Viswa Vanapalli
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Still a Mystery: Murdered in Broad Daylight’ looks into puzzling deaths from two different cases. One of them is the murder of Sheila Deviney who was killed in her home in January 2004. In the episode, the case is reviewed through archival footage and interviews of law enforcement and other people that were a part of the case. So, let’s find out what happened to Sheila, shall we?
How Did Sheila Deviney Die?
Sheila Deviney’s life had the perfect love story. She had married her high school sweetheart, Tyson Hendrix, and they had two kids together. But the relationship didn’t last forever. Sheila divorced him and later another marriage also ended the same way for her. Her parents had stated that she had recovered from alcohol addiction and was slowly putting her life back together for her children, Morgan and Tyson.
Sheila had gotten an associate degree in science from Murray State College in Oklahoma and was working her way towards a teaching degree. The 30-year-old had been living with her kids across from her parents’ house in Maysville, Oklahoma when tragedy struck. On January 6, 2004, Sheila’s parents were notified of her daughter’s trailer home being on fire and they rushed home. Once the smoke subsided, firefighters found her badly burned body on the kitchen floor. The fire marshal’s office initially ruled it an accidental fire with a melted pan on the stove possibly causing the incident.
Who Killed Sheila Deviney?
Just months after the fire marshal’s office put out a report of the incident being an accident, the lab technicians at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation found evidence that pointed the other way. The examination of cloth and carpet samples around Sheila’s body from the scene had traces of intangible fluid.
Soon, the coroner’s report also confirmed the presence of benzene and toluene (two highly flammable substances) on her and in her blood and lungs. As a result, Sheila’s death was then ruled a homicide and an investigation ensued. But by then, the burned trailer was already taken away and along with it, evidence that could have solved the case.
The authorities discovered that Sheila and Tyson had a difficult relationship and in fact, Sheila had gotten a restraining order against him about six years before her death. The complaint stated that Tyson was abusing her and the children. Furthermore, Sheila’s sister-in-law, Betty, had also stated that on the day of the fire, when she had called Tyson at his work to tell him about it, the receptionist had told him that he wasn’t there. But he had claimed to be at work to the fire marshals. The plethora of new evidence led Sheila’s parents to push for a grand jury.
They were able to get the required signatures to convene one. The petition filed wanted the jury to find out more about the potential suspects that might have been involved, the thoroughness of the investigation, and to locate the evidence that was taken away from the scene. It didn’t turn out in their favor though, since the grand jury didn’t return any indictments in the case. The authorities had never named a suspect. In the end, the murder of Sheila Deviney remains unsolved. The family hired a private investigator in the past and they were also helped by a grassroots organization but to no avail. More than 15 years since her death, her killer still remains free.
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