A person of interest in a cold case killing of an Oklahoma mother who was beaten to death in front of her baby 15 years ago shot himself in the head in the middle of a Zoom call with police about his possible involvement.
Michael Thomas — a longtime person of interest in the killing of 34-year-old Julie Mitchell — requested that his meeting last week with investigators be virtual rather than in person before he killed himself on camera, according to local reports.
Thomas, 54, shot himself during the May 31 Zoom after being on the call for about 45 minutes, his shocked attorney Ed Blau told The Oklahoman.
“The phone landed right by his head, so we got to hear him die, hear the death rattle,” the attorney said Tuesday. “It was as shocking and horrific as you can imagine.”
Thomas, who took the call from a wooded area outside a Kansas casino, was being questioned as part of the investigation into the murder of Mitchell, who was beaten to death in the bedroom of her Oklahoma City home in November 2010. Her 13-month-old baby was discovered unharmed right by her bludgeoned body.
Police found Mitchell’s body in the master bedroom closet. Approximately $30,000 was missing from a closet safe, according to The Oklahoman.
Thomas — whose company checkbook was found at Mitchell’s home after her death — had been a person of interest in the case for years, and was interviewed by police at least five or six times, his lawyer told KOCO 5.
When investigators wanted to question him again this week, Thomas agreed – but on one condition, the station reported.
He insisted that the meeting not be in person.
“Beggars can’t always be choosers, and this is somebody we wanted to talk to, we needed to talk to. There were questions we needed to have answered by him,” Master Sgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department told KOCO.
So Thomas, Blau and Oklahoma City detectives arranged for a Zoom call on May 31 that Thomas was going to take out of the state.
“He had agreed to be interviewed by detectives, but only on the stipulation that he wasn’t going to be at the same location. He wanted to be in a manner like a Zoom call,” Knight added.
Oklahoma City Police Detective Bryn Carter told News 9 that Thomas dominated the conversation.
“He didn’t give me an opportunity to ask him any questions,” Carter said. “He controlled the conversation from start to finish.”
About 45 minutes into the call, in the middle of questioning, Thomas took out a gun and shot himself in the head, according to reports.
The cops on the call said they had never experienced anything that shocking before during an interview.
“I don’t remember in my time here, 35 years here, someone killing themselves during an interview,” Knight told KOCO.
“In 31 years on the police department doing hundreds of hundreds of interviews, I’ve never had anyone commit suicide in front of me,” Carter echoed.
Over the years and rounds of questioning, Thomas — who reportedly owed a gambling debt to Mitchell’s bookie husband — repeatedly denied having anything to do with the fatal beating of Mitchell.
“I — 100% — did not,” he told The Oklahoman in 2012. “That’s for sure.”
Cops are continuing to investigate the cold case.
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