Last Updated on June 17, 2021, 10:35 AM | Published: June 17, 2021
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Twenty-five years later to the day, the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office (OSCO) announced Wednesday it is intensifying the search for the killer of Edward Trotter, who was 43 at the time of his death in 1996.
And, a quarter of a century later, his daughter, Christalle Pelfrey is still waiting for justice to be done.
She told Free Press after the news conference that those who were involved in her father’s killing “don’t realize that they left a huge hole in my heart.”
Pelfrey said that he’s been absent, “every holiday, every birthday, the birth of my children, and my son who couldn’t be here today. He’s 17 and looks alarmingly like his grandfather.”
“He was a loving man,” Pelfrey told us. “He was kind and he would help any of his friends. He would give them the shirt off his back.”
“He’d be there any time, which is what makes all of this just so shocking. I can’t imagine someone being that upset with him, that they felt like he needed to pay with his life, and then, just hold that information all those years.”
And, she believes — as do OSCO investigators — that Trotter’s close friends at the time know who the killer is but haven’t come forward.
Cold Case Task Force
Wednesday, in a news conference, Capt. Shawn Shelby said the Cold Case Task Force is re-examining all of the old evidence. They also believe they have the names of the key suspect and accomplice.
Shelby believes that Trotter was killed in his home in rural eastern Oklahoma County and then his body moved 72.5 hours later into the woods nearby at 10900 Peebly Road.
That’s where Trotter’s body was discovered partially decomposed.
The Medical Examiners office found that Trotter had been shot twice with a shotgun firing bird shot.
Public Information Officer Aaron Brilbeck said that they now believe the fatal shots were fired from an “antique shotgun” that had been stored in an open case of guns in Trotter’s home.
Capt. Shelby said that they think it was a spur-of-the-moment killing where the shotgun was available in Trotter’s home.
Suspect circle of friends
Free Press talked with Pelfrey after the news conference about the friends mentioned in the news conference among whom are the suspects.
She and her family still live near Jones not far from where her father was killed. And, she said that they still live in the area but she hasn’t seen them or had any contact from them since her father’s funeral.
“I distanced myself quite some time ago, you know, as a teenager, because I did not like the circle of friends that my dad was around, and I didn’t want to be around that,” Pelfrey said.
“You know, they didn’t want to grow up,” she continued. “They don’t want responsibilities, and they wanted to, you know, partake in behavior that was not adult, that was not responsible, and I’m an adult. I knew that they were a bad influence on him and I tried to tell him that.”
Pelfrey said that the circle of friends her father had started in grade school in Edmond Public Schools. They all went to Edmond Memorial High School together and graduated in the early 1970s.
We asked if any of them had ever tried to contact her since they live in the community. She told us, “no one’s ever contacted me. No one’s tried to come around, which is good. I don’t want anything to do with them. So it is kind of interesting.”
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
