Man Arrested In Connection With Garfield County Suspicious Death

One person was arrested in connection to a murder near Enid, after a woman was found dead inside of her apartment on Saturday.

The Garfield County Deputies say the victim’s 4-year-old girl was found wandering in the street and actually led neighbors to the body.

“Right up here at Main Street there was a little girl running up the middle of the hot asphalt road, barefooted with a nasty old diaper,” said Jim Rowell, who spotted the little girl in the middle of the road.

Rowell said he was driving back home from Enid with his wife, when the little girl came out of nowhere.

“We were wondering where the parents was,” said Rowell. “My wife got out and asked the little girl where is your momma?”

The little girl didn’t respond, so Jim and his wife followed her down the 400 block of E. Ponca.

“She turned around and she ran back down this hot road all the way back to the apartment nonstop,” said Rowell. “She went right upstairs and back into the house.”

Rowell said his wife went upstairs and knocked on the door several times, but nobody answered. A neighbor, who lived next door heard the commotion and went to check for herself.

“The neighbor just came out hysteric and said the momma was dead,” said Rowell.

The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office with help from OSBI agents were able to pin point their main suspect. Sheriff Jerry Niles tells News 9 an arrest warrant for first-degree-murder was issued for the victim’s boyfriend, Christopher Sparks, 23.

“The kid was the savior,” said Rowell. “She really looked like a little angel to me the way I see it come down. She was the angel because there’s no telling how long her mom would lay there until somebody found her.”

Detectives did not say how they were able to track down Sparks in Arizona, but News 9 did some checking and learned he has family in several different states.

Sheriff Niles said it will be up to the Medical Examiner to determine how the victim, believed to be her twenties died. 

As for the little girl, neighbors said she is in great health and is staying with other relatives in Garber.