01x01 - Welcome to Topeka

[bunniefuu]

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

[soft music]

♪ ♪

- So tell me the story.

- Uh, I'm sitting here
at my desk,

you know, f*cking investigating
voter suppression,

and f*ck if I don't
look in my inbox,

and there's a tip that comes in
to our anonymous tip line.

[computer chimes]

- Hello, my name
is Eileen Umbehr.

I wanted to know
if you might be interested

in uncovering the truth
about a double homicide.

I've talked to strangers
on airplanes.

I've written to anybody
and everybody I can think of.

- It was a breathless email
from a housewife

in the tiny town
of Alma, Kansas.

Haven't a f*cking clue
where Alma, Kansas, is.

But I got a pretty good sense
of who this lady is.

She was, by her own account,
a stay-at-home mom

who had raised four boys
and who now

spent much of her
time in her rural ranch house

in her pajamas.

And even from


one detected the whiff
of a true crime obsessive.

- Entry head wound was
caused by a g*nsh*t,

which exposed her brain.

- She wanted to tell me
about a grave injustice.

Of course she did.

- The truth has
not yet been told,

and I believe journalism
is Dana Chandler's only hope.

- I spent 25 years
as a reporter and editor

at "The New York Times"
and the investigative

independent outfit ProPublica.

I'd have a hand in a fistful
of Pulitzer prizes.

So I've been at the news
racket long enough

to appreciate that one
ignores an anonymous tip

at one's peril.

I figure, what the f*ck?

I'll google the case.

Pajama lady wanted to tell me
about a double homicide

in Topeka back in 2002.

[grim music]

Couple slain in their bedroom
in the dead of night.

Karen Harkness, daughter of
a big-time Topeka businessman,

and Mike Sisco, the divorced
father of two kids.

Crime scene was tough stuff.

11 b*ll*ts, all hit,
wounds, nose to toes.

It wasn't a burglary.

Money had been left around.

Karen was still
wearing her jewelry.

There was no DNA, no
fingerprints, no eyewitnesses.

But virtually every
family member the cops

talked to
offered the same theory.

- Mike's ex-wife.

- He had an ex-wife
that was a real problem.

- The ex-wife just
leapt to my mind.

- Mike's ex-wife,
a woman named Dana Chandler,

might be the k*ller.

Mike and Dana had been
married for 15 years.

But after they divorced,
Dana was described

as a crazy, bitter ex
who had lost the custody fight

over their two children.

The authorities in Topeka were
convinced Dana was the k*ller.

Justice followed.

Dana is arrested and tried.

The jury took just


- We, the jury,
find the defendant

guilty of the crime of m*rder
in the first degree as charged.

- Consecutive life terms.

No possibility of parole
for 100 years.

Jealous ex kills her husband
and his new girlfriend.

Case solved,
as far as I was concerned.

So I decided
I didn't have time

for pajama lady in Kansas,

and so I wrote her a polite
note with an impolite answer.

"Thanks, but no thanks.

Good luck with
your pursuit of justice."

[soft music]

I don't know whether she
didn't get the f*cking message,

or she didn't pick up
on the hint.

She didn't stop
f*cking writing me.

Ten emails a week.

None for two weeks.

25 in a day.

It was a crazy
assortment of sh*t.

- Dear Joe, here is a link
to the video of--

dear Joe, did you know that
the lead prosecutor--

- She's got, like,
court records

and ballistics reports
and property records.

I'm, like, I don't know
whether to call the cops on her

or f*cking hire her.

I'd like to say I opened
them all, but I can't.

I never even picked up
the phone to call her.

Barely even
acknowledged receiving them

beyond a smug "Fascinating"

or "I'll be sure to look."

I started to refer
to her as "Pen Pal."

But then, after two years of
these endless f*cking emails,

Pen Pal sent me
email number 2,714.

[notification chime]

- Dear Joe--

- And I had the dumb luck
to have opened it.

Dana Chandler's convictions
had just been overturned.

I've done all manner
of crime stories.

State m*rder convictions
overturned?

sh*t doesn't happen every day.

And the lady
was still in prison.

They were gonna retry her.

And for once,
two and a half years

into our one-way
correspondence,

I composed a note
of more than three words.

It was six words.

"Perhaps I should
come see you."

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[wind howling, sign squeaking]

I'd arrived
on the Great Plains,

fueled by the reporter's
trademark c*ck

of adrenaline and dread.

[dog barking]

I really had no idea
what I'd find,

other than a housewife
who seemed alternately

brilliant and deranged.

Oh, and her husband,
he's part of this too.

Together, they've made this
m*rder case their obsession,

their life's calling.

- Ever since I was a little
girl, for some reason,

I was interested
in true crime stories.

- Did he have a motive?

- Actually, they had a fight,

so this is why
they suspected him.

Well, you'll see.

I try to glean from
these shows tips, leads--

how did they solve it?

- At 1:30 in the morning,

Kevin Green left
the apartment for a hamburger

at a fast-food restaurant.

- I think crime
interests us all.

I think we're all
voyeuristic in a sense.

When a crime happens,
we wanna know that

they got the bad guy,
and there's

justice for the victims.

- But in the case of
who k*lled Mike and Karen,

that's what we don't have yet.

When they arrested Dana,
everybody believed

they got the right person
except for us.

This isn't solved yet.

This case is unresolved.

That's not justice,
to convict the wrong person.

I desperately want
the families to know

who really k*lled
Mike and Karen.

I get very emotional
about this.

My voice goes up, you know.
My blood pressure goes up.

My hands turn cold, and I have
to ask him to warm my hands.

I can't be calm about this.

I don't know.

- Anyway, you know,
they're the most

earnest f*cking people
you ever meet in your life,

and they never...

- How in the world did
they get a search warrant?

- Ever...

- If the shirt she's wearing
has no g*nsh*t residue on it,

then she didn't do it.

- Ever...

- You take away the lies,
there's nothing left.

- Stop talking about the
f*cking Dana Chandler case.

- Like, with Dana,
you know, they just assumed.

Oh, you're the ex-wife.
- Did they--

- They had no connection
to Dana Chandler

when the murders happened
or when the case against her

was prosecuted.

Did not f*cking
know her at all.

- You can see how it unfolds.

- And yet they've
turned their lives over

to proving her innocence.

- And in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Father,

I release your blessings
upon Dana Chandler.

Channel her heart like
you do channels of water,

and lead her
to the right place.

Amen.

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- Tell me a little bit
about yourselves.

How'd you guys first meet?

- First time I saw Eileen,
we were in high school.

I was sitting there
with my friend,

and I said, I gotta ask
that girl out.

- He was literally
the picture of the guy

that I always dreamed about.

And he used to walk
by me in the halls,

and all he'd say was, "Howdy,"
you know, in his Kansas drawl.

And I would just
melt into a puddle.

- I summoned the courage
and asked her out.

First street we crossed,
I grabbed

her hand just instinctively.

We never quit
holding hands after that.

♪ ♪

- What's really exciting
about working on

the Dana Chandler case has
been--it's a fulfillment,

really, of a lifelong passion.

To find ourselves
in this situation

where we're trying
to get to the bottom

of a double homicide,
it's kind of surreal.

- It was in the summer
of 2002.

We got the morning paper
and saw the big headlines.

We're very interested in
crime stories of all nature,

and we watch them
on the show all the time.

And now we have one
in Topeka, Kansas,

that had a double homicide,
I mean,

of two people in their bed.

They were assassinated.

- A normally quiet
Topeka neighborhood

turned into a crime scene
Sunday afternoon.

A mother and father coming
to visit their daughter

found her and a man dead
inside the home.

[grim music]

- 911 what's your emergency?

- Uh, I've just
located my daughter,

and she's downstairs,
and she's dead.

♪ ♪

- On the night
Mike and Karen were k*lled,

they decided that they would
go to the local casino.

[suspenseful music]

Video cameras captured
them at different points,

pouring money into slots,
having a drink.

They leave around 1:30,

coming home
with almost a grand.

They stop at the gas station,
get a cup of coffee.

They arrive back
at Karen's townhouse

sometime before 3:00.

And in many ways,
that's the last of them.

There's no evident sign
of forced entry.

There's money put out on the
table and in Mike's wallet.

It kind of runs
against the idea

that this was
some kind of robbery.

They discover a sh*t ton
of f*cking shell casings.

Mike was shot seven times
through the gut, back.

Karen was shot five times,
including what folks would

later come to argue
was some kind

of dark grace note, shot to her
private parts at the end.

No weapon was found.

What was found were
Israeli-made subsonic b*ll*ts,

most commonly fired from
an U*i-style weapon of w*r.

That's pretty unusual.

- When you have signs
of overkill,

it tells me, at least,
whoever did this k*lling

was motivated by emotion.

When somebody gets k*lled,
I look at the inner circle

of that person,
primarily family members,

then their friends.

And then you wanna look
at associates,

people they've
had contact with.

Your suspect in most homicides
is going to be found

within those three rings.

There was one person
who seemed to emerge

as a viable suspect,
and that was

his ex-wife, Dana Chandler.

- Then we're gonna go
for a hike.

- Fun.

- Dana Chandler is a, you know,
daughter of the American West.

She grows up in
New Mexico and California.

She's from a big family.
She's got a bunch of sisters.

By all accounts, she was
a beautiful young woman

when she met Mike Sisco.

Mike was described
as a guy's guy,

worked for a welding company,
and liked to hunt and fish.

They married in 1982,
quickly had two children:

a girl, Hailey,
and then a boy, Dustin.

But Dana has
a drinking problem of,

you know, significance.

And it begins to impair
her gifts as a mom.

Her husband is a drinker too.

There'd be fights
and breakups and reunions.

But after 15 years
of marriage,

they finally divorced.

It wasn't pretty.

There were claims
and counterclaims,

but eventually,
Mike prevailed.

He got Dana moved out
of the house

and won custody
of Hailey and Dustin,

even was awarded child support
to be paid by Dana.

When her life implodes
and she loses her children and

her marriage is ended,

she does a pretty good job
of picking herself back up.

Goes back to school, gets
initially her college degree.

- Congratulations!

- Then a masters
in accounting.

Maybe most importantly,
she gets sober.

But none of that
impressed Mike's family.

- Come on up.

- They believed Dana
never let go of the anger

at having lost Mike
and her children.

- I understand that
there was some friction

between your mom and him.

Did you hear much
about that or--

- I was caught in the middle
of it most of the time.

- Tell me about that.

- They didn't get along at all.

My mom hated him, and she
would call numerous times,

like, at night,
like, 18 times in a row.

And she didn't like Karen

because she thought that,
you know--

I don't know,
I think she was jealous

because Karen got to be
with us,

and she's not our mom
and whatever.

But she really, really wanted
me and Dustin to live there.

- At the time, Dana Chandler
lived in Denver, Colorado.

She worked
as an accountant there.

That's a solid eight-hour
drive from Topeka.

In the days after the m*rder,
she consents to an interview

with Detective Richard Volle.

She says that the day
before the murders in Topeka,

she runs a number of errands
and then goes to bed.

At the time that Mike and Karen
are being k*lled in Topeka,

she's asleep in Denver.

She has records that
she went to a supermarket

and records that she got gas.

And included in those records
is a receipt

for the purchase of two
five-gallon gas cans,

except she doesn't disclose
that to Volle in the interview.

- One of the first subpoenas
the police got

was for Dana Chandler's
phone records.

Across 28 hours, until the
evening after Mike and Karen

have been k*lled,
her phone is off.

That was enough
to develop a theory

that on the weekend
of the murders,

Dana drove
from Denver to Topeka,

shot Mike and Karen to death
without leaving a trace,

and drove 540 miles back
to Denver without being seen.

All thanks to the gas cans.

- And so the police
brought what they regarded

as a winnable case

to Robert Hecht,
the district attorney.

- None of the investigation
was able to establish

that anyone saw Dana Chandler
in Topeka the day before,

the day of, or the day
after the homicide.

[suspenseful music]

My refusal to file charges
against Dana Chandler

created anger
and frustration among members

of the police department.

"You shouldn't file charges
unless you have

"sufficient evidence
to establish the crime

beyond a reasonable doubt."

- The prosecutor
has the final say.

I mean, it is
a frustrating situation.

There was evidence there.

It may not have been
physical evidence,

but it was good
circumstantial evidence.

- The police department
were never able to establish

that Dana Chandler ever
had possession of ammunition,

never had possession
of a firearm,

were never able
to put her in Topeka,

Shawnee County, or Kansas.

So what were the means,
and what was the opportunity?

- And he would say no
for years, year after year.

I don't know, I--you know,
if you get a f*cking case,

it could be more ice cold.

- For seven years,
police in Kansas

have been stumped by a m*rder
they call perfectly planned.

There was no forced entry,
nothing stolen,

and no signs of a struggle.

Tomorrow night,
"48 Hours Mystery"

will investigate
this m*rder case.

- The mystery continues.

- Seven years
after the murders,

CBS's "48 Hours,"
mainstay of true crime,

decided they're gonna come
to Topeka and do a show.

[siren wailing]

- What we're left with
is an emotional k*lling.

It's an emotional execution.

Whoever was who did this
hated these people.

They wanted them dead,
and they wanted

to make sure they were dead.

- They had won the cooperation
of the newly elected DA.

Hecht was out.

A young, handsome, politically
ambitious successor,

Chad Taylor, was in.

- I hope that,
through a thorough review,

getting a fresh set of eyes
looking at it,

I hope we're able to bring
justice for those families.

- Dana Chandler.
- Dana Chandler.

- Dana Chandler.
- Dana Chandler.

- The "48 Hours" episode
was the first time

Dana Chandler had ever
been publicly identified

as the person responsible
for the deaths

of Mike and Karen.

- Dana Chandler's children
believed that their mom

had k*lled their dad
and his girlfriend,

but Hailey, in particular,
wanted her brought to justice.

- What do you think should
happen to your mom if she did,

in fact,
k*ll Karen and your dad?

- Go to jail forever.

If not death penalty.

- I would say everybody
in Topeka was tuning in.

This case was cold, very cold.

And I thought, great.

Now somebody's gonna
really dig into it.

The show utilized
a famous homicide detective

who was considered
an expert in the field.

- I have personally
investigated,

supervised, consulted,
and assessed

over 8,000 homicides.

- He put together
an analysis of the case.

- The report concluded
Dana Chandler is the one

and only person who had the
motive, means, and opportunity

to commit these murders.

- They used all
the power of the media

to make people believe,
yep, that girl did it.

And to this day, people say,
oh, after I watched "48 Hours,"

I was convinced she did it.

- Step out of the car!

Both hands out of the car!

- In 2011, a case
that had been cold for years

got quite hot.

[officers shouting]

- Keep coming backwards!

- Dana Chandler is arrested,

and CBS's "48 Hours" cameras
are there.

- They saw a chance
at a second episode,

this one built
around Dana's trial.

- That woman's a nut job.

- If she's a bad mother,
if she's a crazy person,

it doesn't necessarily
make her a k*ller.

- This hag k*lled two people,

and the reason we know that
is because everything

she said she was doing instead
of the k*lling was a lie.

- All rise.

Division 14 of
the Third Judicial District

is now in session.

The Honorable
Nancy Parrish presiding.

- May it please the court,
counsel, members of the jury.

"I could k*ll him."

"I thought about k*lling him."

These are the words
of this defendant

about her ex-husband,
Mike Sisco.

- The case against
Dana Chandler was

essentially to portray her
as a unhinged,

vindictive, hateful ex-wife.

- Was there a time within
the seven or eight days

that Karen told you
about the defendant

showing up uninvited
and unwanted at Mike's house?

- Yes.
- Its effect on Karen was what?

- She was scared.

- And the prosecution argued
that Mike had actually

even sought
the court's protection

from the threat of his ex-wife.

- Did Mike get
a protection from abuse?

- Yes, he did.
- Against who?

- Against the defendant.

- Mike 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.

- And they even
put forward the idea

that there was a triggering
event that pushed her

from just angry and bitter
to murderous.

- Two days before
the homicides,

the defendant called Mike.

Mike, at this time,
told the defendant,

in that five-minute phone call,
that the two were engaged

and planned to be married.

- But I don't think anything
can really prepare you

for seeing two children
testify against their mother

in the trial for the m*rder
of their father.

- How did you learn
of their death?

- Whenever we got
back that night,

my grandma and my sister,
uh, showed up,

and I told them that, uh--

[sighs] That my dad was gonna
pick me up in the morning.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

[sniffles]

And they--they told me that,
uh, he was--

my grandma sent me down and
told me that he was m*rder*d.

[sighs]

- Did your dad have trouble
with anybody but the defendant?

- No.

- Did Karen have trouble with
anybody but the defendant?

- No.

- That's all I have.

Can you tell us
your name, please?

- I'm Hailey Sisco.

- How old are you?

- I'm 27.

My mom pulled up
to the side of our car

and started yelling
at my dad and Karen

and called Karen
a wh*re and a sl*t.

I don't think that
she could really move on

like my dad had moved on.

- In one sad, spooky moment,
Dana Chandler

locks eyes with her daughter

and mouths the words
"I still love you."

♪ ♪

- In the District Court
of Shawnee County,

State of Kansas
versus Dana L. Chandler,

we, the jury, find the
defendant guilty of the crime

of m*rder in the first degree
as charged in count one.

Verdict form number two,
we, the jury,

find the defendant
guilty of the crime

of m*rder in the first degree
as charged in count two.

[indistinct chatter]

- I was stunned, shocked.

[suspenseful music]

- Pen Pal watched
the trial too.

She attended every day
of the three-week drama.

Where, she asked,
was the f*cking evidence?

- Never in a million years

did I think that
she was guilty.

Once Dana was convicted,

our advocacy then switched
to helping her.

I guess we're motivated to do

what we do
because of our faith.

And the Bible says speak up
for those who can't speak.

You know, speak up for justice.

When Keen was a trash man,

he used to pray
on the trash truck.

He said, Lord, if you
want me to be a trash man

the rest of my life, I will.

But if it's your will,
I pray one day I can use

my mind instead of my back.

And Keen has an amazing mind.

[pensive music]

- Keen Umbehr got
the Wabaunsee County

trash contract back in 1981.

His relationship
with the county

remained friendly until 1989.

- During his time
as the town's trash man,

he also became its self-styled

muckraking local
newspaper columnist.

He liked to question
county budgets,

take on causes and culprits.

- People loved the articles.

Nobody had ever challenged
the county commissioners

like I was doing.

Eileen was very supportive
because she was

equally as annoyed as I was.

- He developed
his own unorthodox

investigative techniques.

- The janitor at the courthouse
and I

had a kind of an understanding.

- The janitor would place all
sorts of confidential material

in a designated trash bag.

- They couldn't figure out how
I was getting that information.

- The garbage was
in the black bags.

The county's secrets
were in the white bag.

- Local authorities
had enough of this

f*cking Bob Woodward here,

and they cut off
his trash contract.

- They terminated
my contract based on

the content of my articles,
and that is a violation

of the First Amendment.

- He says, screw that.

He takes his case all the way
to the U.S. Supreme Court

and f*cking wins.

- We were hugging each other.

We were laughing.

We couldn't hardly even speak.

- [screaming]

We think there'll be a better
America because of this.

I mean, seriously, people will
be less afraid to speak out.

- That's the plum
I get to walk away with,

knowing that other people
coming behind me

can use my case
to get justice.

- Fresh off his Supreme Court
victory, he decides,

you know what?

I'm gonna go back to college.
I'm gonna get a degree.

I'm gonna go to law school.
I'm gonna become a lawyer.

He opens his own
private practice.

- If injustice is going on out
there, I can't live over here

and say, well,
it doesn't affect me.

That's just who I am.

In God's house,
there are so many vessels.

He made me
a certain kind of vessel.

I'm a sword.

And the purpose
of a sword is to poke

and k*ll and do
the justice part.

That's where my faith is.

[g*nshots]

- I wanted to visit
Dana Chandler in jail,

so I wrote and asked
if she would allow that.

Finally, after many attempts,
she agreed to meet.

I'm here at the prison.

I'm gonna be visiting Dana now.

This is where Dana Chandler
spends her days and nights.

I do recall being concerned
that everything's recorded,

so I wrote something
on a piece of paper

and put it up on the glass.

I didn't know her at all.

She didn't know me either.

But we forged a relationship.

- Meanwhile,
behind the scenes,

Keen was working to acquire

all the discovery files
from the case...

- I would make notes
and go back

and categorize
each person's testimony

and analyze it
and cross-analyze it.

- To start laying
the groundwork for an appeal.

- Dana didn't know me,

so she was appropriately
cautious, you know.

But we're the only ones
willing to help.

Then we entered
into a legal relationship

where I could meet with her
in a special room.

We were still on video,
but they could not listen.

- They started putting
their heads together

about how to put on an appeal.

While he was working
with Dana side by side,

I would work
on projects at home,

and personally,
I like to stay in my pajamas.

- Together,
they combined their efforts

to try to prove that
Dana Chandler had been

wrongfully convicted
by unscrupulous

and unrepentant prosecutors.

Call it the case
against the case

of Kansas versus
Dana Chandler.

- The prosecution's theory
for a motive was that

Mike and Dana
had a five-minute conversation

two days before the murders.

- Mike, at this time, told the
defendant in that five-minute

phone call that
the two were engaged

and planned to be married.

- There's no evidence about
the content of the phone call,

so there's only evidence
that they spoke.

- There wasn't a tape.
There wasn't a transcript.

There wasn't a recording,
nothing.

It was all made up.

- But Jacqie stated that
was the trigger for Dana

to drive 540 miles,
purchase a g*n,

and break into the home
and k*ll two people.

In order to establish
that premise,

they manufactured
the claim that

Mike had to get a protection
from abuse order,

and they used, of all people,
the lead detective

to testify to this.

- Did Mike get
a protection from abuse?

- Yes, he did.

- Against who?

- Against the defendant.

- So I went hunting for this
protection from abuse order.

I'd filed them before.
I know what they look like.

It was about 3/4 of an inch
thick of paperwork.

It's not just a single paper.
You can't miss it.

I'm going through every page
of this divorce proceeding,

and I don't find it.

It's not there.

It was never there
because it never happened.

It was total fiction.

- The only order
Mike ever obtained

in the divorce proceeding
was a mutual restraining order

at the very beginning
that's routinely

handed out to both parties.

- But a protection from abuse
order is much more serious.

There's a hearing.

The other side gets
to have a lawyer.

You have a little trial.

It's a big deal to get
one of these things,

and it gave the imprimatur
to the jury

that Dana was dangerous.

- To Keen and Eileen,
the testimony by cops

was nothing short of perjury.

- I could see there just
wasn't gonna be enough time

in a day
for us to really dedicate

our lives to this case.

So we owned 500 acres out here,
some family property.

We decided to sell it.

And I would close
my law practice

so we could dedicate ourselves


every single waking day.

[soft music]

We made the decision that
we're gonna sell this.

We're just so committed
to this case

that there's really nothing
else in life that matters,

that the wrong done to her
is just that great.

If Dana Chandler can't get
a fair trial and due process,

then none of us can.

So Dana gets convicted
in March 2012

and immediately files
a notice of appeal.

And her first
appellate argument

was in January 27, 2016,
almost four years

after she gets convicted.

- I call the second case
on this morning's docket,

State of Kansas v. Chandler.

- May it please the court,
Jacqie Spradling

on behalf of the appellee.

- Right off the bat,
the Supreme Court justices

were just nailing her.

- I don't see how you say
during that phone call

the victim told the defendant
that they were getting engaged.

We don't know anything
about what happened

in that phone call, do we?

- Do you have any direct
evidence or any kind

of evidence that's stronger
than what you've already

talked about
on what happened during

the five-minute phone call?

- Not that I can promise you
is in the record

rather than just in my mind.

- That's not an answer.
- Yes.

- The answer has to be,
it's in evidence.

You understand that, of course.
- Yes, Your Honor.

- Judge after judge
after judge,

just nailing her
on the mistakes she had made

and the false statements
she had made.

- How do you stand
up in front of a jury

and tell them that a protection
from abuse order was entered?

- What I should have said,
Your Honor,

was that there was
a protective order.

- That's a whole lot different
than a protection

from abuse order, isn't it?

- I'll agree that there was
no protection from abuse order.

There was a--

- Even though
you said there was?

- Yes, sir.

- Why isn't that misconduct?

And why isn't that something
we should look at?

And what is
your answer to that?

- They completely gutted
Jacqie Spradling that day.

- Would you like 60 seconds
to wrap up?

Or do you think you've
established your points?

- No, thank you.
I'm good.

- Supreme Court decisions
always come out on Friday.

I'm there waiting like I've
waited so many weeks before,

and I see it pop,
State v. Chandler.

I said, oh, my gosh.

There's no sense
in reading the first part.

You just zoom right past
to the end,

"Reversed and remanded."

- A major Topeka m*rder case
has been overturned.

- The state's
highest court ruling

that the case was botched.

[soft dramatic music]

- It said the lead prosecutor,
Jacqie Spradling,

told the jury
false information.

- Prosecutorial misconduct,
made up evidence,

lies to the jury--

the Kansas Supreme Court's
reversal

was f*cking blistering.

"The desire to win,"
the justices held,

"had trumped truth."

- Dana Chandler sent KSNT news
a written letter from prison.

In the letter, Chandler thanks
the Supreme Court justices

and Attorney Keen Umbehr

for their work
in the reversal.

- But they didn't vacate
their decisions, right?

They sent it back
to the trial court

and to the prosecutor's office.

There was now yet another new
district attorney in office.

- Shawnee County
District Attorney Mike Kagay

says if the state decides
to retry Chandler,

the new trial would have
to begin within 150 days.

- And he decided
he would try her again.

[suspenseful music]

- But Pen Pal and Trash Man
were determined

to see that never happened.

- I still always
gravitate back to watching

true crime stories on TV.

Some of it dovetails in
with what we're trying to do

to get to the bottom
of who k*lled

Mike and Karen,
because, to be honest,

this has never been just about
Dana Chandler's innocence

and a desire to see her free.

- Not only do we believe
in her innocence,

we want the true k*ller of
Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness

to be brought to justice.

- I first came to know
Keen and Eileen

as passionate crusaders
for a woman they thought

was, you know,
wrongly convicted.

But they weren't just
advocates for the innocence

of Dana Chandler.

Actually--[chuckles]

They were pretty certain,

not only that Dana Chandler
is innocent,

but that they know
who f*cking did it.

[inquisitive music]

♪ ♪

[bright tone]