Dena Ann Dean

Case background and investigation

Dena Ann Dean was 16 years old when she went missing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 1998. According to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, she left her job at Marvins Food Store in the Town West Shopping Center on West Skelly Drive at about 9 p.m. on June 6, 1998, and was not heard from again. KJRH reported that her car was located in the shopping center's parking lot at around midnight.

On June 12, 1998, her body was found in a field near a pond roughly two miles north of the shopping center, in the 2800 block of South 49th West Avenue, according to the sheriff's office. The body was decomposed, and the Tulsa medical examiner ruled the manner of death a homicide. KJRH, citing the investigation, reported that the cause of death was listed as undetermined and that she had suffered trauma to the right side of her face, including a broken facial bone and a broken jaw.

The case is handled by the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Task Force. In December 2017, KTUL reported that the task force had served a DNA search warrant in Arkansas and an electronics warrant in Creek County, and that investigators were focusing on unknown DNA found at the scene. The lead investigator told KTUL there were indications of a possible familial DNA match. Investigators have named several persons of interest over the years; none has been charged.

In June 2018, on the 20th anniversary of her death, Sheriff Vic Regalado said DNA evidence rediscovered a few months earlier had given investigators confidence that they were close to filing charges, according to KTUL. The sheriff's office said at the time that the task force had interviewed new witnesses and served multiple search warrants.

No charges followed. In June 2025, marking 27 years since the killing, KJRH reported that investigators still had only circumstantial evidence and not enough physical evidence for an arrest, and that the task force was seeking funding for further DNA testing. Her parents, Diana and Larry Dean, have held a vigil each year on the anniversary. The sheriff's office asks anyone with information to contact its Cold Case Task Force.