'Daisy Doe' murder case inches forward

Keri Gordon, Tahlequah Daily Press, Okla.
·2 min read

Aug. 19—The 1988 murder case of "Daisy Doe" has moved forward slightly after months of continuances.

Defense attorney B.J. Baker appeared in court Thursday, Aug. 18, on behalf of his client, James Ray Vogel, who was charged for killing Jeanette Ellen Coleman.

Negotiations to dismiss the case for Vogel have been pushed back and reset several times since March 2021. Baker filed a motion to dismiss the murder case in February 2021 due to lack of prosecution movement for Vogel. The motion to dismiss was withdrawn in August.

Assistant District Attorney Eric Jordan said that in exchange for a polygraph examination, they had agreed to get the case off the preliminary hearing docket.

"He has since taken a polygraph, the results came in, the results were favorable to the state, and additional information [post Miranda] was recovered at the point in time by the polygraph examiner," Jordan said.

The prosecutor told District Judge Doug Kirkley they wished to proceed on the charge as filed, and the case needed to go back to the preliminary hearing docket.

A felony sounding docket will be in September, when Associate District Judge Josh King will set up a preliminary hearing, and all parties agreed to a date and time for it.

Coleman's body was discovered by fishermen near Fort Gibson dam. The victim had no identification, so she was nicknamed "Daisy Doe" for a tattoo on her shoulder.

In 2015, Coleman was positively identified by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office, and the case was reopened. Investigators believed Vogel and three other men had met Coleman in a Muskogee bar.

The men are believed to have had sexual intercourse with the victim at the dam, then tied a block to her body and threw her into the water while she was still alive.

Along with being accused of murder, Vogel is suspected of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, including obstruction and perjury. The suspect allegedly gave false statements as he testified in front of a grand jury.

Vogel is slated to appear in Cherokee County District Court Sept. 7 at 9 a.m.