Osage County Teen On A Mission To Find His Mother's Killer

Lacie Lowry, News On 6

OSAGE COUNTY -- A cold case in Osage County is getting a fresh perspective from the victim's child.

Bobby Neighbors was only seven months old when his mother was murdered in Pawhuska in 1996.

"I think the least I deserve is the truth," Neighbors said.

Bobby Neighbors can't talk to his mother, Joannie Goodwin, anymore.

"I have never even had the chance to tell my mom I love her," he said.

He's reaching out to her killer instead.

"You took my mom's life over 14 years ago and everything we could have been together," he said.

He's written several letters to his mother's murderer. You'll find them all on the Facebook page he devoted to her.

"It's my mom. I never got the chance to know her. Other people are telling me what I want to know about her," he said.

Neighbors keeps pictures, plaques and newspaper clippings marking his mother's accomplishments and her murder.

Goodwin went missing in September of 1996. Her body was found a week later in Bird Creek. She had been shot, tied up and bound to a tree.

Her mother, Lavern, spoke with News On 6 at the time of the murder.

"Whoever's done this, I want them to see what they've took away from this baby," she said.

That baby is Bobby. He's now a high school freshman and lives with his grandmother.

He started the Facebook page to contact people who knew Goodwin, get the buzz going again about her death and maybe answer the question he's been living with for 14 years: who murdered his mother?

"She deserves justice," Neighbors said. "I'm not looking for revenge; I'm not looking for a fight. All I'm looking for is answers and the truth."

Osage County Sheriff Ty Koch says investigators have interviewed dozens of people over the years, trying to solve Joannie Goodwin's murder.  He's hoping enhanced DNA testing will provide new leads and his office is awaiting results on a few different samples.