Introducing: The First 48 | From Crime House and A&E

On August 29, 2020, at 9:15 p.m., a 911 dispatcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma received a call from a woman who heard screaming and a gunshot behind a gas station. Officers arrived to find 32-year-old Mark Clifford Lake, known as Smalls, lying face up on the ground, dead from a gunshot wound. He and his wife Georgette had been living in a tent in the overgrown field behind the station, searching for permanent housing while trying to keep his three stepchildren out of foster care. The clock started ticking.

The First Witnesses

Detective Jason White took charge of the investigation. Within two hours, he interviewed Rowdy Peterson, another resident of the encampment who had been watching Mark and Georgette's belongings while they ran an errand. Rowdy told detectives that two men approached Mark's tent, both armed. One called out "Smalls" and asked where he was. When Mark returned, Rowdy heard five gunshots and ran. He described one suspect as wearing a red and blue jacket with a red bandana over his face, and the other as a dark-skinned man in dark clothing and blue jeans. Rowdy said he could identify them but didn't know where they lived—though he believed Georgette did.