My Mother's Murder Trials Part 1

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Speaker 6 My name is Danny Chandler.

Speaker 6 I have been accused of double homicide

Speaker 6 and I

Speaker 6 am innocent.

Speaker 9 Is it hard to believe you're sitting here again

Speaker 4 to talk about this?

Speaker 11 Yeah, it really is. I didn't think 20 years later that this is what would be happening in this situation.

Speaker 11 July 7th of 2002,

Speaker 11 my dad and his fiancé Karen were shot and killed in their beds.

Speaker 11 I was 17 and my brother was 15

Speaker 11 and there was just shock.

Speaker 11 The only person that hated them was my mom.

Speaker 7 Dana.

Speaker 14 What should people understand about the fact that you, Dana Chandler's daughter, thinks Dana Chandler killed your father?

Speaker 11 I do have a mind of my own and I'm not biased in this situation.

Speaker 11 I don't want it to be her.

Speaker 11 I want the truth to come out and I want true justice for my dad and Karen.

Speaker 15 Mike and Karen were together for the weekend alone. They did everything.
They loved each other.

Speaker 16 They drove up to a casino, spent a few hours there, and then arrived back home in the early morning hours. They were found Sunday afternoon, July 7th.

Speaker 17 The killer made it downstairs, shot Karen Harkness multiple times, shot Mike Sisko multiple times.

Speaker 17 It's unnerving to think that somebody could sneak into a house and do this and leave quietly and nobody knows about it until the next day.

Speaker 17 Whoever it was that did this hated these people.

Speaker 10 They wanted them dead and they wanted to make sure they were dead.

Speaker 18 It could be the justice two families have long been waiting for, the arrest of Dana Chandler in the 2002 killings of Karen Hartness and Michael Sisko.

Speaker 12 You have a trial where she's found guilty.

Speaker 19 We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime of murdering.

Speaker 12 And then the Kansas Supreme Court comes and says, this is prosecutorial misconduct, and it's so bad that we're going to go ahead and overturn her conviction. You have a new trial.

Speaker 20 The jury is unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Speaker 12 And now they've had a hung jury, and they're going to try her again. That just is almost unheard of.

Speaker 5 For the third time, Dana Chandler is back on trial with opening statements today as Chandler will represent herself in this case.

Speaker 12 I knew it was different. I just didn't know what was going to happen.
I could never have predicted it.

Speaker 22 When officers talked to friends, family, coworkers, they all said the same thing.

Speaker 15 You guys should look at Dana Chandler.

Speaker 11 The truth is that she murdered them.

Speaker 6 I did not kill Mike Siscoe.

Speaker 11 I did not kill Karen Harkness.

Speaker 6 I am an innocent woman.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler has spent decades maintaining her innocence against allegations she was responsible for the 2002 murders of her ex-husband, Mike Sisko, and his girlfriend, Karen Harkness.

Speaker 8 My liberty, my freedom is hanging in the balance.

Speaker 4 In 2025, Chandler took on her own defense, representing herself in the third trial the state brought against her for the murders.

Speaker 11 I wanted to understand what happened and why and actually know the truth of what happened.

Speaker 4 Haley Seal is Dana Chandler and Mike Siscoe's daughter.

Speaker 4 She and other family members of Mike and Karen have spent decades grieving, searching for answers and for justice.

Speaker 16 Hi, Dana Harold, Dow, CBS News.

Speaker 4 48 Hours first started covering the murders in 2008 and spoke with individuals involved several times over the years.

Speaker 22 It's hard to swallow and it's

Speaker 22 hard to believe. It's insane.

Speaker 4 For Haley, it all started on July 7th, 2002. She learned her father and Karen had been killed in Karen's Topeka, Kansas home.

Speaker 11 I immediately just saw a bunch of tape around the house and police and my grandma was sitting there and

Speaker 11 she just told me that they had been shot.

Speaker 4 The night before the murders, Mike and Karen enjoyed an evening at a casino about an hour outside of Topeka. Surveillance footage shows them leaving about 1.30 a.m.

Speaker 4 They then stopped to get coffee. The last time video captured Karen alive.

Speaker 24 They were extremely happy. You could just see that.

Speaker 4 Karen's father, Harold Warswick.

Speaker 24 Everything they did was for each other.

Speaker 4 The day after Mike and Karen's night out, a family get-together had been planned at Karen's house. Relatives thought the couple might be announcing they were engaged.

Speaker 24 And I rang the doorbell and knocked on the glass and couldn't raise anybody.

Speaker 17 I thought, this is strange.

Speaker 4 Karen's father, who has since died, recalled that he entered Karen's home that afternoon through an open sliding door. Didn't see any sign of her or Mike, so he headed downstairs to the bedroom.

Speaker 17 Just I got the foot of the stairs, I could see Karen

Speaker 24 and I said, oh Christ,

Speaker 24 I knew she was dead.

Speaker 10 Then I found Mike on the outside of the bed.

Speaker 4 Harold would then call 911.

Speaker 17 I've just located my daughter and she's downstairs and she's dead. I got a radio call just after 2 o'clock on July 7, 2002.

Speaker 4 Richard Voley, now retired, was the Topeka Police Department's lead detective on the case.

Speaker 17 There was a report of two dead bodies in a basement.

Speaker 4 Five bullets had struck 53-year-old Karen, including in her back and buttocks. Mike, 47, suffered between five and seven gunshot wounds.
The couple had been in bed.

Speaker 4 The rest of the house appears undisturbed. Investigators found more than $1,000 in cash, a Rolex watch, and other jewelry left behind.
Robbery was quickly ruled out.

Speaker 4 To understand who might want Karen and Mike dead, police turned to their families for information.

Speaker 17 What we're left with is an emotional killing. It's an emotional execution.

Speaker 4 Mike, a salesperson for a welding company, and Karen, who worked in the hospitality industry, were both previously married and now divorced. The well-liked couple had been dating about four years.

Speaker 21 It was a surprise to everybody that this would happen to somebody like her.

Speaker 4 Karen's children, Chad and Erin, were in their 20s at the time of the murders.

Speaker 25 My mom was an amazing woman.

Speaker 25 She didn't have enemies.

Speaker 26 And I remember telling her on several occasions that if I could be half the mom that she was to me, that I would be the best mom in the world.

Speaker 4 Mike had custody of his two children, Haley, then 17, and Dustin, 15.

Speaker 27 My dad was really in my life growing up. He was really my hero.

Speaker 4 Haley's relationship with her dad was more complicated.

Speaker 11 I wasn't happy with my dad. I wasn't happy with my mom.
I wasn't happy at my school.

Speaker 4 By Haley's own admission, she was a difficult teenager.

Speaker 11 My dad gave me an ultimatum. Either you follow my rules or you move out.

Speaker 4 Choosing to live with her then boyfriend, Chris.

Speaker 11 I moved in with Chris and

Speaker 11 then my dad was killed.

Speaker 4 That defiance made Haley and Chris of interest to police. They were polygraphed and questioned.

Speaker 7 I'm just curious, is everything all right with your dad and everything? Uh, yeah, we won't really get along for a little while.

Speaker 4 Authorities said their alibis checked out, as did the alibis of Karen's daughter Erin and her husband, Jeff Sutton. Karen's son Chad was also questioned.

Speaker 21 I was hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked if I had murdered my mother or in any way participated in the murder of my mother.

Speaker 4 Police concluded none of them were involved, but family members thought they knew who was responsible. Mike's ex-wife, Dana Chandler.

Speaker 29 She just, she never fit in.

Speaker 4 Kathy Boots, Mike's sister, watched Dana and Mike's relationship deteriorate. After 15 years of marriage, the couple went through a bitter divorce, finalized in 1998.

Speaker 4 Mike's relatives say Dana had a drinking problem, and she sporadically stalked Mike during and after the divorce with frequent calls and bizarre visits.

Speaker 29 The kids were upstairs in their room, and we heard a noise, and there she was in the middle of the night, jumping on a trampoline in the backyard of Mike's home.

Speaker 16 I think she became obsessed with the fact that Mike was moving on with his life.

Speaker 4 Mark Boots, Mike's brother-in-law.

Speaker 16 And then when Karen entered the picture, that's when things really started, I think, escalating.

Speaker 4 Mike kept track of some of the incidents from 1998 in a day planner, writing, July 28th, Dana stalking neighborhood at 8.30. Caught her.
She left.

Speaker 4 November 12th, Dana came in house while I was at Karen's from 7 to 11, went through stuff.

Speaker 16 She was willing to travel great distances to show up back in his life.

Speaker 4 According to the Boots, the last time Dana showed up at Mike's home was in the spring of 2002, several months before the murders.

Speaker 4 Kathy said Mike told her, Dana went there to talk about moving back in.

Speaker 29 She said, the kids are getting older. They're having different issues with themselves now.
They need both parents. I think I should move back in and we should parent together.

Speaker 16 All this harassment and stalking had come to the point that Mike told me that he and Karen now feared for their lives.

Speaker 4 Mark says Mike made that clear to him on a fishing trip nine days before the murders.

Speaker 16 He turned to me and said, Mark, you're going to wake up and find me dead, and I want you to know who did it, Dana Chandler.

Speaker 4 But Dana Chandler lived eight hours away in Denver, and there was no sign that she had been in Karen's house in Topeka the night of the murders.

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Speaker 17 The victims were doing absolutely nothing and may not have seen it coming at all.

Speaker 4 Investigators were trying to determine who would gun down Mike Siscoe and Karen Harkness as they lay in bed.

Speaker 4 Detective Richard Voley called Mike's ex-wife, Dana Chandler, to inform her of Mike's murder.

Speaker 28 Your husband was found shot to death today,

Speaker 7 this afternoon.

Speaker 28 Your ex-husband, I'm sorry. Can you tell me when the last time was it you talked to him?

Speaker 4 Dana, Vole says, did not ask many questions and did not seem concerned she would later say she was very upset on that call but only voli's side of their conversation was recorded due to a technical error he said on his part

Speaker 4 the next evening chandler called the topeka police department leaving a message on a different officer's voicemail hi my name is dana chandler and i got a very disturbed phone call last night someone has said that my cousin had been killed and i'm just calling to

Speaker 4 see if that's true or not.

Speaker 4 Dana would later explain her call was simply seeking confirmation.

Speaker 4 Given the personal nature of the murders, no signs of a burglary, and those stories about a messy divorce and stalking, Dana Chandler became the main suspect.

Speaker 4 Detective Voly decided to talk with Chandler in person, recording this audio four days after the murders.

Speaker 28 Tell me about what happened on the 6th.

Speaker 28 I got out of my head on the window.

Speaker 4 But again, there was an issue with the recording. In most of the rest of the conversation,

Speaker 4 Dana is difficult to hear. Detective Voley recounted what he said she told him.

Speaker 10 She said she'd been at home Saturday morning, that's July 6th, and then made a couple of errand stops.

Speaker 4 Dana said she bought cigarettes, snacks, and a car cigarette lighter at several stores around Denver and then got gas. But Voli says she failed to mention one purchase he saw on a credit card receipt.

Speaker 10 She'd fought two five-gallon gas cans as well.

Speaker 4 Voli wondered why she didn't tell him and why she would even need gas cans unless she had been planning a trip, perhaps to Kansas. and didn't want to stop for gas along the way.

Speaker 4 According to Voli, Dana had also said after running those errands, she went home to her Denver apartment.

Speaker 10 Didn't have any visitors, no contact with anybody, and the next day got up and went for a drive in the mountains at 10 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 4 But Vole couldn't verify that Dana was in her apartment the night of the murders, nor that she took a drive in the mountains the next day.

Speaker 4 Voli said the area Dana described driving through would have meant she'd have to pass Rocky Mountain National Park surveillance cameras. Those cameras were checked.

Speaker 4 Voli said there was no sign of her car.

Speaker 17 The particular person that I had view that tape looked at every frame slowly.

Speaker 10 She was never there.

Speaker 4 Investigators also reviewed Dana's cell phone records. They said that while she tended to use her cell phone frequently, she, oddly, had no activity around the time of the murders.

Speaker 10 What we found was there was a 27-hour window where her phone wasn't used.

Speaker 4 Still, there was no DNA, no fingerprints, or other forensic evidence to tie Dana to the killings.

Speaker 4 The gun used in the murders hadn't been found, though investigators learned the bullets were from an Israeli weapons manufacturer. And Dana would go on to say, she didn't even own a gun.

Speaker 4 But family members remained convinced that Dana was responsible for the murders. They say they pushed to have a meeting with then-DA Robert Hecht, Tim Sisko, Mike's brother.

Speaker 13 I specifically went into this meeting wanting to know if he would pursue a circumstantial case. And the answer was, Without that murder weapon, we don't have enough hard evidence to move this forward.

Speaker 4 Mike's and Karen's families grew increasingly frustrated and decided to take action, looking for more information about Dana's possible involvement in the murders.

Speaker 13 I put her picture up everywhere.

Speaker 29 Have you seen this person?

Speaker 4 Several months after the murders, having more questions than answers, Mike's sister Kathy said she and their mom Carol went searching for clues.

Speaker 4 even lifting up manhole covers and looking in rest stop bathrooms for the gun used in the murders.

Speaker 15 We thought, you know, maybe she threw the gun somewhere.

Speaker 29 So I would stand on a toilet and try and push a tile up.

Speaker 4 They found nothing.

Speaker 4 But Haley, Dana and Mike's daughter, was also working the case.

Speaker 11 I felt the need to do something. I didn't want to just sit back with my hands tied and helpless.

Speaker 4 In 2005, three years after the murders, Haley began secretly recording conversations with her mother, trying to learn what happened to her dad and Karen.

Speaker 30 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.

Speaker 30 You know, number one, I didn't do it, and number one, I don't, and number two, I don't know what happened, Haley.

Speaker 4 One thing Haley asked about was why her mother had no cell phone activity for 27 hours around the time of the murders. Why did I have no calls? I was living home all the time.

Speaker 4 You know it could be traded.

Speaker 4 I was in the mountains. I didn't have a

Speaker 4 Dana insisted she had nothing to do with the murders, but did say she had violent thoughts about Mike. I thought I could kill him.

Speaker 4 Ever think about killing him? No, but I did. Honestly, I ain't going over it with you.

Speaker 4 The official investigation, though, seems stalled. So authorities asked Vernon Geberth, a homicide and forensic consultant and former New York City Police Department detective, to review case files.

Speaker 4 In 2007, nearly five years after the murders, he issued a report concluding Dana Chandler is the one and only person who had the motive, means, and opportunity to commit these murders.

Speaker 4 It was Geberth who brought the case to the attention of 48 Hours. In 2009, 48 Hours aired its first report on the murders and tried tried to talk with Dana Chandler.

Speaker 16 Did you know anything about the death of Michael and Karen? I have no idea what it was like.

Speaker 4 48 Hours ended the episode asking viewers to contact police if they had any information.

Speaker 4 Again, the case seemed to be going nowhere.

Speaker 4 But two years later, a new DA, Chad Taylor, decided he was willing to take a chance with the evidence they had.

Speaker 4 He chose to move the case forward and arrest Dana Chandler.

Speaker 4 With our cameras rolling, laid eyes on her this morning. Law enforcement zeroed in on Dana Chandler in Oklahoma, where she was staying at the time.

Speaker 4 Taylor didn't just help plan the arrest, but went on it with a gun at the ready.

Speaker 4 And on July 24th, 2011, Dana Chandler was in in custody, charged with the murders of Mike Sisko and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 11 I hit a point where I didn't know if justice would ever be served.

Speaker 4 For Haley, who was convinced her mother killed her father, Dana's arrest was nearly a decade in the making.

Speaker 11 It was such a feeling that it was unbelievable.

Speaker 4 She was determined to get justice as she prepared to face Dana in court.

Speaker 11 I made it this far.

Speaker 11 I can do anything.

Speaker 11 All right.

Speaker 4 In March 2012, Dana Chandler went on trial. Jackie Spradling, then Chief Deputy DA, began by referring to those conversations Haley had taped years earlier with her mother.

Speaker 25 I could kill him.

Speaker 25 I thought about killing him.

Speaker 25 These are the words of this defendant

Speaker 25 about her ex-husband, Mike Sisko.

Speaker 4 In her opening statement, Spradling suggested a possible motive for murder.

Speaker 25 Two days before the homicides, the defendant called Mike.

Speaker 25 Mike at this time told the defendant in that five-minute phone call that he and Karen were going to be married.

Speaker 4 But there is no recording of that call.

Speaker 31 It's easy to make allegations.

Speaker 31 It's difficult to prove those allegations.

Speaker 4 And in his opening, defense attorney Mark Bennett argued the case against Dana Chandler was all speculation.

Speaker 31 That there is no evidence that places Dana Chandler in or near

Speaker 31 the Harkness residence on July 6 or 7, 2002.

Speaker 4 But to authorities, there was the question about exactly where Dana was during that time.

Speaker 4 Detective Voley says she told him she was home Saturday, the night of the murders, and then drove through the mountains the next day.

Speaker 4 But Dana's business acquaintance, Jeff Bailey, testified Dana told him something different,

Speaker 4 that she slept in her car in the mountains the Saturday night of the murders.

Speaker 9 She told me that the story she was giving me was the truth, and the story that she'd given to the law enforcement was not the truth.

Speaker 4 And prosecutors told the jury, Dana did not use her cell phone for 27 hours the weekend of the murders. Remember, Haley accused her mother of trying to avoid being tracked.

Speaker 4 Vole found another instance when Dana didn't use her phone a month before the murders.

Speaker 9 There were no calls registered.

Speaker 17 There were some calls came to the phone, but none were picked up.

Speaker 4 And prosecutors say that's important because during that time, a month before the murders, was Dana's dry run for the killings. They called her friend Ann Carrinder to the stand.

Speaker 4 Carrinder says Dana told her she had driven to Topeka.

Speaker 12 She had

Speaker 34 gone to Mike's house

Speaker 34 through the window.

Speaker 25 Nobody was home. What else did she tell you?

Speaker 34 That she had gone

Speaker 34 and sat outside Karen's house.

Speaker 4 Spradling says Dana was obsessed with Mike and presented evidence that in the six months leading up to the murders, she called Mike and Karen more than 600 times.

Speaker 4 The defense argued Dana was calling to talk to her kids, but Haley remembered her mother's calls differently.

Speaker 25 What was the thing that she talked to you the most about?

Speaker 4 She

Speaker 11 talked about my dad a lot, and

Speaker 11 I really feel like she was really just obsessed with him.

Speaker 4 An FBI analyst testified Dana often called late at night and frequently made repeated calls in a short time period, including a month before the murders.

Speaker 11 On June 3rd, she made 17 calls in 18 minutes.

Speaker 4 Both of Dana's children testified for the prosecution, saying that their mother also had a history of stalking their father.

Speaker 27 She took me and my sister with her to go spy on my dad. And so we were in the car, and she told us, you know, we're just going to be her little helpers.

Speaker 11 She asked if I would go... go up to the house with her and we did and she was looking in all the windows and she told me to look in the windows and

Speaker 11 I did. Okay.

Speaker 25 What was it that she was looking at in there?

Speaker 11 I think that she

Speaker 11 was thinking there's a lady in there with my dad.

Speaker 4 Haley also testified about those recordings she made talking with her mother.

Speaker 4 During one of them, Dana, who attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, gave an explanation as to why she bought those gas cans. I ran into a girl that had run out of gas at NAA.

Speaker 4 Tomorrow it's all I went and got got work for her.

Speaker 4 She asked people money, and we don't give people money at AA.

Speaker 4 Prosecutor Spradling told the jury that she believed Chandler used those two five-gallon gas cans to have enough gas so she would not have to stop and potentially be seen near the crime scene.

Speaker 4 But Chandler's attorney argued there was no proof she was ever in Topeka. during the time of the murders.

Speaker 31 Did you or any other members of the Topeka Police Department ever find an eyewitness that put the defendant Dana Chandler in Topeka, Kansas on either July 6 or July 7, 2002?

Speaker 35 No.

Speaker 4 The closest law enforcement was able to come was here at a gas station in Waikini, Kansas, nearly halfway between Denver and Topeka.

Speaker 4 Clerk Patty Williams wasn't sure, but she thought she might have seen Dana the night of the murders.

Speaker 25 Patty was shown a picture of the defendant.

Speaker 20 Patty indicated that she was 70% sure that that was the woman who had been there.

Speaker 4 But by the time Chandler went on trial, Patty Williams had died. A different worker from the gas station testified about seeing a black car that looked similar to the one Chandler drove that day.

Speaker 4 But she said it might have had license plates from Virginia. When it was the defense's turn, Bennett pointed out there was no proof proof Dana was ever there.

Speaker 31 There wasn't any receipt from Joaquini, was there?

Speaker 10 No.

Speaker 4 And Bennett questioned whether Detective Voley investigated other suspects, like two men with criminal records who had stolen checks from Mike Sisko and cashed one after the murders.

Speaker 31 That didn't make him a suspect?

Speaker 8 No, because the check wasn't taken from Karen Harkness's house where the murders occurred. The check was actually taken from Mike Sisko's house where the murders did not occur.

Speaker 4 And one of the men was in jail when the murders occurred.

Speaker 4 In closing arguments, Bennett reiterated there was no forensic evidence linking Chandler to the crime.

Speaker 31 All this time, they've been trying to put her in Kansas when this happened.

Speaker 31 And for nine and a half years, they've come up dry.

Speaker 4 Spradling reminded the jury of Dana's stalking behavior and tried to make sure they knew just how scared Mike was of Dana. She said Mike had gotten a protection from abuse order against Dana.

Speaker 25 So he got a court order saying she has to stay away.

Speaker 25 The protection from abuse order did not stop the defendant, though.

Speaker 4 After two weeks of testimony, it took the jury 83 minutes to reach a verdict.

Speaker 25 Defendant would please stand.

Speaker 19 We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged in one.

Speaker 11 I feel better in the sense that my dad's killer is paying for their actions.

Speaker 11 I don't feel better that

Speaker 11 my mom is capable

Speaker 11 of killing my dad.

Speaker 4 When it was time for sentencing, Haley asked that her mom receive the maximum sentence.

Speaker 11 We each have a deep scar in our souls from what this monster has done.

Speaker 4 But Chandler would also get a chance to speak.

Speaker 11 But most importantly, I deny that I murdered Michael Karen. I am innocent.
I did not murder Michael Karen.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler was sentenced to life in prison. But soon that verdict would be called into question.

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Speaker 11 A lot of my mind has been focused on her getting away with killing my dad and

Speaker 11 just drags me down.

Speaker 4 For years, Haley Seale's thoughts were consumed with proving her mother killed her father, Mike Sisko, and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 4 With Dana Chandler in prison, Haley was relieved she could concentrate on other things, But her relief was tinged with pain.

Speaker 11 I want to focus on my future and what I want to do with my life.

Speaker 11 I want to be everything my mom wasn't.

Speaker 4 But Haley's focus would turn again to the case. Dana Chandler almost immediately began filing motions as she worked to appeal her conviction.

Speaker 4 She and her attorney cited, among other things, the actions of prosecutor Jackie Spradling. In particular, statements Spradley made at trial about that protection from abuse order.

Speaker 25 I 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.

Speaker 12 And that is just a blatant misstatement.

Speaker 4 Stacey Schlimmer, one of Chandler's appeal attorneys, was never able to find a protection from abuse order.

Speaker 12 I went through the whole case. I went and looked for every possible order I could find, and there wasn't one that she was referring to.

Speaker 4 In 2018, Schlimmer argued that Jackie Spradling's actions constituted prosecutorial misconduct.

Speaker 12 I think that Ms. Chandler never had an opportunity to get a fair trial from the gecko.

Speaker 4 Schlimmer contended the case against Dana Chandler should be thrown out. The court agreed.

Speaker 12 The Kansas Kansas Supreme Court held that it's so bad that we're going to go ahead and overturn her conviction.

Speaker 4 Other issues about statements Spradling made at trial also came up, including describing a route Dana took between Kansas and Denver when there was no evidence that she drove that way.

Speaker 25 She drove directly up to Nebraska, and after she gets on Nebraska, she turns around and goes home.

Speaker 12 They just kind of hypothesize, well, she must have went up and went over from Nebraska. There was no evidence of that at all.

Speaker 4 Schlimmer also contended the state did not have enough evidence to prove Dana Chandler's guilt.

Speaker 12 We argued insufficiency of evidence as an issue for appeal.

Speaker 4 Meaning, you don't think prosecutors had enough to make a legitimate case.

Speaker 12 Jurors didn't have enough. evidence before them if you took out all the evidence that should have never been presented or told to them incorrectly.

Speaker 4 The Kansas Supreme Court described Jackie Spradling's actions as, quote, intolerable acts of deception, and she was disbarred.

Speaker 4 48 Hours reached out to Spradling, but did not receive a response.

Speaker 12 When a case gets reversed, like a case like this, we essentially have an innocent woman who's been convicted of crime because of the prosecutor, or

Speaker 12 we have a family that has now a reverse conviction that has to go through the system again.

Speaker 4 Either way, there's an injustice.

Speaker 14 Right.

Speaker 12 So that conduct is going to affect someone.

Speaker 4 The court did decide, though, there was sufficient evidence to retry Dana Chandler if the district attorney chose to.

Speaker 11 When I found out that this Kansas Supreme Court overturned the verdict, It was very shocking.

Speaker 11 What does this mean? Will the DA's office retry her?

Speaker 9 Were you angry with the prosecutor who was

Speaker 4 cited

Speaker 4 for misconduct?

Speaker 11 No, I've never been angry with her. I think it was an innocent mistake.

Speaker 32 Had Jackie not made those comments, we wouldn't be sitting here today. This would be over.

Speaker 4 Chad Harkness, Karen's son, takes a different view of Jackie Spradling's actions.

Speaker 32 Now, all these years later, we're still having to, you know, live through this again. And it's just, it's not right.
It's not fair.

Speaker 4 The decision whether to retry Dana Chandler was now in the hands of Shawnee County's new DA, Mike Kagan.

Speaker 35 We analyzed every aspect of the case, and ultimately we came to the conclusion that we believed justice demanded that we move forward and we pursue another trial.

Speaker 4 Pursuing that would take years.

Speaker 4 Dana Chandler remained incarcerated. She and her defense lawyers argued she should be set free and fought against having another trial.

Speaker 32 What were those years like?

Speaker 11 Unbelievable.

Speaker 4 For Haley, the delays seemed endless.

Speaker 4 Dana and her lawyers filed nearly 400 motions, including ones requesting a change of judge, to retain an investigator, for her bond to be reduced, and to disqualify the Shawnee County District Attorney's Office.

Speaker 4 And through it all, she fired several of her lawyers.

Speaker 11 She went through seven lawyers in that time

Speaker 11 between representing herself.

Speaker 4 There were also dozens of hearings, including one where Haley was called to testify and Dana did the questioning.

Speaker 11 She took me on the stand for at least 45 minutes and she directly questioned me. What was that like?

Speaker 22 It was the most awful

Speaker 11 thing I've ever.

Speaker 11 I mean, the suspect in the killing of my dad is now having the power to question me on the stand and talk to me.

Speaker 4 Not just the suspect in the killing of your dad, your own mother. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 11 I mean,

Speaker 11 it was awful.

Speaker 4 But Haley was willing to take whatever steps necessary to ensure her mother would stand trial trial again for the murders.

Speaker 11 If she could bring out something to prove where she was, to say she didn't do it, prove she didn't do it, that's not just for me. That's for her and her own freedom.
But she can't, and she hasn't.

Speaker 35 Two innocent people were murdered in our community.

Speaker 35 That demands justice.

Speaker 4 Although Dana Chandler's conviction had been overturned, prosecutors were determined to retry her for the murders of Mike Sisko and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 4 By 2021, the organization Miracle of Innocence got involved, advocating for Dana.

Speaker 39 Dana Chandler was someone who we believed in her innocence. When we looked at the case, the facts was just nothing connected this lady to the crime.

Speaker 4 Darrell Burton is the co-founder of Miracle of Innocence. He's someone who was wrongfully imprisoned and had his murder conviction reversed.

Speaker 4 He says before sending someone to prison, the case needs to be more convincing than the one made against Dana Chandler.

Speaker 39 There's no evidence, no fingerprint, no DNA, no confession, no weapon, no witnesses, nothing. When it comes to, you know, these kinds of crimes of murder, you just got to have more than that.

Speaker 4 Dana and her attorneys also raised other issues as they tried to get the case dismissed.

Speaker 4 Some allegations related to the 2009 48 Hours broadcast. Chandler falsely accused law enforcement of forming a partnership with 48 Hours to film an episode aimed at convincing the public that Ms.

Speaker 4 Chandler murdered Mike Siscoe and Karen Harkness.

Speaker 4 What do you make of the idea that if 48 Hours had not reported starting in 2009 on this case that Dana Chandler would never have been arrested or tried?

Speaker 12 I don't think it was 48 Hours. 2009 is a lot different than when they arrested her.
They arrested her three or four years, three years later. I think the family was what kept it going.

Speaker 12 They believed that Miss Chandler did this. It was the new prosecutor, and it was the family probably saying, hey, we need justice done in this.

Speaker 4 But Stacey Schlimmer, Dana's former appeal attorney, does take issue with the handling of the 2011 arrest and the show of force.

Speaker 4 You've seen Dana Chandler's arrest many times.

Speaker 7 Right.

Speaker 14 And it bothers you.

Speaker 12 It bothers me me a lot.

Speaker 4 48 Hours, as well as the Topeka Capital Journal, were given advance notice of the arrest by the office of Venda, Chad Taylor.

Speaker 4 Are you bothered by law enforcement or are you bothered by the fact that there were cameras there?

Speaker 12 I'm bothered by the prosecutor.

Speaker 12 I'm bothered by the district attorney. showing up at an arrest and having that arrest filmed.

Speaker 4 So they wanted video of law enforcement with their guns out?

Speaker 12 I think they wanted then the public to see that. That to me was, it seemed like such a production for a case that prosecutor should never have done that.

Speaker 4 Ultimately, the various arguments Dana Chandler's team made to dismiss the case were unsuccessful. Chandler's new trial was scheduled for the summer of 2022.

Speaker 4 Before the trial began, 48 Hours again tried to speak with Dana Chandler. She said she would only agree to an interview if CBS paid her million-dollar bond.
We declined.

Speaker 32 Never thought we'd be sitting here again and getting ready to start a retrial on this.

Speaker 10 It's just mind-blowing.

Speaker 4 Chad Harkness, Karen's son, was relieved the DA's office decided to retry Dana Chandler, but was concerned about going through this yet another time.

Speaker 32 Just us kids having to

Speaker 32 relive this again and it just makes me sick.

Speaker 4 Haley, too, was not looking forward to another trial, but said testifying again could give her some control of the situation.

Speaker 11 If I can realize my power and it gives me

Speaker 11 Courage to go forward because I know the truth. The truth is that she murdered them.

Speaker 4 The passage of time has left Haley with so much loss. Loss she holds her mother responsible for.

Speaker 4 And as a mom herself, having married her high school boyfriend Chris, Haley's feelings are even more complicated.

Speaker 4 When you think of your mom,

Speaker 4 do you think Mother?

Speaker 4 Or do you think Dana?

Speaker 11 I think Dana. Yeah, she's Dana to me.

Speaker 11 Actually, mom is an ucky word to me to the point where I don't even like my kids to call me mom.

Speaker 7 I don't like mom.

Speaker 11 Mom is

Speaker 11 a very hurtful person.

Speaker 4 No matter the name, Dana Chandler is someone Haley will have to face again in court and someone who will eventually tell her side of the story.

Speaker 6 Start by stating my name. My name is Dana Chandler.
I, as everyone knows, have been accused of double homicide and I am innocent.

Speaker 4 Next.

Speaker 11 My dad and his fiancé were shot and killed.

Speaker 17 Whoever it was that did this hated these people.

Speaker 4 Three trials.

Speaker 11 Is my mom capable of killing my dad?

Speaker 4 And finally, a verdict.

Speaker 9 Your mom scares you.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Stay tuned for part two, tomorrow.