Finding Girl Scout Bodies Described

              VOL.  13T  final home  TULSA, OKLAHOMA., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1978  -~—.^^—  100 PAGES-6 SECTIONS  main  —■•*•  L  Girl Scout bodies described  ^        REFERENCE 01VIS10H I  ^/"7  /  Testimony at Hart hearing  By SUSAN WITT  Of The Tribune Staff  ' PRYOR — A camp counselor for  three Girl Scouts murdered at Camp  Scott today described waking up to  discover their tent empty, sleeping  bags and mattress covers missing  and blood in the tent.  The testimony came at the long-  awaited opening of a preliminary  hearing for Gene Leroy Hart, who is  charged with first-degree murder in  the year-old sex slayings of Lori Lee  Farmer, 8, Michele Guse, 9, and  Doris Denise Milner, 10.  A full courtroom of spectators and  a television audience across from  the courthouse watched the hearing  along with dozens of reporters representing news organizations from  across the nation.  Dee Ann Elder of Damascus, Ark.,  testified she was the unit leader in  charge of the area where the girls  were slain.  Miss Elder said she was awakened  about 6 a.m. when a fellow counselor  left the tent to take a shower.  Miss Elder said in a few minutes  the counselor "yelled for me to  'wake up. We need to count kids.'  "I asked why and she said there  was something on the road."  Miss Elder said she went to one  end tent in the unit and the other  counselor ran to the tent at the other  end.  THE CHILDREN'S tents were  placed in a semi-circle with the  counselors staying in a tent facing  hem.  Miss Elder said she opened the  tent flap to the farthest tent and saw  no children, no sleeping bags and no  mattress covers.  "The other two counselors then  ran over to the tent and we tried to  figure out where the children might  be. We at first thought they might  have gotten in another tent.  "Then we noticed the blood.  "The tent flaps were all down and  it was dark in there so we couldn't  see very well. I counted kids three or  four times and then I heard Susan  (another counselor) scream.  "Then I took off running to get  Barbara (the camp director)."  Miss Elder said the children had  arrived at the camp the afternoon  before and had selected their tent  and the girls who would stay in the  tent with them.  She said six of the tents had four  children in them and the farthest  tent had only three.  Another child was to have been  moved to the empty bed in the tent  from another unit but a summer  thunderstorm delayed the move.  MISS ELDER said it began raining after supper on June 12 and she  personally battened down every tent  in the unit.  She said she hooked cloth loops on  the bottom of the tent to hooks on the  wooden platform.  Miss Elder said she talked with  each girl and checked every tent  about 10:30 p.m.  She said another counselor  checked the girls again about 1:30  a.m. when the counselors were awakened by a door slamming att the  unit restroom. Miss Elder saidl the  other counselor escorted the moisy  children from the restroom bacck to  their tents.  Tulsa District Attorney S. M.  Fallis Jr., called in to aid in the c~ase,  said most of today's testimony iis focusing on the discovery of the sslain  girls at Camp Scott near Locust  Grove June 13.  Fallis said he hopes the preliminary hearing can be completed in  three days, but that will depend lupon  how detailed the questioning iss by  Hart's defense attorneys.  Garvin Isaacs and Gary PitchHynn  are defending Hart.  A third attorney, R. L. "Duike"  Wheeler, has withdrawn from the  case.  WHEELER ANNOUNCED    his  withdrawal in court Friday and i said  it was because of "personal busimess  matters."  Wheeler, a well known civic 1 trial;  lawyer in Oklahoma City, had! reportedly agreed to hire Isaacs im his  firm when Isaacs became involved  in the Hart defense.  Wheeler, Isaacs and Pitchlynm reportedly split over disputes on 1 handling of the defense and mo>ney  problems.  The case is expected to be the  most highly publicized in sttate  history.  Many area citizens and citizzens  See HART, page 4A  —Tribuna Photo  Gene Hart is led into the Mayes County courthouse.