Lucas Luke Carl Sanders, 42, was killed on August 18, 2021, in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. A member of the Muscogee Nation and a lifetime resident, Sanders was a father of three and a grandfather who enjoyed re-wiring motorcycles, especially his Harley. He was shot six times in the head while he lay in his bed; his body and the bed were then set on fire with a propane torch.

Investigators from the FBI, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Mayes County Sheriff’s Office determined the killing grew out of a personal conflict. Authorities identified Daren Gilson Puffinbarger, 32, as the person responsible; he was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2021 for first-degree murder in Indian Country. In May 2022 Puffinbarger pleaded guilty in federal court to a lesser charge of second-degree murder in Indian Country for Sanders’s death.