Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation   A. DeWade Langley   Director   Jessica Brown Public Information Director

10/11/06                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           

Investigators Solve Cherokee Co. Murder

A man and women are behind bars accused of murdering of Joseph William Hain of Tulsa.  A hunter found Hain’s body in a densely wooded area near Tahlequah September 30th.   Investigators believe Hain’s body had been there since July.

The medical examiner has ruled the 27-year-old man died of a gunshot wound.   Detectives traced Hain’s truck to Marci Dawn Reynolds (dob 6/4/75) in Canny, Kansas.  Today (10/11), OSBI served her with a warrant for accessory to murder in the first degree after the fact.  Reynolds sits in a Montgomery County Kansas jail awaiting an extradition hearing.

OSBI also arrested Levi Jared Nichols outside his Tulsa apartment for murder in the first degree.  Nichols (dob 10/19/82) lives in the Spring Creek Apartments.  He has family who lives in Cherokee County.  Agents have booked Nichols into the Cherokee County Jail.

Investigators believe Nichols shot Hain during a confrontation between the two.