Tyra Whitaker can make a whole room brighter with her smile, her aunt Renee McCaskill said.
That light inside Whitaker is what McCaskill holds onto nearly three months after her niece went missing as revelations about Whitaker’s boyfriend’s alleged crimes surface.
“Look at her face, her eyes,” McCaskill said. “You can’t help but smile when you look at her. She is a light. Her personality is light and bright.”
Whitaker talked often with her family, so when McCaskill and her sisters stopped hearing from Whitaker in January, they knew something was wrong.
They started calling and sending messages on Facebook, but they realized she hadn’t been active on Facebook for some time.
After filing a missing persons report with Tulsa police, Whitaker’s family feared what could have happened.
“We were concerned she may have been trafficked because it was so unusual for her to not be in contact,” McCaskill said. “It was completely out of the norm, so we have been concerned for her safety from the beginning.”
Then, nearly three months after Tyra first went missing, her family saw news that petrified them.
On April 5, Terryl Brooks, 22, was arrested on first-degree murder complaints in connection with two of Tulsa’s latest homicides that occurred just over a week from each other.
There were even signs pointing to Brooks killing again, Tulsa Police Lt. Brandon Watkins said after the arrest, based on how comfortable he was killing people he knew.
“(The crimes) were completely unconnected. He knew both of the victims and had something of a relationship with both of the victims,” Watkins said. “I mean, you kill from (March) 25th to (April) 3rd, and it’s a little over a week. If you kill two people that fast, it’s pretty obvious that you don’t have a problem with killing people. I doubt very, very seriously that he would have stopped.”
It was then that the connection between Brooks and Whitaker was discovered.
When Whitaker went missing, McCaskill said they gave the name of Whitaker’s boyfriend, “Terryl,” to the police, but they didn’t know his last name or even really know him.
McCaskill said the couple met before before Christmas around October or November 2021.
Whitaker had tried to get Brooks to come to a family Christmas dinner, but it didn’t happen.
“With any young person, when they meet someone new, there is always that concern of who that person is or what that person is really about, what their intentions are with you loved one,” McCaskill said.
Now, with police fearing Brooks would have killed again if he hadn’t been arrested, McCaskill said their fears about what could have happened to Tyra have been taken a whole new level.
“We’re petrified now, knowing this person (Brooks) is suspected of killing two other women as we haven’t heard from Tyra,” McCaskill said. “We are praying for her to come back to us alive and well. We are afraid for her life.”
In the uncertain moments that have come out of the news of Brooks’ arrest in the alleged murders, McCaskill said she is remembering Whitaker for who she is as a person.
“She’s just a typical girl. She loves cute dresses. She loves music and has a beautiful voice,” McCaskill said. “She is just like anybody else’s daughter, mother, granddaughter. She’s our Tyra.”
Whitaker’s family understands what the news about Brooks could mean for Whitaker’s safety, but they are choosing to remain hopeful and pray.
McCaskill also wants to use Whitaker’s situation to spread a message of awareness about missing persons.
“All missing persons should be taken very seriously at the onset,” she said. “Every missing person matters, and they matter immediately.”