UPDATE: Bixby police ID victim of homicide

By John Dobberstein, Editor

The woman found dead inside a vehicle late Sunday night was Kara Nichole Ballard of the Haskell County town of Whitefield, Okla., the Bixby Police Department said.

Around 10 p.m. last night, Bixby police received information from the Tulsa Police Department about locating a vehicle in Bixby to check the welfare of the occupants, including Ballard, 40.

Ballard had told her daughter she was traveling with her husband supposedly at a park near the Arkansas River in Bixby.

Officers immediately began checking the area and located a vehicle in Washington Irving Park. It was determined that Ballard was inside the vehicle and was the victim of a homicide.

Bixby investigators determined the person she was reported to have been with, along with a vehicle description, may have been in the Pryor area.

Travis Glenn Ballard

Pryor police located the vehicle and a pursuit ensued. The vehicle later crashed and a suspect, identified as Travis Glenn Ballard, age 33, was taken into custody.

The victim’s family has been notified and the Bixby Police Department is continuing its investigation along with assistance from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Court records show Travis Ballard and Kara Nichole Ward were married in 2019.

Ballard was arrested last year on counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 1 year in the Haskell County Jail, but was released in February, according to court records.