By MATT ELLIOTT
World Staff Writer
DEPEW -- The man who shot Patsy and A.J. Cantrell Saturday night could not have killed a more kind, loving, nor a more helpess couple, the Cantrells' family and friends said.
"It's a pitiful, pitiful situation," said Leslie "J.R." Melton, Patsy's brother. "It's one that none of us will get over easily or ever. We'll never get over it." >[? The Cantrells were found shot around 7 p.m. in their modest home -- the start of a townwide crime spree that also left a woman severely beaten and a teen hospitalized with at least one gunshot wound.
The man who law enforcement officers believe shot the couple and the woman -- Scott James Eizember -- was still on the loose late Sunday, officials said.
Deputies are not certain why the Cantrells were shot, Creek County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Mike O'Keefe said. The woman who was beaten may be Eizember's ex-girlfriend, they said.
Eizember, 42, had just been released from the Tulsa Jail on Thursday, court records show. He was being held on charges that included felony burglary until he successfully posted bail.
Bewildered friends and relatives met Sunday afternoon at the home of Peggy Green, Patsy's twin sister. The mourners were too shocked to weep, too bewildered to do anything but react in utter disbelief.
The couple suffered from severe helath problems: A.J., a 76-year-old retired sign painter, had emphysema and diabetes while Patsy was also a diabetic who had heart disease and was losing her eyesight, said Debra Wyatt, one of the Cantrells' three daughters.
Meanwhile, just west of Bristow, a large contingent of state and local law enforcement officers in the air and on the ground combed a wooded area in a three- to four-square-mile perimeter near the airport.
State troopers, Creek County sheriff's deputies, as well as officers from Depew, Bristow, Sapulpa and other area police departments have been in a manhunt since late Saturday night for Eizember, O'Keefe said.
Eizember allegedly shot the Cantrells before severely beating one woman and shooting a teen who may be related to her.
The teen who was shot was in a Tulsa hospital Sunday night, O'Keefe said.
The woman, whose identity could not be confirmed, was hospitalized Saturday. No conditions were available on either victim Sunday.
As the investigation progressed late Saturday night and into Sunday morning, new details emerged, changing facts recently reported by Creek County sheriff's officials.
Deputies have three crime scenes in Depew -- two houses and a ball park -- but are not sure exactly what crimes took place where and when, O'Keefe said.
Also, deputies believe Eizember got a ride from an area resident to Bristow after the shootings, O'Keefe said. Eizember allegedly tried to steal the person's car before attempting to shoot the individual, the chief deputy said.
Saturday night, O'Keefe said the teen who was shot was the beaten woman's son. He said Sunday the teen, who is being guarded at a hospital by Tulsa police, is actually her grandson.
"Until our investigators get it down and get all this written up and sent into the DA everything is really preliminary," O'Keefe said.
Law officers said they believe Eizember is still in the area.
"We just going to exhaust all our options."
At the Bristow airport, three Oklahome Highway Patrol airplanes and a helicopter, equipped with FLIR (forward looking infrared radar), worked with special operations teams of heavily armed police officers and state troopers to coordinate the search.
"We've been out since sunup," said Trooper Steve Kirby, an airplane pilot who flies from Claremore. "We're here to support the guys on the ground."
The planes stay in the air for about one hour intervals and alternate, Kirby said, helping tactical teams with navigating through the thick underbrush as well as relaying radio signals to improve transmission.
The helicopter was grounded Sunday around noon, along with the planes, to encourage Eizember to "stick his head out," he said.
"They use up so much fuel," he said, of the helicopter. "We kind of wait until we spot something with the airplane and send the helicopter up to finish the job."
Back in Depew, the Cantrells' family expressed frustration with law enforcement and the media in a story that has been fraught with confusing developments.
Further aggravating some relatives, they learned that Eizember was recently released from the Tulsa Jail.
He was released Thursday after he posted bail, said Chris Howard, the jail's spokesman. Eizamber had been jailed on felony charges of second-degree burglary, violation of a protective order and malicious injury to property related to a Sept. 13 offense, records show.
Less than a day after the shooting, Depew residents and friends of the Cantrells did what they could to help the victims' family. ,P. "It's the whole town's loss -- it's not just mine," said 70-year-old Connie Ramsey, who has known Patsy Cantrell since the two were Depew High School students in 1951.
Ramsey, who runs The Coach's Corner Cafe at 325 W. Main St., closed his restaurant Sunday so he and his wife Beverly Ramsey could cook food for their friends' relatives.
"They ate here Thursday night in our restaurant," he said. "They laughed and joked and had a good time."
Closing for business is not something he's trying to get special recognition for, he said while being interviewed Sunday in his cafe, it's just the right thing to do.
"We have a lot of people who come and support us but today, we've just got to turn them away," Ramsey said, with a tired, jittery laugh.
A.J. Cantrell was an accomplished sign painter, Ramsey said. He painted everything from the sides of oil tanks to the sign Ramsey has been meaning to put up in front of his restaurant, he said.
Just after he was interviewed, Ramsey and his wife delivered turkey and dressing and some home-cooked lemon meringue pies to Peggy Green's house just west on Route 66.
At Peggy Green's home, Peggy fought back tears for her sister Patsy and A.J. Cantrell as she helped the Ramseys bring the food into her home.
Inside, family members packed her house. Some smoked cigarettes, resting in chairs and on a couch in front of an immense and silent television while speaking respectfully in hushed tones. The strain of the last twelve hours showed in the wrinkles around their grief-reddened eyes and slight quavering in their voices.
"My parents were the sweetest, kindest people, and so undeserving of what happened," Debra Wyatt said.
Deputies described Eizember as 6 feet tall, weighing about 180 pounds with close-cropped brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue nylon wind breaker.
Some court records list his address in Garden City, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. Other court records list his address as Tucumcari, N.M.
O'Keefe urged motorists to not pick up any hitchhikers in the area while warning Bristow and Depew area residents to not answer their doors to strangers.
Deputies believe Eizember is armed with a shotgun and possibly a revolver, O'Keefe said.
Anyone with information leading to Eizember's arrest is urged to call the Creek County Sheriff's Department at (918) 224-4964 or the Highway Patrol at (405) 425-2424.
MATT ELLIOTT 581-8366
[email protected]
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