Three people have pleaded guilty in connection with the 2014 murder of 20-year-old Dustin Ray Carver, closing out an Oklahoma cold case that sat unsolved for more than a decade. James Merritt Larson Jr., 42, entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder, while his wife Penny Larson, 40, and Bradley Wayne Majors, 31, each pleaded guilty to accessory to a felony in the case out of Delaware County.
Carver was last seen in 2014 at a home in Kansas, Oklahoma, according to KOKH, and Delaware County Sheriff's Office deputies took a missing persons report on him that same year. Investigators later searched the property connected to Carver's case with help from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office, and discovered a burn pile containing human remains, per the station's report. According to a 2025 probable cause affidavit described by 5NEWS, James Larson confronted Carver at the home after Penny Larson alleged Carver had raped her, reportedly telling her husband, “I want him gone” and “I want him dealt with.”
Why the Case Stalled for Over a Decade
Despite the discovery of blood, bone fragments and teeth in 2014, a previous Delaware County District Attorney declined to bring murder charges at the time because investigators could not positively identify the remains as Carver's, according to Newsweek. Without that forensic confirmation, the case went cold for more than ten years even though physical evidence pointed toward foul play on the rural property.
A witness later told investigators that they saw Penny Larson cleaning blood from the trailer floor, and that James Larson subsequently showed them Carver's body on a burn pile in the woods with a knife still in his chest, 5NEWS reported. The same witness said Carver's personal belongings were burned in a barrel afterward.
A Cellmate's Admission Reopens the Investigation
The case broke open in July 2025 when a Missouri sheriff's office contacted Delaware County with new leads after a former cellmate of James Larson's in Clinton County, Missouri came forward, per KOKH. That cellmate told law enforcement that Larson had bragged about torturing Carver, slitting his throat, and burning his body in Oklahoma, according to Law & Crime. Cases like this one illustrate how out-of-state custody and inmate admissions often serve as essential catalysts for cold case breakthroughs, as Law & Crime noted in its coverage.
OSBI special agents subsequently identified James Merritt Larson Jr. and Penny Larson as suspects and charged both with first-degree murder. At the time Oklahoma authorities charged him, James Larson was already serving a 14-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections for unrelated stealing and drug convictions, Law & Crime reported.
Third Suspect Charged
In October 2025, investigators charged a third suspect, 31-year-old Bradley Wayne Majors of Colcord, Oklahoma, according to the Delaware County Journal. Majors was later arrested and held without bail in Delaware County Jail and was charged with first-degree murder.
Penny Larson and Majors later pleaded guilty and received suspended sentences of 20 years and 10 years, respectively.
Sentencing and What Comes Next for Larson
James Larson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, with all but the first 20 years suspended, according to OSBI. Under Oklahoma Statutes Title 21, Section 13.1, first-degree murder is classified as an 85 percent crime, according to the Lai & Turner Law Firm, meaning a defendant must serve at least 85 percent of the unsuspended portion of the term before becoming eligible for parole consideration under the state's strict sentencing guidelines.
The resolution comes amid a broader statewide push to clear Oklahoma's cold case backlog. The OSBI's Cold Case Unit, established in 2018, was as of April 2026 actively managing roughly 446 cold case homicides and 56 missing or unidentified person cases, having resolved 98 cases since its creation. Statewide data cited in 2026 also showed Oklahoma had 954 documented missing persons, giving it the highest missing persons rate per capita in the country, a factor that has pushed lawmakers to pass mandates like Francine's Law to speed missing person reports into national databases.
Carver's case joins other Delaware County cold cases that have drawn renewed attention from investigators in recent months, including the unsolved killing of Brett Scheele, whose burned remains were also found in the county. For Carver's family, the guilty pleas close a chapter that began with a 2014 missing persons report and stretched through more than a decade of unanswered questions before a cellmate's words finally set the case in motion.
