Oklahoma Medical Examiner Links 5 Deaths to Weekend Storm

The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office says the deaths of five people in recent days are likely linked to a powerful weekend winter storm.

Spokesman Eddie Johnson said that the dead include two women found outdoors in the Oklahoma City area, a duck hunter whose boat capsized on Kaw Lake and two suspected drowning victims in eastern Oklahoma. A search continues at the lake near Ponca City for a second missing hunter, but Johnson says the effort has been hampered because the water is too cold for divers.

Johnson identified the women as 38-year-old Tabitha Southerland in Oklahoma City and 66-year-old Betty Wright of Yukon. The likely drowning victims include 54-year-old Melissa Phillips of Bixby, and 36-year-old Darrell Sennett, whose pickup truck was swept off of a Pittsburg County road.