My Mother's Double Murder Case Part 1

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0:59My name is Damia Chandler. I have been accused of double homicide, and I am innocent. Is it hard to believe you're sitting here again to talk about this? Yeah, it really is. I didn't think 20 years later that this is what would be happening in this situation. July 7th of 2002, my dad and his fiancee, Karen, were shot and killed in their beds. I was 17 and my brother was 15 and there was just shock. The only person that hated them was my mom. Dana. What should people understand about the fact that you, Dana Chandler's daughter, thinks Dana Chandler killed your father. I do have a mind of my own, and I'm not biased in this situation.

2:02I don't want it to be her. I want the truth to come out. And I want true justice for my dad and Karen. Mike and Karen were together for the weekend alone. They did everything. They loved each other. 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 7. The killer made it downstairs, shot Karen Harkness multiple times, shot Mike Sisco multiple times. 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. Whoever it was that did this hated these people.

2:44They wanted them dead, and they wanted to make sure they were dead.

2:51It 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 Sisco. You have a trial where she's found guilty. We the jury find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder. And then the Kansas Supreme Court comes and says, this is prosecutorial misconduct and And it's so bad that we're going to go ahead and overturn her conviction. You have a new trial. The jury is unable to reach a unanimous verdict. And now they've had a hung jury and they're going to try her again. That just is almost unheard of. For the third time, Dana Chandler is back on trial.

3:33The opening statements today is Chandler will represent herself in this case. I knew it was different. I just didn't know what was going to happen. I could never have predicted it. When officers talked to friends, family, coworkers, they all said the same thing. You guys should look at Dana Chandler. The truth is that she murdered them. I did not kill Mike Sisko. I did not kill Karen Harkness. I am an innocent woman.

4:19Dana 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. My liberty, my freedom is hanging in the balance. In 2025, Chandler took on her own defense, representing herself in the third trial the state brought against her for the murders. I wanted to understand what happened and why and actually know the truth of what happened. Haley Seal is Dana Chandler and Mike Sisco's daughter. She and other family members of Mike and Karen have spent decades grieving, searching for answers and for justice.

5:1148 Hours first started covering the murders in 2008 and spoke with individuals involved several times over the years. It's hard to swallow. And it's hard to believe. It's insane. For Haley, it all started on July 7, 2002. She learned her father and Karen had been killed in Karen's Topeka, Kansas home. I immediately just saw a bunch of tape around the house and police, and my grandma was sitting in there, and she just told me that they had been shot. 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.

6:03They then stopped to get coffee the last time video captured Karen alive. They were extremely happy. You could just see that. Karen's father, Harold Worswick. Everything they did was for each other. 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. And I rang the doorbell and knocked on the glass and couldn't raise anybody. I thought, that's strange. 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.

6:48Just as I got to the foot of the stairs, I could see Karen. And I said, oh, Christ. I knew she was dead. Then I found Mike on the outside of the bed. Harold would then call 911. I've dislocated my daughter, and she's downstairs, and she's dead. I got a radio call just after 2 o 'clock on July 7, 2002. Richard Volley, now retired, was the Topeka Police Department's lead detective on the case. There was a report of two dead bodies in a basement. 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.

7:38The 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. To understand who might want Karen and Mike dead, police turned to their families for information. What we're left with is an emotional killing. It's an emotional execution. 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. It was a surprise to everybody that this would happen to somebody like her.

8:23Karen's children, Chad and Erin, were in their 20s at the time of the murders. My mom was an amazing woman. She didn't have enemies. 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. Mike had custody of his two children, Haley, then 17. And Dustin, 15. My dad was really in my life growing up. He was really my hero. Haley's relationship with her dad was more complicated. I wasn't happy with my dad. I wasn't happy with my mom. I wasn't happy at my school. By Haley's own admission, she was a difficult teenager.

9:10My dad gave me an ultimatum. Either you follow my rules or you move out. choosing to live with her then-boyfriend, Chris. I made him with Chris, and then my dad was killed. That defiance made Haley and Chris of interest to police. They were polygraphed and questioned. I'm just curious, is everything all right with your dad and everything? Uh, yeah. We weren't really getting along for a little while. 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.

9:58Police 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.

10:45I 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's 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. She was willing to travel great distances to show up back in his life. 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.

11:33Kathy said Mike told her Dana went there to talk about moving back in. 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. All this harassment and stalking had come to the point that Mike told me that he and Karen now feared for their lives. Mark says Mike made that clear to him on a fishing trip, nine days before the murders. 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. 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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13:11The victims were doing absolutely nothing and may not have seen it coming at all.

13:19Investigators were trying to determine who would gun down Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness as they lay in bed. Detective Richard Volley called Mike's ex-wife, Dana Chandler, to inform her of Mike's murder. your husband was found shot to death today this afternoon your ex-husband i'm sorry can you tell me when the last time was it you talked to him dana voli 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 The next evening, Chandler called the Topeka Police Department, leaving a message on a different officer's voicemail.

14:11Hi, my name is Dana Chandler. I got a registered phone call last night. Someone had said they're buying something that could kill, but I'm just calling to see if that's true or not. Dana would later explain her call was simply seeking confirmation. 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. Detective Volley decided to talk with Chandler in person, recording this audio four days after the murders. Tell me about what happened on the set. I got asked right there from the end of the call.

14:52But again, there was an issue with the recording. In most of the rest of the conversation, Dana is difficult to hear. Detective Vole recounted what he said she told him. She said she'd been at home Saturday morning, that's July 6th, and then made a couple of errand stops. Dana said she bought cigarettes, snacks, and a car cigarette lighter at several stores around Denver, and then got gas. But Vole says she failed to mention one purchase he saw on a credit card receipt. She'd bought two five-gallon gas cans as well. Vole 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.

15:46According to Vole, Dana had also said after running those errands, she went home to her Denver apartment. 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. 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. Vole 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. Voli said there was no sign of her car. The particular person that I had view that tape looked at every frame slowly.

16:34She was never there. 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. What we found was there was a 27-hour window where her phone wasn't used. Still, there was no DNA, no fingerprints, or other forensic evidence to tie Dana to the killings. 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. But family members remained convinced that Dana was responsible for the murders.

17:23They say they pushed to have a meeting with then-DA Robert Hecht, Tim Sisko, Mike's brother. 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. 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. I put her picture up everywhere. Have you seen this person? Several months after the murders, having more questions than answers, Mike's sister Kathy said she and their mom Carol went searching for clues, even lifting up manhole covers and looking in rest stop bathrooms for the gun used in the murders.

18:18We thought, you know, maybe she threw the gun somewhere. So I would stand on a toilet and push a tile up. They found nothing. But Haley, Dana and Mike's daughter, was also working the case. I felt the need to do something. I didn't want to just sit back with my hands tied and helpless. 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. 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. Well, number one, I didn't do it.

19:01And number two, I don't know what happened, Haley. 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 it have no calls when it was a home all the time? You knew it could be traced. I was in the mouth. I didn't have a signal. Dana insisted she had nothing to do with the murders, but did say she had violent thoughts about Mike. I said I could kill him. Ever think about killing it? No, but... I did. But they go over it with you. The official investigation, though, seems stalled. So authorities asked Vernon Gebberth, the homicide and forensic consultant and former New York City Police Department detective, to review case files.

19:51In 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. It was Gebberth who brought the case to the attention of 48 Hours. In 2009, 48 Hours aired its first report on the murders and tried to talk with Dana Chandler. Did you know anything about the death of Michael and Karen? I have no idea what happened, Michael and Karen. 48 Hours ended the episode asking viewers to contact police if they had any information. Again, the case seemed to be going nowhere. But two years later, a new DA, Chad Taylor, decided he was willing to take a chance with the evidence they had.

20:47He chose to move the case forward and arrest Dana Chandler. 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. Taylor didn't just help plan the arrest, but went on it with a gun at the ready. Get down the car! Both hands down the car! And on July 24th, 2011, Dana Chandler was in custody, charged with the murders of Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness.

21:33I hit a point where I didn't know if justice would ever be served. For Haley, who was convinced her mother killed her father, Dana's arrest was nearly a decade in the making. It was such a feeling that I, it was unbelievable. She was determined to get justice as she prepared to face Dana in court. I've made it this far. I can do anything. All rise. 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. I could kill him. I thought about killing him. These are the words of this defendant about her ex-husband, Mike Sisco.

22:30In her opening statement, Spradling suggested a possible motive for murder. Two days before the homicides, the defendant called Mike. Mike at this time told the defendant in that five-minute phone call that he and Karen were going to be married. But there is no recording of that call. It's easy to make allegations. It's difficult to prove those allegations. And in his opening, defense attorney Mark Bennett argued the case against Dana Chandler was all speculation. That there is no evidence that places Dana Chandler in or near the Harkness residence on July 6 or 7, 2002. But to authorities, there was the question about exactly where Dana was during that time.

23:26Detective Voli says she told him she was home Saturday, the night of the murders, and then drove through the mountains the next day. But Dana's business acquaintance, Jeff Bailey, testified Dana told him something different, that she slept in her car in the mountains the Saturday night of the murders. 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. 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.

24:08Voli found another instance when Dana didn't use her phone a month before the murders. There were no calls registered. There were some calls came to the phone, but none were picked up. 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 Carinder to the stand. Carinder says Dana told her she had driven to Topeka. She had gone to Mike's house through the window. Nobody was home. What else did she tell you? That she had gone and sat outside Karen's house. 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.

25:08The defense argued Dana was calling to talk to her kids, but Haley remembered her mother's calls differently. What was the thing that she talked to you the most about? She talked about my dad a lot, and I really feel like she was really just obsessed with him. 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. On June 3rd, she made 17 calls in 18 minutes. Both of Dana's children testified for the prosecution, saying that their mother also had a history of stalking their father. She took me and my sister with her to go spy on my dad.

26:01And so we were in the car and she told us, you know, we're just going to be our little helpers. She asked if I would 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. Did you? I did. Okay. What was it that she was looking at in there? I think that she was thinking there was a lady in there with my dad. Haley also testified about those recordings she made talking with her mother. 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 AA.

26:43And so I went and got work for her. She asked me for money, and we don't give people money at AA. 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. But Chandler's attorney argued there was no proof she was ever in Topeka during the time of the murders. 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? No. The closest law enforcement was able to come was here, at a gas station in Wokini, Kansas, nearly halfway between Denver and Topeka.

27:37Clerk Patty Williams wasn't sure, but she thought she might have seen Dana the night of the murders. Patty was shown a picture of the defendant. Patty indicated that she was 70 % sure that that was the woman who had been there. 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. 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 Dana was ever there. Wasn't any receipt from Walkini, was there?

28:19No. And Bennett questioned whether Detective Vole investigated other suspects. Like two men with criminal records who had stolen checks from Mike Sisko and cashed one after the murders. That didn't make him a suspect? No, because the check wasn't taken from Karen Harkness' house where the murders occurred. The check was actually taken from Mike Sisko's house where the murders did not occur. And one of the men was in jail when the murders occurred. In closing arguments, Bennett reiterated there was no forensic evidence linking Chandler to the crime. All this time they've been trying to put her in Kansas when this happened.

29:01And for nine and a half years, they've come up dry. 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. So he got a court order saying she has to stay away. The protection from abuse order did not stop the defendant, though. After two weeks of testimony, it took the jury 83 minutes to reach a verdict. The defendant would please stand. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged in count one. I feel better in the sense that my dad's killer is paying for their actions.

29:55I don't feel better that my mom is capable of killing my dad. When it was time for sentencing, Haley asked that her mom receive the maximum sentence. We each have a deep scar on our souls from what this monster has done. But Chandler would also get a chance to speak. But most importantly, I deny that I murdered Mike or Karen. I am innocent. I did not murder Mike or Karen. Dana Chandler was sentenced to life in prison. But soon that verdict would be called into question.