The first call came in as a theft report. Brian McManaman told the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office that his live-in girlfriend, 56-year-old Roxi Faezy, had taken $8,600 and disappeared. He said he got home from work on Friday, and she wasn’t there. Her car wasn’t either.
He took a shower, went to referee a ball game, and when he came back that night, her car was in the driveway. But she wasn’t in the house. He said he tried calling her, but she didn’t answer. The next morning, he found the money missing.
He also noticed that photographs of her children were gone from the mantle. He told police he was upset she had taken his cash and left. He admitted they had been having issues but said they were trying to work things out. Officers made a report but didn’t take it too seriously.
Then, a few days later, a second call changed everything. It was Roxi’s daughter, calling from Canada, desperate to report her mother missing. She insisted Roxi would never just run off. She talked to her mother every day, or every other day at the very least, no matter what.
That kind of silence was impossible. The mere circumstances filled Detective Devon Black with red flags. He immediately started tapping out search warrants for the residence, looking for signs of foul play. Inside the home, nothing seemed like a crime scene, but things weren’t right.
Detective Black, a married man of 15 years, knew what a woman packs for a long trip. Toothbrushes, deodorant, all of that was still there. Roxi had made no plans to be gone. The house was spotless.
Immaculate. Not a speck of dust, not a crumb of food. The couch still had vertical vacuum marks in it. That kind of clean threw up suspicion immediately.
And there was more. Roxi’s daughter told detectives to look for a specific pillow her mother had from childhood, something she would never leave home without. They found it, lying right there on the bed. Nothing made sense.
Detectives started building a timeline of her last known movements. Her last phone call was to a friend, planning to attend a basketball tournament that night. She asked her friend to save her a seat, saying she would call when she got to the gym. She never arrived.
Police caught a break when Broken Bow PD said they had pulled Roxi over for speeding late Friday afternoon. The body cam footage from that stop showed her alive and happy. She was bubbly with the officer, apologizing, laughing it off, wishing him a safe weekend. Those words now seemed haunting.
Her daughter confirmed that Roxi wasn’t just happy, she was in love. She would do anything for Brian. He was her whole life. Phone records showed she got home around 4:00 PM, shortly after the traffic stop.
An hour later, her phone was turned off. She was never heard from again. Detectives were at a loss, as if she had faded into thin air. She had a planned trip to Fiji.
She had a hair appointment scheduled. People with future plans don’t just disappear without a word to anyone. The case went to the media. Roxi’s boyfriend, Brian McManaman, gave an interview, claiming he was heartbroken, saying they were making plans to be together for the rest of their lives.
He said he didn’t know why she left, then threw out a theory. He thought she met somebody and went away with him. Investigators found nothing to support that. There was no secret boyfriend in her phone data, messages, or social media.
Instead, those closest to Roxi told detectives that it was Brian who had been unfaithful. Roxi suspected he was cheating and had contacted the other woman. She sent her a scathing text, calling her a homewrecker. That final message was sent the day before she vanished.
The timing seemed too coincidental. Without a body, investigators expanded the search across borders, checking registration, TSA, and border crossings. They even contacted Canadian Mounted Police to watch over Roxi’s daughter’s home. It had turned into a North American missing person case.
They looked all over the northern continent. Then, on March 18th, the case took a dramatic turn. Local property owners called about their college-age son who had been walking near a water mill with his girlfriend and thought he saw a dead body. When officers arrived, the body was face down in a creek about three feet deep.
They didn’t suspect it was Roxi, but they were curious. The body was in stages of decomposition. They could tell it was female, but facial features were gone. As they pulled the body up, they were horrified.
It was wrapped in a logging chain, crisscrossed around the body and zip-tied back into itself around the wrist. They knew immediately it was a homicide. A tattoo on the leg identified the victim as Roxi Faezy. Police spoke with the woman who owned the property.
She didn’t recognize Roxi’s photo, but she did recognize one person in Roxi’s life who had been to her home multiple times. Brian McManaman. He owned a landscaping company and had worked on her property. Investigators started talking to his employees about chains and equipment.
One of them mentioned a chain they used to have that they only used for one thing because it had a missing hook. The chain wrapped around Roxi’s body also had a missing hook. Detectives went to speak with McManaman without telling him he was their prime suspect, hoping to arouse an emotional response. They told him plainly, “Brian, we found Roxi.
She’s dead. ” He just dropped his head for thirty seconds, looked up, and asked, “Was she in Oklahoma? ” Not “How did it happen? ” Not “Where did you find her?
” Not a tear, not a sob. It was cold. That spoke volumes. His phone records proved he had lied about his whereabouts.
GPS data showed he was home by 2:00 PM on January 25th, the last day Roxi was seen alive, and he stayed until a little after 6:00. They were there at the same time. Roxi’s phone was turned off while he was in the house. It was never turned on again.
His phone also revealed he visited the dump site the day after investigators first interviewed him about Roxi’s disappearance. They believed he went to check if the body had surfaced or if it was still hidden. The woman Roxi suspected Brian was cheating with told police she had no idea he had a live-in girlfriend. She cut ties with him after finding out.
But shortly after Roxi disappeared, Brian called her to say Roxi had left him and was never coming back. The evidence was overwhelming. McManaman was arrested and charged with murder. Investigators believed the motive was money.
McManaman had started over in Oklahoma after a divorce in Pennsylvania, owing his ex-wife around $65,000 to $68,000 in alimony. Oklahoma is a common law state, meaning a couple living together is treated as married, especially for splitting finances. Detectives theorized Roxi confronted Brian about cheating and demanded a large portion of his assets. He had a successful lawn mowing business, property, equity in his home and vehicles.
The argument over money led to murder. On June 3rd, 2022, a jury found Brian McManaman guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury saw what the detective saw and understood the evidence.
It was one of the most gratifying parts of the job.
