FILE - In this April 23, 2012, file photo, Kevin Sweat leaves court in Okemah, Okla. Sweat, accused of killing two girls along a rural Oklahoma road in 2008 but who was not arrested until after being questioned in his fiancee's death three years later, has pleaded guilty in both cases Thursday, July 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) (The Associated Press)
WELEETKA, Okla. – Some residents of the small central Oklahoma town of Weleetka say their community has been forever changed by the deaths of two young girls who were gunned down on a backcountry road in 2008.
The slayings went unsolved for years until Kevin Sweat was questioned in the death of his fiancee and police connected the cases. On Thursday, 28-year-old Sweat pleaded guilty to all three murders.
Sweat said he shot 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker to death, believing they were "demons" out to do him harm. And he admitted guilt in the death of his fiancee, 23-year-old Ashley Taylor.
One Weleetka resident says folks here are still cautious about traveling down certain roads and parents keep close watch over their kids — as if the killer were still free.
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