The father of one of the teenagers allegedly murdered by a convicted sex offender at a sleepover in Oklahoma is advocating for stronger laws in hopes of protecting families from a similar fate.
Ivy Webster, 14, was sleeping over at her friend Tiffany Guess’ home in Henryetta earlier this month when Tiffany’s stepfather, convicted sex offender Jesse McFadden, shot the two girls and Tiffany’s mother, Holly, in the head, the Oklahoman reported. Police say that McFadden also killed Tiffany’s siblings, 15-year old Michael Mayo and 17-year-old Riley Allen, as well as her friend Brittany Brewer, 15, before taking his own life. Tiffany was 13 years old.
McFadden was convicted of first-degree rape in 2003 and was released from prison in 2020 — serving less than 17 years of his 20-year sentence, according to Fox 23 News. He was allegedly due to appear in court the day after the murders on charges stemming from allegations that while in prison in 2016, he used a contraband cellphone to exchange explicit photos with an underage girl.
Ivy’s father, Justin Webster, told Law&Crime’s Sidebar podcast that he has already jumped into action, proposing The Knights Law in Oklahoma to ensure sex offenders serve their full sentence.
“They’re monsters and need to be locked up for life or put to death,” Webster said. “If sexual offenders have the ability to destroy a child’s life with their acts that they do, whether they murder the child or not, that child will have PTSD. They will have to go through counseling their entire life. If they can destroy a child’s life, they should lose all their rights.”
The Websters said most interactions with McFadden occurred while dropping off Ivy at his house or welcoming Tiffany at theirs, and when the families went kayaking and fishing together at Jim Hall Lake.
“My wife and I, we felt he was kind of socially awkward, kind of weird,” Webster recalled. “But we didn’t know the personal side to him, and just knowing who he was based off our interactions, there was never any signs of maliciousness. He was a monster in disguise and really good at what he did.”
Webster said he did not know about McFadden’s criminal history. In fact, he said he was concerned to learn that McFadden’s name only appears on the federal sex offender registry, not the local Oklahoma list.
While Webster urges parents to ”look at every avenue, every resource given to continue to try to see if your children are going to a safe place,” he has grander ideas of spotlighting local perpetrators.
“We need signs in their front yards saying that they’re sexual predators,” Webster said. “We need signs at our schools with every sexual predator within a certain limit, and that will help parents recognize their sexual offenders within their local area. Our Walmarts, public libraries.”
He also emphasized the need for pictures of the offenders to be publicized as well.
“Who cares about shaming them?” Webster asked. “If they want to live in a town where they’re not wanted, then good, get out and leave. And that’s my message to them.”
Webster said that he and his family were “baffled” walking through the property where their daughter was killed. On their third visit, they found sex toys, bondage gear, padlocks, and chains lying about — much of which was Webster said was purchased the day before the murders.
“But as far as our kids going over there and staying the night there, they never said anything to us,” Webster said. “So I don’t know where he hid most everything he had in that house or how he did it.”
In that last visit, the families learned it will take six months to a year to comb through all the evidence.
“I feel like some weight has been lifted off because I was fighting so dang hard to try to get that proper investigation into that property,” he explained. “It did feel relieving a little bit to know that we were getting the justice, or at least the investigation to get the justice that all of us victims and victims’ families need and have to understand.”
Above all, Webster said he speaks out for Ivy, to keep her story alive.
“Ivy was the most amazing girl, and she did not deserve this. She was loved by everybody,” her father said, tearing up. “She is truly missed, not by just our family, but an entire community.”
He mentioned the thoughtful notes written by her classmates that now fill her locker. He reminisced about how much Ivy and Tiffany loved playing softball.
“And that’s the other thing about this story, is we didn’t just lose Ivy,” Webster said. “It was just a weekend before that we were telling Tiffany that we’re going to give her a key to our house because of how much she was here and how those two girls were connected at the hip. They did everything together.”
He said that Tiffany’s siblings were also regular visitors to his home.
“And Michael and Riley, they were always at our house,” Webster said. “And we loved that whole family dearly. And all of them need to be recognized for how good of kids they were and how magical they were. And they didn’t deserve this. They should still be here. And that’s the frustrating part, is if our law enforcement agencies didn’t fail us and our [Department of Corrections], our system here in Oklahoma didn’t fail us, they would be here today.”
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