OWASSO, Okla. (AP) — A woman who bought a home where three people once were shot to death said she would not have made the purchase had she known what had happened there.
Valinda Martinez, a 27-year-old Navy veteran, closed on the home in the El Rio Vista housing addition two weeks ago. She started moving in before a cable technician told her of the house's history.
Martinez said neither the sellers of the home, Joe and Tonya Morgan, nor their real estate agent, Marilyn Hardacre of Collinsville, mentioned to her the fatal shootings at the home in August 2005. Three men were convicted in the murders, with the last being sentenced a year ago.
Martinez was stationed in Spain at the time of the murders.
"This is the first house I've ever bought on my own," Martinez said. "I'm a single woman, just out of the military. I'm trying to make something. I feel so upset that I got wronged."
Tulsa County land records indicate the Morgans bought the house in 2006. Efforts by the Tulsa World to reach them by phone proved unsuccessful. Hardacre referred questions about the sale to Terrie Foster, a team leader and general manager of Keller Williams Realty in Owasso.
"I totally understand the question you are asking because you're saying, 'Don't we ever feel?'" Foster said. "Well, of course we do. But by law, if we did, then we're held liable by our seller if they didn't want it disclosed.
"If the buyer asks and the seller chooses not to (answer), then the buyer's remedy is to say, 'OK, fine. I don't feel comfortable with that. I'm out of here.' And they get their money back."
Under the state's Residential Property Disclosure Act, sellers must answer questions about the history of a house.
Anne Woody, the executive director of the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission, said that if a seller does not disclose requested information, "then the purchaser could assume that there's something there."
But under the Oklahoma Real Estate License Code and Rules, real estate that either was or is suspected to be the site of a "suicide, homicide or other felony is not a material fact that must be disclosed in a real estate action."
Martinez said she checked to see if there were any sex predators living in the area near the house and tried to make sure she was making a smart purchase.
Martinez said she's spent only one night at the house and is staying at her parents' home while she tries to decide what to do next. She said she wants to raise awareness about what she calls "ludicrous" nondisclosure laws.
"It's very sad when you can't feel comfortable in something," she said. "It took a long time for me to be able to do this.
"They've taken something that should have been the best thing I've ever done on my own, and they've made it something that I can hardly stand. They followed the law just as underhandedly as they could have. And that was the problem."
