The parents of one of the teens killed by Jesse McFadden have said they believe the convicted paedophile texted them pretending to be their daughter before police discovered seven bodies on his Oklahoma property on Monday.
Oklahoma authorities confirmed on Wednesday that McFadden’s Henryetta property was the scene of a murder-suicide. Investigators determined Jesse McFadden, 39, shot dead his wife Holly Guess, 35, and her children Rylee Elizabeth Allen, 17; Michael James Mayo, 15; and Tiffany Dore Guess, 13.
The children’s friends, 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 15-year-old Brittany Brewer, were also killed. McFadden then staged the grisly scene and turned the gun on himself, according to authorities.
Ivy and Brittany had gone to the McFadden’s house for a sleepover with Tiffany over the weekend and were planning to go swimming on a ranch in McAlester but never showed up. In an interview with NewsNation, Ivy’s mother Ashleigh Webster said now she believes the last conversation she had with her daughter was actually McFadden pretending to be the teen.
“I got a message the next morning, Sunday morning that was her phone but I don’t believe it was from her anymore saying that they were going to McAlester and she would be home later,” Ms Webster said.
Justin Webster, Ivy’s father, also said: “We think Jesse wrote that and probably had already happened at that point.”
An Amber Alert was issued to find Ivy and Brittany after they failed to return home by 5pm on Sunday as they had planned. The two teens were last seen at around 1.30am on Monday travelling with Jesse McFadden – a convicted rapist who was on the state’s sex offender registry – in a white Chevrolet pickup.
Ivy’s mother told KJRH that her daughter’s cellphone tracking had been turned off and said it was unlike her daughter not to respond to messages or calls.
McFadden was set to stand trial over child sex abuse image charges on the day authorities made the gruesome discovery.
Relatives of the victims have expressed disbelief after learning that McFadden was facing fresh soliciting and child sex abuse image charges after he was caught using a contraband cell phone to exchange nude photos with a minor in 2016, while he was serving a 20-year sentence for the rape of another teen.
After his early release in October 2020, McFadden was arrested the next month and then released on a $25,000 bond pending trial, which was repeatedly delayed, partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There’s no reason why a monster should have been let out,” Mr Webster told NewsNation. “If I could tell Ivy’s story and get our government officials and everybody started speaking out loud about keeping these paedophiles in jail. The sexual registry does not work. It does not work at all.”
Ivy and Brittany’s parents have said they did not know McFadden had been convicted of raping a minor, while Guess’ mother has said she only found out very recently.
McFadden’s 2003 rape victim Krystle Strong also told The Independent earlier this week that she had tried to stop his early release.
“I called the jail,” Ms Strong said. “I believe I left a voicemail and tried to get transferred and I kept getting the runaround. I told them, ‘Look, I’ve called you guys over the years several times trying to get updates and I’ve seen that you guys are still going to let him out even after you found contraband child porn on his phone. If this doesn’t show that somebody isn’t rehabilitated, then I don’t know what else would.’”
McFadden’s former cellmate James Fleming said that he also tried to warn Henryetta Police Department about McFadden back in February of this year. Screenshots of what appears to be a conversation between him and the department’s Facebook page show that Fleming described McFadden as a “predator with multiple offences.”
A spokesperson with Henryetta Police Department told The Independent that McFadden’s address was located in an unincorporated part of Okmulgee County, where his registration was up to date, and deferred to Okmulgee Police Department.
