Authorities say a Payne County homicide investigation moved from a living room to I-35 in Kansas within two hours.
STILLWATER, Okla. — Deputies used cellphone location data and a phone negotiation to track a murder suspect from Payne County into Kansas after a woman was shot inside a rural Stillwater home early Easter morning, investigators said.
The pursuit began after 27-year-old Audrey Adams was shot shortly before 2:47 a.m. April 5 and ended at about 4:56 a.m. with the arrest of Connor Allen Kinnamon on Interstate 35 in Sumner County, Kansas. Authorities said Kinnamon, also 27, fled in his mother’s black Buick Regal after shooting Adams while she held their 5-year-old son. He now faces a first-degree murder charge in Payne County and is being held without bond.
The sequence laid out in a probable cause affidavit begins the day before the shooting, when Adams traveled from Tulsa to rural Stillwater to visit the child she shared with Kinnamon. Kinnamon lived at the home with his son, his mother and his mother’s husband, according to Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers. By the early morning hours of Easter, investigators said, Kinnamon and Adams were arguing inside the home. The dispute grew physical enough that Kinnamon’s mother stepped in and separated them. Adams then called her mother to pick her up and take her and the child away from the house.
That call changed the mood inside the home, investigators wrote. The affidavit says Kinnamon became agitated after Adams called for help leaving. Several family members were in or near the living area when the confrontation reached its final seconds. Adams’ mother had arrived and was standing near Adams, close to the front door. Kinnamon stood just inside the dining area. His mother was in a hallway. Adams had the 5-year-old in her arms. According to the affidavit, Adams told her mother that Kinnamon had a gun in his pocket. Her mother began telling her to come with her.
Investigators said Kinnamon then spoke about shooting himself, pulled a gun and shot Adams. The affidavit says Adams immediately collapsed onto the living room floor. Emergency Medical Services responded and provided care, but the attending paramedic pronounced her dead at 2:47 a.m. The child was not physically hurt. Adams’ mother took him from the home through the front door. Kinnamon ran out the back door, according to investigators, and left in the Buick. His own mother called 911 and reported that her son had fled in her vehicle after the shooting.
The first minutes after the gunfire produced separate responses from relatives and law enforcement. Adams’ brother had driven their mother to the house and was in the driveway when the shot was fired. He briefly entered the home and then chased after Kinnamon in another vehicle, but he could not catch up. Deputies established a crime scene and began looking for Kinnamon. Because investigators believed he had threatened suicide, they treated the search as a fast-moving emergency and decided to ping his cellphone under exigent circumstances, according to the affidavit.
Deputy Jacob Farmer reached Kinnamon by phone while dispatchers and deputies watched the cellphone data move north. The pings placed Kinnamon on a path toward the Kansas state line. Farmer kept talking with him and negotiated his surrender while dispatchers updated Kansas authorities with new locations. The affidavit says the cellphone signals eventually showed Kinnamon crossing into Kansas. Sumner County deputies then coordinated a traffic stop on I-35. Kinnamon was taken into custody without incident at about 4:56 a.m., roughly two hours after Adams was pronounced dead.
The stop in Kansas also became a key evidence point. Sumner County authorities secured the Buick Regal and found a firearm believed to have been used in the shooting, according to the affidavit. Back in Payne County, investigators found one fired 9 mm shell casing in the living room near the area where Adams was shot. The single casing supports the state’s account that one shot was fired, though investigators have not publicly released a full ballistics report. The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office responded to the home, and Adams’ body was taken to Oklahoma City for examination.
Kinnamon was held in the Sumner County Jail before being transported back to Payne County on April 9. Prosecutors then pressed to keep him jailed without bond. In their filing, they said he shot Adams in the back of the head and later confessed to killing her. Investigators also said Kinnamon told detectives that he and Adams had used methamphetamine before the shooting. Toxicology tests were still pending. Authorities have not said whether drugs played a direct role in the confrontation, and the affidavit does not present toxicology findings as final evidence.
The legal case now includes first-degree murder with deliberate intent and an alternative count of first-degree manslaughter in the heat of passion. The murder charge carries a possible life sentence if Kinnamon is convicted. The alternative manslaughter count carries a possible prison term of four years to life. The dual filing gives prosecutors one theory based on intent and another based on a fatal act committed during a sudden quarrel. Kinnamon is presumed innocent unless convicted, and the defense will have a chance to challenge the state’s timeline, evidence and statements in court.
The charge lists 14 witnesses for the prosecution, including nine members of the Payne County Sheriff’s Office. Those names suggest that the early case may rely heavily on the deputies who responded to the home, tracked Kinnamon, collected evidence and handled the interstate coordination. Witnesses inside the home could also be central because the affidavit describes a shooting that happened in front of several family members. The court record does not say whether the 5-year-old was interviewed, and authorities have said only that he was physically unharmed.
What remains unknown is how the argument began, why Adams’ visit turned into a confrontation and what Kinnamon said during the phone negotiation before his arrest. The affidavit provides the outline of the pursuit but not a transcript of the call. It also does not show a final autopsy report or toxicology results. Those records, if introduced later, could shape how prosecutors explain the shooting and how defense attorneys test the state’s account.
Kinnamon remained jailed without bond as Payne County prepared for the next court step, a May 4 appearance tied to a possible preliminary hearing. The case stands as a homicide investigation built around a narrow timeline: a family argument, one shot, a fleeing car, cellphone pings and an arrest across the state line.
Author note: Last updated May 10, 2026.