Gregory Jerome Epperson, a 50-year-old Tulsa man serving life without parole for a 2017 killing, now faces a murder charge in the 2008 disappearance of Ray Nathaniel Johnson.

The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office refiled the first-degree murder charge after investigators re-interviewed a key witness in August 2026, the Tulsa World reported Thursday, Sept. 3. The Tulsa World also reported that police conducted familial DNA testing on the victim in connection with the case.

The charge was originally filed in 2015, when Epperson turned himself in and was booked for first-degree murder without bond, according to a statement at the time from Tulsa Police Homicide Sgt. Dave Walker, as KTUL reported. The case did not advance to trial. No public explanation has been given for why the original charges were dropped.

The new filing follows an August 2026 interview in which the witness gave an account consistent with statements he had provided between 2009 and 2013, according to News On 6. The witness told detectives he went to Epperson's home in September 2008 and saw blood on the ground. He said Epperson showed him a man who appeared to be dead and forced him to help load the body into a vehicle. The body was later dumped into Bird Creek, according to the witness.

Johnson was last seen by his girlfriend before his disappearance. His wife reported him missing after he failed to come home on the night of Sept. 11, 2008. The next day, she found his vehicle at his business in an unusual location. Investigators found a shoe and hat belonging to Johnson in the trunk, both stained with blood.

Police also processed a second vehicle connected to the case and recovered blood, hair and fibers from the cargo area. DNA testing confirmed the blood from that vehicle and from the shoe and hat matched Johnson's DNA profile, according to the News On 6 report.

Epperson denied knowing what happened to Johnson but acknowledged the two had been friends, according to investigators.

Epperson was sentenced in 2018 to life without parole for killing Kelsey Tennant in Tulsa in 2017. He is already imprisoned on that conviction.

No next court date for the refiled murder charge has been announced.