Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Muskogee, OK: Muskogee woman's exhumation complete; husband charged with murder

By SUSAN HYLTON World Staff Writer
Published: 2/28/2011  12:33 PM
Last Modified: 2/28/2011  10:37 PM

MUSKOGEE — Jeffery Joseph Grannon was charged Monday with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife, who disappeared 12 years ago.
Grannon, 56, is accused of strangling Carol Stallings Grannon, then 36, with a zip tie on or about March 15, 1999. He has confessed to placing her body in a sewer drain in an alley behind their house, police said.

Authorities spent three days exhuming the remains from the sewer drain, finishing their work Sunday night.

The remains were covered with a cement mix that had been poured into the 10- to 12-foot-deep drain.

The remains were encased in the concrete, which had hardened over time.

“That’s why it took them so long” to exhume the remains, Chief Deputy Joe Hughart said.

State Medical Examiner’s Office spokeswoman Cherokee Ballard said authorities will try to confirm through dental records that the remains are those of Carol Grannon.

Renowned forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow of Norman will help determine the cause of death, she said.

A break in the cold case came when Grannon’s son, Joshua Grannon, 27, was arrested in a drug case last week. Joshua Grannon told a sheriff’s deputy that his father was responsible for his stepmother’s death and that he had helped his father dispose of her body.

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore noted that the son was 15 at that time and said he has not decided whether he will charge the younger man in connection with his stepmother’s death.

Jeffery Grannon is being held without bail in the Muskogee County Jail, and the son,

who was charged Monday with manufacturing methamphetamine, is in the Wagoner County Jail with bail set at $25,000.
Moore said the older Grannon asked the court to appoint a public defender for him

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