My Mother's Murder Trials Part 2

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Speaker 5 They were found Sunday afternoon, July 7th.

Speaker 6 My dad and his fiancé, Karen, were shot and killed in their beds. I was 17 and my brother was 15.

Speaker 6 and there was just shock.

Speaker 4 The killer made it downstairs, shot Karen Harkness multiple times, shot Mike Siscoe multiple times. Whoever it was that did this

Speaker 4 hated these people.

Speaker 6 The only person that hated them was my mom.

Speaker 4 Dana.

Speaker 4 What should people understand about the fact that you, Dana Chandler's daughter, thinks Dana Chandler killed your father?

Speaker 6 I do have a mind of my own and I'm not biased in this situation. I don't want it to be her.

Speaker 6 I want the truth to come out.

Speaker 6 I wanted to help the police.

Speaker 6 So I started to record my conversations with her.

Speaker 7 I think that the only way I can really move on with a relationship with you is if we can get it, you know, if you can just tell me yourself that you did it. You know, number one, I didn't do it.

Speaker 7 And number one, number two, I don't know what happened, Jayley.

Speaker 4 Did you know anything about the death of Bichel and Karen? I have no idea what it was like.

Speaker 6 I hit a point where I didn't know if justice would ever be served.

Speaker 6 I needed justice for my dad and for Karen.

Speaker 9 We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree.

Speaker 6 I feel better in the sense that my dad's killer is paying for their actions.

Speaker 6 I don't feel better that

Speaker 6 my mom is capable

Speaker 6 of killing my dad.

Speaker 11 And then the Kansas Supreme Court comes and says, this is prosecutorial misconduct. We're going to go ahead and overturn her conviction.
You have a new trial.

Speaker 13 My liberty, my freedom is hanging in the balance.

Speaker 6 If she could bring out something

Speaker 6 to prove she didn't do it, that's for her and her own freedom. But she can't, and she hasn't.

Speaker 14 I did not kill Mike Sisko.

Speaker 6 She would not hesitate to get revenge on me.

Speaker 16 I did not kill Karen Harkness.

Speaker 6 I know the truth.

Speaker 14 I am an innocent woman.

Speaker 6 The truth is that she murdered them.

Speaker 6 She scares me.

Speaker 4 Your mom scares you. Yeah.

Speaker 6 I wanted to understand what happened and why and

Speaker 6 I actually know the truth of what happened.

Speaker 4 For two decades, Haley Seal has been waiting for justice in the murders of her father, Mike Sisko, and his girlfriend, Karen Harkness.

Speaker 6 This hasn't been resolved.

Speaker 4 In 2002, multiple bullets struck 53-year-old Karen and 47-year-old Mike as they lay in bed in Karen's Kansas home.

Speaker 4 Authorities believed it was a crime of passion, as the rest of the house seemed undisturbed, with money and jewelry left behind.

Speaker 4 And Haley believed it was her mother, Dana Chandler, who was responsible.

Speaker 6 The truth is that she was in Karen's house on July 7th in the middle of the night with a gun, and she shot them both multiple times.

Speaker 6 And she murdered them.

Speaker 6 I hate that that's the truth, but it is the truth.

Speaker 17 I've never seen a case like this.

Speaker 4 Daryl Burton is co-founder of Miracle of Innocence, an organization that paid for Dana Chandler's lawyers and supports individuals it believes are wrongfully convicted.

Speaker 4 No DNA, no fingerprints, no confession, no weapon.

Speaker 17 It's just an add-up.

Speaker 4 In the summer of 2022, Dana Chandler was on trial for the second time for the murders of Mike Siscoe and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 4 As in her first trial, the defense focused on all that was lacking in the case against Chandler.

Speaker 5 There is no evidence that she was in the Harkness residence, no evidence she was in Topeka, there's no evidence she was in the state of Kansas.

Speaker 4 Defense attorney Tom Bath insisted Dana Chandler was in Colorado at the time of the murders, more than 500 miles away, and faulted investigators for zeroing in on her.

Speaker 5 Everything they looked at, everything they examined, excluded Dana.

Speaker 4 The lack of physical evidence was acknowledged by Shawnee County Deputy District Attorney Charles Kitt.

Speaker 18 Science is not going to solve this case.

Speaker 18 This case is not based on DNA.

Speaker 4 Instead, the state focused on evidence such as Dana's hatred of her ex-husband and his girlfriend.

Speaker 18 This case is based on jealousy, rage, and obsession.

Speaker 4 Prosecutors presented evidence they say showed that obsession, including records of more than 600 phone calls Dana made to Karen and Mike in the six months before the murders.

Speaker 4 And they introduced witnesses who said Mike and Karen told them some of those calls were menacing.

Speaker 4 Karen's coworker, Kim Warrender.

Speaker 21 And she said she had been up all night receiving phone calls from Dana.

Speaker 19 She told you she was afraid?

Speaker 18 Very afraid.

Speaker 4 Erin Sutton also testified that her mother, Karen Harkness, was scared of Dana. She spoke about messages she said she heard that Dana left on her mother's phone.

Speaker 22 She would call my mom horrible names.

Speaker 19 And like what kind of names would she call her?

Speaker 6 She would call her a whore.

Speaker 4 In addition to testimony about calls Dana Chandler made, there was also attention paid to when there was no call activity on her phone,

Speaker 4 specifically during 27 hours the weekend of the murders.

Speaker 4 Authorities believed Dana Chandler's phone was turned off, so it could not be traced as she traveled to Kansas.

Speaker 4 But the defense suggested it could have just been Spotty's cell phone service in Colorado.

Speaker 4 Prosecutors told the jury about a purchase Dana made the day before the murders, but failed to mention to investigators. Kit asked Richard Voley, the lead detective on the case, about the purchase.

Speaker 5 Can you tell us what that is?

Speaker 4 This is an autozone

Speaker 4 receipt. It shows the first two purchases were five dollar or five gallon gas cans.

Speaker 4 Authorities wondered why Dana didn't tell them about the gas cans and why she would need gas cans unless she was planning a trip, perhaps to Kansas, and did not want to stop for gas along the way.

Speaker 4 And there was the issue of Dana Chandler's alibi, according to Detective Voley, a changing, unconfirmable one.

Speaker 4 One witness testified that Dana said she was in the mountains in Colorado at the time of the murders. But Detective Voley testified Chandler told him she was at home in her Denver apartment.

Speaker 4 She said she'd stayed at her house, had no guests or phone calls, and that she turned in about nine o'clock.

Speaker 4 A friend of Dana's testified about something authorities thought might have been a dry run for the murders.

Speaker 4 She said about a month before the killings, Dana called and told her about a trip she made to Mike's home.

Speaker 10 She told me that she knew nobody was in the house and that she went into Mike's home through the window.

Speaker 10 After that, she did go to his girlfriend's house and sat outside her house waiting for them to come home, but they didn't show up.

Speaker 19 Did she tell you what she did when she got into Mike's house?

Speaker 10 She wanted to see what it looked like on the inside.

Speaker 4 But Dana's attorney questioned the reliability of her testimony, pointing out she may have gotten some dates wrong regarding calls with Dana.

Speaker 10 It must not have been a Monday.

Speaker 5 But 20 years ago, you said it was a Monday, right? Sure.

Speaker 4 Testimony about Chandler's behavior also came from Kathy Boots, Mike's sister.

Speaker 4 She described an incident several years before the murders that she said she witnessed while staying at Mike's house.

Speaker 24 We went to bed that night. And I woke up in the early morning hours to a noise out in the backyard.

Speaker 24 And we had had left the back porch lights on and i looked out through the blinds and dana was jumping on the trampoline out back

Speaker 4 and mike's brother-in-law mark boots recounted a disturbing conversation he said he had with mike nine days before the murders

Speaker 4 mike told me that the patterns of harassment had increased and that he feared for he and Karen's lives.

Speaker 4 Mike and Dana's daughter, Haley, was going to be in the uncomfortable position of testifying against her mother.

Speaker 23 And who is Dana Chandler to you?

Speaker 22 She's my mom.

Speaker 6 I was absolutely still nervous and scared. Being up there, it causes conflict.

Speaker 4 As Haley Seal reflected back on testifying against her mother, Dana Chandler, she recalled the stress she was under.

Speaker 4 As a prosecution witness, Haley was asked to describe some of her mother's behavior. Behavior Haley said she found obsessive.

Speaker 19 Was there a time where you were asked to spy on your dad?

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Haley recounted an incident after her parents split up when she said Dana drove her and her brother to Mike's home and they all sat in the car to watch the house.

Speaker 6 She said, come on, we need to watch your dad and you can be my little helpers.

Speaker 6 She had me go with her to the house after so long and

Speaker 6 she went to look in the windows.

Speaker 18 Did she look in the windows?

Speaker 6 Yeah, we both looked in the windows and she said, did you see that?

Speaker 14 Did you see that?

Speaker 5 And I said, no, I didn't see anything.

Speaker 4 It was episodes like that which led Haley early on to think her mother could be responsible for the murders.

Speaker 6 I always suspected she had something to do with it because of the history of her harassment, stalking, hatred, talking bad about them to us all the time.

Speaker 4 Haley testified about some of the ways her mother expressed that dislike of her father. Like the demeaning ways Dana referred to him in emails and online chats,

Speaker 4 including ones where Dana referred to Mike as it

Speaker 4 sent when Haley was 14 years old.

Speaker 19 And does she call him manipulative and deceiving?

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 19 And then calls him a rapist?

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 8 and just a couple lines down i hate his guts

Speaker 6 yeah are those things they didn't want to talk to you yes

Speaker 6 nobody can say that they think you were in carry that weekend

Speaker 4 also played in court were those conversations haley secretly recorded with her mom as she tried to learn more about dana's possible involvement in the murders In all the conversations you had with her over the days, weeks, months, even years after this happened, happened.

Speaker 4 She never told you something

Speaker 4 that made you think,

Speaker 4 well, at least my mom didn't do it.

Speaker 6 No, every time I talked to her, I felt more and more confident that she definitely had something to do with it.

Speaker 4 And perhaps most telling to Haley was a conversation played in court where Dana said she had thought about killing Mike.

Speaker 4 Never think about killing him? No, but I did.

Speaker 4 In one of those discussions, Haley asked her mother about why she bought those two gas cans, which authorities thought could have been used to help drive round trip from Denver to Topeka without stopping in Kansas for fuel.

Speaker 4 Dana, who'd been a problem drinker, explained she bought them for someone else, a woman she met at AA. She asked people money, and we don't give people money in AA.

Speaker 4 The prosecutor asked Haley if she was able to learn anything more about that woman from Dana.

Speaker 19 She wouldn't tell you who that person was?

Speaker 6 No, she didn't.

Speaker 4 But Dana's defense team argued those recorded conversations proved nothing about the murders.

Speaker 4 And regarding the two gas cans, it maintained that the 10 extra gallons the cans could hold would not have been enough for Dana to drive round trip from Denver to Topeka without still needing to stop for fuel.

Speaker 4 The defense accused authorities of tunnel vision, including not looking more thoroughly at other suspects.

Speaker 4 And her lawyers said Dana Chandler never owned a nine millimeter gun, the type of weapon used in the murders, which was never found.

Speaker 4 What was found were unusual bullets made in Israel.

Speaker 15 Israel Military Industries, that's the manufacturer.

Speaker 4 Dana's attorney questioned a firearm examiner who had worked with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation about those bullets.

Speaker 5 Is that a bullet you would, ammunition you typically see?

Speaker 15 Actually, we had not seen that before, and so it was a little bit unusual to us.

Speaker 4 The prosecution, though, explained there were places one could buy those bullets.

Speaker 19 Could that ammo have been brought into Kansas and sold at a gun show? Yes, sir. Could have been exchanged by individuals?

Speaker 18 Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 There were other parts of the investigation that the defense argued supported its case. There was forensic work it said eliminated Dana Chandler.

Speaker 4 Unidentified fingerprints found at the house did not match Chandler. None of Dana's DNA was found at the murder scene, nor were any fibers found from her clothing or any of her hair.

Speaker 6 I did not find any hairs that were consistent with the known samples coming from Miss Chandler.

Speaker 5 In 20 years, the state had no evidence. No evidence whatsoever that placed Dana Chandler in Karen Harkness's home, in the city of Topeka, or in the state of Kansas.

Speaker 4 After three weeks of testimony, that lack of physical evidence would be the defense's theme in its closing arguments.

Speaker 5 Each and every time they tested something, it excluded Dana.

Speaker 18 From the beginning, I told you this case

Speaker 19 is about obsession, jealousy.

Speaker 18 rage.

Speaker 4 The state focused on Dana's behavior, her calls, emails, and her own family's testimony against her.

Speaker 8 The defendant clearly hated Karen and my

Speaker 19 words from her own mouth and her own fingers typing those messages.

Speaker 5 A lot of evidence about Dana's bad behavior. That's true.

Speaker 4 That's not evidence.

Speaker 5 They have not proven this case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 4 On August 25th, 2022, the case went to the jury. And Haley was waiting for a verdict.

Speaker 6 I've really tried to trust the process as I I knew I didn't have any control over it, so it was going to be what it was going to be.

Speaker 4 But the wait to find out what the verdict would be was a long one.

Speaker 6 I can only describe it as evil.

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Speaker 9 when you retire to the jury room, you will first select one of your members as presiding juror.

Speaker 9 The person selected will preside over the 2000s.

Speaker 4 The case in the second trial of Dana Chandler for the murders of Mike Sisko and Karen Harkness went to the jury on August 25th, 2022.

Speaker 4 That day came and went, as did several more.

Speaker 14 Members of the jury, would you like to recess for the day?

Speaker 4 Yes, we'd like to.

Speaker 6 After about four days, I started to get nervous and think,

Speaker 6 wow, this actually could not come back in a guilty verdict. And I started to think about that possibility.

Speaker 6 And so I prayed.

Speaker 6 And I just trusted that if she did get away with this,

Speaker 6 that life would have to go on, right?

Speaker 9 Members of the gallery, I would ask that you just please refrain from any outbursts.

Speaker 4 After six days of deliberating, Dana Chandler would learn her fate.

Speaker 9 I understand that the jury is unable to reach a unanimous verdict at this time. Is that correct?

Speaker 4 That's correct. The jury informed the judge they were deadlocked.

Speaker 9 You're hung at this time. Is that correct?

Speaker 4 There were seven votes to convict and five to acquit.

Speaker 4 We did what we could with what we had. Ben Alford and Carrie Kimes were two members of the jury who voted to find Chandler not guilty.

Speaker 12 I never saw actual evidence that Dana Chandler was ever in the Harkness home. I can't send somebody to spend the rest of their life in prison if you can't even prove she left Colorado that weekend.

Speaker 18 The science is not going to solve this case.

Speaker 4 Everything that was tested for DNA proved inconclusive. And that's pretty remarkable.

Speaker 4 But for juror Randy Edwards, the state's depiction of Dana Chandler's behavior was persuasive evidence.

Speaker 25 She was beyond upset.

Speaker 17 She was obsessed.

Speaker 4 He also found those conversations Haley recorded with her mother to be convincing. and voted to convict.

Speaker 4 Never think about killing him?

Speaker 25 No, but I did. When I was able to comprehend that Dana said that she had thought of killing Mike, that was probably the piece that pushed me beyond any question of reasonable doubt anymore.

Speaker 4 There was a split verdict, but the majority of the jury was in favor of a conviction. And that was meaningful.
DA Mike Kagay decided to retry Dana Chandler.

Speaker 9 The next issue that we have before the court is a motion to modify Bond.

Speaker 4 Her lawyers convinced the court to reduce her bond, which allowed her to be released with supervision as she awaited the next trial.

Speaker 9 The court is going to direct that she have GPS monitoring.

Speaker 9 Welcome home. Welcome home, Dana.

Speaker 4 After spending more than a decade incarcerated, Dana Chandler celebrated her freedom with Darrell Burton. and Miracle of Innocence.

Speaker 17 Anybody who's getting out of prison after you've been in prison for any length of time, it is a joyous occasion.

Speaker 17 You're happy that someone's been released and you also feel like, well, maybe it's a good chance that

Speaker 17 we can

Speaker 17 mount a defense and get her totally acquitted.

Speaker 4 As a condition of her release, Dana was not allowed to contact her children. Still, Haley worried about her safety.
She is married to Chris Seale, her high school boyfriend, and is a mother of three.

Speaker 6 I'm scared to death that she's going to hurt me or she's going to affect my kids in some way.

Speaker 4 Haley's fear only grew when Dana made this post to her Facebook page. Chandler complained about her treatment at trial, calling it a kangaroo court.

Speaker 4 And in the background, she showed images of Haley's children. Haley says Dana somehow learned which church she attended and downloaded a live stream of a service to create the photos.

Speaker 6 It was chilling and it was disturbing. I feel like it was a direct message to me.

Speaker 4 And what was the message?

Speaker 6 Intimidation. I don't care about your boundaries.

Speaker 4 Her belief that her mother committed the murders remains unwavering. and, she says, disturbing.

Speaker 6 She's my mom, but if you're my mom, why would you do that to my dad?

Speaker 6 For your kid's sake, maybe. Maybe that would be a reason not to do it.
Being a mother now, I have a new perspective. It becomes even more unreal now.

Speaker 4 Also unreal to Haley, thoughts of a third trial. What are your expectations? for yet again another trial.

Speaker 6 This time, I'm not as confident.

Speaker 4 For trial number three, jurors would be from Pottawatomie County, Kansas. The defense requested a change of venue and the judge agreed, citing excessive media coverage.

Speaker 4 It would take place in Westmoreland, a smaller, more rural area 60 miles away from the last setting in Topeka.

Speaker 18 July 7, 2002 was going to be a good day. Mike Sisko, Karen Harkness, had been in a relationship for a few years.

Speaker 4 The trial got underway with opening statements on February 7th, 2025.

Speaker 18 One name just kept coming up.

Speaker 19 Dana Chandler.

Speaker 4 Charles Kitt was back retrying the case,

Speaker 4 joined by prosecutor Dan Dunbar. Judge Cheryl Rios again presided.

Speaker 4 And in a last-minute change on the morning of opening statements, Dana Chandler dismissed her defense attorneys.

Speaker 14 My name is Dana Chandler.

Speaker 4 And Dana Chandler decided the best person to represent her

Speaker 4 was herself.

Speaker 14 I am innocent. I did not kill Mike and Kieran.

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Speaker 14 I think this case is a character assassination.

Speaker 4 In February 2025, Dana Chandler was on trial for the third time for the murders of Mike Sisko and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 4 But this time, she was representing herself.

Speaker 4 She was exercising her constitutional right. It was an unknown.
It was certainly unexpected.

Speaker 4 One thing that was the same as in the previous trials, Haley Seale testified. Good afternoon.
Hi.

Speaker 18 Can you please tell the jury your name?

Speaker 6 Haley Seale.

Speaker 4 Haley was asked again by the prosecution about her mother's inappropriate behavior.

Speaker 23 What sort of things would she say about Karen?

Speaker 13 She

Speaker 4 called her a home wrecker,

Speaker 6 a select of very bad names.

Speaker 4 Prosecutors were also interested in an incident when Dana Chandler drove Haley and her brother to drop them off at Karen's house.

Speaker 6 We waited there for a really long time.

Speaker 6 In the car. Then my dad and Karen got there

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 6 my mom got out and yelled at them and just

Speaker 6 was very angry with my dad.

Speaker 4 Haley, I don't have any further questions. Thank you.
When it was time to be cross-examined, Haley knew it would now be her mother doing the questioning.

Speaker 14 Haley, Missile.

Speaker 6 I really went up there with like my game face on, you know? I knew it was war.

Speaker 6 I knew it wasn't going to be a nice, a cordial, a thoughtful, you're the victim, this was your dad, and I'm so sorry place that she'd be coming from.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler challenged Haley about her description of that drop-off at Karen's. Chandler said it was Haley's father, Mike, who was behaving badly, not her.

Speaker 14 When your dad and Karen drove up, your dad stormed over to the car.

Speaker 6 Oh, no.

Speaker 6 No, he did not.

Speaker 14 Then he started banging on the windows.

Speaker 6 Wow.

Speaker 6 No, he did not. I was inside that car and my dad absolutely did not bang on the windows.

Speaker 4 And I didn't didn't get out. I never got out of the car.

Speaker 6 You were the first one out of the car.

Speaker 6 I was just in disbelief because I knew she just made that up because it never happened. And he never did that.

Speaker 14 But I didn't get concerned.

Speaker 6 I just said, no, you know, I'm glad you asked so I could straighten this out. That never happened.

Speaker 6 And then it comes down to who's believable. And

Speaker 6 I wasn't worried about that.

Speaker 4 As another way to seemingly explain some of her past behaviors, Chandler brought up that she used to have a drinking problem.

Speaker 14 And I did tell you that I was, I realized that I had a problem with alcohol.

Speaker 6 You did tell me you had a problem with alcohol.

Speaker 4 Something Dana said she stopped by 1999, three years before the murders.

Speaker 14 I told you I was going to three AA meetings a day,

Speaker 16 trying to get well.

Speaker 6 True, I knew you were trying to get well, yes.

Speaker 4 The state questioned, though, if becoming sober changed Chandler's behavior.

Speaker 23 When she came back clean and sober, did that change how she treated you?

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 23 Did it change how she talked about your dad?

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 23 Did it change how she talked about Karen?

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 27 Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're at dating that this case happened or the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Speaker 4 Yeah, so type of things. Dana Chandler not only thought she was the best person to represent herself, but when it was time to put on her defense, she decided she would be her own main witness.

Speaker 14 But I feel like that I need to kind of tell my story to kind of put things in perspective.

Speaker 4 She testified over seven days.

Speaker 14 You have not seen evidence that I was in Topeka, Kansas on July 7th of 2002.

Speaker 4 Speaking for about 20 hours.

Speaker 14 I'd kind of like to review a little where I left off.

Speaker 4 There was times when she would take so long to try to get her point across.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler's supporter, Daryl Burton, was concerned when she put herself on the stand.

Speaker 17 And sometimes it seemed as though she was just rambling, you know, and that was just unfortunate. She may have known, she probably knew where she was trying to go, but she'd get lost.

Speaker 14 But I continued drinking.

Speaker 4 She again addressed issues such as her drinking and inappropriate conversations with Haley.

Speaker 14 I was writing emails from drinking to blackout.

Speaker 16 I'd get up the next morning and not even remember those emails.

Speaker 28 I have a serious problem.

Speaker 14 And horrible things I said about Karen spreading her legs. I mean, seriously, Haley was 14 years old.

Speaker 28 I am just so ashamed and embarrassed.

Speaker 4 about that and I hate it that Haley that I put Haley through that.

Speaker 4 And Chandler, in her own testimony, addressed again that incident when she waited outside Karen's house to drop off Haley and Dustin with the couple. She said it was done out of necessity.

Speaker 14 I yelled through the window I could not afford to feed Haley and Dustin

Speaker 16 and that I needed to leave them with him.

Speaker 4 Chandler contrasted those times to when she stopped drinking, showing videos of her spending time outdoors with Haley and Dustin.

Speaker 14 This video was taken about nine months into my recovery.

Speaker 4 Dana also disputed making frequent harassing calls to Karen and Mike, saying when she called, there was a reason.

Speaker 22 I was calling to speak with my children, Haley and Dustin.

Speaker 4 As to her having disagreements with Karen Harkness, she testified there were none.

Speaker 27 I never, ever had any confrontations with Karen Harkness at all.

Speaker 4 Chandler also pointed out what she said was sloppiness in the police investigation.

Speaker 4 When Chandler questioned lead detective Richard Voley, she asked about whether police were too focused on her and should have been looking more thoroughly at other possible suspects.

Speaker 16 Did you or did you not receive any leads for other suspects besides me?

Speaker 4 Early on in the investigation, there were several other people that were looked at as possible leads. So it's a matter of checking people off to dismissing people that couldn't have done it.

Speaker 4 When we can't dismiss them, we keep focusing on them, like we did with you.

Speaker 4 Chandler, though, said there was an area where she felt law enforcement thoroughly investigated, whether she bought a 9mm gun like the one used in the murders. And they came up empty-handed.

Speaker 14 I've never owned, purchased, or possessed a 9-millimeter firearm.

Speaker 4 And throughout her defense, Dana Chandler was adamant that at the time of the murders, she was in Colorado and no one could place her in Karen's house or even in Kansas.

Speaker 4 It seemed like a simple question Dana Chandler was asking Detective Voley.

Speaker 14 Did you ever develop any information that I was in Topeka, Kansas on July 6th or 7th of 2002?

Speaker 4 But in answering that question, Voley said there was a woman named Patty Williams who may have spotted Chandler in the state of Kansas around the time of the murders.

Speaker 14 What do you know about Patty Williams?

Speaker 4 She was a clerk at a convenience store in Waikini, Kansas. The gas station convenience store in Waikini, where Williams worked, was nearly halfway between Denver and Topeka.

Speaker 4 It had been visited by an investigator searching for locations where someone may have spotted Chandler around the time of the murders. There, the investigator showed Williams this photo of Dana.

Speaker 4 She was 7 out of 10 that it was you.

Speaker 4 According to Voley, the clerk was 70% sure she had seen Dana Chandler and described some distinguishing features.

Speaker 4 Chandler, though, told the jury she did not have gray hair back then. By the time of the trials, Williams had died and could not be questioned again.

Speaker 4 Chandler also expressed concern that the investigator only showed a single photo of her initially. instead of an array of photos, including different people.

Speaker 4 Something Voli did do when he went to the gas station about two weeks later. We

Speaker 4 later went out with a, what we call six-pack photo. It's six photographs of people that look very similar, and amongst those photos was Ms.
Chandler.

Speaker 4 Voley said Patty Williams immediately picked out Chandler and again was 70%

Speaker 4 sure she saw her there. But Voley acknowledged using an array initially would have been better.

Speaker 4 There was still for law enforcement the issue regarding Dana Chandler's alibi. Remember, Vole said Dana told him she was home in her Denver apartment the night of the murders.

Speaker 4 But she told others, including an acquaintance, Jeff Bailey, she slept in a car in the Colorado Mountains that night.

Speaker 14 I must confuse yourself.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler told the jury she had been confused when she spoke with Vole, but Prosecutor Kit was not accepting that explanation.

Speaker 5 So, what you told Detective Voley is not consistent with what you told Jeff Bailey, is it?

Speaker 14 As far as my trip to Ms.

Speaker 18 Chandler, it's not consistent with that part.

Speaker 12 Okay, yeah, I would agree with that.

Speaker 14 I would, that's true.

Speaker 18 Have you seen her document before?

Speaker 4 Once again, those secret recordings Haley made with her mother were played in court.

Speaker 4 Ever think about killing him? No, but I did.

Speaker 4 This time, Kit questioned Dana herself about its authenticity.

Speaker 18 Was that your voice saying, did you ever think about killing him? I did.

Speaker 6 It sounds like it is.

Speaker 4 When it was time for the final witness, Dana Chandler decided it should be Dana Chandler. She knew the jury heard witnesses testify about her parenting and past behavior.

Speaker 4 Chandler explained if she was a less than attentive mother, it was because of her drinking and and the lack of money, not a lack of love.

Speaker 22 I absolutely did want to have a relationship with my children.

Speaker 14 You know, I think the financial, the substance abuse combination,

Speaker 14 it just won't feed me. That's all I have.

Speaker 4 Thank you.

Speaker 20 During the assignment, you couldn't afford to feed your children, you were buying boots, correct?

Speaker 22 I was.

Speaker 20 You buy them enough alcohol to get a blackout drunk?

Speaker 8 I was.

Speaker 8 Thank you, Derek, for the questions.

Speaker 4 And with that, after 18 days of testimony, Prosecutor Charles Kitt and Dana Chandler presented their closing arguments.

Speaker 21 Why are Mike and Karen dead?

Speaker 18 And the evidence shows one simple answer, control.

Speaker 6 I think Kit nailed it when he said it was about control.

Speaker 4 The state described Chandler losing control of Mike as he planned his future with Karen and the rage that followed.

Speaker 19 And that's what led to the defendant traveling to Topeka, Kansas on July 6th and murdering them on July 7th.

Speaker 4 Kit spoke about Chandler's depiction of events not lining up with the testimony of others.

Speaker 18 It's the defendant versus everyone.

Speaker 5 You can believe the defendant's testimony, or you can believe everybody else that you've heard from in this case.

Speaker 4 In Dana Chandler's closing, she used a scam to make her point that prosecutors whom she called her accusers did not have enough evidence to tip it in their favor.

Speaker 4 The

Speaker 14 accusers must tip the scale.

Speaker 16 Here I'm innocent.

Speaker 14 I have my infirmities and I have my shortcomings.

Speaker 13 But I do stand here before you all today

Speaker 14 and proclaim that I am an innocent woman.

Speaker 4 She acknowledged the life she led was not perfect,

Speaker 4 but said that doesn't make her a murderer.

Speaker 14 The state has woefully failed to meet its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I killed Mike Sisko or Karen Harpins.

Speaker 4 About four hours later, the jury delivered its verdict.

Speaker 18 Maybe the jury finds Dana Chandler guilty of murder in the first degree as charged in Count 1.

Speaker 4 Verdict from California. Guilty of the murders of Mike Siscoe and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 4 After hearing the verdict, Dana Chandler turned away. And while it was the verdict Haley hoped for, the end result is nothing she ever wanted.

Speaker 6 It is so much worse that my mom is the one behind these murders because

Speaker 6 we lost my dad and Karen, but then through all this now we've lost our mom.

Speaker 6 I really wish it was someone else.

Speaker 17 I don't believe that they have proved this case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 4 Chandler's supporter, Daryl Burton, remains undeterred. He still believes she is innocent.

Speaker 17 The evidence just doesn't, you know, prove that she's guilty of anything.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler is filing motions for an appeal. 48 Hours reached out to Chandler again for this episode, but did not receive a response.
I am very confident in this verdict.

Speaker 4 District Attorney Mike Kagay is certain the jury convicted the right person.

Speaker 4 I have every confidence in my prosecutors and how they handled this case.

Speaker 6 The

Speaker 6 focus of this case has gone almost completely to Dana Chandler

Speaker 6 and that the victims has really been lost,

Speaker 6 which is really sad.

Speaker 4 More than 20 years have passed since Mike Sisko and Karen Harkness were murdered and Haley wants to make sure the lives lost are not forgotten.

Speaker 6 I was trying to tell my daughter about who my dad is.

Speaker 6 And I said he was a really fun,

Speaker 4 supportive, encouraging guy who believed in me and my brother.

Speaker 6 And Karen was so kind,

Speaker 6 so accepting.

Speaker 6 I miss him a lot.

Speaker 29 This is the story of the one. As head of maintenance at a concert hall, he knows the show must always go on.

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