Dana Chandler Stood Trial 3 Times for Murdering Her Ex-Husband and His Girlfriend. Here’s Why
Dana Chandler Stood Trial 3 Times for Murdering Her Ex-Husband and His Girlfriend. Here’s Why
Jessica SagerThu, September 10, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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Dana Chandler.Credit: Courtesy of HBO -
Dana Chandler was convicted in 2025 of murdering her ex-husband, Mike Sisco, and his partner, Karen Harkness, after three separate trials
Her original 2012 conviction was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct
The 2026 HBO docuseries A Killer Story documents one couple’s belief that Chandler is innocent
Dana Chandler was accused of murdering her ex-husband and his girlfriend of four years — and she stood trial for the crime three separate times.
Mike Sisco and his partner, Karen Harkness, were both found shot to death in their bed in their Topeka, Kans., home on July 7, 2002. The only physical evidence was a hair that belonged to neither Chandler nor the victims and shell casings from a firearm that was never recovered.
Chandler was in Denver, 540 miles from Sisco, and denied being in Topeka or having anything to do with the slayings. In 2011, however, she was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and convicted the following year. She has since undergone two additional trials since her conviction was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct in 2018. After her second trial in 2022 ended in a hung jury, a different jury later found her guilty in 2025.
Her case is now at the center of the three-part HBO docuseries A Killer Story, which examines one couple’s belief that Chandler is innocent. The first episode premieres Sept. 10.
“When they arrested Dana, everybody believed they got the right person, except for us,” Kansas woman Eileen Umbehr says of herself and her husband, Keen, in the docuseries. “They focused on Dana Chandler in spite of the fact that they couldn’t put a weapon in her hand or that she lived 540 miles away.”
Find out what happened to Chandler and where she is now.
Sisco and Harkness were shot dead on July 7, 2022
On July 7, 2022, Sisco and his girlfriend, Harkness, were killed inside their home in Topeka, Kan. The couple were shot multiple times with a 9mm gun, though the murder weapon has never been recovered.
Sisco’s family suspected Chandler was the murderer
‘A Killer Story’.Credit: HBO Max/YouTube
While no DNA or fingerprints were found at the crime scene, Sisco’s family members quickly pointed investigators toward Sisco’s ex-wife, Chandler, during the initial investigation.
Sisco and Chandler were together for 15 years and welcomed children together before their 1998 divorce, Sisco’s relatives told 48 Hours.
His sister, Cathy Boots, alleged that Chandler had a drinking problem and stalked Sisco and Harkness with more than 600 phone calls and numerous uninvited visits during and after their 1998 divorce, including one incident in which she jumped on his family’s trampoline in the middle of the night.
In his own journal entries, Sisco recalled specific incidents with Chandler entering his home and going through his belongings when he wasn’t home.
“I think she became obsessed with the fact that Mike was moving on with his life,” Sisco’s brother-in-law Mark told 48 Hours. “And then when Karen entered the picture, that’s when things really started, I think, escalating.”
The last time Chandler was spotted at Sisco’s property was in spring 2002, a few months before the murders. Cathy said that at the time, Chandler approached Sisco about getting back together. Sisco’s brother-in-law, Mark, said that Sisco told him that he and Harkness lived in fear of their lives and that he thought Chandler would kill them both someday.
According to CBS reporting, Chandler and Sisco’s daughter, Hailey Seel, secretly began recording her conversations with Chandler a few years after the murder. While Chandler said she has no involvement in Sisco’s murder, she did admit that she had thoughts about killing her ex-husband in a recorded conversation.
Police and prosecutors only had circumstantial evidence linking Chandler to the murders
Police arrested Chandler in Duncan, Okla., in June 2011 and charged her with two counts of first-degree murder, per WIBW 13.
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Chandler had a clear motive, but prosecutors and police had no DNA or physical evidence linking her to the murders; the Kansas Reflector reported that a single arm hair on a shell casing at the scene matched neither Chandler nor either victim. Prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence in their case.
Nothing was stolen from Harkness or Sisco, including a diamond bracelet, gold ring and Rolex watch that Harkness wore or cash from Sisco’s pockets that he’d won at a casino the night before, 48 Hours reported, which authorities said ruled out a robbery.
Prosecutors also pointed out that for 27 hours the weekend of the murders, Chandler never used her cellphone, and that she did the same about a month prior when she told a friend she’d driven to Topeka, which Detective Richard Volle claimed was a “dry run” for the murders in court. Authorities also alleged that Chandler purchased two cans of gasoline in Denver to avoid stopping for gas during the long drives to and from Topeka.
Chandler also had inconsistencies in her alibi: She told police she was home the evening of July 7, 2002, and drove to the mountains the next day, but she told an acquaintance who testified in the case that she slept in the mountains the night of July 7.
Chandler has been tried for murder three times
Dana Chandler in ‘A Killer Story’.Credit: HBO Max/YouTube
Chandler was first tried for two counts of first-degree murder in 2012 and was convicted and sentenced to life without a chance of parole for 100 years. However, in April 2018, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned Chandler’s conviction, claiming that the prosecutor in her 2012 trial, Jacqie Spradling, falsely alleged that Chandler violated a protective order that did not exist, according to the Kansas Reflector. Spradling was eventually disbarred for her conduct in the case. Chandler’s case, however, was not dismissed.
Chandler was retried in 2022, which ended in a hung jury.
Her third trial in 2025 was transferred to Pottawatomie County to find jurors unfamiliar with the case. She represented herself and testified for nearly 20 hours across seven days. She was convicted of first-degree murder of Harkness and Sisco in March 2025.
She was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in 2025
Chandler’s daughter Hailey Seel testified at Chandler’s June 2025 sentencing hearing about the pain that Sisco and Harkness’s murders caused her and the couple’s other loved ones.
During Seel’s testimony, Chandler began berating the court, accusing Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios of “glaring” and “shooting daggers” at her and lambasted the fact that cameras were allowed in the courtroom, the Kansas Reflector reported. She also held a stack of papers against the side of her face to avoid being photographed, saying, “I refuse to sit here and be treated like a piece of meat.”
Chandler called the proceedings “a grave injustice” and denied killing Sisco and Harkness, at one point blaming Harkness’s son-in-law, Jeff Sutton, for the slayings.
Judge Rios sentenced Chandler to the prosecutor’s recommendation of two consecutive life sentences with a minimum of 25 years in prison before the possibility of parole.
Chandler is imprisoned in Kansas and has filed motions to appeal her case
Dana Chandler in ‘A Killer Story’.Credit: HBO Max/YouTube
Chandler is serving her sentence at the maximum security Topeka Correctional Facility in Topeka.
In March 2025, Chandler filed four motions in an effort to appeal her two first-degree murder convictions, WIBW reported. Chandler requested access to the Shawnee County Jail law library, a transcript of the 2025 Pottawatomie County jury trial and an attorney to help her file the necessary motions to appeal.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported in March 2026 that Chandler’s 14th attorney requested to be removed from the case.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
