Oklahoma
Survivors of deadly Oklahoma home invasion to attend execution: ‘You shattered lives’
Dreu Kopf was at home with her young daughters and dear friend Amber Matthews when Wendell Grissom barged in and began shooting. Now Kopf and the girls, who are now grown, will watch him die.
Amber Matthews and Dreu Kopf only knew each other for two years but they had already become inseparable friends. Their lives then became forever intertwined when one of them was killed in a home invasion murder that the other survived.
“I would give anything to be able to call her at work again,” Kopf said in a victim impact statement obtained by USA TODAY. “I had a special ringtone for her and I miss hearing it.”
On Nov. 3, 2005, Wendell Arden Grissom murdered Matthews and seriously wounded Kopf inside her home in Watonga, Oklahoma. He didn’t know either women and chose the home seemingly at random.
Now Grissom is set to be executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday, marking the first execution in the state in 2025 and the ninth in the U.S.
As his execution approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at the crime, who Matthews was and how Kopf is feeling about the case 20 years later.
What happened to Amber Matthews?
On Nov. 3, 2005, Grissom and a homeless hitchhiker he had picked up named Jessie Johns were planning to burglarize homes when they targeted Kopf’s house near Watonga, 70 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
Kopf was home with her two daughters and Matthews when Grissom came knocking. Initially, he asked Kopf if her husband was home but eventually shot his way in, laughing as he fired, according to court records.
Kopf, who had been shot in the wrist, jumped on Grissom while Matthews ran with Kopf’s 5-week-old daughter into a room where Kopf’s 19-month-old daughter was sleeping.
“Dreu begged Grissom to stop,” court records say. She offered him “anything he wanted” to spare their lives but Kopf said in court records that “he was just laughing and he just kept shooting and shooting and laughing.”
Grissom shot Kopf in the head and hip. Hearing the shooting from inside the bedroom with the girls, Matthews was “overcome with terror” and “vomited all over her jeans and on the floor,” court records say.
Kopf managed to steal Grissom’s truck and escape, hoping he would follow her. On the way out, she heard Matthews scream, “Please don’t shoot me,” before Grissom shot her in the back of the head and then the forehead as she held one of the girls. Matthews died.
Kopf managed to flag down help and survived after being treated at a hospital. Police said Grissom and Johns fled Kopf’s home using her husband’s four-wheeler. Court records say Grissom and Johns were arrested in a nearby café after local citizens reported seeing the men to police.
‘I was crazy, I was scared’
Speaking to USA TODAY ahead of Grissom’s execution, Kopf recounted a long road to recovery that changed the trajectory of her and her family’s lives.
“I was scared all of the time. My husband wouldn’t leave my side,” Kopf said. “I lived in fear 24/7.”
Rylee Kopf, who was just 17 months old when Grissom invaded her home, recalled the struggles her mother endured in the years following the shooting.
“My mom would probably, with no exaggeration, call my dad 100 times a day, asking when he’s going to be home and if he couldn’t give her an answer she would call back,” she said. “She didn’t want to be home alone.”
Other members of Kopf’s family describe her as someone who was “paralyzed by fear” as she recovered from the shooting.
Despite the lasting nightmares and injuries, Kopf said that she has found a way to forgive Grissom. “I have to forgive this guy or Grissom is going to ride on my shoulder the rest of my life and control the rest of my life,” she said.
With Grissom’s execution this week, Kopf said it’s the end of a long process.
“Amber is always going to be 6 feet under and I will always be the girl that got shot. I’m probably going to always be nervous and scared,” Kopf said. “It’s taken 20 years of my life that I’ve had to deal with him. It’s a rollercoaster.”
She plans to witness Grissom’s execution along with her now-grown daughters, who are 19 and 20.
She hopes Grissom’s death will mark the moment that she “will never think of him again.”
‘My best friend’ and a ‘pretty angel’
Matthews’ father, Garry Matthews, described his daughter as the “apple of my eye, a cute blond blue-eyed little bundle of joy.”
“She was not only my daughter, she was my best friend. In and out of marriages, she was always there for me,” he said during Grissom’s 2008 trial. “The last restaurant we ate in, I can’t go back. Everything that reminds me of her brings back the pain.”
Although USA TODAY was not able to speak with members of Matthews’ family for this story, court records obtained show a family that has been devastated.
Matthews aunt, Rita Russell, told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board last month that her niece was a “pretty angel.”
“We never got to see her get married or have kids. She loved kids,” she said, then addressed Grissom. “You shattered our lives that day … There’s not a day that does by that I don’t miss her beautiful smile.”
The ripple effects continue to haunt the entire Matthews family, they told the parole board.
“My holidays are not the same. My son no longer has a big sister,” Garry Matthews said in court. “I’m depressed. I miss my daughter so much and I want her back and can’t have her. I can’t even have her for one more day to say goodbye.”
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City police investigating early morning shooting
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahoma City police are investigating an early morning shooting that left one man injured in northeast Oklahoma City.
Around 3 a.m. on Thursday, emergency crews were called to a reported shooting near Kelley and Wilshire Blvd.
Investigators say the shooting occurred between a couple inside the home, adding that the woman shot the man.
However, police say they are trying to determine if the shooting was accidental.
The victim was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
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The woman has been taken into custody for questioning, but it is unknown if she will face charges just yet.
Oklahoma
North Carolina, Oklahoma advance to the Men’s College World Series finals
Oklahoma is just three outs away from steamrolling through the right side of the bracket and knocking out Georgia to reach the championship finals.
To prepare, let’s take a look at what arms we should expect for the Sooners just like we did for the North Carolina earlier.
The Sooners have leaned heavily on their freshmen pitching trio in Cord Rager, Xander Mercurius and Nick Wesloski throughout Omaha. The first two went at least seven innings, while Wesloski tossed 5.2 innings on Wednesday. Even though they used relievers LJ Mercurius and Jackson Cleveland in the first two games, neither pitched more than two innings nor allowed a run.
If LJ, who entered for Wesloski on Wednesday, finishes the game, he will have gone 3.1 innings.
That sets up Oklahoma very well to matchup with UNC, which went 3-0 and also hasn’t used many arms up to this point.
If OU does win, expect Rager, Xander Mercurius and Cleveland to be ready to go. Rager, who hasn’t pitched since their first round game against Alabama on Saturday, June 13, would have a full week of rest.
Oklahoma
Rep. Kevin Hern wins Oklahoma GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, governor’s race heads to runoff
U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern easily won Oklahoma’s GOP nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, and the race for a new governor in the deeply conservative state began with Republicans Gentner Drummond and Mark Mazzei advancing to a runoff.
In a primary that again tested President Donald Trump’s status as Republican Party kingmaker, both Hern and Mazzei carried his endorsement in their bids to win open races for two of Oklahoma’s biggest offices. With nearly all the votes counted, Drummond, the state’s attorney general, was narrowly ahead of Mazzei, a former state senator.
The primary had Republicans picking their preferred successor to outgoing Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and a nominee for the Senate seat once held by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in Oklahoma since 1990.
Hern’s most serious potential GOP rivals stayed out of the Senate race after Trump endorsed him even before Mullin was confirmed as a replacement for fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Hern received more than 50% of the primary vote to avoid a runoff.
He struck a somewhat bipartisan tone in speaking with reporters after winning big, touting his experience as a House member working on issues such as trade and energy. He promised to represent conservative principles and “Oklahoma ideologies” in the Senate and noted he already has relationships with senators.
“We have a lot of friends in a lot of different states, including blue states,” Hern said.
READ MORE: Live Results: Oklahoma midterm primaries
Trump endorsed Mazzei last month in a hotly contested race that also had other major candidates, including former Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall and Chip Keating, a former state public safety director who is the son of a two-term governor.
Drummond told reporters at his watch party that he had expected a runoff after Trump endorsed Mazzei and suggested that Trump could reconsider his endorsement of Mazzei, saying, “who knows?”
“Mr. Mazzei got a bump, but now he’s got to earn the rest,” Drummond said.
Trump repeated his endorsement of Mazzei on his Truth Social platform on Monday. Mazzei told supporters Tuesday night, “All I can say is, ‘Wow.’
“Eighteen months ago when we started this adventure, no one thought this was possible,” he said. “The political insiders said we had no chance. We started at zero, but who in here actually had faith we could get the job done and get in the runoff? You did.”
Mazzei also boosted his campaign with personal funds — nearly $10.9 million, or almost 95% of the $11.5 million he raised, according to campaign finance reports. Drummond put $2.5 million from his own pocket in raising about $7.2 million. Together, Drummond, Mazzei, Keating and McCall contributed $22.5 million of their own funds to their campaigns, or 72% of their combined fundraising of more than $31 million.
READ MORE: Oklahoma begins choosing a new U.S. senator and governor in crowded primary
The winner of the GOP runoff will face Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, who won the Democratic nomination Tuesday by a wide margin.
In a solidly Republican state, the races for two of Oklahoma’s biggest offices set off a political scramble. To replace Mullin in the Senate through this year, Stitt appointed Republican Alan Armstrong, an energy executive, but state law prohibited him from seeking a full term.
In November, Hern will face the winner of a Democratic runoff between N’Kiyla Thomas, a nurse and community activist, and Jim Priest, an attorney and minister.
The governor’s race is open because Stitt is finishing his second four-year term and cannot serve a third under the state constitution. Trump has seemed eager for him to go.
As head of the National Governors Association, Stitt drew Trump’s ire earlier this year over a dispute over invitations to White House events at the group’s annual meeting. The fallout led to Trump attacking Stitt on social media as a “RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only.
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