Original subtitles

So, tell me the story.

I'm sitting here at my desk, you know, fucking investigating voter suppression,

and fuck if I don't look in my inbox and there's a tip that comes into our

anonymous tip line.

Hello, my name is Eileen Umber.

I wanted to know if you might be interested in uncovering the truth about

a double homicide.

I've talked to strangers on airplanes. I've written to anybody and everybody I

can think of. It was a breathless email from a housewife in the tiny town of

Alma, Kansas.

I haven't a fucking clue where Alma, Kansas is, but I got a pretty good sense

of who this lady is.

She was, by her own account, a stay-at-home mom who had raised four

boys and who now spent much of her time in her rural ranch house in her pajamas.

And even from 2,000 miles away, one detected the whiff of a true crime

obsessive.

She wanted to tell me about a grave injustice.

Of course she did.

The truth has not yet been told, and I believe journalism is Dana Chandler's

only hope.

I spent 25 years as a reporter and editor at the New York Times and the

investigative independent outfit.

ProPublica. I'd have a hand in a fistful of Pulitzer prizes.

So I've been at the news racket long enough to appreciate that one ignores an

anonymous tip at one's peril.

I figure, what the fuck, I'll Google the case.

Pajama Lady wanted to tell me about a double homicide in Topeka back in 2002.

Couple. slain in their bedroom in the dead of night karen harkness daughter of

a big-time topeka businessman and mike cisco the divorced father of two kids

crime scene was tough stuff 11 bullets all hit

wounds nose to toes it wasn't a burglary money been left around karen

was still wearing her jewelry

There was no DNA, no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses.

But virtually every family member the cops talked to offered the same theory.

Mike's ex-wife.

He had an ex-wife that was a real problem. The ex-wife just left my mind.

Mike's ex-wife, a woman named Dana Chandler, might be the killer.

Mike and Dana had been married for 15 years, but after they divorced...

Dana was described as a crazy, bitter ex who had lost the custody fight over

their two children.

The authorities in Topeka were convinced Dana was the killer.

Justice followed.

Dana is arrested and tried.

The jury took just 83 minutes to convict.

We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first

degree as charged.

Consecutive life terms, no possibility of parole for 100 years.

Jealous ex kills her husband and his new girlfriend.

Case solved as far as I was concerned.

So I decided I didn't have time for a pajama lady in Kansas.

And so I wrote her a polite note with an impolite answer.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Good luck with your pursuit of justice.

I don't know whether she didn't get the fucking message, she didn't pick up on

the hint.

She doesn't stop fucking writing me.

Ten emails a week.

None for two weeks.

25 in a day.

It was a crazy assortment of shit.

Dear Joe, here is a link to the video of... Dear Joe, did you know that the

lead prosecutor... She's got, like, court records and ballistics reports and

property records. I'm like, I don't know whether to call the cops on her or

fucking hire her.

I'd like to say I opened the mall, but I can't. Never even picked up the phone to

call her.

Barely even acknowledged receiving them beyond a smug.

Fascinating, or... I'll be sure to look.

I started to refer to her as Pen Pal.

But then, after two years of these endless fucking emails, Pen Pal sent me

email number 2714.

Dear Joe.

And I had the dumb luck to have opened it.

Dana Chandler's convictions had just been overturned.

I've done all manner of crime stories.

State murder convictions overturned. Shit doesn't happen every day.

And the lady was still in prison. They were going to retry her.

And for once, two and a half years into our one-way correspondence, I composed a

note of more than three words.

It was six words.

Perhaps I should come see you.

I'd arrived on the Great Plains, fueled by the reporter's trademark cocktail of

adrenaline and dread.

I really had no idea what I'd find other than a housewife who seemed alternately

brilliant and deranged.

Oh, and her husband.

He's part of this, too.

Together, they've made this murder case their obsession, their life's calling.

Ever since I was a little girl, For some reason, I was interested in true crime

stories.

Did they have a motive?

Actually, they had a fight, so this is why they suspected him. Well, you'll

see.

I try to glean from the show's tips, leads, how did they solve it?

At 1.30 in the morning, Kevin Green left the apartment for a hamburger at a fast

food restaurant.

I think crime interests us all.

I think we're all voyeuristic in a sense. When a crime happens, we want to

know that they got the bad guy and there's justice for the victims.

But in the case of who killed Mike and Karen, that's what we don't have yet.

When they arrested Dana, everybody believed they got the right person

except for us.

This isn't solved yet. This case is unresolved.

That's not justice to convict the wrong person.

I desperately want the families to know who really killed Mike and Karen.

I get very emotional about this. My voice goes up, you know, my blood

pressure goes up, my hands turn cold, and I have to ask him to warm my hands.

I can't be calm about this.

I don't know. Anyway, you know, they're the most earnest fucking people you ever

meet in your life.

And they...

Never. How in the world did they get a search warrant? Ever. If the shirt she's

wearing has no gunshot residue on it, then she didn't do it. Ever. You take

away the lies, there's nothing left. Stop talking about the fucking Dana

Chandler case.

Like with Dana, you know, they just assume, oh, you're the ex-wife.

They had no connection to Dana Chandler when the murders happened or when the

case against her was prosecuted.

Did not fucking know her at all.

You can see how it unfolds. And yet, they've turned their lives over to

proving her innocence.

And in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, Father, I release your blessings upon

Dana Chandler.

Channel her heart like you do channels of water and lead her to the right

place. Amen.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

How'd you guys first meet?

First time I saw Eileen, we were in high school.

I was sitting there with my friend, and I said, I got to ask that girl out.

He was literally the picture of the guy that I always dreamed about.

And he used to walk by me in the halls, and all he'd say was, howdy, this Kansas

drawl. And I would just melt into a puddle.

I summoned the courage and asked her out.

First street we crossed, I grabbed her hand just instinctively.

We never quit holding hands after that.

What's really exciting about working on the Dana Chandler case has been it's a

fulfillment, really, of a lifelong passion. To find ourselves in this

situation where we're trying to get to the bottom of a double homicide, it's

kind of surreal.

It was in the summer of 2002.

We got the morning paper and saw the big headlines.

We're very interested in crime stories of all nature, and we watch them on the

show all the time, and now we have one in Topeka, Kansas that had a double

homicide. I mean, of two people in their bed, they were assassinated.

A normally quiet Topeka neighborhood turned into a crime scene Sunday

afternoon. A mother and father coming to visit their daughter found her and a man

dead inside the home.

911, what's your emergency?

I've just located my daughter and she's downstairs and she's dead.

Well, I had tried to raise her by phone and knocking on the door.

Got no response.

Really was concerned what had happened here.

The patio door was open.

And I just slid it on open.

I thought, they have to be in this house someplace.

The cars were there.

I started down the stairway to the lower level.

I could see Karen.

She had been shot several times in the back.

Then I found Mike between the bed and the wall.

He had been shot a number of times.

On the night Mike and Karen were killed, they decided that they would go to the

local casino.

Video cameras captured them at different points.

pouring money into slots, having a drink.

They leave around 1.30, coming home with almost a grand.

They stop at the gas station, get a cup of coffee.

They arrive back at Karen's townhouse sometime before 3.

And in many ways, that's the last of them.

There's no evidence sign of forced entry.

There's money put out on the table and in Mike's wallet.

It kind of runs against the idea that this was some kind of robbery.

They discover a shit ton of fucking shell casings.

Mike was shot seven times through the gut, back.

Karen was shot five times, including what folks would later come to argue was

some kind of dark grace note shot to her private parts at the end.

No weapon was found.

What was found were Israeli-made subsonic bullets.

most commonly fired from an Uzi-style weapon of war.

That's pretty unusual.

When you have signs of overkill, it tells me, at least, whoever did this

killing was motivated by emotion.

When somebody gets killed, I look at the inner circle of that person, primarily

family members.

Then their friends.

And then you want to look at associates.

people they've had contact with.

Your suspect in most homicides is going to be found within those three rings.

There was one person who seemed to emerge as a viable suspect, and that was

his ex-wife, Dana Chandler.

Then we're going to go for a hike.

Fun. Dana Chandler is a daughter of the American West.

She grows up in New Mexico and California.

She's from a big family. She's got a bunch of sisters.

By all accounts, she was a beautiful young woman when she met Mike Sisco.

Mike was described as a guy's guy, worked for a welding company, and liked

to hunt and fish.

They married in 1982, quickly had two children, a girl, Haley, and then a boy,

Dustin.

But Dana has a drinking problem of, you know, significance, and it begins

to impair her gifts as a mom.

Her husband is a drinker, too.

There'd be fights and breakups and reunions, but after 15 years of

marriage, they finally divorced.

It wasn't pretty.

There were claims and counterclaims, but eventually Mike prevailed. He got Dana

moved out of the house and won custody of Haley and Dustin, even was awarded

child support to be paid by Dana.

When her life...

implodes and she loses her children and her marriage is ended, she does a pretty

good job of picking herself back up.

Goes back to school, gets initially her college degree.

Congratulations!

Then a master's in accounting.

Maybe most importantly, she gets sober.

But none of that impressed Mike's family.

They believe Dana never let go of the anger at having lost Mike and her

children. I understand that there was some friction between your mom and him.

Did you hear much about that? I was caught in the middle of it most of the

time. Tell me about that.

They didn't get along at all. My mom hated him, and she would call numerous

times, like at night, like 18 times in a row.

And she didn't like Karen because she thought that, you know...

i don't know i think she was jealous because karen got to be with us and

she's not her mom and whatever but she really really wanted me and dustin to

live there at the time dana chandler lived in denver colorado she worked as

an accountant there that's a solid eight hour drive from topeka in the days after

the murder she consents to an interview with detective richard bowley

She says that the day before the murders in Topeka, she runs a number of errands

and then goes to bed.

At the time that Mike and Karen are being killed in Topeka, she's asleep in

Denver. She has records that she went to a supermarket and records that she got

gas. And included in those records is a receipt for the purchase of two five

-gallon gas cans.

Except she doesn't disclose that to Volley in the interview.

One of the first subpoenas the police got was for Dana Chandler's phone

records.

Across 28 hours until the evening after Mike and Karen have been killed, her

phone is off.

That was enough to develop a theory.

that on the weekend of the murders, Dana drove from Denver to Topeka, shot Mike

and Karen to death without leaving a trace, and drove 540 miles back to

Denver without being seen, all thanks to the gas cans.

And so the police brought what they regarded as a winnable case to Robert

Heck, the district attorney.

None of the investigation was able to establish that anyone saw

Dana Chandler in Topeka the day before, the day of, or the day after the

homicide.

My refusal to file charges against Dana Chandler created anger and frustration

among members of the police department.

You shouldn't file charges unless you have sufficient evidence to establish

the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

The prosecutor has the final say. I mean, it is a frustrating situation.

There was evidence there.

it may not have been physical evidence but it's good circumstantial evidence

the police department were never able to establish that dana chandler ever had

possession of ammunition never had possession of a firearm were never able

to put her in topeka shawnee county or kansas so what were the means

and what was the opportunity and he would say no for years year after year

i don't know how you know If you get a fucking case, it could be more ice cold.

For seven years, police in Kansas have been stumped by a murder they call

perfectly planned.

There was no forced entry, nothing stolen, and no signs of a struggle.

Tomorrow night, 48 Hours Mystery will investigate this murder case.

The mystery continues.

Seven years after the murders...

CBS's 48 Hours, mainstay of true crime, decide they're going to come to Topeka

and do a show.

What we're left with is an emotional killing. It's an emotional execution.

Whoever it was who did this hated these people. They wanted them dead, and they

wanted to make sure they were dead.

They had won the cooperation of the newly elected DA.

Hecht was out, a young, handsome, politically ambitious successor.

chad taylor was in i hope that through a thorough review getting a fresh set of

eyes looking at it i hope we're able to bring justice for those families dana

chandler dana chandler dana chandler dana channel the 48 hours episode was

the first time dana chandler had ever been publicly identified as the person

responsible for the deaths of mike and karen your children would like for you

to talk

Dana Chandler's children believed that their mom had killed their dad and his

girlfriend. But Haley, in particular, wanted her brought to justice.

I would say everybody in Topeka was tuning in. This case was cold, very

cold, and I thought, great, now somebody's going to really dig into it.

The show utilized a famous homicide detective who's considered an expert in

the field.

I have personally investigated, supervised, consulted, and assessed over

8,000 homicides.

He put together an analysis of the case.

The report concluded... Dana Chandler is the one and only person who had the

motive, means, and opportunity to commit these murders.

They used all the power of the media to make people believe, yep, that girl did

it. And to this day, people say, oh, after I watched 48 hours, I was

convinced she did it.

In 2011, a case that had been cold for years got quite hot.

Dana Chandler is arrested, and CBS's 48 Hours cameras are there.

They saw a chance at a second episode.

This one built around Dana's trial.

A woman's in that job.

If she's a bad mother, if she's a crazy person, doesn't necessarily make her a

killer. This hag killed two people, and the reason we know that is because

everything she said she was doing instead of the killing was a lie.

All rise. Division 14 in the Third Conditional District is now in session.

The Honorable Nancy Parrish presiding.

May I please the court, counsel, members of the jury?

I could kill him.

I thought about killing him.

These are the words of this defendant about her ex-husband, Mike Sisko.

The case against Dana Chandler was essentially to portray her as an

unhinged, vindictive, hateful ex-wife.

Was there a time within the seven or eight days that Karen told you about the

defendant showing up uninvited and unwanted at Mike's house? Yes.

Its effect on Karen was what?

She was scared.

And the prosecution argued that Mike had actually even sought the court's

protection from the threat of his ex-wife.

Did Mike get a protection from abuse?

Yes, he did. Against who?

Against the defendant.

Mike got a protection from abuse, a court order. He applied and said, hey

judge, please order this woman to stay away from me. And the judge agreed.

And they even... put forward the idea that there was a triggering event that

pushed her from just angry and bitter to murderous.

Two days before the homicides, the defendant called Mike.

Mike at this time told the defendant in that five-minute phone call that the two

were engaged and planned to be married.

But I don't think anything can really prepare you for seeing two children

testify against their mother.

in the trial for the murder of their father.

How did you learn of their death?

Whenever we got back that night, my grandma and my sister showed up, and

I told them that my dad was going to pick me up in the morning.

And they told me that my grandma sat me down and told me that he was murdered.

Did your dad have trouble with anybody but the defendant?

No. Did Karen have trouble with anybody but the defendant? No.

That's all I have.

Can you tell us your name, please?

I'm Haley Sisko.

How old are you?

I'm 27.

My mom pulled up to the side of our car and started yelling at my dad and

Karen and called Karen a whore and a slut.

I don't think that she could really move on like my dad had moved on.

In one sad, spooky moment, Dana Chandler locks eyes with her daughter

or mouths the words, I still love you.

In the District Court of Shawnee County, State of Kansas versus Dana L. Chandler,

we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first

degree as charged in count one.

Verdict form number two. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime

of murder in the first degree as charged in count two.

I was stunned.

Shocked.

Pen Pal watched the trial, too.

She attended every day of the three-week drama.

Where, she asked, was the fucking evidence?

Never in a million years did I think that she was guilty.

Once Dana was convicted, our advocacy then switched to helping her.

I guess we're motivated to do what we do because of our faith.

And the Bible says, speak up for those who can't speak.

Speak up for justice.

When Keene was a trashman, he used to pray on the trash truck. He said, Lord,

if you want me to be a trashman the rest of my life, I will.

But if it's your will, I pray one day I can use my mind instead of my back. And

Keene has an amazing mind.

Keene Humber got the Waubonsie County trash contract back in 1981.

His relationship with the county remained friendly until 1989.

During his time as the town's trashman, He also became its self-styled

muckraking local newspaper columnist. He liked to question county budgets, take

on causes, and culprits.

People loved the articles.

Nobody had ever challenged the county commissioners like I was doing.

Eileen was very supportive because she was equally as annoyed as I was.

He developed his own unorthodox investigative techniques.

The janitor courthouse and I had a kind of a...

understanding the janitor would place all sorts of confidential material in a

designated trash bag they couldn't figure out how I was getting that

information the garbage was in the black bags the county secrets were in the

white bag local authorities had enough of this fucking Bob Woodward here and

they cut off his trash contract

They terminated my contract based on the content of my articles, and that is a

violation of the First Amendment.

He says, screw that.

He takes his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and fucking wins.

We were hugging each other. We were laughing.

We couldn't hardly even speak.

We think there'll be a better America because of this. I mean, seriously,

people will be less afraid to speak out. That's the plumb I get to walk away

with, knowing that other people are coming behind me.

can use my case to get justice.

Fresh off his Supreme Court victory, he decides, you know what? I'm gonna go

back to college, I'm gonna get a degree, I'm gonna go to law school, I'm gonna

become a lawyer.

He opens his own private practice.

If injustice is going on out there, I can't live over here and say, well, it

doesn't affect me.

That's just who I am.

In God's house, there's many vessels.

He made me a certain kind of vessel.

I'm a sword, and the purpose of a sword is to...

poke and kill and do the justice part that's where my faith is

i

wanted to visit dana chandler in jail so i wrote and asked if she

would allow that finally after many attempts she agreed to meet

i'm here at the prison i'm going to be visiting dana now

This is where Dana Chandler spends her days and nights.

I do recall being concerned that everything's recorded, so I wrote

something on a piece of paper and put it up on the glass.

I didn't know her at all.

She didn't know me either, but we forged a relationship.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Keene was working to acquire all the discovery

files from the case. I would make notes and go back and categorize each person's

testimony and analyze it and cross-analyze it. To start laying the

groundwork for an appeal.

Dan didn't know me, so she was appropriately cautious.

You know, but we're the only ones willing to help.

Then we entered into a legal relationship where I could meet with her

in a special room.

We were still on video, but they could not listen.

They started putting their heads together about how to put on an appeal.

While he was working with Dana side by side, I would work on projects at home,

and personally, I like to stay in my pajamas.

Together... They combined their efforts to try to prove that Dana Chandler had

been wrongfully convicted by unscrupulous and unrepentant

prosecutors. Call it the case against the case of Kansas v.

Dana Chandler.

The prosecution's theory for a motive was that Mike and Dana had a five-minute

conversation two days before the murders.

Mike at this time told the defendant in that five-minute phone call, that the

two were engaged and planned to be married there's no evidence about the

content of the phone call so there's only evidence that they spoke there

wasn't a tape there wasn't a transcript there wasn't a recording nothing it was

all made up but jackie stated that was the trigger for dana to drive 540 miles

purchase a gun and break into the home and kill two people in order to

establish that premise they manufactured the claim that Mike had to get a

protection from abuse order, and they used, of all people, the lead detective

to testify to this.

Did Mike get a protection from abuse?

Yes, he did.

Against who?

Against the defendant.

So I went hunting for this protection from abuse order.

I filed them before.

I know what they look like. It was about three-quarters of an inch thick of

paperwork. It's not just a single paper. You can't miss it.

I'm going through every page of this divorce proceeding, and I don't find it.

It's not there. It was never there because it never happened. It was total

fiction. The only order Mike ever obtained in the divorce proceeding was a

mutual restraining order. At the very beginning, that's routinely handed out

to both parties.

But a protection from abuse order is much more serious. There's a hearing.

The other side gets to have a lawyer. You have a little trial.

It's a big deal to get one of these things. And it gave the imprimatur to

the jury that Dana was dangerous.

To Keene and Eileen, the testimony by cops was nothing short of perjury.

I could see there just wasn't going to be enough time in a day for us to really

dedicate our lives to this case.

So we owned 500 acres out here, some family property.

We decided to sell it, and I would close my law practice so we could dedicate

ourselves 100%.

to Dana's case every single waking day.

We made the decision that we're going to sell this.

We're just so committed to this case that there's really nothing else in life

that matters.

The wrong done to her is just that great. If Dana Chandler can't get a fair

trial and due process, then none of us can.

So Dana gets convicted in March 2012 and immediately files a notice of appeal.

But her first appellate argument was in January 27, 2016, almost four years

after she gets convicted.

I call the second case on this morning's docket, State of Kansas v. Chandler. May

I please court Jackie Spradling on behalf of the Appley?

Right off the bat, Supreme Court justices were just nailing her.

I don't see how you say during that phone call the victim told the defendant

that they were getting engaged.

We don't know anything about what happened in that phone call, do we? Do

you have any direct evidence or any kind of evidence that's stronger than what

you've already talked about on what happened during the five-minute phone

call?

Not that I can promise she was in their record rather than just in my mind.

That's not an answer. Yes, I understand. The answer has to be it's in evidence.

You understand that, of course. Yes, Your Honor.

Judge after judge after judge, just nailing her on the mistakes she had made

and the false statements she had made.

How do you stand up in front of a jury and tell them that a protection from

abuse order was entered?

What I should have said, Your Honor, was that there was a protective order.

That's a whole lot different than a protection from abuse order, isn't it?

I'll agree that there was no protection from abuse order. Even though you said

there was?

Yes, sir. Why isn't that misconduct, and why isn't that something we should look

at? And what is your answer to that?

They completely gutted Jackie Spradling that day.

Would you like 60 seconds to wrap up, or do you think you've established your

points? No, thank you. I'm good.

Supreme Court decisions always come out on Friday.

I'm there waiting, like I've waited so many weeks before, and I see it pop,

State v. Chandler.

I said, oh, my gosh.

There's no sense in reading the first part. You just zoom right past to the

end, reverse and remand it.

A major Topeka murder case has been overturned. The state's highest court

ruling that the case was botched.

it said the lead prosecutor jackie spradling told the jury false

information prosecutorial misconduct made up evidence lies to the jury

the kansas supreme court's reversal was blistering the desire to win the

justices held had trumped truth dana chandler sent ksnt news a written letter

from prison and the letter chandler thanks the supreme court justices and

attorney king umber for their work in the reversal

But they didn't vacate the decisions, right? They sent it back to the trial

court and to the prosecutor's office. There was now yet another new district

attorney in office.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kage says if the state decides to retry

Chandler, the new trial would have to begin within 150 days.

And he decided he would try her again.

But Penbell and Treshman were determined to see that never happened.

I still always gravitate back to watching true crime stories on TV.

Some of it dovetails in with what we're trying to do to get to the bottom of who

killed Mike and Karen. Because to be honest, this has never been just about

Dana Chandler's innocence and a desire to see her free.

Not only do we believe in her innocence, we want the true killer of Mike Sisko

and Karen Harkness to be brought to justice.

I first came to know Keene and Eileen as passionate crusaders for a woman they

thought was, you know, wrongly convicted.

But they weren't just advocates for the innocence of Dana Chandler.

Actually, they were pretty certain.

Not only that Dana Chandler... is innocent, but that they know who fucking

did it.