Her loving grandparents Larry and Deborah took her in and raised her, but 17-year-old Heidi Dutton and her boyfriend murdered them in their bedroom then “played house” while their bodies lay out in the garden
Caring grandparents turned adoptive parents Larry and Deborah Dutton had created a safe haven for their teenage granddaughter, Heidi. The couple, who lived in Dewey, Oklahoma, adopted Heidi when she was an infant and raised her as their own. They lived in a small community and it was an idyllic country location to grow up in.
Larry, 72, was a retired US Air Force master staff sergeant and former manager of an airport. Deborah, 67, was also retired from the Air Force and had spent time as a chef. She catered for local fundraiser and church events. The couple, who had been married 40 years and were active members of the church, were known for their generosity and kindness.
Heidi Dutton, then 17, had been in a relationship with Lucas Walker, then 20, for a few months and he often visited the rural farmhouse. Dutton had been a typical teenager before she met Walker online, but had become more isolated and increasingly influenced by her older boyfriend.
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In January 2023, family and neighbours grew concerned that they hadn’t seen Deborah or Larry since before Christmas. There were several requests made to the police to carry out a welfare check just in case something was wrong.
Search warrant
On 19 January, the police went to the property and noticed the rancid smell of decomposing flesh and an overwhelming smell of bleach and cleaning products. It was clear something was very wrong and they needed to get inside. They returned the next day with a search warrant. Dutton and Walker were there as officers entered the property and started their search. It was obviously a crime scene.
The officers looked around the home and it was immediately obvious someone had attempted to clean up but hadn’t done it very well. Upstairs in Deborah and Larry’s bedroom, there was blood that had seeped under the floorboards.
As the search continued, the police found hidden bloodstained jewellery and clothes, as well as blood on the walls that had been wiped down but had left traces. An expert was brought to the scene and recommended that a patch of “disturbed” dirt in the backyard be dug up and examined further. Deborah and Larry’s bodies were discovered in a shallow grave.
The police were convinced they had been killed in the house. Dutton and Walker were both arrested and left the house in handcuffs. When taken into custody and questioned, they both confessed to killing Deborah and Larry on 19 December.
It was a shocking revelation. The pair hadn’t even fled. They had done a poor job of cleaning up the blood of their victims and had continued to live in the house, living day to day with the stench of death.
Changing her story
At first Dutton said she had committed the killings and Walker had just been part of cleaning the scene. But then she changed her story and insisted Walker had done it and she’d lied to protect him.
They both admitted the murders had been planned. “We kill them,” Dutton had told Walker. When asked about a motive, Walker told officers, “Because she wanted them dead.”
The confessions revealed a calculated and violent attack on the senior couple. Dutton had let Walker in through the back door. Walker had hidden in Dutton’s bedroom that night. He had a 22. calibre pistol that he’d taken from a safe in the garage and a knife. Walker had waited while the grandparents had got ready for bed and were in their bedroom.
When Walker heard movement, he went to their bedroom door. Deborah had opened the door and went to step out but Walker raised the pistol and shot her in the face. When Deborah fell to the ground, he reached down and slit her throat with the knife. She didn’t stand a chance.
Horrified, Larry had got out of bed and rushed over to his bleeding wife. Walker described how he had tried to quickly shoot him too, but the pistol suddenly jammed, so instead he stabbed Larry in the face with a knife several times, as well as the abdomen. Both grandparents were on the floor in a pool of blood.
Dutton and Walker started to clean the scene together. In a heartbreaking detail, Dutton revealed to the police that her adoptive dad Larry was still alive after the stabbing and that he had desperately tried to crawl towards his wife before succumbing to his injuries.
Walker and Dutton then dragged the couple outside on bedsheets and buried them in the backyard in a shallow grave near the swimming pool.
Larry’s phone was recovered at the scene and it had doorbell camera footage on it from 22 December showing Walker and Dutton carrying a body out of the back of the house covered in a sheet.
The police carefully exhumed Deborah and Larry’s bodies from the backyard of their home, and the small community were shocked. It was hard to comprehend the horror that the two teens had continued living in the house for a month as though nothing had happened.
The authorities determined that perhaps the couple had initially wanted to run off together but had stayed and “played house”, even spending Larry and Deborah’s money.
A motive for the crime wasn’t established. Had protective Larry and Deborah raised concerns about the influence Walker was having on Dutton and the young couple saw them as an obstacle to being together? Without a full trial, the pair were never obliged to give an explanation.
Guilty of murder
In January this year, Walker, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. In May, Dutton, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy and two counts of desecration of a human corpse. She was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after serving 85% of a 45-year sentence, roughly 38 years.
“This was a calculated and brutal crime, but the law requires us to weigh youth and culpability,” the district attorney said. “This sentence holds Heidi Dutton accountable, mirrors the sentence imposed on her co-defendant, and spares the victims’ family the trauma of trial and years of appeals.”
Larry and Deborah had opened their home to their granddaughter and given her the loving family they believed she deserved. She repaid them by having them both killed in cold blood.