Veda Woodson

Do you know what happened to Veda?
Veda "Susie" Woodson was a 38-year-old married mother of four children who lived in Sperry, Oklahoma. To her family and friends, she was affectionately known as Susie, a nickname her father had given her when she was a baby. She worked a janitorial shift at the First National Bank in Tulsa. Her children remembered her through the pictures and small, loving notes she left behind. One note to her daughter, Marcia Mongold, read, “Dear Marcia, when you get married and have twins always come to my house for safety pins. Mother.”

In the pre-dawn hours of July 26, 1973, Veda Woodson was driving her 1958 Chevrolet Belair home after her shift. Her family believes she experienced car trouble just two minutes from their house. Around 2:00 a.m., Sperry Police discovered her abandoned car on the side of the road in the 8800 block of North Cincinnati. The vehicle's lights were on, the driver's side door was open, and its window had been shattered with great force. When Veda failed to return home, her family grew deeply concerned and organized a search. Her three brothers, including Jack Barnes, joined a detective in scouring the area. Tragically, it was her own brothers who found her. "My brother, James, says I see something up ahead," Barnes later recalled. "It was Susie." Veda's body was in a nearby field. The investigation revealed that the Caucasian mother had been abducted, sexually assaulted, and strangled to death.

For decades, the brutal murder of Veda Woodson remained one of the oldest and most painful cold cases in the files of the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office. Investigators had preserved evidence from the crime scene, but the forensic technology of the era was not advanced enough to identify a suspect. For 45 years, her family waited for answers, haunted by the violent loss of their mother and sister.

A significant breakthrough finally came in October 2018 when the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Task Force re-examined evidence from the original investigation. Using modern forensic techniques, they developed a DNA profile that linked a suspect to the crime. The man was identified as Stanley Clabough, who was 78 years old at the time of the announcement. Clabough had been a person of interest early in the 1973 investigation. "We know that Stanley Clabough shared details of the murder with people in his inner circle," said Task Force Leader Mike Huff. "These people are protecting him and it’s time for them to come forward." Authorities believed Clabough was living in the Tulsa area and pleaded for more witnesses to help build a case.

Shortly after the public announcement, Stanley Clabough’s daughter, Debbie Pilgrim, came to her father's defense, stating he was innocent and the evidence was misleading. She claimed that a piece of cloth containing DNA had been found in a car her father had donated to a church weeks before the murder. Investigators, however, said they had witness statements indicating Clabough was seen with the car after the murder, changing a tire and cleaning it.

Despite the DNA match, the evidence was not considered sufficient to file formal charges against Stanley Clabough. A few years before 2024, Clabough passed away without ever being charged in connection with Veda Woodson's death. Because charges were never filed, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office cannot officially close the case by exception, even with a primary suspect identified and deceased.

As of February 2024, more than half a century after her life was taken, the murder of Veda "Susie" Woodson remains officially unsolved. Her family continues to carry the weight of their loss and the horrific memory of how she was found. "The only satisfaction that I can get out of that is having the flames of hell lick him right now and he’s burning in hell," her brother Jack Barnes said of the man he believes is responsible. Investigators still hope that someone with knowledge of the crime will come forward to provide the family with a definitive answer about what happened to their mother. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office encourages anyone with information about Veda Woodson’s murder or Stanley Clabough’s involvement to contact the Cold Case Task Force at 918-596-5723.