The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said three people were arrested following a conspiracy investigation.
The investigation began August 15, when Wilburton police responded to a disturbance at a home on East Ash Avenue. According to the OSBI, the woman told officers that her ex-boyfriend, Demoret, had entered her home and tried to take her child. Officers also contacted Bishop at the scene. Police asked OSBI to assist the next day.
What the charges allege
OSBI said its investigation concluded that Demoret, Bishop and Willet had conspired to kill the woman and take the child. Investigators later found a syringe in the residence; the bureau said the suspects had planned to use it to harm the woman and that testing found a substance that could have been fatal.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ jury-instruction commentary describes conspiracy as the formulation of an agreement or plan to commit a prohibited offense and says whether an agreement existed is for the factfinder to decide.
Child-abduction figures have a limited scope
National figures offer a point of reference, but not a measure of cases like this one. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s 2024 AMBER Alert report categorized 96 cases not deemed hoaxes or unfounded as family abductions at initial intake.
Three arrests
OSBI special agents and LeFlore County sheriff’s deputies arrested Demoret in Poteau, Oklahoma, and booked him into the LeFlore County Jail. Agents working with the Fort Smith Police Department arrested Bishop and Willet without incident in Fort Smith, Arkansas; both were booked into the Sebastian County Jail. Each suspect was held on $250,000 bond.
OSBI credited the LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Smith Police Department, Lavaca Police Department, Latimer County District Attorney’s Office, Wilburton Police Department, District 12 Judicial Task Force, Sallisaw Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations with assisting the investigation. The bureau said the charges are accusations and the suspects are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
