By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A convicted rapist, who served about 20 years in prison, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 29-year-old woman, who had moved on May 24 into a house that he owned in the 2600 block of Gregory Lane in Stillwater, according a news release from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Tuesday.
Earl Oswalt Jr., 54, of Stillwater, who previously lived in Agra, was being held in the Payne County Jail on Tuesday as a homicide suspect, Undersheriff Kevin Woodward confirmed.
Oswalt has not yet appeared before a Payne County judge in connection with the slaying of Chelsey Chaffin, who worked with him at a tile company in Stillwater, the OSBI news release said.
On Monday, the Payne County Sheriff’s Office requested that the OSBI assist in an investigation into the disappearance of Chaffin, who was last heard from during the evening of May 25 when she communicated by text with her mother, the news release said.
“The Payne County Sheriff’s Office and the OSBI followed up on dozens of leads in the missing person case that ultimately led to the arrest of Oswalt for murder,” the news release said.
Investigators allege that Oswalt killed the woman in the early hours of May 26, the news release said.
“At approximately 1 a.m. on May 27, Chelsey’s body was dumped over a bridge into the Cimarron River,” the news release said.
“The search continues today in hopes of recovering Chelsey’s body and the investigation is ongoing,” the news release said.
According to Payne County court records, two years ago Oswalt was charged with violating the Sex Offender Registration Act on June 23, 2017, by residing with two minor children, ages 13 and 15, who were not his relatives — after being convicted of first-degree rape in Bryan County, Ok., and sexual assault of a child in Grayson County, Texas.
On Sept. 6, 2017, Oswalt pleaded guilty to the charge for which he was given a six-month jail term followed by two and one-half years of probation, as part of a plea bargain with the prosecution approved by Payne County Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler, who ordered him to provide a DNA sample and pay a $250 fine.
According to the OSBI news release, Oswalt had been paroled from prison in 2017, apparently in Texas.
In 1997, Oswalt had been charged with first-degree rape in Bryan County, Okla., but on Aug. 28 a judge found that he was not mentally competent and ordered him to be treated at the Eastern State Hospital in Vinita. About one and one-half months later, on Oct. 7, the Bryan County judge ruled that he was competent to stand trial, court records show.
On Feb. 6, 1998, a Bryan County jury found Oswalt guilty of first-degree rape and recommended a 40-year prison term, court records show.
On March 6, 1998, when Oswalt was sentenced to 40 years in prison for rape, the Bryan County judge ordered that Oswalt be given sex abuse treatment while he was incarcerated at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Oklahoma, court records show.
On June 25, 1999, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the rape conviction of Oswalt, who was released from an Oklahoma prison on Dec. 3, 2014, on a detainer to Texas where he was apparently incarcerated for sexual assault until he was paroled in 2017.
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