A daughter suspects her mother of a double murder. Years later courtroom drama brings unsettling answers. Jim Axelrod reports. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened on July 7th, 2002?
I'm just curious, is everything all right with your dad and everything? Uh, yeah.
We weren't really getting along.
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.
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.
Police concluded none of them were involved, but family members thought they knew who was responsible. Mike's ex-wife, Dana Chandler. She just, she never fit in. 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.
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.
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.
I think she became obsessed with the fact that Mike was moving on with his life. Mark Boots, Mike's brother-in-law. And then when Karen entered the picture, that's when things really started, I think, escalating.
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. November 12th, Dana came in house while I was at Karen's from 7 to 11, went through stuff.
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Chapter 4: How did Dana Chandler respond to the allegations?
never thought we'd be sitting here again and getting ready to start a retrial on this. It's just mind-blowing.
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.
Just us kids having to relive this again, and it just makes me sick.
Haley, too, was not looking forward to another trial, but said testifying again could give her some control of the situation.
If I can realize my power and it gives me courage to go forward because I know the truth, the truth is that she murdered them.
The passage of time has left Haley with so much loss, loss she holds her mother responsible for. And as a mom herself, having married her high school boyfriend, Chris, Haley's feelings are even more complicated. When you think of your mom, do you think mother or do you think Dana?
I think Dana. Yeah, she's Dana to me. Actually, mom is an ucky word to me to the point where I don't even like my kids to call me mom. I don't like mom.
Mom is a very hurtful person.
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.
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