MWC Police Hope Arrest Will Lead To More Answers In Disappearanc

A former neighbor of the girl, 56-year-old Anthony Joseph Palma, was arrested Monday and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.

The disappearance of 8-year-old Kirsten Hatfield had left the community of Midwest City, Oklahoma, shaken after the child when missing from her bedroom one night in 1997.

“In July of this year, we received a report from OSBI that indicated the blood sample from Kirsten Hatfield’s panties and also the blood on the windowsill matched Anthony Palma”, Midwest City police Chief Brandon Clabes said. They said evidence supported that claim, including his blood being on her partially ripped underwear and her window sill. They began investigating numerous leads immediately after the crime was discovered, but Hatfield was never found and the trail went cold.

“There have been no verified sightings or contact from Kirsten since May … of 1997”, Midwest City police detective Darrell Miller wrote in a request for an arrest warrant.

Kirsten disappeared from her bedroom (pictured) overnight.

On June 13, 2015, an officer was assigned to follow up investigation on this case.

“This is a significant milestone in this investigation after many years”, FBI Special Agent Scott Cruse said at the news conference. The investigators continued working the case and said they collected DNA from all men they interviewed.

Palma lived alone in 1997, the chief said, but married in 1999 and still lives in the same house with his wife and children.

Investigators said they believe Palma targeted Hatfield for sexual assault.

Police said on both occasions, he said he was home the night Kirsten went missing.

He said he wasn’t involved and allowed police to take a new DNA sample with a cheek swab, KOKH said.

During Palma’s interview he was described as giving inconsistent information from what he gave in 1997. Therefore, it can be concluded that she was killed shortly after her abduction. There was no indication of police searching his home at the time.

‘It is likely that Palma has been motivated to stay in the same home to hide evidence of the crime and/or the location of Kirsten’s body’.

“We’ve never let this case down”, Clabes said.