A rural Muskogee County visit turned deadly on February 9, 1979, when 68-year-old John Seward and his 62-year-old wife, Roxie, stopped at a relative’s house and interrupted an in-progress burglary. The intruder, identified as Charles Troy Coleman, was armed with a shotgun and took the couple to the basement as hostages. In the cellar John Seward was killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head; Roxie Seward died of four close-range shotgun blasts.

Coleman was arrested with evidence tying him to the scene and was later convicted of first-degree murder for John Seward’s death. On October 12, 1979, he received a death sentence; prosecutors kept charges in reserve for Roxie Seward. After years of appeals, his sentence was carried out by lethal injection on September 10, 1990.

Does anyone in the Muskogee County area remember the Sewards or have information about the events of that February day?