Jurors hear opening statements, testimony in first full day of trial
Mar. 6—The defense for the man accused of killing Holly Cantrell in 2017 told jurors Wednesday the evidence that will be presented during the trial will not prove their client's guilt.
"The evidence will not do that," attorney Brecken Wagner told jurors during opening statements Wednesday. "Unless you were already going down that road."
Cody Ketchum, 37, was indicted by a multi-county grand jury in October 2022 with first-degree murder and a misdemeanor charge of destroying evidence in the death of Cantrell — the McAlester woman who disappeared in January 2017 before her skeletal remains were discovered in 2018 and later identified in 2020.
After two days of jury selection, 12 jurors and two alternates were seated to hear the case that is scheduled to last up to two weeks.
"It has been 2,602 days since Holly Cantrell made breakfast for the last time for her kids," said Heather Anderson, with the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office. "2,602 days since she kissed her husband. 2,602 days since she got into a green truck driven by Cody Ketchum for the last time."
Anderson said a large part of the answers in the case will come from text messages between Ketchum and Cantrell and GPS data from cell phones.
"Only one person knows what happened to Holly," Anderson said. "Cody Ketchum killed Holly Cantrell and attempted to cover it up."
Wagner told jurors Ketchum cooperated with investigators throughout the entirety of the investigation and never once changed his story through several interrogations and let investigators search his truck and go through his cell phone soon after the woman was reported missing.
Ketchum admitted to investigators he was in a relationship with Cantrell and picked her up from the McAlester Regional Health Center on Jan. 20, 2017, to drop her off at the Braum's restaurant on U.S. Highway 69 in McAlester so she could have lunch with friends. Ketchum then texts Cantrell he became ill and was going to go home with the woman texting back that it was okay, and she was going to go back to MRHC and work.
Wagner told jurors Ketchum became worried when he didn't hear back from Cantrell and after she was reported missing by her husband, Ketchum wanted to help in the investigation.
"Every time they asked, he answered," Wagner told jurors. "I'll ask you later to think about that and compare that to how the rest of the investigation goes."
Wagner told the jury a key piece of evidence, a purse that belonged to Cantrell found by a rabbit hunter near the Cardinal Point Recreational Area just weeks after she went missing, was given back to the family before any testing could be done.
The attorney said some papers found in the purse were kept by an investigator, but test results from those papers did not come back to Ketchum.
"Every word he has spoken is recorded one way or another," Wagner said. "He gave them the same story over and over."
Cantrell was 40 when she was reported missing Jan. 20, 2017, after video showed she left her job at McAlester Regional Health Center during a lunch break at 11:56 a.m. that day. Hospital security video showed Cantrell wearing green nursing scrubs when she left and got into a green, short wheelbase truck, police said.
Police said the last reported sighting of Cantrell was at 12:20 p.m. that day at the Braum's restaurant. Video from the restaurant was not kept as part of the investigation but was viewed by an investigator and was written into a report.
Cantrell's disappearance was featured on the Investigation Discovery channel and several other national and state media outlets.
The Pittsburg County Sheriff's Department opened a homicide investigation after remains were found in February 2018 on a secluded peninsula in the Cardinal Point Recreation Area in northern Pittsburg County. The remains were later sent for DNA testing at the University of North Texas that confirmed in 2020 the remains were of Cantrell.
