man named Brady Gougler. It wasn’t her first marriage.
There was Christopher Blanton, whom she married in 1993 and divorced in 1995. And Robert Tucker. Tucker was Logan’s father. They divorced in 1996, shortly after Logan was born. She then married a man named Joe in 1997. Joe was Justin’s father. To help protect Justin’s privacy, The Oklahoman won’t publish his last name.
Katherine skips town
In August 2002, FBI agent Ron Parrish interviewed Katherine about Logan’s disappearance. He also interviewed Logan’s little brother Justin, who had been taken into protective custody.
Katherine was allowed to visit with Justin. One day, in early September 2002, Katherine and Justin were sitting in a car at a stoplight.
Justin gazed out the car window and saw the office where the FBI agent had talked to him. That’s where Ron works, he said.
Katherine left Woodward five days later and skipped her next visit with Justin. Less than three months after Logan’s highly publicized disappearance, she was gone.
Katherine settled about four hours east, near Bartlesville. For more than three years, the town of Woodward would hear no more from Katherine.
But Monty was on the case. It was a case that, in the end, may have taken his life.
On Friday: Wildflowers