20 Years After Murder Of Tulsa Student Brittany Phillips, Case Remains Unsolved

It has been 20 years since Tulsa college student Brittany Phillips was raped and murdered in her apartment, yet no one has ever been arrested.

"It's going to be the first anniversary where she's been dead longer than she's been alive,” said Brittany's mother, Maggie Zingman.

Despite several leads and countless tips over the years, police have not been able to identify her killer. Zingman never thought her daughter would be murdered, nor that the case would go cold, and certainly not that 20 years would pass without any answers.

"I miss her every day. Every day I cry, but every day I live my life to the fullest,” Zingman said.

Zingman still sees her daughter Brittany as the same little girl she was 20 years ago. Brittany was raped and suffocated in her south Tulsa apartment in 2004, just days before her 19th birthday.

"It just rips my heart apart. It got ripped apart initially. I have this picture where it's a heart being sewn back together, and I feel like I keep doing that every time I have hope, then something falls apart,” Zingman said.

Detectives believed they had the DNA of the killer and tested it against nearly 3,000 men, but there was never a match. In 2019, a composite sketch created from the DNA led them to a man who was a match, but he had an alibi for the time Brittany was killed. Zingman has driven more than 300,000 miles across the country in her “Caravan to Catch a Killer,” sharing Brittany's story in hopes of generating new tips.

"I don't know what to do with it other than have to do what I've done for the last 20 years, and that's living in honor of her, living in spite of the murder, living because of the murder, because that's the only way I can survive,” Zingman said.

Zingman often feels frustrated when she does not receive updates from the detective on the case.

"I say this to Tulsa Police, just reach out. We can meet once a month, or once every two months, every three months,” Zingman said.

Sergeant Jeremy Stiles, the Tulsa Police cold case detective, acknowledges the challenges of solving cases without physical evidence.

"We're thankful that she's out there on the road, talking to people, and keeping Brittany's story alive. That helps us,” Sergeant Stiles said.

"Just because some time goes by where we have no new information to provide about the case doesn't mean on the back side we aren't doing things to try and find that information that we will one day be able to put out."

Zingman plans to drive through the southwestern U.S. this fall, sharing Brittany’s story and connecting with families of other homicide victims. If you have any information about Brittany's case, call Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS.