Dennis Kent Goff

Dennis Kent Goff was a 29-year-old father of four from the area of Coweta, Oklahoma. His daughter, who was just eight years old when he was killed, remembers him as a great dad who was funny and always trying to make people laugh. He was a man with a family who loved him, and his life was centered around them. The Easter holiday in 2000 was the last time they would ever see him alive, and the events that followed left them with decades of unanswered questions.

On the evening of Easter Sunday, April 9, 2000, Dennis had dinner with his family. It was a normal holiday gathering, filled with the moments that families cherish. At around 10:00 p.m., he left, telling them he was going to a friend's house. It was the last time his loved ones saw him. What happened in the hours after he departed remains a mystery, a void in a timeline that ends in violence and tragedy.

In the pre-dawn hours of the next morning, Monday, April 10, 2000, a truck driver was traveling along the Muskogee Turnpike, also known as Highway 51. At approximately 5:30 a.m., the driver made a grim discovery in the grass alongside the road. About three miles west of the exit for Coweta in Wagoner County, the driver found the body of a man, lying face down. The man was soon identified as Dennis Kent Goff.

The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Dennis had died from a single gunshot wound to the head, and his death was officially ruled a homicide. Investigators with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) processed the scene, but it quickly became apparent that this was not where Dennis was killed. The evidence suggested that he had been murdered at an unknown, secondary location before his body was brought to the turnpike and abandoned by the side of the highway.

For more than two decades, the OSBI has kept the case open. Investigators have reviewed the file multiple times, searching for new leads or a fresh perspective. As forensic technology has advanced, evidence from the case has been resubmitted for more sophisticated DNA testing, offering a glimmer of hope that a scientific breakthrough could point toward the person responsible for Dennis’s death. Despite these ongoing efforts, no arrests have ever been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified.

The passage of time has not eased the pain for Dennis’s family. They have lived for years knowing that someone has gotten away with murder. On the 20th anniversary of his death in 2020, his daughter Kegan Goff spoke about the enduring loss and the need for closure. "Somebody knows something," she said. "It's been 20 years. It's time." Her words reflect a family’s long and painful wait for justice and the hope that someone’s conscience might finally lead them to come forward.

As of April 2020, the murder of Dennis Kent Goff remains an active and unsolved cold case. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation continues to seek information from the public. A reward of $5,000 is available for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for his death. Anyone with information is urged to contact the OSBI at (800) 522-8017.