Officials say it could be that of a missing 13-year-old, Cori Baker.

SAPULPA — Tulsa police plan to organize a search for a missing teen after a skull was discovered in Creek County Friday evening.

The state Medical Examiner’s Office determined Saturday that the skull was human, authorities said.

Police say it could belong to Cori Baker, 13, who has been missing since November.

“We’re considering this a strong lead,” said Tulsa Police Sgt. Mike Huff.

Huff said witnesses had reported seeing the suspect in Baker’s disappearance in the area previously. Investigators also have other information that has them interested in searching the area, Huff said, but he declined to provide more details.

Daniel Baker, Cori’s father, said that police had notified him about the discovery of the skull on Saturday.

“I believe it’s her,” Daniel Baker said.

The Tulsa Police Department is coordinating with the Creek County Sheriff’s Office to start a search early next week, Huff said.

Creek County deputies were called at 5:15 p.m. Friday to a wooded area near 49th West Avenue and the Creek Turnpike, where a skull had been found, said Cpl. Joe Thompson.

The skull belongs to someone under the age of 25, but the person’s gender had not been determined, he said.

Baker was last seen alive Nov. 9, when her older sister’s boyfriend, Marquis Bullock, picked her up from her school.

A Tulsa County judge ruled March 17 that Bullock must face trial on a charge of firstdegree murder in Cori’s disappearance.

Bullock, who turned 19 in January, was arrested late Nov. 12. He was booked on Nov. 13 into the Tulsa Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Bullock has given multiple accounts of what happened the day that Cori disappeared.

Tulsa Police Detective Vic Regalado testified during a preliminary hearing that Bullock denied picking Cori up from school when he was questioned Nov. 12. After Bullock was arrested for murder, he indicated on Nov. 13 that he had picked Cori up around 2:10 p.m. Nov. 9 and dropped her off at a bus stop about a block from her home. Bullock subsequently said he had picked Cori up and that they went to the west bank of the Arkansas River, where she fell into the river and “disappeared under the water,” Regalado testified. Bullock later told investigators that he had not gone with Cori to the river but had taken her to the apartment that he shared with her sister.

Law enforcement officers, firefighters, relatives, volunteers and a self-proclaimed psychic have all searched extensively for Cori but have turned up very little.

Searchers have scoured the Arkansas River several times for clues.

Witnesses have also told police they that they saw Bullock fighting with Baker in his car near 71st Street and Riverside Parkway and later driving recklessly and alone at eastbound Interstate 44 and Elwood Avenue.

Deon Hampton 581-8413
deon.hampton@tulsaworld.com