$250,000 Reward – Murder or Suicide?
Posted by Max Cannon in $100,000+, Cold Case, Oklahoma, Unsolved Murder, tags: Cold Case, CrimePAY$, Kenneth Trentadue, Max Cannon, murder, oklahoma, reward, RewardsTV, Unsolved Murder Reward
Kenneth Trentadue Autopsy Photo
CrimePAY$ $250,000 Reward 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)
Kenneth Michael Trentadue (December 19, 1950 – August 21, 1995) was found hanged in his cell at FTC Oklahoma during the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing, allegedly a suicide.
Trentadue’s family maintains that he was murdered by prison guards or another inmate and that officials at the prison engaged in a cover-up. Oklahoma City’s chief medical examiner, Fred Jordan, said of Trentadue that it was “very likely he was murdered.”
Timothy McVeigh stated that he believes Trentadue was mistaken for Richard Lee Guthrie Jr., a suspected co-conspirator in the bombing who also died in federal custody, allegedly from suicide by hanging.
It is contended that Trentadue was mistaken for Richard Lee Guthrie Jr., a member of the Aryan Republican Army, members of which were thought to have associated with McVeigh, and were the subject of FBI investigation. The two men shared a strong physical resemblance – they were the same height, weight, and build, both had thick mustaches, and both had dragon tattoos on their left arm
In 1999, fellow-inmate Alden Gillis Baker volunteered to testify that he witnessed Trentadue’s murder, a year later he was found hanged in his cell, another apparent suicide.
Kenneth was apprehended on June 10, 1995, nearly two months after the Oklahoma City bombing, while crossing the border from Mexico into California, when police officers ran his driver’s license and discovered that he was wanted for violating his parole. On August 18, Trentadue was transferred to the Department of Justice’s Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Trentadue called his brother, Jesse from FTC Oklahoma on August 19. Jesse described Kenneth as sounding “chipper” in the call. According to prison records, three days later, at 3:02 a.m., the morning of August 21, 1995, Kenneth was found in his cell suspended from a noose made out of his bed sheets.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy and federal officials determined that Trentadue had committed suicide by hanging himself. Officials tried to obtain the permission of Trentadue’s family to cremate the body at the government’s expense—an unprecedented move—but the family declined, since they found the claims of suicide suspicious. The government then performed an autopsy on Trentadue, but did not notify the family.
When the family received the body from the prison authorities, it was covered in wounds, cuts, and bruises, leading the family to believe Trentadue had been tortured and beaten before his death. Trentadue had sustained three heavy blows to the head, and his throat had been cut; prison authorities claimed the wounds were self-inflicted. The day after Trentadue’s death, Kevin Rowland, the chief examiner of the Oklahoma state medical examiner filed a complaint with the FBI reporting irregularities in the investigation of Trentadue’s death: the coroner was at first not permitted into the cell where Trentadue had died, and the cell itself was washed out before any investigation could be performed. The complaint went on to state that, although the exact cause of death could not be determined, the claim that Trentadue had committed suicide was not consistent with the medical examiner’s findings, and Trentadue appeared to have been tortured. The FBI paperwork from the agent who received the medical examiner’s call reads “murder” and “believes that foul play is suspect[ed] in this matter.”
In November 2008, Kenneth Trentadue’s family offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to a murder conviction in the case of Trentadue’s death.
According to one 2008 interview, the federal government did pay a civil settlement to the family, which is the source of the money offered as a reward.
CrimePAY$ $250,000 Reward 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)
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