Cordell, OK: Oklahoma man claims to have heard confession in woman's 2007 disappearance

Protective order once filed against estranged boyfriend of missing Cordell woman

BY RON JACKSON
Published: July 4, 2010
CORDELL — Jason Canterberry said he has been haunted for more than three years by a murder confession in the 2007 disappearance of Melissa Sue Flores. But the man accused of uttering the confession — Flores' estranged boyfriend Ronnie Denny Jr. — denies any such conversation ever took place.

Oklahoma man claims to have heard confession in woman's 2007 disappearance
Now, Canterberry is speaking publicly for the first time in hopes justice will be served and a family can find peace. His words are an eerie reminder of those written by Flores in a protective order petition six months before her Jan. 27, 2007, disappearance.
Flores, 27, said Denny threatened to shoot her in the face. Seven days later she asked for the protective order to be dismissed.
Canterberry, 32, said he knows the rest of the story. He described how Denny — a childhood friend — confessed to killing Flores one night in 2007 while driving Washita County's country roads.
"Ronnie pulled off to the side of the road, and said, 'You want to hear the truth?'” Canterberry recalled. "I said, 'No, I don't.' He just broke down and started crying. He said, 'I did it. I killed her. I killed Melissa.'
"Ronnie told me they got into an argument in the house, and he grabbed a rifle — a black, 9 mm rifle. He said he tried to intimidate her, and fired a shot into the air. She then came at him and he said he fired three times. One shot missed, but two hit her. He dropped his rifle and held her in his arms until she died.
"He said her last words were, 'I love you.'”
Denny, the father to the youngest of Flores' three children, has never been eliminated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation as a suspect.
Denny purportedly told Canterberry another man was at the house at the time of the shooting, and that man "began to panic.” Canterberry said Denny further stated that the man called his brother, who helped clean up the crime scene.
"Ronnie told me they put Melissa's body, and everything that had anything to do with evidence, including the rifle, in a trunk and loaded it into his Pathfinder,” Canterberry said. "He just never told me where he disposed of the body, although I have my suspicions. The OSBI eventually came to me, and I told them everything I knew.
"I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Canterberry testified before a grand jury in the case in 2007. Denny confronted him after his testimony.
"I asked Jason why he was saying those horrible things,” said Denny, 31. "He said, 'Man, I had to. They made me.' He said the cops had been harassing him and his wife, pulling them over and everything. He said that in front of witnesses.”
OSBI agents served Denny with a search warrant six days after Flores' disappearance, and arrested him Feb. 2, 2007, after finding drugs and a stolen firearm inside his Cordell home.
Judy Tome, Melissa's mother, sensed something was seriously amiss when she found her daughter's car outside Denny's house the day she disappeared. Inside the car, Tome found her daughter's purse and cell phone.
Earlier that morning, Flores called her family in her last known conversation, saying she had spent the night at Denny's home.
"I asked him where my daughter was,” Tome recalled. "He just became very agitated and angry.”
Denny has long denied any involvement.
"Now I live in fear for my daughter and my freedom,” Denny said. "OSBI asked me if I killed Melissa. I told them straight up, 'No. I had nothing to do with her disappearance.'”
Denny is puzzled by Canterberry's claims.
"Too many drugs, I guess,” Denny said. "We were all doing drugs back then.”
Canterberry admits to having a rough past, including fighting, alcohol and drugs. In 2005, he was charged with assault and battery in the presence of a minor. His sentence was deferred.
Denny, meanwhile, speaks with regret about his relationship with Flores.
"She was the girl for me,” Denny said. "I just didn't see it at the time. At first, I didn't think her disappearance was real. Then, while I was in jail, I realized how serious it had become. It was terrible.
"You know, it's hard seeing the posters everywhere, and it's hard being the bad guy. But I never left town because I have nothing to run from.”
Two bullet holes remain visible in the back of Denny's former rental home — bullet holes Denny said he suspects were made by previous residents.
Another pair of bullet holes can be seen a few feet away on the side of the home occupied by Denny's former next-door neighbor, Jeff Scarberry.
Scarberry said investigators entered his home at the time Flores' disappeared to search for bullets. Investigators have never confirmed whether those bullet holes are connected to the case.
"They just came in, flicked some paint off the wall and retrieved two slugs,” said Scarberry, who has lived in the house seven years.
"I never heard anything that day, but then again there were always loud noises and arguments coming from that home.”


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