Gaylord Professor Co-Produces Hulu Docuseries
By Will Cornelius
The Ash Ceremony is one that any Girl Scout is familiar with. When one campfire dies, Scouts take the ashes and save them to spread at the next campfire. It’s a tradition that’s been carried out for more than a century. Mike Boettcher’s new series, “Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders,” rekindles a decades-old cold case where he spreads the ashes to a new fire.
Keeper of the Ashes is a four-part true-crime series that revisits the deaths of Lori Lee Farmer, 8, Michelle Guse, 9, and Doris Denise Milner, 10. The girls were found murdered after their first night of summer camp at Camp Scott.
The series is anchored by Oklahoma native and award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth, and tells the stories of those who worked on the case 45 years ago.
"I remember, I should have been on that trip,” Chenoweth said. "But I had gotten sick, and Mom said, 'You can't go.'"
That small twist of fate meant that she wasn't there the night of the murders.
"It has stuck with me my whole life," she said. "I could have been one of them."
The docuseries dives into new details released this year about the killings. With new technology that didn't exist in the 1970s, investigators examine the evidence left from the incident all those years ago. They seek to find the truth about that night at Camp Scott, to address the unanswered questions around the case.
Boettcher and the crew review interviews with acquitted suspect Gene Leroy Hart’s counsel, a Camp Scott counselor and Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed, who reopened the case.
You can watch “Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders” streaming now on Hulu.
