Wolfs returned to Oklahoma

Alice Campbell Havre Daily News [email protected]

Abel Wolf, 35, and Denise Ann Wolf, 40, have been transfered to Oklahoma from the Hill County Detention Center. The move happened via airplane Saturday evening, Bryan County Sheriff Bill Sturch said this morning. "We picked them up there Saturday afternoon and flew them back down here," he said. The couple face charges of burying 12-year-old Cheyenne Wolf after her death in April 2008 and then moving her body several times through Montana and Oregon over the next year. Remains in two plastic containers were discovered in a storage facility in Umatilla County, Ore., earlier in July that matched Cheyenne's description, but it could be months before the remains are positively identified. "There is a body in those containers consistent with your victim based on her size and the age of her bones and the medical condition that was reported that she had everything is consistent with the little girl," Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo said in an earlier interview. He declined to specify what medical condition Cheyenne had. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Public Information Officer Jessica Brown in an earlier interview agreed with Trumbo's assessment and added that the Oregon state medical examiner's office, that is handling the autopsy, "can not make a positive ID based on the dental records that were provided," because the records were of Cheyenne's teeth before all of her adult ones grew in. "We're going to have to do DNA," Brown said, adding that it is a lengthy process, beginning with the bones being transported to a facility at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, DNA being extracted from the bones and those samples then being compared to either the mother and father or just one of the parents. Abel, Cheyenne's father, and Denise, her stepmother, were arrested south of Havre July 3 on warrants issued from Bryan County, Okla., on charges of unlawful removal of a dead body. Those charges were formally filed July 6 in Bryan County. "They will be appearing before the judge today," Emily Redman, the Bryan County District Attorney who is handling the prosecution, said this morning. During the initial hearing, scheduled for 2 p.m., the couple will be advised of their rights and receive a copy of the charges that have been filed against them and also be advised about obtaining a lawyer, she said. Bail also is expected to be set. "The investigation is still ongoing as to the circumstances surrounding Cheyenne's death," Redman said. According to affidavits that led to the original warrants, the couple became upset with Cheyenne during dinner because she would not eat. When Abel went outside for a while, he heard a loud thump. Cheyenne seemed to be acting strangely when he returned inside, but nothing seemed wrong, and she went to bed. The following morning, Denise called him and told him to come home because of a problem with Cheyenne. She told him Cheyenne was dead when he got there. "It's possible that one of her siblings actually beat her to death," Brown said. Based on a signed affidavit from reports by Denise's brother, Edward Davis, and his daughter, Tricia J. Wells of Alvarado, Texas, Cheyenne's sister beat her before Denise found Cheyenne's body. "Davis ... informed your affiant that when Denise Wolf lived in Oklahoma on one occasion she went into the house and found (Cheyenne's sister) kicking and stomping Cheyenne Wolf in the bedroom. Cheyenne Wolf was already dead," according to the affidavit.