Update missing OR mother & kids: Couple found dead practiced Satanism
Patty
Wednesday, April 25, 2001
By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmom...@naplesnews.com
Naples Daily News
The man found dead at a Collier County picnic area last week practiced Satanism and had
often talked about killing himself, his former wife said Tuesday.
"He always talked about suicide, about holding his gun to his head," said Benita Oehring.
"He said he knew how to do it."
Her ex-husband, Frank K.L. Oehring, 28, of Bethany, Mo., and his girlfriend, Christine
Noel Mayer, 24, of Stewartsville, Mo., were found shot Friday at the picnic area near
Collier Seminole State Park on U.S. 41 East, about seven miles east of Collier Boulevard.
An off-duty sheriff's deputy heading home just after sunrise spotted the two lying next to
one of the concrete picnic benches.
Autopsy reports say Mayer, who was found dead by the bench, was a homicide victim, killed
by a single gunshot wound to the temple. Oehring, also shot in the head, was unconscious
but breathing when he was found. He died later at Lee Memorial Hospital. The autopsy
report on him is expected to be released today.
Although authorities haven't confirmed that Frank Oehring shot Mayer in the head and then
shot himself with a rifle found at the picnic area and taken into sheriff's custody, his
ex-wife said she has no doubt that he could kill himself since he talked about it so
often.
"He could do it," his 28-year-old former wife said. "But I don't know if it was a pact. I
think it was a surprise to her."
The whereabouts of Kimyala Henson, 21, of Portland, who had known Mayer for about seven
years when the two lived near each other in Oregon, is still a mystery. Henson and her
daughters, 2 years old and 4 months old, have not been heard from since they left Portland
with Frank Oehring and Mayer on April 4. They were to head to British Columbia to do some
sightseeing for a two-week vacation.
How Frank Oehring - who was wanted on a conspiracy to commit murder warrant that alleges
he had someone try to strangle his then-wife last fall - and Mayer ended up in Florida
isn't known. But a credit card trail shows that they took a southern route across the
United States, using Henson's credit cards at gas stations.
Henson's wallet, complete with credit cards and phone numbers, was found inside a red Kia
Sephia, which belonged to Frank Oehring's mother, relatives say. The girls' car seats and
luggage were missing from the car, but there were some children's dirty clothing on the
floorboard, Henson's family said police told them.
Portland police took a missing persons report for the three - and a manhunt began Friday
morning when Mayer and Frank Oehring were found in eastern Collier County.
Friends and family in Missouri describe a strange and violent life that Oehring and Mayer
led in the town of Bethany, population 3,000, near the Iowa border.
In high school, friends say Frank Oehring carried his Bible with him to class and
classmates would call him "Father Frank." His family was known to be religious, too.
"He really wanted to be a minister," said Bethany resident Nancy Myers, who lives near the
Oehring family.
But just a few years later, Frank Oehring changed, she said.
"Then he turned 180 degrees the other way,"
Frank Oehring and his former wife, Benita, met in Salt Lake City in 1992 when they were
both freshmen at Salt Lake City Community College, taking general studies courses, Benita
Oehring said.
They dated for about a year before they married in 1993. Their divorce was final March 27.
"He was kind, considerate," she said. "He was the perfect guy."
Within six months, she said, he brought witchcraft books into the house, set out candles
and symbols on the entertainment center and starting practicing what he said was Satanism.
He'd cast the spells and practice the rituals in the living room and the bedroom.
"He'd do spells, do rituals," she said. "He'd burn incense. He mumbled words."
She said he had lots of knives and swords around the house and black clothes.
"I told him I didn't like all that, but he didn't care. He just got meaner about it,"
Benita Oehring said.
She said he had a group of between seven and 13 people who followed him. Frank Oehring was
the high priest and Mayer was the priestess who followed him into the Satanism world in
1994, she said. About a year ago, Mayer began a relationship with Frank Oehring, and he
moved her into the house he shared with his wife. When he did that, Benita Oehring said
she moved out.
She said they both always wore black clothes except for at work when they wore white.
Frank Oehring was a licensed practical nurse at a local nursing home, and Mayer worked as
a certified nurse's assistant.
They both wore large, 4-inch stars on chains around their necks, Benita Oehring said.
Benita Oehring said she had heard them talk about Henson once. They referred to her as
Mayer's friend in Portland, but she'd never met her.
"I just overheard them talking," she said.
Myers said she helped Benita Oehring out of an abusive relationship last year. Frank
Oehring was jailed in June after hitting Benita and that's when he moved Mayer into the
house.
"He didn't like being told 'no,' " Myers said. "That was Frank."
About a week before Benita Oehring, also a licensed practical nurse, was attacked in her
home while sleeping in her bed, her then-estranged husband had threatened to kill her,
telling her that she wouldn't be alive to testify in the domestic violence case.
In October, a man tried to strangle her, injuring her severely enough to put her into a
coma for a week at a Missouri hospital. She was 26 weeks pregnant at the time.
Police say Frank Oehring hired someone to try to kill his then-wife and was arrested in
December. He was released from jail on $100,000 bond in February, went to Stewartsville to
stay with Mayer and missed a March court date, running away to Portland instead.
The payment to the attacker was to come from the insurance money on her life, Benita
Oehring said.
"But he didn't know I had changed it so he couldn't get the money," she said.
She said anything could set him off, problems at work or with his family. He'd punch her
and say nasty things to her, she said. The couple have two daughters, a 6-year-old and a
6-week-old.
"He had a temper," she said.
She said she has concerns that Henson and her children might have been victims of
violence. She's seen the news coverage in the paper and on television in Missouri.
"(Henson's family) should be worried," she said. "My heart goes out to them."
Patty
Lab results from the crime scene have not been released, and
the owner of the vehicle with Oregon license plates has not been
identified.
I wonder how they got to Oregon and if the car was stolen.
Wonder what happened to the owner that they can't find
him.
Patty
Maggie
***The way I read it, the car owner has not been *identified*. It's not that
they can't find him--they don't know who he is. I was thinking that maybe the
tag is from a different vehicle.
Maggie
"Many students react to ideas they don´t like as though they were apprentice
members of the Chinese Politburo."--Nat Hentoff on reactions to David
Horowitz's Ad Opposing Slave Reparations
Patty
: >Excerpt from the St. Joseph (MO) Press:
: >
: >Lab results from the crime scene have not been released, and
: >the owner of the vehicle with Oregon license plates has not been
: >identified.
: >
: >
: >
: >I wonder how they got to Oregon and if the car was stolen.
: >Wonder what happened to the owner that they can't find
: >him.
: >
: >Patty
:
: ***The way I read it, the car owner has not been *identified*. It's not that
: they can't find him--they don't know who he is. I was thinking that maybe the
: tag is from a different vehicle.
:
: Maggie
You are probably right, the license plates were switched. But there's that
number code on the car that would identify it to be traced back to the
owner. They could check Missouri, Iowa, and Oregon and any state
along the highway from Missouri to Oregon. I wonder if they started in
their own car and may have had problems.
Patty
Maggie
>: >Excerpt from the St. Joseph (MO) Press:
>: >
>: >Lab results from the crime scene have not been released, and
>: >the owner of the vehicle with Oregon license plates has not been
>: >identified.
>: >
>: >
>: >
>: >I wonder how they got to Oregon and if the car was stolen.
>: >Wonder what happened to the owner that they can't find
>: >him.
>: >
>: >Patty
>:
>: ***The way I read it, the car owner has not been *identified*. It's not
>that
>: they can't find him--they don't know who he is. I was thinking that maybe
>the
>: tag is from a different vehicle.
>:
>: Maggie
>:
>You are probably right, the license plates were switched. But there's that
>number code on the car that would identify it to be traced back to the
>owner. They could check Missouri, Iowa, and Oregon and any state
>along the highway from Missouri to Oregon. I wonder if they started in
>their own car and may have had problems.
***Who knows? I haven't read any stories where Kamalya's family says they're
surprised the car found with the bodies is a certain make and model, rather
than something else. I would bet that if a person drives carefully and is in a
stolen car with switched plates, it's almost impossible to find it--i.e., this
guy could have stolen the car a while ago. And that state-by-state search on
VIN numbers is probably what's taking so long--remember, given the facts of the
case, they probably should be checking Canada, too.
Patty
Kia
: Sephia, which belonged to Frank Oehring's mother, relatives say. The girls' car seats
and
: luggage were missing from the car, but there were some children's dirty clothing on the
: floorboard, Henson's family said police told them.
It says the car belonged to Oehring's mother. Gets stranger and stranger. There
hasn't been any mention of her before and the switched license plates so...........
Patty