Two married true-crime buffs from a tiny city in Kansas are so convinced that a woman they never knew is wrongly imprisoned for the 2002 slayings of her ex-husband and his girlfriend that they’ve devoted their lives to proving her innocence.
asserted
they → marry → innocence
Even though her own children helped put her away.
asserted
children → put → her
Eileen and Keen Umbehr's obsession with the prosecution of Dana Chandler led them to spend more than 15 years trying to prove her innocence — an all-consuming odyssey that’s the subject of a new, three-part HBO docuseries.
asserted
that → lead → docuseries
Chandler, 66, is serving two consecutive life sentences for killing Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness, for which she wasn't arrested until nine years after they were shot in bed inside Harkness's Topeka home early on July 7, 2002.
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they → serve → July
“When they arrested Dana, everybody believed they got the right person, except for us,” Eileen says in A Killer Story.
asserted
Eileen → arrest → Story
The tortuous legal proceedings that followed include an overturned conviction, a hung jury and Chandler's second conviction last year.
asserted
that → follow → conviction
The case also ended the career of a prosecutor whom the Kansas Supreme Court said used "intolerable acts of deception" to convince Chandler's first jury to find her guilty after just 83 minutes of deliberations.
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her → end → deliberations
"We're just so committed to this case that there's nothing else in life that matters," Keen adds in the series, as the couple also shows investigative journalist Joe Sexton a sprawling field dotted with thickets of trees and a pond.
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couple → commit → trees
“We’re gonna sell this,” Keen tells Sexton, to help finance their crusade to clear Chandler.
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Keen → go → Chandler
“ Eileen and Keen have always been passionate about seeking justice and have been willing to risk everything for causes they believe in,” Eileen’s brother, attorney Robert Van Kirk, who represented Keen before the U.S. Supreme Court in an unrelated 1995 case, told The Independent.
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who → seek → Independent
“The Dana Chandler case is just one of many examples in their lives where they have fought for what they believed was right, often against seemingly insurmountable odds,” added Van Kirk, a powerhouse Washington, D.C., trial lawyer who specializes in complex commercial cases and securities law.
asserted
who → fight → cases
But retired Topeka police Sgt. Richard Volle, who was the lead detective in the case, told The Independent he had no doubt Chandler was the person who shot Sisco and Harkness — at least five times each.
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who → tell → Sisco
The family is convinced.
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family → convince → ?
Two juries were convinced — two and a half juries were convinced — that Chandler's in the right place,” he said.
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he → convince → place
Volle added: “Dana's a psychopath.
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Dana → add → ?
She can lie easily.”
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She → lie → ?
Chandler is appealing her conviction and is represented by court-appointed lawyer Kristen Patty of Wichita, Kansas, although she filed a motion last year to be appointed a different lawyer.
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she → appeal → lawyer
Patty, who's asked for permission to withdraw from the case, didn't respond to voicemail and email inquiries from The Independent.
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who → ask → Independent
Chandler and Sisco married in 1982 and were raising a daughter and a son in Lawrence, Kansas, by 1997 when Sisco, a sales manager for a welding-supply company, filed for divorce.
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Sisco → marry → divorce
The divorce was finalized the following year, with Sisco granted custody of the kids and Chandler ordered to move out of the family's home and pay child support.
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Chandler → finalize → support
Sisco had been dating Harkness — who was also divorced, with a daughter and a son — for about four years when her father found their bodies ahead of a planned family fish fry at which relatives expected the couple might announce their engagement.
uncertain
couple → date → engagement
Cops who responded to his 911 call quickly ruled out robbery as the motive in the slayings of Sisco, 47, and Harkness, 53, who'd both spent the previous night at a nearby casino before returning early in the morning.
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who → respond → morning
At the time of her death, Harkness was wearing jewelry that included a diamond bracelet, gold ring and Rolex watch, and Sisco's wallet, found in his shorts, held more than $950 and two uncashed checks.
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wallet → wear → 950
Sisco's checkbook was also found on the dining room table and Harkness' purse, left on the kitchen counter, held a billfold with more than $350.
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purse → find → 350
But no fingerprints were found on the empty 9-mm shell casings that littered the bedroom and there wasn't any other evidence that pointed to the killer, leaving authorities with little more than the suspicions of family members on both sides who thought Chandler did it.
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Chandler → find → it
The case went cold until October 2009, when CBS broadcast the first of three 48 Hours episodes about the killings, which it learned about from Vernon Geberth, a former New York City police official-turned-homicide consultant.
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it → go → Geberth
Geberth had been hired by Topeka police to review evidence in the case and concluded in his report that Chandler was “the one and only person who had the motive, means and opportunity to commit these murders.”
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who → hire → murders
During the program, which featured interviews with several family members, Chandler was publicly identified as a potential suspect for the first time.
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Chandler → feature → time
Video also showed 48 Hours correspondent Harold Dow confronting her as she walked to her car.
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she → show → car
“I have no idea what happened to Mike and Karen,” she said.
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she → have → Mike
The program, titled “Haunted,” aired several months after Eileen Umbehr compiled an inch-thick, 200-page dossier that called Harkness's son-in-law, Jeff Sutton, “Person of Interest 2” and sent it to various law enforcement agencies across the state.
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that → title → state
He has not been arrested or charged in the killings.
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He → arrest → killings
Authorities dismissed the dossier because the son-in-law's alibi checked out, with Volle testifying the dossier was based on a “crackpot theory” developed due to a “long-standing feud” between Keen and Sutton, who’s interviewed at length in A Killer Story.
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who → dismiss → Story
In July 2011, Chandler was arrested in a parking lot in Duncan, Oklahoma, where she was reportedly living in a camping trailer behind her sister's nearby house, local TV station KSWO reported at the time.
uncertain
KSWO → arrest → time
Both 48 Hours — which devoted two more episodes to Chandler's case, including a double-length program in 2025 that was rerun in July — and The Topeka Capital-Journal were on hand to watch as she surrendered to heavily armed law enforcement officers from multiple agencies.
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she → devote → agencies
They included then-Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor, who took office in January 2009 and was recorded wearing a badge around his neck as he strapped on a handgun.
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he → include → handgun
Chandler went on trial for two counts of first-degree murder in March 2012, with the prosecution presenting a circumstantial case based on more than 900 exhibits and testimony from 80 witnesses, including both of the defendant's children.
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prosecution → go → children
The prosecution's theory relied in part on Chandler's purchase of two five-gallon gas cans the day before the killing.
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theory → rely → killing
At the time, she was living in Denver, and prosecutors suggested she used the gas cans to refuel her car and return to Colorado without being seen.
uncertain
she → live → Colorado
Daughter Hailey Sisco, who was 17 when her dad was slain, also revealed that she'd secretly recorded her mom while asking her questions about the killings.
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she → slay → killings
…and 44 more, not listed.
