00:00:01
[Music] My name is Daniel Chandler. I have been accused of double homicide and I am innocent. Is it hard
00:00:19
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
00:00:28
what would be happening in this situation. July 7th of 2002, my dad and his fiance Karen were
00:00:41
shot and killed in their beds. I was 17 and my brother was 15. And there was just shock.
00:00:51
The only person that hated them was my mom. Dana, what should people understand about the fact that you, Dana Chandler's
00:01:01
daughter, thinks Dana Chandler killed your father? I do have a mind of my own and I'm not biased in this
00:01:10
situation. I don't want it to be her. I want the truth to come out. And I want true justice for my dad, Karen.
00:01:20
Mike and Karen were together for the weekend alone. They did everything. They loved each other. They drove up to a
00:01:26
casino, spent a few hours there, and then arrived back home in the early morning hours. They were found uh Sunday
00:01:33
afternoon, July 7th. The killer made it downstairs, shot Karen Harkness multiple
00:01:39
times, shot Mike Cisco multiple times. It's unnerving to think that somebody could sneak into a house and do this and
00:01:46
leave quietly and nobody knows about it till the next day. Whoever it was that did this hated these people. They wanted
00:01:53
them dead and they wanted to make sure they were dead. Both hands out of the car. It could be
00:02:00
the justice two families have long been waiting for. The arrest of Dana Chandler
00:02:04
in the 2002 killings of Karen Hartness and Michael Cisco. You have a trial where she's found guilty. We, the jury,
00:02:13
find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder. And then the Kansas Supreme Court comes and says, "This is
00:02:18
prosecutorial misconduct, and it's so bad that we're going to go ahead and overturn her conviction. You have a new
00:02:26
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
00:02:34
again. That just is almost unheard of. For the third time, Dana Chandler is back on trial. Opening statements today
00:02:43
is Chandler will represent herself in this case. I knew it was different. I just didn't know what was going to
00:02:50
happen. I could never predicted it. When officers talked to friends, family, co-workers, they all said the same
00:02:57
thing. You guys should look at Dana Chandler. The truth is that she murdered them. I did not kill Mike Cisco. I did
00:03:05
not kill Karen Hartness. I am an innocent woman. [Music] [Music] Dana Chandler has spent decades
00:04:03
maintaining her innocence against allegations she was responsible for the 2002 murders of her ex-husband Mike
00:04:10
Cisco and his girlfriend Karen Harkness. My uh liberty, my freedom is hanging in the balance. In
00:04:21
2025, Chandler took on her own defense, representing herself in the third trial the state brought against her for the
00:04:28
murders. I wanted to understand what happened and why and and and actually know the truth of what happened. Haley
00:04:36
Seal is Dana Chandler and Mike Cisco's daughter. She and other family members of Mike and Karen have spent decades
00:04:45
grieving, searching for answers and for justice. Hi, Dana Harold. D, CBS News. 48 Hours first started covering the
00:04:54
murders in 2008 and spoke with individuals involved several times over the years. It's hard to
00:05:02
swallow and it's it's hard to believe. It's insane. For Haley, it all started on July 7th,
00:05:12
2002. She learned her father and Karen had been killed in Karen's Topeka, Kansas home. I immediately just saw a
00:05:20
bunch of tape around the house and police and my grandma was sitting in there and um she just told me that they
00:05:26
had been shot. The night before the murders, Mike and Karen enjoyed an evening at a casino
00:05:35
about an hour outside of Topeka. Surveillance footage shows them leaving about 1:30 a.m. They then stopped to get
00:05:44
coffee, the last time video captured Karen alive. They were extremely happy. You could just see that. Karen's father,
00:05:53
Harold Warswick. Everything they did was for each other. The day after Mike and Karen's night out, a family get together
00:06:01
had been planned at Karen's house. Relatives thought the couple might be announcing they were engaged. and I rang
00:06:09
the doorbell and knocked on the glass and couldn't raise anybody. I thought, "This is strange." Karen's father, who
00:06:16
has since died, recalled that he entered Karen's home that afternoon through an open sliding door, didn't see any sign
00:06:24
of her or Mike. So, he headed downstairs to the bedroom. Just I got to foot of the stairs, I could see Karen, and I
00:06:33
said, "Oh, Christ." I knew she was dead. Then I found Mike on the outside of the
00:06:40
bed. Harold would then call 911. I've just located my daughter and she's downstairs and she's dead. I got a radio
00:06:50
call just after 2:00 on July 7th, 2002. Richard Voloy, now retired, was the Topeka Police Department's lead
00:06:58
detective on the case. It was a report of two dead bodies in a basement. Five bullets had struck 53-year-old
00:07:07
Karen, including in her back and buttocks. Mike, 47, suffered between five and seven gunshot wounds. The
00:07:16
couple had been in bed. The rest of the house appears undisturbed. Investigators found more
00:07:23
than $1,000 in cash, a Rolex watch, and other jewelry left behind. Robbery was quickly ruled out. To understand who
00:07:34
might want Karen and Mike dead, police turn to their families for information. What we're left with is an emotional
00:07:42
killing. It's an emotional execution. Mike, a salesperson for a welding company, and Karen, who worked in the
00:07:50
hospitality industry, were both previously married and now divorced. The well-liked couple had been dating about
00:07:57
four years. It was a surprise to everybody that this would happen to somebody like her. Karen's children,
00:08:04
Chad and Aaron, were in their 20s at the time of the murders. My mom was an amazing woman. She She didn't have
00:08:12
enemies. And I remember telling her on several occasions that if I could be half the mom that she was to me, that I
00:08:21
would be the best mom in the world. Mike had custody of his two children. Haley, then 17, and Dustin, 15. My dad
00:08:31
was really in my life growing up. He was really my hero. Haley's relationship with her dad was more complicated. I
00:08:40
wasn't happy with my dad. I wasn't happy with my mom. I wasn't happy at my school.
00:08:46
By Haley's own admission, she was a difficult teenager. My dad gave me an ultimatum. Either you follow my rules or
00:08:54
you move out. choosing to live with her then boyfriend Chris. I moved in with Chris
00:09:01
and then my dad was killed. That defiance made Haley and Chris of interest to police. They were
00:09:09
polygraphed and questioned. I'm just curious. Is everything all right with your dad and everything? Uh yeah. We
00:09:17
weren't really getting along for a little while. Authorities said their alibis checked
00:09:22
out, as did the alibis of Karen's daughter, Aaron, and her husband, Jeff Sutton. Karen's son, Chad, was also
00:09:30
questioned. I was hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked if I had murdered my mother or in any way
00:09:36
participated in the murder of my mother. Police concluded none of them were involved, but family members thought
00:09:42
they knew who was responsible. Mike's ex-wife, Dana Chandler. She just she never fit in. Kathy Boots, Mike's
00:09:52
sister, watched Dana and Mike's relationship deteriorate. After 15 years of marriage, the couple went through a
00:10:00
bitter divorce, finalized in 1998. Mike's relatives say Dana had a drinking problem, and she sporadically
00:10:08
stalked Mike during and after the divorce with frequent calls and bizarre visits. The kids were upstairs in their
00:10:16
room and we heard a noise and there she was in the middle of the night jumping on a trampoline in the backyard of
00:10:23
Mike's home. I think she became obsessed with the fact that Mike was moving on with his
00:10:30
life. Mark Boots, Mike's brother-in-law. Uh, and then when Karen entered the picture, that's when things really
00:10:37
started, I think, escalating. Mike kept track of some of the incidents from 1998 in a day planner, writing,
00:10:45
"July 28th, Dana stalking neighborhood at 8:30. Caught her. She left. November 12th, Dana came in house while I was at
00:10:55
Karen's from 7 to 11. Went through stuff. She was willing to travel great distances to show up back in his life."
00:11:04
According to the Boots, the last time Dana showed up at Mike's home was in the spring of
00:11:10
2002, several months before the murders. Kathy said Mike told her Dana went there
00:11:17
to talk about moving back in. She said, "The kids are getting older. They're having different issues with themselves
00:11:23
now. They need both parents. I think I should move back in and we should parent together."
00:11:29
All this harassment and stalking had come to the point that Mike told me that he and Karen now feared for their lives.
00:11:37
Mark says Mike made that clear to him on a fishing trip 9 days before the murders. He turned to me and said,
00:11:44
"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
00:11:52
lived 8 hours away in Denver, and there was no sign that she had been in Karen's
00:11:57
house in Topeka the night of the murders. The victims were doing absolutely nothing and may not have seen it coming
00:12:26
at all. Investigators were trying to determine who would gun down Mike Cisco and Karen Harkness as they lay in
00:12:38
bed. Detective Richard Voloy called Mike's ex-wife, Dana Chandler, to inform her of Mike's murder.
00:12:46
Your husband was found shot to death today, this afternoon. Your ex-husband, I'm sorry. Can you tell me when the last
00:12:55
time was that you talked to him? Dana Volley says, did not ask many questions and did not seem concerned. She would
00:13:02
later say she was very upset on that call, but only Volley's side of their conversation was recorded due to a
00:13:09
technical error, he said, on his part. The next evening, Chandler called the Topeka Police Department, leaving a
00:13:18
message on a different officer's voicemail. Hi, my name is Dana Chandler, and I got to register a phone call last
00:13:24
night. Someone had said that my son had been killed, and I'm just calling to to see if that's true or not.
00:13:32
Dana would later explain her call was simply seeking confirmation. Given the personal nature of the murders, no signs
00:13:40
of a burglary, and those stories about a messy divorce and stalking, Dana Chandler became the main suspect.
00:13:49
Detective Voy decided to talk with Chandler in person, recording this audio 4 days after the murders. Tell me about
00:13:58
what happened on the sixth. I got but again there was an issue with the recording in most of the rest of the
00:14:08
conversation. Dana is difficult to hear. Detective Volo recounted what he said she told
00:14:15
him. She said she'd been at home uh Saturday morning. That's July 6th and then made a couple of errand stops.
00:14:25
Dana said she bought cigarettes, snacks, and a car cigarette lighter at several stores around Denver and then got gas.
00:14:34
But Voley says she failed to mention one purchase he saw on a credit card receipt. She'd f two 5gallon gas cans as
00:14:43
well. Voley wondered why she didn't tell him and why she would even need gas cans
00:14:49
unless she had been planning a trip perhaps to Kansas and didn't want to stop for gas along the way. According to
00:14:57
Volo, Dana had also said after running those errands, she went home to her Denver apartment. Didn't have any
00:15:04
visitors, no contact with anybody. And the next day got up and went for a drive in the mountains at 10:00 in the
00:15:12
morning. But Voley couldn't verify that Dana was in her apartment the night of the
00:15:17
murders, nor that she took a drive in the mountains the next day. Voi said the area Dana described driving through
00:15:26
would have meant she'd have to pass Rocky Mountain National Park surveillance cameras. Those cameras were
00:15:33
checked. If only said there was no sign of her car. The particular person that I
00:15:39
had view that tape looked at every frame slowly. She was never there. Investigators also reviewed Dana's cell
00:15:49
phone records. They said that while she tended to use her cell phone frequently,
00:15:55
she oddly had no activity around the time of the murders. What we found was there was a 27hour window where her
00:16:03
phone wasn't used. Still, there was no DNA, no fingerprints, or other forensic evidence to tie Dana to the killings.
00:16:12
The gun used in the murders hadn't been found, though investigators learned the bullets were from an Israeli weapons
00:16:20
manufacturer, and Dana would go on to say she didn't even own a gun. But family members remained
00:16:29
convinced that Dana was responsible for the murders. They say they pushed to have a meeting with then DA Robert Hec,
00:16:39
Tim Cisco, Mike's brother. I specifically went into this meeting wanting to know if he would pursue a
00:16:48
circumstantial case. And the answer was without that murder weapon, we don't have enough hard evidence to move this
00:16:54
forward. Mike's and Karen's families grew increasingly frustrated and decided to
00:17:01
take action, looking for more information about Dana's possible involvement in the murders. I put her
00:17:08
picture up everywhere. Have you seen this person? Several months after the murders, having more questions than
00:17:14
answers, Mike's sister Kathy said she and their mom, Carol, went searching for clues, even lifting up manhole covers
00:17:24
and looking in rest stops for the gun used in the murders. We thought, you know, maybe she threw
00:17:30
the gun somewhere, so I would stand on a toilet and try and push a tile up. They
00:17:35
found nothing. But Haley, Dana and Mike's daughter, was also working the case. I
00:17:42
felt the need to do something. I didn't want to just sit back with my hands tied
00:17:46
and helpless. In 2005, 3 years after the murders, Haley began secretly recording
00:17:53
conversations with her mother, trying to learn what happened to her dad and Karen. I think that the only way I can
00:18:01
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
00:18:09
did it. Well, number one, I didn't do it. And number one, I number two, I don't know what happened to Haley. One
00:18:15
thing Haley asked about was why her mother had no cell phone activity for 27 hours around the time of the murders.
00:18:23
Why did it have no calls on all time? You knew it could be trade. I was in the mountains. I didn't have a signal. Dana
00:18:30
insisted she had nothing to do with the murders, but did say she had violent thoughts about Mike. I said I could kill
00:18:39
him. Ever think about killing him? No, but I did. Honestly, I go over it with you.
00:18:47
The official investigation though seems stalled. So, authorities asked Vernon Girth, a homicide and forensic
00:18:55
consultant and former New York City Police Department detective, to review case files. In 2007, nearly 5 years
00:19:05
after the murders, he issued a report concluding Dana Chandler is the one and only person who had the motive, means,
00:19:14
and opportunity to commit these murders. It was Girth who brought the case to the
00:19:21
attention of 48 Hours. In 2009, 48 Hours aired its first report on the murders and tried to talk with Dana Chandler.
00:19:31
Did you know anything about the death of Michael and Karen? I have no idea what happened to Michael.
00:19:37
48 hours ended the episode asking viewers to contact police if they had any information. Again, the case seemed
00:19:46
to be going nowhere. this morning. But two years later, a new DA, Chad Taylor, decided he was willing
00:19:54
to take a chance with the evidence they had. He chose to move the case forward and arrest Dana Chandler. One team come
00:20:03
up this way, one team. With our cameras rolling, laid eyes on her this morning. Law enforcement zeroed in on Dana
00:20:11
Chandler in Oklahoma where she was staying at the time. Taylor didn't just help plan the arrest, but went on it
00:20:18
with a gun at the ready. Both hands out of the car. And on July 24th, 2011, Dana Chandler was in
00:20:29
custody, charged with the murders of Mike Cisco and Karen Hartness. I hit a point where I didn't know if
00:20:50
justice would ever be served. For Haley, who was convinced her mother killed her father, Dana's arrest was
00:21:00
nearly a decade in the making. It was such a feeling that I I it was unbelievable.
00:21:07
She was determined to get justice as she prepared to face Dana in court. I've made it this far. I can do anything.
00:21:18
All right. In March 2012, Dana Chandler went on trial. Jackie Spradling, then chief deputy DA, began by referring to
00:21:28
those conversations Haley had taped years earlier with her mother. I could kill him.
00:21:35
I thought about killing him. These are the words of this defendant about her ex-husband, Mike
00:21:44
Cisco. In her opening statement, Bradling suggested a possible motive for murder. Two days before the homicides,
00:21:53
the defendant called Mike. Mike at this time told the defendant in that fiveminute phone call
00:21:59
that he and Karen were going to be married. But there is no recording of that call. It's easy to make
00:22:07
allegations. It's difficult to prove those allegations. And in his opening, defense attorney Mark Bennett argued the
00:22:16
case against Dana Chandler was all speculation. show you that there is no evidence that places Dana Chandler in or
00:22:27
near the Harkness residence on July 6 or 7, 2002. But to authorities, there was the
00:22:36
question about exactly where Dana was during that time. Detective Volo says she told him she was home Saturday, the
00:22:44
night of the murders, and then drove through the mountains the next day. But Dana's business acquaintance, Jeff
00:22:51
Bailey, testified Dana told him something different. That she slept in her car in the mountains the Saturday
00:22:58
night of the murders. She told me that the story she was giving me was the truth. And the story that she had given
00:23:06
to the law enforcements was not the truth. And prosecutors told the jury Dana did
00:23:13
not use her cell phone for 27 hours the weekend of the murders. Remember, Haley accused her mother of trying to avoid
00:23:21
being tracked. Volley found another instance when Dana didn't use her phone a month before the murders. There were
00:23:29
no calls registered. There were some calls came to the phone, but none were picked up. And prosecutors say that's
00:23:36
important because during that time, a month before the murders, was Dana's dry run for the killings. They called her
00:23:44
friend Anne Carander to the stand. Carander says Dana told her she had driven to Topeka. She had um gone
00:23:54
to Mike's house um through the window. Um nobody was home. What else did she tell you? That she had gone um
00:24:07
and sat outside Karen's house. Sprdling says Dana was obsessed with Mike and presented evidence that in the
00:24:16
six months leading up to the murders, she called Mike and Karen more than 600 times. The defense argued Dana was
00:24:25
calling to talk to her kids, but Haley remembered her mother's calls differently. What was the thing that she
00:24:32
talked to you the most about? She talked about my dad a lot and um I I I really feel like she was was really
00:24:43
just obsessed with him. An FBI analyst testified Dana often called late at night and frequently made repeated calls
00:24:52
in a short time period, including a month before the murders. On June 3rd, she made 17 calls in 18 minutes.
00:25:02
Both of Dana's children testified for the prosecution, saying that their mother also had a history of stalking their
00:25:11
father. She took me and my sister uh with her to go spy on my dad. And so we were uh in the car and she told us, you
00:25:19
know, we're just going to be her little helpers. She asked if I would go go up to the house with her and we did. And
00:25:24
she was looking in all the windows and she told me to look in the windows and did you? I did. Okay. What was it that
00:25:31
she was looking at in there? Um, I think that she um was was thinking there was a
00:25:36
a lady in there with my dad. Haley also testified about those recordings she made talking with her
00:25:44
mother. During one of them, Dana, who attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, gave an explanation as to why she bought
00:25:53
those gas cans. I ran into a girl that had run out of gas at an AA meeting and so I went and got gas for her. She asked
00:26:01
me for money and we don't give people money at a prosecutor Bradling told the jury that she believed Chandler used
00:26:08
those two 5gallon gas cans to have enough gas so she would not have to stop and potentially be seen near the crime
00:26:17
scene. But Chandler's attorney argued there was no proof she was ever in Topeka during the time of the murders.
00:26:25
Did you or any other members of the Topeka Police Department ever find an eyewitness that put the defendant Dana
00:26:34
Chandler in Topeka, Kansas on either July 6th or July 7, 2002? No. The closest law enforcement was able to
00:26:45
come was here at a gas station in Wini, Kansas, nearly halfway between Denver and Topeka. Clerk Patty Williams wasn't
00:26:54
sure, but she thought she might have seen Dana the night of the murders. Patty was shown a picture of the
00:27:00
defendant. Patty indicated that she was 70% sure that that was the woman who had
00:27:05
been there. But by the time Chandler went on trial, Patty Williams, had died. A different
00:27:12
worker from the gas station testified about seeing a black car that looked similar to the one Chandler drove that
00:27:19
day, but she said it might have had license plates from Virginia. When it was the defense's turn, Bennett pointed
00:27:27
out there was no proof Dana was ever there. There wasn't any receipt from Walkini, was there? No. And Bennett
00:27:35
questioned whether Detective Volo investigated other suspects, like two men with criminal records who had stolen
00:27:43
checks from Mike Cisco and cashed one after the murders. That didn't make him a suspect. No, because the check wasn't
00:27:50
taken from Karen Harkness's house where the murders occurred. The check was actually taken from Mike Cisco's house
00:27:55
where the murders did not occur. And one of the men was in jail when the murders
00:28:02
occurred. In closing arguments, Bennett reiterated there was no forensic evidence linking Chandler to the crime.
00:28:10
All this time they've been trying to put her in Kansas when this happened. And for n and a half years,
00:28:18
they've come up dry. Sprdling reminded the jury of Dana's stalking behavior and tried to make sure
00:28:25
they knew just how scared Mike was of Dana. She said Mike had gotten a protection from abuse order against
00:28:33
Dana. So, he got a court order saying she has to stay away. The protection from abuse order
00:28:39
did not stop the defendant, though. After two weeks of testimony, it took the jury 83 minutes to reach a verdict.
00:28:50
Defendant would please stand. We the jury find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree
00:28:58
as charged in count one. I feel better in the sense that my dad's killer is paying for their actions.
00:29:10
I don't feel better that my mom is capable of killing my dad. When it was time for
00:29:20
sentencing, Haley asked that her mom receive the maximum sentence. We each have a deep scar in our souls from what
00:29:28
this monster has done. But Chandler would also get a chance to speak. But most importantly, I deny that I murdered
00:29:35
Michael Karen. I am innocent. I did not murder Mike Karen. Dana Chandler was sentenced to life in prison, but soon
00:29:45
that verdict would be called into question. [Music] A lot of my mind has been focused on her
00:30:08
getting away with killing my dad and just drags me down. For years, Haley Seal's thoughts were
00:30:17
consumed with proving her mother killed her father, Mike Cisco, and Karen Harkness. With Dana Chandler in prison,
00:30:26
Haley was relieved she could concentrate on other things. But her relief was tinged with pain. I want to focus on my
00:30:35
future and what I want to do with my life. I want to be everything my mom wasn't.
00:30:45
But Haley's focus would turn again to the case. Dana Chandler almost immediately began filing motions as she
00:30:53
worked to appeal her conviction. She and her attorney cited, among other things, the actions of
00:31:00
prosecutor Jackie Sprdling. In particular, statements Brad Spradling made at trial about that protection from
00:31:09
abuse order. Mike got a protection from abuse, a court order. He applied and said, "Hey, judge, please order this
00:31:16
woman to stay away from me." And the judge agreed. And that is just a blatant misstatement. Stacy Schlimmer, one of
00:31:24
Chandler's appeal attorneys, was never able to find a protection from abuse order. I went through the whole case. I
00:31:32
went and looked for every possible order I could find, and there wasn't one that
00:31:37
she was referring to. In 2018, Schlimmer argued that Jackie Sprradling's actions
00:31:44
constituted proseal misconduct. I I think that Miss Chandler never had an opportunity at a fair trial from the
00:31:51
get- go. Schlimmer contended the case against Dana Chandler should be thrown out. The court agreed. The Kansas
00:32:00
Supreme Court held that it's so bad that we're going to go ahead and overturn her
00:32:05
conviction. Other issues about statements Brad Sprdling made at trial also came up,
00:32:12
including describing a route Dana took between Kansas and Denver when there was no evidence that she drove that way. She
00:32:20
drove directly up to Nebraska. And after she gets on Nebraska, she turns around and goes home. They just kind of
00:32:28
hypothesized, well, she must have went up and went over from Nebraska. There was no evidence of that at all.
00:32:34
Schlimmer also contended the state did not have enough evidence to prove Dana Chandler's guilt. We argued
00:32:42
insufficiency of evidence as an issue for appeal. Meaning, you don't think prosecutors had enough to make a
00:32:49
legitimate case. Jurors didn't have enough evidence before them if you took out all the evidence that should have
00:32:55
never been presented or told to them incorrectly. The Kansas Supreme Court described
00:33:02
Jackie Sprdling's actions as quote intolerable acts of deception and she was desparred. 48 Hours reached out to
00:33:12
Sprdling but did not receive a response. When a case gets reversed, like a case like this, we essentially have an
00:33:21
innocent woman who's been convicted of crime because of a prosecutor or we have a family that has now a
00:33:32
reverse conviction that has to go through the system again. Either way, there's an injustice, right? So, that
00:33:39
conduct is going to affect someone. The court did decide though there was sufficient evidence to retry Dana
00:33:46
Chandler if the district attorney chose to. When I found out that this Kansas Supreme Court overturned the verdict, it
00:33:55
was very shocking. What does this mean? Will the DA's office retry her? Were you angry
00:34:03
with the prosecutor who was cited for misconduct? No, I've never been angry with her. I think it was an
00:34:12
innocent mistake. Had Jackie not made those comments, we wouldn't be sitting here today. This would be over. Chad
00:34:20
Harkness, Karen's son, takes a different view of Jackie Sprdling's actions. Now,
00:34:27
all these years later, we're still having to, you know, live through this again. And it's just it's not right.
00:34:33
It's not fair. The decision whether to retry Dana Chandler was now in the hands of Shaunie County's new DA Mike Kay. We
00:34:44
analyzed every aspect of the case and ultimately we came to the conclusion uh that we believed justice demanded that
00:34:52
we move forward and we pursue another trial. Pursuing that would take years. Dana Chandler remained incarcerated. She
00:35:01
and her defense lawyers argued she should be set free and fought against having another trial.
00:35:09
What were those years like? Unbelievable. For Haley, the delays seemed endless. Dana and her lawyers filed nearly 400
00:35:21
motions, including ones requesting a change of judge, to retain an investigator, for her bond to be
00:35:28
reduced, and to disqualify the Shauny County District Attorney's Office, and through it all, she fired several of her
00:35:37
lawyers. She went through seven lawyers in that time and between representing herself.
00:35:44
There were also dozens of hearings, including one where Haley was called to testify and Dana did the questioning.
00:35:54
She took me on the stand for at least 45 minutes and she directly questioned me.
00:35:59
What was that like? It was the most awful thing I've ever I mean the the suspect in the
00:36:08
killing of my dad is now having the power to question me on the stand and talk to me. Not just the suspect in the
00:36:17
killing of your dad, your own mother. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it it it was awful. But Haley was willing to take whatever
00:36:26
steps necessary to ensure her mother would stand trial again for the murders. If she could bring out
00:36:35
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
00:36:43
her and her own freedom. But she can't and she hasn't. My dad and his fiance were shot and
00:36:59
killed. Whoever it was that did this hated these people. Three trials. Is my mom capable of killing my dad? And
00:37:06
finally, a verdict. Your mom scares you? Yeah. The 48 hours, 2-hour season finale
00:37:13
continues next and streaming on Paramount Plus. Two innocent people were murdered in our
00:37:30
community. That demands justice. Although Dana Chandler's conviction had been overturned,
00:37:37
prosecutors were determined to retry her for the murders of Mike Cisco and Karen
00:37:43
Harkness. By 2021, the organization Miracle of Innocence got involved advocating for Dana. Dana Chandler was
00:37:53
someone who we believed in her innocence. When we looked at the case, the facts was just nothing connected
00:37:58
this lady to the crime. Daryl Burton is the co-founder of Miracle of Innocence. He's someone who was wrongfully
00:38:05
imprisoned and had his murder conviction reversed. He says before sending someone
00:38:11
to prison, the case needs to be more convincing than the one made against Dana Chandler.
00:38:18
There's no evidence, no fingerprints, no DNA, no confession, no weapon, no witnesses, nothing when it comes to, you
00:38:26
know, these kinds of crimes of murder. You just got to have more than that. Dana and her attorneys also raised other
00:38:32
issues as they tried to get the case dismissed. some allegations related to the 2009 48
00:38:40
Hours broadcast. Chandler falsely accused law enforcement of forming a partnership with 48 Hours to film an
00:38:48
episode aimed at convincing the public that Ms. Chandler murdered Mike Cisco and Karen Harkness.
00:38:56
What do you make of the idea that if 48 hours had not reported starting in 2009 on this case that Dana Chandler would
00:39:04
never have been arrested or tried? I don't think it was 48 hour. 2009 is a lot different than when they arrested
00:39:13
her. They arrested her three or four years three years later. I think the family was what kept it going. They
00:39:21
believe that Miss Chandler did this. It was the new prosecutor and it was the family probably saying, "Hey, we need
00:39:29
justice done in this." But Stacy Schlimmer, Dana's former appeal attorney, does take issue with
00:39:38
the handling of the 2011 arrest and the show of force. You've seen Dana Chandler's
00:39:46
arrest many times, right? And it bothers you. It bothers me a lot. 48 hours as well as the Topeka Capital Journal were
00:39:57
given advanced notice of the arrest by the office of then DA Chad Taylor. Are you bothered by law
00:40:06
enforcement or are you bothered by the fact that there were cameras there? I'm bothered by the prosecutor.
00:40:13
I'm bothered by the district attorney showing up at an arrest and having that arrest filmed. So, they wanted video of
00:40:24
law enforcement with their guns out. I think they wanted then the public to see that. That to me was it seemed like such
00:40:31
a production for a case that prosecutor should never have done that. Ultimately, the various arguments Dana
00:40:40
Chandler's team made to dismiss the case were unsuccessful. Chandler's new trial was
00:40:46
scheduled for the summer of 2022. Before the trial began, 48 Hours again tried to speak with Dana Chandler.
00:40:55
She said she would only agree to an interview if CBS paid her million dollar bond. We declined.
00:41:04
Never thought we'd be sitting here again and getting ready to start a retrial on
00:41:09
this. It's just mind-blowing. Chad Harkness, Karen's son, was relieved the DA's office decided to retry Dana
00:41:18
Chandler, but was concerned about going through this yet another time. Just us kids having
00:41:27
to relive this again. And it just makes me sick. Haley too was not looking forward to another trial, but said
00:41:36
testifying again could give her some control of the situation. If I can realize my power and
00:41:44
it gives me courage to go forward because I know the truth. The truth is that she
00:41:52
murdered them. The passage of time has left Haley with so much loss. loss she holds her mother responsible
00:42:01
for. And as a mom herself, having married her high school boyfriend, Chris, Haley's feelings are even more
00:42:12
complicated. When you think of your mom, do you think mother or do you think Dana? I think
00:42:21
Dana. Yeah, she's Dana to me. Actually, mom is is a an ucky word to me to the point where I don't even like my kids to
00:42:30
call me mom. I don't like mom. Mom is a a very hurtful person. No matter the name, Dana
00:42:43
Chandler is someone Haley will have to face again in court and someone who will eventually tell her side of the story.
00:42:52
Start by stating my name. My name is Dana Chandler. I, as everyone know, have been accused of double
00:43:00
homicide and I am innocent. Next, my dad and his fiance were shot and killed. Whoever it was that did this
00:43:16
hated these people. Three trials. Is my mom capable of killing my dad? And finally, a verdict. Your mom scares you.
00:43:25
Yeah. The 48 hours 2-hour season finale continues next and streaming on Paramount Plus.
00:43:31
[Music]