Andrew Knittle| Oklahoman
KINTA — Less than six months before they vanished, the Jamison family was threatened with violence by one of their closest relatives, a petition for a protective order filed by Bobby Jamison reveals.
In the petition, Bobby Jamison claimed his own father threatened “to kill” him and his family on at least two occasions, in November 2008 and in late April 2009.
Bobby Jamison, his wife, Sherilyn, and daughter, Madyson, went missing in October 2009, roughly six months after the petition was filed in McIntosh County.
The missing man described his father, whose name was Bob Dean Jamison, as a “very dangerous man (who) thinks he is above the law.” He claimed that his father — who was 67 at the time — was involved with “prostitutes, gangs and meth.”
The remains of three human beings — described by law enforcement officials as being a child and two adults — were found Nov. 16 in northeast Latimer County, about three miles from where the Jamisons' pickup was found abandoned eight days after they were last seen alive.
Since the discovery, many have speculated the remains are those of the missing family.
Bobby Jamison does not say in the petition how his father threatened to kill him and his family, but he did write that his father “hit me with his vehicle” on Nov. 1, 2008.”
“My entire family is severely scared for their lives,” Bobby Jamison wrote in the petition. “I am in fear at all times.”
The protective order was dismissed May 18, 2009, after a judge heard testimony from those involved.
Bob Dean Jamison died in December 2009, about two months after the Jamison family went missing near Kinta.
Jack Jamison, the father's brother, said he doesn't believe Bob Dean Jamison was involved in the disappearance of the Jamison family.
“He was either in a hospital or in a rest home,” Jack Jamison said. “I just don't think he was involved. He was disturbed at the time, but I'm pretty sure he was not capable of being involved in that.”
Like many others, Jack Jamison said the disappearance of his nephew and his family remains a mystery to him.
“It has me plumb puzzled,” he said. “Nothing about it makes any sense.”
Attempts to reach Bob Dean Jamison's wife of 40-plus years, Starlet Jamison, were not successful. The couple divorced in the months before Bob Dean Jamison's death.
Lawsuits filed
In addition to filing the petition for protective order, Bobby Jamison was suing his parents at the time of his disappearance, claiming he was owed property for himself and two vehicles for his daughter.
He claimed in the lawsuit he worked for free at one of his parents' businesses.
“Bobby Dean Jamison enticed (Bobby Jamison) to work for free at a gas station in Oklahoma City for numerous years without any compensation, but with (the) understanding that the station would be half his when he was older,” attorneys for Bobby Jamison wrote in a petition.
The lawsuit remains pending in Oklahoma County District Court.
In the months following the Jamison family's disappearance, former Latimer County Sheriff Israel Beauchamp said the investigation into Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison led him to believe the couple may have been “scammers.”
The couple were receiving disability checks before going missing, the former sheriff said in early 2010. They also sued three people in Oklahoma County over a car accident in 2005.
Beauchamp, who is no longer sheriff in Latimer County, said the Jamisons appeared to be dealing with numerous issues before their disappearance. He said both Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison had lost weight before they went missing and a former pastor revealed the couple said they were seeing ghosts at their Eufaula lake house.
“Normally, you can go through an investigation, and one by one, start to eliminate certain scenarios,” Beauchamp said.
“We haven't been able to do that in this case. With this family, everything seems possible.”
Theories, allegations abound
Since the Jamisons disappeared, speculation about their fate has run wild on the Internet. Many believe they faked their own deaths or were in some kind of witness protection program.
Others believed they were killed or committed group suicide.
The couple had been in Latimer County in search of land to buy the day they went missing. Investigators learned after the family's disappearance that Bobby and Sherilyn Jamison were planning to buy land and live inside a large storage container, which was on their property in Eufaula.
Investigators found the couple's abandoned pickup eight days after they were last seen. What was found inside the truck would only deepen the mystery surrounding the family's disappearance.
Inside the locked pickup, authorities found Bobby Jamison's wallet, a GPS unit, clothing, Sherilyn Jamison's purse, a cellphone and $32,000 in cash stuffed in a bank bag beneath the driver's seat.
The family dog, Maizy, also was found inside the truck, barely alive.
Sherilyn Jamison's mother, Connie Kokotan, has maintained from the start that she believes somebody killed the missing family.
Kokotan lived with the Jamisons shortly before they vanished and discounted theories that linked the couple to drugs.
In a recent interview with The Oklahoman, Kokotan said her theory hasn't changed, claiming that a religious cult is responsible for the Jamisons' disappearance and presumed death.
“Like I've said from the very beginning, I think somebody killed them,” Kokotan said. “There's just no way that Bobby and Sherilyn would ever let anything happen to Madyson unless something had been done to them.”
Kokotan, 63, said that Sherilyn Jamison was on a “hit list” maintained by a religious cult operating in southeast Oklahoma. She did not name the cult.
The state medical examiner's office has not identified the remains found earlier in the month and it could be weeks or even months before they're able to do so, officials said.
In the weeks and months following the Jamisons' disappearance, former Sheriff Beauchamp said he believed a brown briefcase Sherilyn Jamison had may have been an important clue. He said he viewed surveillance video from the family's security system that showed the missing woman place the briefcase in her vehicle.
The briefcase was never found, nor was Sherilyn Jamison's small-caliber handgun.
“I think it might have held a lot of cash,” Beauchamp said of the briefcase.
“I've gone back and forth on this thing, but my latest theory — based on how the truck was parked and what was found in the truck — I think they were forced to stop and got out of the truck to meet with someone they recognized. And I think they either left willingly or by force.”
Investigators also considered murder-suicide after “a hate letter” from Sherilyn Jamison to her husband described Bobby Jamison as a “hermit.” A letter discussing death also was found at the couple's Eufaula home following their disappearance.
“They were certainly a family obsessed with death,” Beauchamp said at the time.
Several questioned
Following the family's disappearance, numerous people with connections to the Jamisons were questioned, including family members.
Jack Jamison, Bobby Jamison's uncle, was questioned by the FBI. Jack Jamison was named as the executor of Bob Dean Jamison's will on Oct. 27, 2008.
Madyson Jamison was named the sole beneficiary of her grandfather's estate at that time, cutting out Bobby Jamison and Bob Dean Jamison's ex-wife, Starlet Jamison.
A family friend who lived with the Jamisons in the months before they vanished was questioned by the FBI, as well.
“He had the barrel stuck in his ear by Sherilyn,” Beauchamp said of the family friend. “At first you think, ‘Great, here's someone with a motive.' But the FBI cleared him.”
The last known person to see the Jamisons alive on Oct. 9, 2009, was questioned, as well. The man, who lived in the mountainous area where the couple were looking for land, offered little help to investigators.
At the time of the disappearance, the man lived about a quarter-mile from where the Jamisons' pickup was found.
“The man claimed he never saw the family after that,” Beauchamp said. “Nor did he see anyone else go up or come down.”
What now?
Latimer County Sheriff Jesse James, who was a police officer in nearby Wilburton when the Jamisons went missing, said his investigators are waiting to hear from the state medical examiner's office before devoting further resources to the case.
An incident report released by the sheriff's office on Wednesday, which includes GPS coordinates, shows the bodies were found in an extremely remote area about nine miles south of Kinta. There are no paved roads for miles around. The area is densely wooded.
The report shows that a man “scouting for deer” found three human skulls. A further search of the area where the remains were found also turned up shoes, “bits of clothing and other bones and bone fragments.”
James said the case file on the Jamisons “is very, very thick” and that his office and other law enforcement agencies have interviewed numerous people.
When asked about his personal theory about the Jamisons' fate, James played it close to the vest.
“It's a very strange deal, you know, the way this case has unfolded,” the sheriff said. “We're looking at a lot of things.
“A lot of things have crossed my mind.”
