DEWEY, OK – A young woman from Oklahoma faces a life sentence following her conviction for the premeditated murder of her grandparents, a crime she committed alongside her boyfriend. The grim tale unfolded in a small town, chilling a community that continues to grapple with the brutal consequences.

Heidi Dutton, now 19, was sentenced last Friday after pleading guilty to the murder of her grandparents, Larry and Deborah Dutton, in a plot concocted in late 2022 when she was just 17. The charges, which include first-degree murder, desecration of a corpse, and conspiracy to commit murder, mean she must serve at least 38 years of her life sentence before she can even be considered for parole.

Her boyfriend, Lucas Anthony Walker, 22, received a 35-year sentence in federal prison due to his status as a Cherokee Nation citizen. Both faced severe repercussions for their heinous actions, though the legal process sought to balance their youth against the severity of their crimes, according to Washington County District Attorney Will Drake.

The crime came to light just days after Christmas last year when concerned family members and neighbors, who had grown worried over the sudden silence from the Duttons, requested a welfare check. When deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office searched the Dewey home on January 20, 2023, they made a grisly discovery: the bodies of the elderly couple, hidden in shallow graves in the backyard of their own home.

According to court documents, Heidi Dutton was not only the adopted daughter but also the biological granddaughter of the victims, a fact that lent a further unsettling dimension to the crime. Though both she and Walker confessed to the killings during questioning, her confession chillingly included the admission that her only motive was simply wanting them dead.

The sequence of events, as described by investigators, started on December 19, 2022. Walker, having entered the house while the Duttons slept, armed himself with a pistol found in the home. He waited until Deborah Dutton opened the bedroom door before shooting her in the face.

When Larry Dutton tried to confront him, Walker’s gun malfunctioned, prompting him to stab Larry multiple times. Both grandparents died under savage circumstances, and afterward, their bodies were wrapped in sheets and clandestinely buried by the pair.

Though Heidi Dutton cited no more complex motive than a wish for her grandparents’ deaths, details of their lives have surfaced in community remembrances. Larry Dutton, a retired Master Staff Sgt. from the U.S. Air Force, had also managed an airport in Kansas. Deborah Dutton, originally from Tennessee, was also an Air Force retiree and a former chef.