Best friends Skyla Whitaker, 11, left, and Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, right, both died of multiple... 
(ABC)
The bodies of the girls, wearing shorts and T-shirts, were found by Peter Placker, Taylor's grandfather and legal custodian. He went looking for the girls after one of them failed to pick up a call on her cell phone. They were about a quarter-mile from Taylor's house, where they were having a sleepover.
"They were the best and I'm not just saying that because they are gone," Wanda Mankin, the girls' principal and school counselor, told ABC News. Taylor was a new student last fall at the local K-12 school, which had very small classes.
"There were five girls in that classroom and they were all best friends," Mankin said. "The other three girls are devastated." Mankin, who said that counseling resources have been made available, said the child murders shattered the perceived security in the rural area.
Choate, the sheriff, said that his office has heard from citizens who are concerned about a killer on the loose. The public has reason to be concerned, he said.
"We've had a few phone calls from parents that are worried about their children," Choate said. "If it was me, I wouldn't let my kids out walking unless they were with someone they know."
Joe Mosher, identified by ABC News' Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO as Taylor's uncle, described his 13-year-old niece as a girl who did not have an enemy in the world. "She got along with everyone," Mosher said. "She didn't have an enemy in this world. People who never met her fell in love with her."
The double murder has left authorities pushing for a quick arrest as members of the quiet Oklahoma community grasp for answers.
"Nobody can understand what's going on right now," Mosher said.
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