Murder/Suicide Claims UCO Student, 2 Others

Edmond police were dispatched to a residence in west Edmond at 1:52 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 30 in response to a domestic violence 911 call.

En route to the address, police received a call from a male at the residence and stated he had killed his fiancée and her friend. The male also stated there was an 11-year-old at that residence and that he left instructions on how to care for the juvenile. He further stated he was going to the front yard to take his own life.  

The male, Scott Garber, stated he was responsible for the shooting deaths of Sarah Semlar and Adam Crawford, both of Edmond.

Adam Crawford, according to an obituary published by Matthews Funeral Home and Cremation Services, was a student at UCO majoring in Mechanical Engineering.

Officers tried to get in contact with someone inside the home,” said James Hamm, the on-call public information officer for the Edmond Police Department.

When officers arrived at the scene they believed there could be a hostage situation. 

Hamm said officers approached the residence and discovered Garber’s body in the front yard. Officers forced their way into the home, and discovered the bodies of the two victims. Officers were also able to locate the juvenile, and safely remove them from the residence.

Edmond detectives are still investigating the motive behind the homicides, according to Hamm.

According to Partnership Against Domestic Violence website, which collects national and state demographics on domestic violence, every nine seconds a woman in the U.S. is a victim of domestic violence. The site also indicates 3.3 million children in the U.S. are witnesses to domestic violence each year. The state of Oklahoma has 34 domestic violence shelters for victims, and spends $20,303,864 annually to aid domestic violence victims.

The City of Edmond Police Department Community Crime Map shows several crimes within a two mile radius of the area, though there have been no homicides, attempted homicides or death investigations in that area. 

Crime from Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, 2019 within a two-mile radius of Friday’s multiple homicide near 15^th Street and Kelly Avenue include: two sexual assaults, three robberies of individual, three aggravated assaults, one assault, six commercial burglaries, eight residential burglaries, 24 thefts, three fraud, nine shoplifting, 14 motor vehicle thefts, 38 burglary from motor vehicle and three DUIs.

According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation’s report on crime statistics in Edmond for 2018, there were no homicides, and the index for violent crime was 16.62 per thousand. 

Edmond police confirmed there have been five homicides in Edmond since Jan. 1, 2019.