Global InformationMurder of Heather Rich information
 The bridge over Belknap Creek (2022) Guardrail graffito says "GONE NOT FORGOTTEN ♥ RIP HEATHER 1996 ♥" | |
 
45km 30miles  
Waurika, Oklahoma
Belknap Creek bridge | |
| Date | October 3, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Location | Bridge over Belknap Creek Montague County, Texas, US |
| Coordinates | 33°50′50″N 97°50′41″W / 33.84722°N 97.84472°W |
| Cause | Cranial shotgun wound[1] |
| Target | Heather Rose Rich |
| Convicted |
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| Sentence |
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The murder of Heather Rich was the 1996 child murder of a Waurika, Oklahoma 16-year-old by three local teenagers. After Rich's body was found, an investigation led to the trials and convictions of the three perpetrators. The murder and trials left a legacy of related events through 2011, and the imprisonment of the guilty through 2026 at the earliest.
Saddled with a recent series of negative events in her life, high-school student Heather Rich began acting out by drinking alcohol at school, using illegal drugs, and inflicting self-harm. After a family argument, Rich left home before midnight on October 2, 1996, to meet local teen Joshua Bagwell for a first date. The undisciplined 17-year-old Bagwell came from a wealthy Waurikan family, and enjoyed the social status his affluence afforded him. He was accompanied that night by Curtis Gambill, a 19-year-old high-school dropout, and 17-year-old Randy Wood, a future homecoming king. The three boys plied Rich with alcohol until she was intoxicated; then, after raping the insensate girl, drove her to a Montague County, Texas, bridge, shot her nine times, and dumped her body into the creek below.
Rich's body was found and identified on October 10, and investigators from Montague County, Jefferson County, Oklahoma, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Texas Ranger Division worked together to find Rich's killers. In the two weeks after the body was found, law-enforcement uncovered forensic evidence tying Bagwell and Gambill to the murder weapon. After the arrest of all three on October 24, Gambill and Wood gave differing accounts of Heather's murder, while Bagwell exercised his right to silence.
The Montague County district attorney (DA) tried Gambill first; in exchange for admission to being the triggerman, and testimony against the well-defended Bagwell, the DA did not seek capital punishment. In the successive trial against Bagwell however, Gambill reneged on his plea deal and named Wood as the shooter. Wood then forsook his own plea agreement and testified against Bagwell, exposing himself to capital punishment to avoid tainting his testimony with the appearance of favorable treatment. Bagwell was found guilty, as was Wood when his own trial came around. Imprisoned in Texas, Gambill is eligible for parole in 2026, while Bagwell and Wood have until 2036 for the same opportunity.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
1996-10-26 Oklahomanwas invoked but never defined (see the help page).