Third Suspect Arrested in 2016 Lake Tenkiller Murder Case

Charles "Blake" Shamblin, 35, of Alamosa, Colorado, was booked into Sequoyah County Jail on Wednesday on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the 2016 death of Matthew S. Fagan.

Fagan, 23, disappeared in June 2016 while hiking near Buzzards Roost Trail at Lake Tenkiller with Shamblin and two other men who were searching for an abandoned silver mine. He never returned.

In the months after Fagan vanished, all three men gave statements admitting involvement but offering conflicting accounts. Leverett told investigators that Snelling struck Fagan in the head with a hammer during an argument and threatened the others into helping dispose of the body. Shamblin provided a similar account. Snelling claimed Leverett was the primary aggressor and said he and Shamblin acted under duress.

Prosecutors dismissed the case in 2017 after investigators failed to find Fagan's body.

On November 2, 2024, a deer hunter discovered human bones in a wooded creek bed near Grey Squirrel Ridge, less than a half-mile from where Fagan was last seen. The Sequoyah County Sheriff's Office and Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner's Office recovered additional remains and clothing. DNA testing confirmed the remains were Fagan's.

The District 27 District Attorney's Office refiled murder and accessory charges against all three men. Michael Snelling, 32, and Tyler Leverett, 32, both of Webbers Falls, surrendered in April and were taken into custody. Shamblin's arrest on Wednesday marks the third apprehension in the case. All three men remain jailed facing first-degree murder charges.