— A District 27 prosecutor confirmed Friday that a Muskogee couple jailed for assault were now being held in Cherokee County on a first-degree murder complaint.

Jessie Leppke, 42, and Tracy Redford, 46, already held in connection with a knife attack on a Muskogee man, are now officially connected to the deaths of Angela Finley and Jessie Catron of Tahlequah.

The bodies of Finley, 48, and Catron, 64, were discovered Wednesday night at 106 Louellen St. in Tahlequah after police responded to a welfare check.  

An employee at the Cherokee County Detention Facility said Leppke and Redford, denied bond early Friday by Associate District Judge Mark Dobbins, were being held Friday evening on first-degree murder complaints.  

District 27 Assistant District Attorney Jack Thorp confirmed that, saying that Dobbins felt, based on information given to him by investigators, the couple should be held on murder complaints.

“Now, that doesn’t alleviate us from having to file a PC (probable cause) affidavit,” Thorp said. “But based on some information given to the judge, he did find probable cause based on info given to him by our office.”

Thorp said the district attorney’s office, Tahlequah Police Department and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation used Friday primarily as an investigation day, hashing out details surrounding Finley and Catron’s deaths.

“No paperwork was filed, and no one was formally charged,” Thorp said. “It was a lot of investigation today. A lot.”

Leppke and Redford had been held on $75,000 bond for allegedly stabbing Ernest “Lee” Norfleet, 52, on Tuesday night at a Tahlequah motel. They were originally jailed on complaints of assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree robbery in that case.

Norfleet said Thursday that Leppke, who he said was a longtime acquaintance of his, was Finley’s sister.

He said Leppke had called him to ask for help, saying she’d been in a fight with her sister and needed a place to stay.

When Norfleet arrived at the Cherokee Inn, he said, Leppke offered him a drink, then, along with her husband, Redford, began stabbing him.

Norfleet said he disarmed Leppke, made his way out of the motel room and drove to Tahlequah City Hospital. He said he felt that Leppke and Redford wanted his vehicle.

Brad Robertson, a Tahlequah Police Department public information officer, had said Thursday that investigators were considering the possibility that the homicides came before the knife attack.

Reach Dylan Goforth at (918) 684-2903 or dgoforth@muskogeephoenix.com.