The Disappearance of Holly Cantrell

Written By Kiley Baumgartner

For this case, I watched an episode of Disappeared. It’s season 9 episode 7, titled ‘In Broad Daylight.’

A loving mother disappears after leaving her job at a local hospital.

Background

Holly was born in California, but moved to Oklahoma when she was 11, to live with her grandmother and aunt. Holly was the second oldest of 5 children.

In 1999, Holly was now in her 20’s, when she met an older man named Tommy, who was 46. After divorcing her first husband, they got married, and had two children of their own. Holly had a son, Trenton, from her first marriage, and Tommy had 3 children from his previous marriages. They also raised Tommy’s grandson, Michael, because his mom had him at 15-years-old.

Holly was described as a very loving and patient mom. Holly loved to take care of their animals, and would’ve rather been outside than cooped up in the house.

Holly Cantrell

The Disappearance

On January 20, 2017, a Friday, Holly made breakfast for her family, and took her sons to the bus stop. Holly told Tommy that she’d be home later, so that they could go grocery shopping.

Just before 7:30am, Holly pulled into the parking lot of the McAlester Regional Health Center, where she worked as a physical therapy tech. Just before noon, Holly punched out, and walked towards the parking lot.

Tommy was expecting Holly to be home a little after 4:30pm. When Holly didn’t come home by dinner time, Tommy went to the hospital. When he pulled into the parking lot, he discovered her pickup truck was still there.

Tommy went out to look for her, and then filed a missing persons report. The McAlester police couldn’t file a report because Holly hadn’t been missing for 24 hours yet. So, Tommy went back to the hospital, and used a spare key to look inside Holly’s truck. There was nothing suspicious, so he drove the truck back to their home.

On Saturday, January 21, the missing persons report was officially filed.

The First Lead

The police knew that the hospital had several surveillance cameras. Several hours of footage was looked through.

Holly had told Tommy that she would be working until 4:30pm on January 20, but just before noon, Holly was seen walking out to the parking lot. Holly didn’t walk to her car, but to a green Dodge truck waiting for her. There was a man inside, and the truck can be seen driving out of the lot.

Holly on surveillance footage at McAlester Regional Health Center

The police spoke with Holly’s co-workers, who identified the man as Cody Ketchum. Cody was a family friend, who was about 10 years younger.

Holly’s cousin said that she suspected that Holly had a crush on Cody. She said Holly’s face would light up every time she talked about him. Holly’s co-workers said that Holly and Cody’s relationship had developed in the last few months, and that Tommy wasn’t aware.

Holly had plans with Cody that afternoon, which is why he was seen picking her up from the hospital. Holly’s co-workers also revealed that Holly thought she was pregnant.

Cody did confirm to the police that he had picked Holly up from work, but dropped her off at a restaurant called Braum’s. He claimed that Holly had lunch plans with some friends. He said that he planned to come back to pick her up, but that he had to cancel. After he canceled, Holly told him that she would find her own way back to the hospital, and that this was the last time he spoke to her.

Braum’s located at 625 S George Nigh Expy, McAlester, Oklahoma

The police weren’t able to confirm that Holly had any plans with her friends that day. There was also no surveillance of Holly at the restaurant. However, the cameras didn’t overlook the parking lot. Besides this, Cody was very cooperative, and willingly handed over his phone to the police. Cody still remained a person of interest, but the police also looked into other leads.

A Broken Marriage

The police looked into Holly’s phone records. They learned that her phone had last pinged in the downtown McAlester area, but they knew that her house and the hospital were near this area.

On the day she disappeared, Holly received several calls and texts from her loved ones, who were looking for her and wondering where she was. On January 21, Holly’s phone was suspended. Tommy told the police that he had no idea how her phone was suspended, as Holly was the one who paid their bills.

The police learned that Tommy had suspected something was going on between Holly and Cody. He said he could tell by the way they interacted with each other.

Tommy seemed genuinely concerned and hurt by Holly’s disappearance. But, her immediate family said Tommy was very controlling, and alienated her from them.

Holly’s sister, Mija, said that she had a falling out with her sister due to Tommy’s controlling ways. Mija said just a few months before Holly disappeared, she asked her sister to spend time with her. Holly had told her that Tommy came first, and this was the last time the sisters spoke.

Tommy insisted that he and Holly had a very healthy and happy marriage. Tommy willingly let the police search their property, and his phone records. The police couldn’t find anything that led them to believe Tommy had hurt his wife.

The Discovery

On February 25, 2017, Sheriff Chris Morris of the Pittsburgh Co. police contacted the McAlester police. He said that a hiker had discovered a purse in the Cardinal Point Recreation Area.

The purse belonged to Holly Cantrell. Holly’s ID, credit cards, medication, information about pregnancy, and some items belonging to her children were inside.

The contents of the purse were examined, and then the police gave the purse back to Tommy. This outraged Holly’s family. They thought that the items that belonged to the children could’ve been returned, but not the whole purse, just in case it had DNA on it.

Holly’s disappearance led to an even larger divide between Holly’s family and Tommy. Holly’s family claimed that Holly and Tommy had been arguing about Tommy’s will. According to them, Tommy was going to leave everything to Michael, his grandson, but not to his own kids. They also said that Holly had a bad relationship with Tommy’s daughter, Charity.

Tommy said he didn’t even have a will. Charity said she was older than Holly, so that was a little weird, but said they had a good relationship. The police couldn’t find any further proof of any arguments between Holly, Tommy and Charity.

Case Developments

In mid-March 2017, a woman named Luann, reached out to Holly’s family. Luann claimed that her husband had overheard a man talking about Holly, and that she was murdered, and put into a well. Luann claimed to have a recording, but couldn’t remember where the man’s house was located.

The police didn’t do any searches in local wells, and claimed that Luann was a unreliable source.

Two weeks later, on March 30, Luann’s husband found her dead on their property. Her death was ruled as a suicide. Holly’s family found it really suspicious that Luann was dead, and thought that Luann knew more about Holly’s disappearance.

That same month, some human remains were found in a creek in Muskogee, Oklahoma, about 60 miles from McAlester. The remains weren’t Holly’s, but actually belonged to a 55-year-old woman who had gone missing just weeks earlier.

On February 18, 2018, human remains and green clothing were found near Lake Eufaula, about 2 miles from where Holly’s purse was found. The remains were eventually identified as being Holly’s. She had been last seen in green scrubs when she left the hospital on January 20, 2017.

Now that Holly’s remains have been found, the police and OSBI are still investigating.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I will definitely keep my eyes and ears open for any information on this case. It seems like Cody was the last one to see Holly on January 20. Holly wasn't seen on the surveillance footage from Braum’s, where he claimed to have dropped her off. However, the surveillance cameras didn’t capture the parking lot. So, did Holly walk somewhere, get into another vehicle, or is someone close to her to blame for her death?

I hope that someday there will be answers out there for Holly, her family and friends.

CASE UPDATE

Cody Ketchum was arrested on October 17, 2022, at the McAlester Army Ammunition plant where he worked. He is currently in jail being held on a $1 million bond.

Kiley Baumgartner
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