‘What Is The Harm?’ Mother Of Tulsa Woman Murdered 20 Years Ago Asking Police To Allow Cold Case Experts To Investigate

The mother of a Green Country woman has one Christmas wish this year, for her daughter’s murder to finally be solved.

She says after 20 years, it’s time for a different approach.

She wants outside experts to be given access to the case to see if a new look could find answers.

BRITTANY PHILLIPS CASE

Brittany Phillips was an 18-year-old college student who was found raped and strangled in her apartment near 61st and Mingo in September of 2004.

Detectives believed they had the DNA of the killer and tested it against nearly 3,000 men, but there was never a match.

In 2019, a composite sketch created from the DNA led them to a man who was a match, but he had an alibi for the time Phillips was killed.

To this day, no one has been arrested for her death.

FIGHTING FOR BRITTANY

Dr. Maggie Zingman, Phillips’s mother, says spending the holidays without Phillips never gets easier.

"This is the 20th Christmas that I am celebrating without her. It's really hard. Initially, I never thought she would be murdered,” said Zingman. “Then, when I was told we had DNA, I thought, well, at least this case will be solved. But I learned very quickly that life is not like CSI."

That DNA found out the scene turned out not to belong to the killer and her case has gone cold.

Zingman says she’s now fighting to get Tulsa Police to allow outside cold case agencies to take a look at the evidence in Phillips’s case.

"It doesn't hurt anything,” said Zingman. “All it does is maybe just confirm that everything you've done, you've done everything. But if there's a chance that so many years, let a fresh set of eyes help take that weight off. What is the harm? Please tell me what the harm is."

Zingman believes there are secure ways to now share evidence that won't jeopardize future prosecution and she says she’s made a promise to her little girl that she'll never stop fighting for justice.

"She always was a fighter,” said Zingman. “When I'm fighting for her, I am fighting for her voice. She was always a voice for other people, and that's her legacy."

STATEMENT FROM TULSA POLICE

The Tulsa Police Chief says they welcome outside experts as long as the evidence doesn’t leave TPD.

Lieutenant Brandon Watkins with TPD’s Homicide Unit sent News On 6 this statement:

“We’ve never had an outside agency contact us to review the case. We don’t have a problem with an outside agency reviewing and making suggestions. Our only limitation is they have to look at the book in our offices as the murder books can’t leave our division. Over the years, Dr. Zingman has told us that she has investigators who want to review the case, however, no investigators have ever contacted us about this case that I’m aware of let alone agreed to those parameters.”

STATEMENT FROM COLD CASE GROUP

Sheryl McCollum, the Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute and an Active CSI with the Metro Atlanta Police Department, says she has personally reached out to Tulsa Police wanting to help with Phillips’s case.

She sent News On 6 this statement:

“Dr. Maggie Zingman and I have been working together for years on solvability factors with her daughter Brittany’s case. I have personally reached out by phone, email and publicly and offered the assistance of CCIRI. We offered to pay for testing at Othram. I have personally spoken with more than one detective through the years and offered experts. I have openly offered help on my podcast Zone 7, CrimeOnLine story and I offered to get the envelope tested that was a recent discovery that I called evidence that the police department wanted to discount the validity. Please let this serve as another public offering of all of our experts to the Tulsa Police Department on the case of Brittany Phillips.” 

NEXT STEPS

Zingman hopes to meet with the new Mayor and Public Safety Commissioner in the new year to see if they can help her move the case forward.

If you have any information about Phillips’s case that could help investigators, you are asked to contact Tulsa Police’s Cold Case Unit.

For more information, click here.