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On Saturday, April 29, 2023, three teenage girls made plans to have a sleepover together. This included 14-year-old Ivy Webster, 15-year-old Brittany Brewer who had only turned fifteen the week before & 13-year-old Tiffany Guess. The trio, who had been best friends for years, decided the sleepover would be held at Tiffany’s remote farmhouse in Henryetta, Oklahoma. The area was small with a population of about 6,000 residents & being a close-knit community, there was a general feel of safety within the town.
TIffany lived with her mother, 35-year-old Holly Guess, her stepfather, 39-year-old Jesse McFadden & her older siblings, 15-year-old Michael Mayo & 17-year-old Rylee Allen. Both Ivy & Brittany were also close with Michael & they routinely had sleepovers, sometimes Ivy’s brother, Parker, joined the group. On this particular occasion, Parker decided to stay home & opted out of the sleepover.
To those very close to the family, Jesse, Tiffany’s stepfather, was known to be a controlling person that always needed to know where Holly & her kids were at all times. He told Holly where she could go, who she could talk to & when she could go. If she did manage to get away with the kids, he would track their cell phones. Like many cases, the extent of what was occurring within the privacy of the four walls of the home, was not fully known to those who knew the family.
Holly’s sister Heather had only met Jesse a few times & each time she did come to the house for a visit, he kept his distance & stayed in the computer room. Jesse was standoffish, quiet & didn’t engage much with those outside of the home. Holly’s family generally didn’t like Jesse, but they knew there was little they could do since Holly was a grown woman who was capable of making her own decisions. Holly was said to be a loving mother who adored her children & would do anything for them. She worked from home, most recently selling life insurance. Jesse had moved in with Holly & her children just after they moved to Henryetta in 2021 & the two got married in May of 2022.
Holly, being in a vulnerable position, was controlled & manipulated by Jesse who had an extensive criminal past that he successfully kept hidden from his wife. Before marrying Holly, Jesse had been in prison for seventeen years for rape. Holly was aware of this charge, but Jesse completely changed the story to downplay what he had done. Her family later said that had she truly known the extent of his past, she would have never married him or allowed him to live under the same roof as her children, thus, putting them in danger.
When Jesse was 19-years-old, he broke into the home of 16-year-old Krystle Strong & tied her up with a belt & raped her at knifepoint. Krystle was able to escape & she ran to a neighbor’s home, where they called police. He was captured near a river a few hours later, where police found him with both of his wrists slashed. He survived his injuries & was taken to jail & sentenced to 20 years in prison. During sixteen months of his time behind bars, he shared a cell with a man named James Flemming who was serving time for burglary. James quickly saw that Jesse had not made any positive changes during his time in prison; he was aggressive, manipulative & even stalked a female prison guard.
In the meantime, Krystle Strong attended all of Jesse’s parole hearings, fighting to keep her attacker behind bars. In 2017, while he remained imprisoned, Jesse was charged with using a contraband cell phone to communicate with a 16-year-old girl named Kaitlyn Babb.
Kaitlyn had recently moved states with her grandparents. After the move, she changed her cell phone number to a local number & one day, she received a message from an unknown number who was trying to contact the previous owner of the number. The messenger was Jesse McFadden who just happened to randomly contact Kaitlyn while she was in a vulnerable position. After moving to a new state, Kaitlyn felt a sense of loneliness, having yet to establish a new group of friends. Jesse took advantage of this situation & convinced Kaitlyn to keep in contact with him.
As the text messages continued, it didn’t take long for them to become sexual in nature. Jesse began to ask Kaitlyn to send inappropriate photos & Katilyn agreed as she was under the impression that they were in a relationship together. Jesse also wrote her letters which he signed, “husband.” When Kaitlyn’s grandparents discovered these letters, they immediately reported them to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
On October 8, 2016, Jesse’s phone was confiscated while he was in prison & that’s when he was accused of sending nude photos to a minor with sexually themed conversations & videos. In 2017 he was charged with soliciting sexual conduct/communication with a minor by the use of technology & another count of possessing child pornography.
Despite facing these new charges, Jesse McFadden was released from prison in October of 2020 after serving sixteen years & nine months. He was released a little more than three years early after earning credits for good behavior, having a job in prison & taking classes. He was arrested one month later for child pornography & solicitation charges, but was released on a $25,000 bail & this was the same year he went on to marry Holly.
Jesse made it his mission to downplay what had put him behind bars & he went as far as paying a woman to impersonate Krystle. This woman told Holly that the attack had been more of a misunderstanding & she had been 19-year-old when it happened instead of 16 as Kristyle had been.
Those that knew Holly & her children were also unaware of Jesse’s past which is why Ivy & Brittany’s parents had absolutely no issues with their daughters spending the night at Tiffany’s house. Ivy had been to visit the McFadden home at least four times since Christmas & there had never been any issues.
The day after the sleepover was Sunday, April 30th & both Ivy & Brittany planned to return home around 5 pm. Ivy texted her mom to let her know that plans had changed & to expect her later since she was going to a nearby ranch to go swimming with the girls. It was later discovered that Ivy herself had not sent these messages & the owners of the ranch confirmed that the group never made it there that day. Brittany’s mom, Malaina started to worry when she didn’t hear from Brittany & began to feel that something must be wrong when she failed to answer her calls, Facebook messages, texts & Facetime calls. At the same time, she tried to convince herself that she was overreacting & that Brittany was just busy & not paying attention to her phone. The last contact Brittany had with her father was at 10 am & Ivy’s mom last heard from her daughter at 11 am. Ivy’s mom had also noticed that her daughter’s phone tracking service was turned off.
Just after 5 pm, Ivy’s mom received a phone call from Jesse; he explained that they were all at the ranch, but the cell reception was terrible so they were having issues both making & receiving calls. As the hours ticked by & evening wore into night, Ivy & Brittany’s parents began to worry when their daughters still hadn’t returned home. When it was clear that something was not right, both sets of parents contacted the police to report their daughters missing. Ivy had been reported missing on Sunday when she didn’t come home while Brittany was reported missing on Monday when she failed to get on the bus for school that morning. Brittany’s dad Nathan last heard from his daughter on Sunday morning when she texted about going to the nearby ranch. Ivy’s dad Justin had met Jesse in the past & thought he was odd since he was always getting into his kids’ phones & reading all of their snap messages. It was his impression that it wasn’t coming from a place of concern but rather a place of control. However, he never imagined that Jesse was a dangerous person & looking back, he feels that he was able to hide his true colors very well.
On Monday, May 1st, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol released an endangered missing advisory for “at-risk missing person” for Ivy, Brittany & Jesse. The alert indicated that they had last been seen on May 1st at 1:22 am. Ivy had been wearing a black Vans hoodie, jeans with holes at the knees & black shoes. Brittany was last seen wearing a bathing suit, blue shorts with flowers & white tennis shoes. They were said to possibly be traveling in a white Chevy Avalanche with Jesse.
By the following Monday morning, May 1st, police paid a visit to the home that Jesse McFadden had been renting. When they knocked on the door, there was no answer, but because they didn’t have a warrant at the time, there was little else they could do at the moment. An officer did notice an area of freshly dug dirt in the yard & went back to get a warrant.
When an Amber Alert was issued, everyone became aware of Jesse’s sinister past when he was described as a convicted rapist who was facing a new sex crimes trial. It was the first time both sets of parents realized that they had allowed their daughters to stay in the company of such a monster who had quite possibly recently reoffended.
Ivy’s mother, Ashley later said, “We had no idea. We didn’t find out until we saw the Amber Alert with his mugshot. Then our phone started blowing up from Facebook & people just sending us everything they knew about it.”
It was also discovered that Jesse had missed his court hearing which had been scheduled for that morning. He was facing charges for soliciting sexual conduct & possession of child pornography & if convicted, could be facing life in prison.
Police soon obtained their first search warrant at 1:25 pm on May 1st for the 100 acre McFadden property & when they arrived, the front door was found ajar. Because the area was vast, drones were used to assist in scanning the area surrounding the home. This allowed police to make the shocking discovery of finding six bodies in two separate locations on the property: Ivy, Brittany, Holly & her three children, Tiffany, Michael & Riley.
Ivy, Brittany & Rylee were found about a quarter mile from the house & were each separated by 100-150 yards while the other three bodies of Holly, Michael & Tiffany were found together in a wooded area about 500 yards from where the girls had been found. The victims were all found outside the home, but police believe Jesse staged the bodies after they were murdered. Jesse turned the gun on himself. No 911 calls were made by any of the victims & none of the victims had been restrained but it’s likely the victims were running away when they were shot. When police entered the home, they were met with a scene from a horror film. They found a ledger that included a list of names & dates. Several of the victim’s names were listed, but there were additional names that investigators were unfamiliar with.
An excavator was used & the rest of the property was thoroughly searched but nothing else was found. The small community was reeling with shock & grief after learning the horrific news of the multi-murder suicide. There was outrage after people discovered that Jesse had been released from prison early despite the nature of his crime & the additional pending charges.
Police soon learned that a few weeks before Jesse murdered six people, he informed his mother of his plans, saying that he was going to murder his family & then himself. She didn’t take his threats seriously & took no action. Jesse sent one last message, on the night before police made the horrific discovery when he sent a Facebook message to Kaitlyn Babb, using Holly’s account. Kaitlyn, who was 23-years-old at the time, received the message: “I did exactly what I promised I would do when I got out. I got a marketing job making great money & was being advanced. Been there two years now & made a great life like I promised I would do with you. I told you I wouldn’t go back. This is all on you for continuing.”
His message was in reference to his court date that was scheduled for that Monday where Kaitlyn planned to testify against him in the child sex abuse trial where he failed to show up. Kaitlyn was also a victim of Jesse’s & he had been able to manipulate her as he did to so many other people. When Kaitlyn was younger, she’d driven two hours to the court in an attempt to have the charges against him dropped. It took her time to realize that Jesse was not in love with her & she eventually cut off all contact with him & agreed to testify against him. In testifying, it was her goal to protect other people by preventing Jesse from hurting someone else. She admits that when he asked her to send him photos with her shirt off, she realized she was doing something she shouldn’t have been, but he made her believe that he cared & that he loved her, despite the fact she was only sixteen. Looking back, she realizes that she had been brainwashed at the time & he’d groomed her.
Kaitlyn was in town for the trial when she learned that Jesse’s stepdaughter’s two friends were missing & she was convinced that he was coming for her so she hid out in an AirBnB that she’d rented an hour from the courthouse.
Because of years of delay, Jesse was released from prison where he waited to be tried for his most recent charges that were set to happen in 2023 & at that point, he felt he had far too much to lose to go back to prison without incident.
The autopsies later showed that all six victims had been shot in the head anywhere from one to three times with a 9mm pistol that Holly had purchased in 2022 & both sleepover guests, Ivy & Brittany had blunt force injuries to their genital areas which were consistent with sexual assault. Jesse had shot himself in the mouth.
The victim’s family members were outraged when they learned of Jesse’s sinister past & the fact that he was a rapist who had been accused of soliciting nude images from a teenage girl while he was still behind bars. Holly’s mom, Janette Mayo, could not wrap her head around how Jesse had been let out of prison early, especially with new pending charges, saying, “Oklahoma failed to protect families. And because of that my children – my daughter & my grandchildren, are all gone. I’m never going to get to see them, never going to get to hold them & it’s killing me.” She made a point to reinforce the fact that Holly didn’t know the truth about the man she’d married, that she’d been fooled by his charm & that she loved her children. She asked that the public stop “bashing” her daughter.
Students from the Henryetta Public Schools were grieving the loss of their friends & classmates & grief counseling was made available to the students.
17-year-old Rylee was described as a very artistic girl who had dreams of being both a doctor & an artist so that she could help people while also continuing her love of painting.
15-year-old Michael was an athlete who played football, ran cross-country & track & was described as an “all-round fantastic young man” who happened to share a birthday with his grandpa.
13-year-old Tiffany ran cross-country. She was in 7th grade & a member of the choir & had just tried out for the cheerleading squad. She was described as the sweetest & most loving girl you could ever meet & earned the nickname “Tiffasaurus” because she would growl if she got mad at you.
14-year-old Ivy was a great kid & an animal lover. She loved softball & was a genuinely good person.
15-year-old Brittany had aspirations of being a teacher or veterinarian. She was outgoing & had even been selected to be Miss Henryetta for the upcoming July Miss National Miss pageant in Tulsa
Ivy Webster’s family is currently working alongside state lawmakers to try & prevent something this horrific from happening again. Ivy’s father & cousin created the Knight’s Law 2.0: Protecting Our Children Is a National Priority. Knights Law or House Bill 3993 has 13 points & includes that a mandatory notice would be sent to every resident within five miles of a registered sex offender’s home, they should be prohibited by law from residing with any child & that any person convicted of a sex crime against a child would serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole. The petition currently has 8,435 signatures of its 10,000 goal.
References:
- Medium: The sleepover from hell: How justice failed in the Jesse McFadden case
- The Oklahoman: Autopsies of Henryetta mass murder victims confirmed two were sexually assaulted
- Independent: Oklahoma murders: Jesse McFadden allegedly texted victim’s mom posing as slain teen
- Heavy: Jesse L McFadden: 5 fast facts you need to know
- The US Sun: ‘Broken & devastated’ Chilling way bodies of Jesse McFadden’s victim’s were identified is revealed as Holly Guess’ sister shares horror details
- Oxygen: Loved ones in shock after daughters found among dead at sex offender’s home
- People: Rapist blamed alleged sex crime victim before slumber party massacre that killed 6: ‘This is all on you’
- Koco.com: A look at the mom & 5 teenagers killed in rural Oklahoma
- Change.org: Knight’s Law 2.0: Protecting our children is a national priority
- Fox 25: Oklahoma family advocates for stricter sex offender laws following tragic Henryetta murders
