Jury selection begins in Holly Cantrell murder case

Mar. 4—Jury selection began Monday in the case against a man accused of killing Holly Cantrell, the McAlester woman whose case received national attention after she went missing in 2017.

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 and later identified in 2020.

More than 140 jurors appeared for jury duty Monday with that number later cut to down to 80. Juror qualification continued through the afternoon.

Attorneys from the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office are prosecuting the case with McAlester-based attorneys Brecken Wagner and Blake Lynch representing Ketchum.

The case is presided by District 18 Associate District Judge Tim Mills.

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 Braum's Restaurant at 625 S. George Nigh Expressway.

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.

Ketchum remains in the custody of the Pittsburg County Jail on a $250,000 bond.