The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Local News

May 7, 2012

Police close case on Bartlesville ministry leader

TULSA, Okla. — Police in Oklahoma say they will close a sex-abuse investigation because the head of an international Christian ministry named as a suspect died in an apparent suicide.

Tom White was never charged with a crime but was being investigated in the abuse of a 10-year-old girl. He was found dead last month at the headquarters of The Voice of the Martyrs, a nonprofit that says it provides medical supplies, food and clothing to persecuted Christians worldwide.

Employees discovered a letter in White’s vehicle indicating he was “suicidal or possibly fleeing to avoid investigation” and turned it over to police.

Bartlesville Police Capt. Jay Hastings says the department is closing its abuse investigation because their suspect is dead.

Hastings says police are awaiting autopsy results from the state Medical Examiner’s Office.

 

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