Do you know what happened to Lisa? Lisa Marie Gaskin was a 17-year-old girl who left behind a large, loving family, including her parents, two brothers, and four sisters. Her loved ones remember her and miss her deeply, gathering for events like balloon releases to honor her memory years after her death. Her friend, Shantrease Stoddard, said of one gathering, "It means the world that no one’s forgotten her." The passage of time has not eased the pain for her family, who continue to seek closure and justice. Her mother, Sandra Weems, has expressed the profound loss, saying, "I just miss her. I just want her back."
On the evening of March 28, 2000, Lisa had visited her father at his workplace in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Around 11:00 p.m., she was walking along the railroad tracks in the 4200 block of Southwest Boulevard. A witness, described as a homeless man in the area, saw Lisa walking with an unidentified man. They went out of his line of sight, and he then heard a scuffle.
For reasons that are not clear, the witness waited about an hour before contacting the police.
The call to police was made around 1:00 a.m., reporting the discovery of Lisa's body. She had been brutally attacked. The assailant had beaten her with a heavy, sharp object, described by her stepsister as a lead pipe, causing a significant gash to the back of her head. She was then dragged into a nearby ditch and strangled to death, which was determined to be the primary cause of death. The suspect was reportedly seen fleeing the scene in a northeasterly direction.
The Tulsa Police Department opened a homicide investigation into the death of Lisa, a white female. Over the years, detectives have reviewed the case, but it has remained unsolved. In 2001, police released crime scene photos in hopes of generating new leads. Detectives have stated they have a hunch about who might be responsible for Lisa's murder but lack the key piece of evidence needed to make an arrest. "It's one phone call away from solving it," said Homicide Detective Eddie Majors in 2019, emphasizing the need for someone with knowledge of the crime to come forward.
The family has lived with the agony of not knowing who took Lisa from them. "My parents are reliving it," her stepsister, Monica Galchik, said in 2019. "They live in this level of torture. It's torture not to know who would have done something so horrific to their children." Lisa's father was in hospice care nearly two decades after her murder, fearful he would pass away before seeing justice for his daughter. Both of Lisa's parents have since died without seeing their daughter's killer brought to justice, leaving Galchik to continue the fight for answers alone. "It’s been 24 years, 24 whole years where there’s not been any type of closure and it’s just like an open wound to the family," Galchik stated in May 2024.
Investigators believe that modern forensic technology could be the key to solving the case. Tulsa Police Homicide Lt. Brandon Watkins has expressed hope that genealogical DNA testing could finally identify the killer. However, he noted that the process is both expensive and time-consuming. "I want these things to be solved. Desperately, I want these things to be solved and not having the ability to do it is frustrating for us," Watkins said, mentioning a federal grant that could potentially help fund the necessary testing.
As of May 2024, the murder of Lisa Gaskin remains an open and active cold case. Her family and friends are confident that someone in the west Tulsa community has the information needed to solve the crime. "There’s not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that somebody in west Tulsa has the answers we’ve been searching for," Galchik said. Authorities urge anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward. A reward may be available for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. Tips can be submitted anonymously to Tulsa Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS. 
