Bob and Nancy Strait, a Tulsa, Oklahoma couple, were beaten and robbed in their home.
Bob and Nancy Strait (90 and 85 years old, respectively) were a North Tulsa, Oklahoma, couple whom family members described as follows to local television station KOTV:The couple had been married more than 65 years, had six children and 18 grandchildren. They were great, great, great grandparents. Bob Strait was a paratrooper in World War II. He was with the 101st airborne where he was part of the D-day invasion. He was awarded the Bronze Star. Nancy grew up in a log cabin in Kenwood, Oklahoma with no running water. She moved to Tulsa to work during the war. Nancy was a homemaker who made quilts and homemade jellies. Bob was a welder by trade and did woodworking for a hobby. The two did everything together; grocery shopping, doctor's visits, you name it. 'Mama was the kind, if you came in, she would say 'go to the kitchen and help yourself with the groceries or let me get you something.' She fed everybody,' daughter Andra said. '[Bob] is the kind of guy, your car breaks down on the highway, he could fix it. He'd stop and fix your car,' said the Straits' son, Bob.On 14 March 2012, Nancy and Bob Strait were robbed and beaten at their home. Nancy Strait was sexually assaulted and died of her injuries the following day; Bob Strait was shot in the face with his own BB gun, suffered a broken jaw and cracked ribs, and died on 4 May 2012. Their assailants reportedly made off with the Straits' television, $200, a BB gun, and the couple's Dodge Neon.Tulsa police made an arrest the afternoon following the robbery after being tipped off to the location of the couple's stolen car:Tulsa police located the couple's stolen car in the 5700 block of East Easton Street. An alert driver on 4th and Yale called police when he saw the Plymouth Neon. He followed it to the neighborhood. That's when more than a dozen police cars stopped the driver. Investigators took 3 men and a woman in for questioning. Police tell us there was a child inside the car with the woman. After interviewing the four, police arrested Tyrone Woodfork, 20. Police said they had enough evidence to arrest Woodfork for this murder. Woodfork was on a suspended sentence for burglary. A police report says he sold the Strait's 42-inch flatscreen TV for $250 at a gas station shortly after the break-in, and was in possession of other items from the house. He is being held without bond.Tyrone Woodfork has since been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nancy Strait as well as burglary, assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of armed robbery. (Since no one has yet been tried or convicted in the case, and police indicated to KOTV that they were looking for additional suspects, the statement that the Straits were beaten by 'colored offenders' remains speculative at this point.)Although the robbery and beating of the Straits was reported in the UK's Daily Mail, U.S. coverage of the crime has so far largely been limited to local (Tulsa area) media.
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