Arrest made in 1996 slaying
Texas authorities on Thursday arrested a woman on allegations she, more than 20 years ago, bound a 19-year-old mother with electrical wire, weighted her with blocks, tied her to a tree and shot her in the stomach.
Law enforcement officers arrested Cherri Terry, 48, on an outstanding Osage County warrant filed Thursday for firstdegree murder, or, in the alternative, second-degree murder.
Terry is accused of killing Joannie Goodwin, 19. Two fishermen found Goodwin’s body on Sept. 29, 1996, in Bird Creek, near the Pawhuska Light Plant on County Road 4225. When she was killed, Goodwin had a 7-monthold child. Goodwin told people in her circle of friends that she was pregnant with the child of Terry’s romantic love interest, a fact investigators later discovered to be untrue.
“There’s nobody that has the whole story,” Osage County sheriff’s office investigator Dale Hunter told the Tulsa World late Thursday. “Just people with pieces here and there that shows the whole story.”
Texas authorities booked Terry into the Colorado County, Texas, jail — about 70 miles west of Houston — where she awaits extradition to Osage County on the outstanding murder charge. Once Terry is returned to Osage County, she will be held in jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.
Hunter and investigator Kevin Burke tracked down those witnesses across four states recently with the assistance of “Cold Justice,” a true crime series on Oxygen and TNT television networks.
The trio — Goodwin, Terry and the man — had been intertwined in a feud leading up to Goodwin’s fatal shooting. Hunter said the relationship triangle or the pregnancy statements may have been the motive for the killing.
The man, whom the Tulsa World is not identifying, had sexual relations with multiple women in their circle of friends. Terry was obsessed with this man and narrowed her focus, of all the man’s affairs, to Goodwin, according to the affidavit.
“He could have slept with anybody in the world — just not her,” a witness told investigators.
Witnesses told investigators Terry routinely threatened any girl talking to the man, according to a probable cause affidavit. Terry allegedly told witnesses she would kill Goodwin “if she didn’t leave (the boyfriend) alone.”
Other witnesses indicated Terry “hated anyone” he had dated. At one point, months before Goodwin’s death, Terry allegedly assaulted Goodwin when she caught Goodwin and the man in flagrante delicto.
A week before Goodwin disappeared on Sept. 22, 1996, their feud “appeared to end abruptly,” according to the affidavit. Terry and an acquaintance had been driving in Pawhuska when they saw Goodwin walking along a street. Terry told her acquaintance she wanted to “bury the hatchet” with Goodwin.
“Inexplicably, for no reason, they’re suddenly friends and moving in together,” Hunter said.
Terry allegedly told about four stories on how she and Goodwin reconciled, but Hunter said there were a “lot of inconsistencies about that, not minutiae — major details.” Terry had allegedly made death threats toward Goodwin in the months prior to their sudden reconciliation.
On the night of Goodwin’s disappearance, Sept. 21, 1996, she had gone to hang out with friends around town in Pawhuska. At one point, she was left alone in a truck with a dead battery while two other friends went to get jumper cables. She was gone by the time they returned.
Initial investigative reports indicate these friends, two men, were the last to see Goodwin alive. After Goodwin’s case was revived, investigators learned Goodwin was last seen alive around 3 a.m. on Sept. 22, 1996. She was with Terry at a convenience store in Pawhuska.
Witnesses reported hearing two gunshots around the same time. Terry allegedly said to an acquaintance that she “had a shotgun waiting for her,” according to the affidavit. State medical examiners determined Goodwin died from two gunshot wounds from 12-gauge shotgun using double-aught buckshot.
Investigators were not able to pin down where the shooting occurred. Witnesses reported wet shag carpet at Goodwin and Terry’s residence. Other witnesses reported seeing Terry and another person cleaning a car’s interior about 3 ½ hours after Goodwin was last seen alive. And, if it had happened at Bird Creek, 5 inches of rain washed any evidence away.