Just before dawn on June 29, a Norman man called 9-1-1 to report that his daughter had been shot in the face. He told the dispatcher that his daughter was "gone."
When the dispatcher asked if the young woman had shot herself, the man hesitated briefly before saying, "Yes."
Norman police arrived at the scene to find Kailee Jo McMullen, 22, critically injured with a gunshot wound to the face. Her father, Ronald Lee McMullen, 43, was covered in blood and kept trying to wipe it off of himself. The young woman's mother, whom Ronald McMullen apparently called before calling 9-1-1, was trying to perform CPR on her daughter.
Emergency workers continued to perform CPR on the woman until it became clear that she had succumbed to her injury and was dead at the scene.
Although Ronald McMullen told the 9-1-1 dispatcher that Kailee had shot and killed herself, police say evidence at the scene contradicted his story. On July 5, nearly one week after Kailee's death, Norman police arrested her father on a complaint of first degree murder. He is held without bond in the Cleveland County Jail.
Police say their investigation could reveal motive in the young woman's killing. They say that in 2004, when Kailee was only 14, Norman Public Schools and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) received a report that the girl's father had touched her inappropriately. However, no charges were ever filed in connection with that report.
Witnesses testify that in recent weeks, Kailee told them that her father had once again begun touching her inappropriately while he believed her to be asleep. They said the woman told them in April that her father had slapped her across the face and that her mother had pointed a gun at him.
Beyond allegations of sexual abuse, police have revealed no other motive or the situation immediately preceding Kailee's shooting. They say that when they arrived and asked Ronald McMullen what happened, he gave them a "blank stare" and said he did not know where the gun was.
Investigators say that it appeared that the woman's body had been moved and that McMullen had attempted to clean up the blood. They noted finding bloody towels in the kitchen. They noted that the man was covered in blood, even under his shirt, and that despite being warned not to wipe it off, he kept trying to remove the blood. At one point, officers had to physically restrain him from wiping the blood with his hands so they could photograph the evidence.
If ultimately charged and convicted of first degree murder, the father faces life in prison or life without parole.