MARLOW – A Stephens County woman accused of second-degree murder and 113 counts of animal cruelty reportedly killed a friend with a pickup, rolled her into a tarp and placed the victim in a metal shipping container, court records show.
On Feb. 22, prosecutors charged Karen Jean Pritchard, 39, of killing Ashley Nicole Anderson on Feb. 10 and operating a Marlow puppy mill that left the animals without food, water and shelter. Anderson’s body and 168 neglected animals were discovered on Pritchard’s property after Stephens County deputies served a search warrant Feb. 12. Some of the animals were taken to the Tulsa Humane Society and others were retained at the scene as evidence.
Pritchard told investigators she and Anderson engaged in a physical altercation on Feb. 10 after telling Anderson she had to leave the property where she had been living for a short time. After Anderson refused, Pritchard told the woman to get in the pickup bed because of her body odor, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by Officer Bill Perkins.
The defendant drove to the gate of her property where she told Anderson to “get out,” but the victim refused.
Pritchard admitted she “flipped” Anderson out of the pickup and onto the ground, but Anderson jumped back onto the vehicle and the two drove to the house where the victim fell to the ground “acting like a nut,” Perkins wrote in the affidavit.
Pritchard told investigators she tried to lift Anderson but couldn’t and called a friend to help her move the victim into the house. Pritchard admitted to the investigators that Anderson began to shake, but never said anything after that, the affidavit shows.
Perkins pressed Pritchard about her failure to call an ambulance after Anderson fell to the ground, leaving the defendant to respond that she thought Anderson was fine with only a bloody nose. Pritchard also said she didn’t know what she was going to do with Anderson’s body, Perkins wrote in the affidavit.
The defendant and her friend decided to get Anderson “out of the house”, placed the body on a tarp and tied a rope to the tarp to use as a handle. The body, which was cold to the touch, was then placed in the metal shipping container, according to the affidavit. Anderson’s body remained in the shipping container for at least a day before lawmen discovered her.
As of Ledger press time, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office could not be reached for comment on the manner and cause of death.
Quinton Fullerton, a friend of the defendant, alerted deputies about the killing after Pritchard told him about the incident at a nearby gas station the following day. Fullerton told Lt. Dexter Lawley that he urged Pritchard to call law enforcement, but she refused, the affidavit shows.
According to Fullerton, Pritchard was worried about being charged with murder. He also told investigators that Prichard appeared nervous and scared during their conversation.
Pritchard faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted of the murder charge. She remains in the Stephens County Jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.
The defendant also could be sent to prison for up to five years and issued a $5,000 fine on each of the 113 animal cruelty counts.
Kelly Nelson, a representative of the Stephens County Humane Society, said her group is “very pleased that the neglect of the animals is being taken very seriously. To see any kind of conviction would be helpful in future prosecutions of puppy mills. It will also show our work is not in vain.”