Bio

Karl Lee Myers was born on March 29, 1948, in Oklahoma. Before the confirmed murders of Shawn Marie Williams and Cindy Michelle Marzano, Myers already had a serious criminal history. He had previously been convicted of violent sexual offenses and was known to law enforcement before the 1990s murder cases. Investigators later reviewed his background because they believed the two confirmed murders may not have been his only crimes.

Myers was also connected by suspicion to earlier unsolved killings. One of the cases publicly linked to him was the 1977 killing of Ellen Deann Rowden in Kansas. Myers was charged in that case but was acquitted because the evidence was not sufficient for conviction. Because of that, Rowden remains a suspected victim only, not a confirmed victim.

Murder Story

On April 16, 1993, the body of 22-year-old Shawn Marie Williams was found near Rocky Point at the Port of Catoosa in Rogers County, Oklahoma. She had been reported missing after going to a convenience store and not returning. Her pickup truck was later found abandoned. A forensic examination showed that she had been sexually assaulted and shot five times. One of the gunshots struck her chest and caused fatal damage to her aorta. DNA testing later connected Myers to the sexual assault and murder.

The case remained unsolved until Myers was arrested years later in connection with another killing. On March 14, 1996, Cindy Michelle Marzano was found dead in the Verdigris River. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Witnesses had seen Myers with Marzano before her death, and investigators soon focused on him as a suspect. DNA evidence later connected him to both Marzano’s murder and Williams’s earlier murder.

Myers was tried separately for the two murders. In the Cindy Marzano case, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1998. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals later affirmed the conviction and death sentence.

Myers was later tried for the murder of Shawn Williams. In that case, prosecutors relied heavily on DNA evidence, testimony that Myers had confessed to an inmate, and statements that he had bragged about disposing of Williams’s body before his arrest. On March 7, 2000, he received a second death sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder while committing rape.

Because of Myers’s prior criminal history and the circumstances of the two confirmed murders, investigators examined whether he could be linked to other unsolved cases. He was suspected in several additional killings, but no further murder convictions were secured. His confirmed victim count remains two.

Karl Lee Myers remained on Oklahoma death row until his death. On December 28, 2012, he was found unresponsive in the medical unit at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead. He died before any execution was carried out.