Corina Brianne Saunders

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Oklahoma State Bureau Of Investigation Osbi (OK)

Offense Location:

Mustang, Oklahoma

Summary:

Carina Brianne Saunders, 19, of Mustang, disappeared in 2011. She was missing for two weeks before her dismembered body was found in a pair of bags behind a grocery store. Her murder remains one of Oklahoma's most disturbing unsolved cases, riddled with misinformation, false leads, and suspects who seemed to slip through the cracks. The case remains unsolved as of 2025.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

By 2011, Carina had started to struggle with substance abuse, and had been engaging in a variety of illegal narcotics. That summer, she actually went to rehab to get herself back on the straight-and-narrow, and after her release, she seemed to be doing much better. On September 18th, 2011, Carina was just 19 years old, and fresh out of rehab. Her mother, Margie, saw her and later said that Carina seemed to be doing much better. For the first time since graduating high school, she seemed to be on the right track once again. On the 28th of September the two went to an Oklahoma City area Taco Bell, and Carina left with a man named Kenny. This would be the last day anyone in Carina's family can actually verify that she was alive. State investigators affirmed that she left the Newcastle Casino in a red Ford truck on October 8, 2011. Nineteen year old Carina Saunders was reported missing by her mother on October 10th, 2011. By October 13th, Carina would be found, but not in any way that anyone would have or could have expected. A local animal rescue group was setting humane traps for feral cats near a grocery store. But as they worked, they noticed two black bags in the vegetation nearby. The overwhelming stench made it clear that whatever was inside wasn't just food waste. They immediately called the police. Inside the bags were the dismembered remains of a woman. Soon, investigators identified her as Carina Saunders, a 19-year-old who had been reported missing just days earlier. Saunders' dismembered body was found in bags behind a grocery store near Northwest 23rd and Rockwell Avenue in Bethany, Oklahoma on October 13, 2011.

Additional Details:

Investigators believe that Saunders may have been tortured and killed at an abandoned house in southwest Oklahoma City before her body was dumped in Bethany. Witnesses place Saunders at 3500 South Harvey in Oklahoma City, an infamous drug house, in the days leading up to her murder. The dilapidated, two-story house was described as a hotbed for drugs, prostitution, and violence. Witnesses told detectives the killing of Saunders occurred in the home. Detectives were unable to search the house for potential evidence as it was demolished on October 13, 2011, the same day Saunders' remains were discovered in Bethany, Okla. Jimmy Massey and Luis Ruiz were once suspected of killing Carina Saunders, dismembering her body, and stuffing her remains in duffle bags. In 2011, Bethany Police named Massey as a prime suspect. Massey was arrested a little more than two months after the killing when a 20-year-old woman came forward claiming that Massey kidnapped her and forced her to witness the murder. Murder charges against the men were dropped due to insufficient evidence when the case was handed over to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in February 2013. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) is offering a $10,000 reward for possible video evidence in the murder of Carina Saunders. Thursday, October 13, 2016, marks five years since human remains were found behind a Bethany grocery store. The medical examiner's office identified the remains as 19-year-old Carina Saunders. The Bethany Police Department requested OSBI special agents take over the investigation more than a year after the homicide. OSBI special agents have not identified a suspect. Bethany and Oklahoma City police detectives, OSBI special agents and other law enforcement officials have interviewed more than 100 people in the past five years about this homicide. Many people have claimed to have seen a video of the slaying of Carina Saunders in October 2011, but no copy has been found. A group of 'private citizens' are now offering a $50,000 reward to anyone that can provide them with the video. The group promises to not turn those who provide the video over to authorities and will provide the money after a forensic analysis of the video. They are also offering a reward up to $30,000 for 'irrefutable proof' of Saunder's killers. The offer expires on Oct. 31, 2018. In January of 2013, a pair of anonymous tips were received by Bethany Police, which claimed that Kenny Richards had killed Carina Saunders and then buried her clothing and personal items on his property. In particular, one tip alleged that he had buried these items in a metal tank on a piece of property he had owned from February of 1995 to June of 2012, having sold it less than a year after Carina's death. It wasn't until November of 2016 - more than half a decade after Carina's murder - that official interest in Kenny Richards was revived by the OSBI. That month, a cell phone belonging to Kenny Richards was confiscated during a methamphetamine arrest, and a digital search warrant yielded a photograph of Carina Saunders - a picture that investigators had not yet seen. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents found new evidence in Carina Saunders' case while searching an Oklahoma City property based on a tip. The search uncovered a shirt, a windbreaker jacket, two slip-on sandals and a folding knife. Her hands and feet were missing and there were lacerations on her upper back from an attempt to remove her tattoo.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 12, 2026