Heartbreaking Case Carina

Carina Saunders graduated from Mustang High School in Mustang, OK in 2010, but by 2011, she was struggling with substance abuse. She did go to rehab and by September 18, 2011, she was out. She spent that day with her mother and they visited church together. Her mother said she looked to be doing much better, but it was the last day she would see her daughter.

On September 28th, she made her last post on Facebook. It was also the last time any of her family would see her. She had spent the week staying with her cousin before they parted ways at an OKC Taco Bell. Carina left Taco Bell (on Rockwell and I-40) with a man named Kenny (later identified as Kenny Richards). Kenny says he and Carina had hung out before he dropped her off at an apartment complex in Warr Acres (near N MacArthur and 41st St).

A high school friend of Carina's, Keegan, claims he did see her at this apartment complex. She hugged him, they chatted, and she revealed that she was staying with the apartment's maintenance man. Keegan offered Carina food and a larger duffle bag for her to store her belongings in. Keegan saw Carina around the complex one more time, but that was it. Aside from Keegan's sightings, Carina's position is largely unknown between September 28th and October 8th. She had no cell phone or vehicle of her own,

On October 8th, 2011, Carina was caught on cameras at the Newcastle Casino and Gaming Center in Newcastle, OK (near I-44 and HWY 62. If you are looking on Google Maps, the Love's Travel Stop/Dunkin Donuts/Subway/Casino and Comfort Inn & Suites did not exist at this time. It was an open field. Newcastle Casino's multilevel parking garage also did not exist at this time - it was just a wide-open parking lot.) Video footage shows Carina getting into a red four-door Ford pickup truck. A dark vehicle is parked nearby and the women in the video appear to be begging Carina not to get into the truck. There appear to be many men in the tuck but only one gets out of the truck. He has tattoo sleeves on both arms. This is the last time Carina Saunders was seen alive. Nobody in the footage has been identified. (I don't think this footage has been released to the public)

On October 9th, Carina's cousin received a text message from Kyle Savage, a known associate of Carina's, that read "I'm going to bury you next to Carina." Carina's mother filed a missing person's report on Columbus Day, October 10th, 2011. She spent the next few days searching and putting up posters around the area. She also tried reaching out to many of Carina's friends and was worried since Carina had not made any posts on social media.

On October 13th, 2011, a duffle bag and small laundry bag including the dismembered and decapitated remains of Carina Saunders were found behind a Homeland grocery store in Bethany, OK (near NW 23rd and Rockwell, the store is now a Cash Saver.) Her dismembered body parts had been separately wrapped in plastic and stuffed in the duffel bag, her head had been placed into the smaller laundry bag. The search for Carina had come to an end about 20 miles from the Newcastle Casino where she was last spotted on camera.

Police believed she had been murdered somewhere else and disposed of in a random area. They thought she had been dead about 3-4 days, which put her time of death not long after the casino camera footage. Unfortunately, not all of Carina's remains were recovered. Her hands and feet, portions of her forearm, and her left breast were not located. None of her personal belongings were located.

There was proof of her thighs having been wrapped tightly with duct tape and contusions that indicated some form of torture had occurred. It also seemed as though someone had tried to remove a tattoo from Carina's back. Her hair had been cut to a much shorter length. There were traces of tramadol in her system, implying she had likely been drugged. They were unable to determine if she was alive or dead when her dismemberment happened.

The duffel bag her friend Keegan had given her was not the same bag her remains were discovered in.

Suspects and Investigation:

In 2012, a woman came forward and told police of a gruesome video of Carina's dismemberment and death she had seen on a cell phone belonging to Luis Ruiz. Another woman came forward and told police she had been forced to watch the same video after being abducted by Luis Ruiz and Jimmy Massey. In July 2012, Massey and Ruiz were accused of Carina's murder. They both had various previous offenses related to drugs. Witness statements painted Massey and Ruiz as the heads of a major criminal group with ties to human trafficking. Showing the video of Carina's death was allegedly a way to get women who became trapped to cooperate.

Massey and Ruiz gloated about killing Carina in an abandoned house, however, the house was demolished and police were unable to search it for evidence.

There were many, many witness statements but no real proof. Over time, the witnesses' credibility would come into question. One of the witnesses was later involved in an attempted kidnapping. Investigators searched for the alleged video for months until the original woman who claimed to have seen changed her story; from having seen it to have heard about it. The case was beginning to crumble. In February 2013, all charges against Massey and Ruiz were dropped.

Several issues were going on with the Bethany PD at this time and a lot more info about Massey and Ruiz, but I will not go into either of them at this time as I think these issues are only tangentially related to Carina's case. OSBI took over the case and seemed to have changed directions with the inquiry at that time.

The OSBI became interested in focusing more on the people who surrounded Carina in her last days. Kenny Richards was one of the last known people to see Carina alive. Some thought Kenny acted as Carina's pimp. In March 2012. Kenny would report the death of another young woman who worked as a different dancer. Tips came in that he had killed Carina and buried her belongings on his property, which he sold a year after Carina's death. The tips came in when Bethany PD was pursuing a case against Massey and Ruiz, they were filed but not interrogated until November 2016. In 2017, searches were conducted in the 500 blocks of Oakdale (near NW 10th & MacArthur OKC) based on these tips, and "items of interest" were found but the OSBI would not speak to the fact of these items.

Police now believe a drug and prostitution ring is responsible for Carina's death, and she may have known her attackers were coming for her. Two months before death she told a friend she had been beaten up by two guys.

In November 2020, a new sketch was released of a man who was seen in the area around the time Carina's body was found out. Several new search warrants were also served in late 2020.

a note about maps/locations:

I tried to be certain with locations for those who like to look at relevant locations on google maps, but I have also included a map with the relevant locations marked. Newcastle Casino seems pretty far out from everywhere else, but there is only one casino in Oklahoma County and it is on the complete different side of the city, and at this time it was not open 24 hours. The house where the murder occurred seems like a geographical outlier, in this case, it is far from both where she was last seen and the dumpsite. Kenny Richards's house, where items of interest were found, is much closer to the dumpsite

In 2016, the OSBI declared a $10,000 reward for information. In September 2018, an unidentified donor announced a $50,000 reward for the video of Carina's murder and $30,000 for data if the video did not exist. These two rewards would expire after one month if no information surfaced. The OSBI still has a reward of$10,000. Carina's case is featured on the OSBI's cold case playing cards and has been covered largely for years in local media. It has also been featured on multiple podcasts including Sooner State True Crime. There is a Facebook page dedicated to the case called Justice for Carina Saunders.

What do you think occurred to Carina? Killed by Kenny Richards, who was probably her pimp? Or is her death related to a drug and prostitution ring? Who are the anonymous people in the casino camera footage and what role do they play in her murder?