My Mother's Murder Trials: Part 1 | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] My name is Daniel 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 fiance 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. I don't want it to be her. I want the truth to come out. And I want true justice for my dad, 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 uh Sunday
afternoon, July 7th. The killer made it downstairs, shot Karen Harkness multiple
times, shot Mike Cisco 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 till the next day. Whoever it was that did this hated these people. They wanted
them dead and they wanted to make sure they were dead. Both hands out of the car. 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 Cisco. 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 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. 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 predicted it. When officers talked to friends, family, co-workers, 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 Cisco. I did
not kill Karen Hartness. I am an innocent woman. [Music] [Music] Dana Chandler has spent decades
maintaining her innocence against allegations she was responsible for the 2002 murders of her ex-husband Mike
Cisco and his girlfriend Karen Harkness. My uh 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 and and actually know the truth of what happened. Haley
Seal is Dana Chandler and Mike Cisco's daughter. She and other family members of Mike and Karen have spent decades
grieving, searching for answers and for justice. Hi, Dana Harold. D, CBS News. 48 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 it's hard to believe. It's insane. For Haley, it all started on July 7th,
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 um 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. They 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 Warswick. 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, "This is 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. Just I got to 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 just located my daughter and she's downstairs and she's dead. I got a radio
call just after 2:00 on July 7th, 2002. Richard Voloy, now retired, was the Topeka Police Department's lead
detective on the case. It 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. 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. To understand who
might want Karen and Mike dead, police turn 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. Karen's children,
Chad and Aaron, were in their 20s at the time of the murders. My mom was an amazing woman. She 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. My dad gave me an ultimatum. Either you follow my rules or
you move out. choosing to live with her then boyfriend Chris. I moved in 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, Aaron, 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. Uh, 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. 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. Kathy 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 9 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 8 hours away in Denver, and there was no sign that she had been in Karen's
house in Topeka the night of the murders. The victims were doing absolutely nothing and may not have seen it coming
at all. Investigators were trying to determine who would gun down Mike Cisco and Karen Harkness as they lay in
bed. Detective Richard Voloy 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 that you talked to him? Dana Volley says, did not ask many questions and did not seem concerned. She would
later say she was very upset on that call, but only Volley'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. Hi, my name is Dana Chandler, and I got to register a phone call last
night. Someone had said that my son had been killed, and I'm just calling to 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 Voy decided to talk with Chandler in person, recording this audio 4 days after the murders. Tell me about
what happened on the sixth. I got but again there was an issue with the recording in most of the rest of the
conversation. Dana is difficult to hear. Detective Volo recounted what he said she told
him. She said she'd been at home uh 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 Voley says she failed to mention one purchase he saw on a credit card receipt. She'd f two 5gallon gas cans as
well. Voley 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. According to
Volo, 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 10:00 in the
morning. But Voley 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. Voi 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. If only said there was no sign of her car. The particular person that I
had view that tape looked at every frame slowly. She 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 27hour 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. They say they pushed to have a meeting with then DA Robert Hec,
Tim Cisco, 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 stops for the gun used in the murders. We thought, you know, maybe she threw
the gun somewhere, so I would stand on a toilet and try 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, 3 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. And number one, I number two, I don't know what happened to 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 on all time? You knew it could be trade. I was in the mountains. 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 him? No, but I did. Honestly, I go over it with you.
The official investigation though seems stalled. So, authorities asked Vernon Girth, a homicide and forensic
consultant and former New York City Police Department detective, to review case files. In 2007, nearly 5 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 Girth 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 to Michael.
48 hours ended the episode asking viewers to contact police if they had any information. Again, the case seemed
to be going nowhere. this morning. But two years later, a new DA, Chad Taylor, decided he was willing
to take a chance with the evidence they had. He chose to move the case forward and arrest Dana Chandler. One team come
up this way, one team. 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. Both hands out of the car. And on July 24th, 2011, Dana Chandler was in
custody, charged with the murders of Mike Cisco and Karen Hartness. I 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 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 right. 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
Cisco. In her opening statement, Bradling suggested a possible motive for murder. Two days before the homicides,
the defendant called Mike. Mike at this time told the defendant in that fiveminute 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. show you 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. Detective Volo 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 had given
to the law enforcements 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. Volley 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 Anne Carander to the stand. Carander says Dana told her she had driven to Topeka. She had um gone
to Mike's house um through the window. Um nobody was home. What else did she tell you? That she had gone um
and sat outside Karen's house. Sprdling 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. The 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 um I I I really feel like she was 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 uh with her to go spy on my dad. And so we were uh in the car and she told us, you
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
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
she was looking at in there? Um, I think that she um was was thinking there was a
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 an AA meeting and so I went and got gas for her. She asked
me for money and we don't give people money at a prosecutor Bradling told the jury that she believed Chandler used
those two 5gallon 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 6th or July 7, 2002? No. The closest law enforcement was able to
come was here at a gas station in Wini, Kansas, nearly halfway between Denver and Topeka. Clerk 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. There wasn't any receipt from Walkini, was there? No. And Bennett
questioned whether Detective Volo investigated other suspects, like two men with criminal records who had stolen
checks from Mike Cisco and cashed one after the murders. That didn't make him a suspect. No, because the check wasn't
taken from Karen Harkness's house where the murders occurred. The check was actually taken from Mike Cisco'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. And for n and a half years,
they've come up dry. Sprdling 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.
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.
I 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 in 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
Michael Karen. I am innocent. I did not murder Mike Karen. Dana Chandler was sentenced to life in prison, but soon
that verdict would be called into question. [Music] A lot of my mind has been focused on her
getting away with killing my dad and just drags me down. For years, Haley Seal's thoughts were
consumed with proving her mother killed her father, Mike Cisco, and Karen Harkness. With Dana Chandler in prison,
Haley was relieved she could concentrate on other things. But her relief was tinged with pain. I want to focus on my
future and what I want to do with my life. I want to be everything my mom wasn't.
But Haley's focus would turn again to the case. Dana Chandler almost immediately began filing motions as she
worked to appeal her conviction. She and her attorney cited, among other things, the actions of
prosecutor Jackie Sprdling. In particular, statements Brad Spradling made at trial about that protection from
abuse order. 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 that is just a blatant misstatement. Stacy Schlimmer, one of
Chandler's appeal attorneys, was never able to find a protection from abuse order. 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. In 2018, Schlimmer argued that Jackie Sprradling's actions
constituted proseal misconduct. I I think that Miss Chandler never had an opportunity at a fair trial from the
get- go. Schlimmer contended the case against Dana Chandler should be thrown out. The court agreed. The Kansas
Supreme Court held that it's so bad that we're going to go ahead and overturn her
conviction. Other issues about statements Brad Sprdling 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. She
drove directly up to Nebraska. And after she gets on Nebraska, she turns around and goes home. They just kind of
hypothesized, well, she must have went up and went over from Nebraska. There was no evidence of that at all.
Schlimmer also contended the state did not have enough evidence to prove Dana Chandler's guilt. We argued
insufficiency of evidence as an issue for appeal. Meaning, you don't think prosecutors had enough to make a
legitimate case. 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. The Kansas Supreme Court described
Jackie Sprdling's actions as quote intolerable acts of deception and she was desparred. 48 Hours reached out to
Sprdling but did not receive a response. When a case gets reversed, like a case like this, we essentially have an
innocent woman who's been convicted of crime because of a prosecutor or we have a family that has now a
reverse conviction that has to go through the system again. Either way, there's an injustice, right? So, that
conduct is going to affect someone. The court did decide though there was sufficient evidence to retry Dana
Chandler if the district attorney chose to. When I found out that this Kansas Supreme Court overturned the verdict, it
was very shocking. What does this mean? Will the DA's office retry her? Were you angry
with the prosecutor who was cited for misconduct? No, I've never been angry with her. I think it was an
innocent mistake. Had Jackie not made those comments, we wouldn't be sitting here today. This would be over. Chad
Harkness, Karen's son, takes a different view of Jackie Sprdling's actions. 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. The decision whether to retry Dana Chandler was now in the hands of Shaunie County's new DA Mike Kay. We
analyzed every aspect of the case and ultimately we came to the conclusion uh that we believed justice demanded that
we move forward and we pursue another trial. Pursuing that would take years. Dana Chandler remained incarcerated. She
and her defense lawyers argued she should be set free and fought against having another trial.
What were those years like? Unbelievable. For Haley, the delays seemed endless. 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 Shauny County District Attorney's Office, and through it all, she fired several of her
lawyers. She went through seven lawyers in that time and between representing herself.
There were also dozens of hearings, including one where Haley was called to testify and Dana did the questioning.
She took me on the stand for at least 45 minutes and she directly questioned me.
What was that like? It was the most awful thing I've ever I mean the the suspect in the
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
killing of your dad, your own mother. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it it it was awful. But Haley was willing to take whatever
steps necessary to ensure her mother would stand trial again for the murders. 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. My dad and his fiance were shot and
killed. Whoever it was that did this hated these people. Three trials. Is my mom capable of killing my dad? And
finally, a verdict. Your mom scares you? Yeah. The 48 hours, 2-hour season finale
continues next and streaming on Paramount Plus. Two innocent people were murdered in our
community. That demands justice. Although Dana Chandler's conviction had been overturned,
prosecutors were determined to retry her for the murders of Mike Cisco and Karen
Harkness. By 2021, the organization Miracle of Innocence got involved advocating for Dana. 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. Daryl Burton is the co-founder of Miracle of Innocence. He's someone who was wrongfully
imprisoned and had his murder conviction reversed. He says before sending someone
to prison, the case needs to be more convincing than the one made against Dana Chandler.
There's no evidence, no fingerprints, 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. Dana and her attorneys also raised other
issues as they tried to get the case dismissed. 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. Chandler murdered Mike Cisco and Karen Harkness.
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? I don't think it was 48 hour. 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. They
believe that Miss Chandler did this. It was the new prosecutor and it was the family probably saying, "Hey, we need
justice done in this." But Stacy Schlimmer, Dana's former appeal attorney, does take issue with
the handling of the 2011 arrest and the show of force. You've seen Dana Chandler's
arrest many times, right? And it bothers you. It bothers me a lot. 48 hours as well as the Topeka Capital Journal were
given advanced notice of the arrest by the office of then DA Chad Taylor. Are you bothered by law
enforcement or are you bothered by the fact that there were cameras there? I'm bothered by the prosecutor.
I'm bothered by the district attorney showing up at an arrest and having that arrest filmed. So, they wanted video of
law enforcement with their guns out. 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. 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. 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.
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 is a 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 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.
Start by stating my name. My name is Dana Chandler. I, as everyone know, have been accused of double
homicide and I am innocent. Next, my dad and his fiance were shot and killed. Whoever it was that did this
hated these people. Three trials. Is my mom capable of killing my dad? And finally, a verdict. Your mom scares you.
Yeah. The 48 hours 2-hour season finale continues next and streaming on Paramount Plus.
[Music]

A daughter suspects her mother of a double murder. Years later, courtroom drama brings unsettling answers. CBS News chief correspondent Jim Axelrod reports for "48 Hours." Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Dana Chandler faces retrial for the 2002 murders of her ex-husband and his girlfriend amid claims of innocence and family turmoil.

Key points

Daniel's Innocence Claim. Chandler insists on his innocence after 20 years of accusations.
The Shocking Murders. Mike Cisco and Karen Harkness were brutally killed in their home.
Haley's Search for Truth. Haley Chandler records conversations with her mother to uncover the truth.
Dana's Arrest. After years of investigation, Dana Chandler is arrested for the murders.
Trial Begins. Dana Chandler's trial begins with a focus on her past behavior.
Verdict Reached. After two weeks of testimony, the jury found Dana Chandler guilty of first-degree murder.

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My liberty, my freedom is hanging in the balance.

Chandler reflects on the stakes of her trial.

4:17WatchJun 5, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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