Shirley Phyllis Ahhaitty Gokey, a 43-year-old member of the Kiowa Tribe, was last seen in Shawnee, Oklahoma on May 20, 1978. Her body was found by two boys in a wooded area northeast of the city off Moccasin Trail Road on the evening of May 27. Initial observers thought there were gunshot wounds to her forehead and chest, but investigators later attributed those marks to decomposition. Her body was found nude, and tests suggested she likely died between May 21 and May 22.

Authorities officially ruled the cause of death natural, a conclusion disputed by her family. Shirley had been recently released from jail in Chandler for public drunkenness and had come to Shawnee searching for her husband. Witnesses said she was last seen leaving a bar with a man who admitted being with her that night; some accounts describe him as having a violent reputation when intoxicated. He was questioned and released, and no arrests were made. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation have been involved; the death remains unresolved in Pottawatomie County.

Did anyone in Shawnee in May 1978 see Shirley or the man she left the bar with, or have information about her final movements?